Watch for False Teachers

2 But there were false teachers among the people. And there will be false teachers among you also. These people will work in secret ways to bring false teaching to you. They will turn against Christ Who bought them with His blood. They bring fast death on themselves. ² Many people will follow their wrong ways. Because of what they do, people will speak bad things against the way of truth. ³ They will tell lies and false stories so they can use you to get things for themselves. But God judged them long ago and their death is on the way.

⁴ God did not hold back from punishing the angels who sinned, but sent them down to hell. They are to be kept there in the deep hole of darkness until they stand before Him Who judges them. ⁵ God did not hold back from punishing the people of the world who sinned long ago. He brought the flood on the world of sinners. But Noah was a preacher of right living. He and his family of seven were the only ones God saved. ⁶ God said that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were guilty, and He destroyed them with fire. This was to show people who did not worship God what would happen to them. ⁷ Lot was taken away from Sodom because he was right with God. He had been troubled by the sins that bad men did in wild living. ⁸ He saw and heard how the people around him broke the Law. Everyday his own soul which was right with God was troubled because of their sinful ways. ⁹ But the Lord knows how to help men who are right with God when they are tempted. He also knows how to keep the sinners suffering for their wrong-doing until the day they stand before God Who will judge them. ¹⁰ This is true about those who keep on wanting to please their own bodies in sinful desires and those who will not obey laws. They want to please themselves and are not afraid when they laugh and say bad things about the powers in heaven. ¹¹ Angels are greater in strength and power than they. But angels do not speak against these powers before the Lord.

¹² Men like this are like animals who are not able to think but are born to be caught and killed. They speak bad words against that which they do not understand. They will die in their own sinful ways. ¹³ This is the pay they will suffer for their sinful lives. They are not ashamed when they sin in the daylight. They are sores and dirty spots among you while they eat and drink big meals with you. ¹⁴ Their eyes are full of sex sins. They never have enough sin. They get weak people to go along with them. Their hearts are always wanting something. They are people who will end up in hell because ¹⁵ they have left the right way and have gone the wrong way. They have followed the way of Balaam, who was the son of Beor. He loved the money he got for his sin. ¹⁶ But he was stopped in his sin. A donkey spoke to him with a man’s voice. It stopped this early preacher from going on in his crazy way.

¹⁷ Such people are like wells without water. They are like clouds before a storm. The darkest place below has been kept for them. ¹⁸ They speak big-sounding words which show they are proud. They get men who are trying to keep away from sinful men to give in to the sinful desires of the flesh. ¹⁹ They promise that these men will be free. But they themselves are chained to sin. For a man is chained to anything that has power over him.

²⁰ There are men who have been made free from the sins of the world by learning to know the Lord Jesus Christ, the One Who saves. But if they do these sins again, and are not able to keep from doing them, they are worse than they were before. ²¹ After knowing the holy Law that was given to them, they turned from it. It would have been better for them if they had not known how to be right with God. ²² They are like the wise saying, “A dog turns back to what he has thrown up.” ^(A) And, “A pig that has been washed goes back to roll in the mud.”