Bill Cosby is one of my favorite comedians. He takes everyday happenings in life and describes them in such a way that I find myself guffawing. One of his most famous recordings occurred in the early 1980’s where he described being a parent. In one segment, he described the whine of his four year old using just one word: MINE! The whine was so loud that the harried parent immediately gave in to the tot … even taking the toys belonging to one of the older children to stop the racket.
Our Sunday Bible study is beginning a new unit on July 3rd with the primary subject being freedom. Our first lesson is entitled “Personal Rights” … and deals with our enslavement to self indulgence. Let’s take a look at the first set of Scripture in our study:
2 Peter 2 New International Version (NIV)
False Teachers and Their Destruction
1 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. 3 In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.
4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell,[a] putting them in chains of darkness[b] to be held for judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; 6 if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless 8 (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— 9 if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment. 10 This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the flesh[c] and despise authority.
Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to heap abuse on celestial beings; 11 yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not heap abuse on such beings when bringing judgment on them from[d] the Lord. 12 But these people blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like unreasoning animals, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like animals they too will perish.
13 They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you.[e] 14 With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood! 15 They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer,[f] who loved the wages of wickedness. 16 But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey—an animal without speech—who spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
17 These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. 18 For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.” 20 If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 21 It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. 22 Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,”[g] and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”
Footnotes:
a. 2 Peter 2:4 Greek Tartarus
b. 2 Peter 2:4 Some manuscripts in gloomy dungeons
c. 2 Peter 2:10 In contexts like this, the Greek word for flesh (sarx) refers to the sinful state of human beings, often presented as a power in opposition to the Spirit; also in verse 18.
d. 2 Peter 2:11 Many manuscripts beings in the presence of
e. 2 Peter 2:13 Some manuscripts in their love feasts
f. 2 Peter 2:15 Greek Bosor
g. 2 Peter 2:22 Prov. 26:11
Wow! I don’t know how the teacher is going to get through even this first passage. Peter points out that there are folks who will intentionally teach things about the Scripture that are false. Why? They have their own agenda and it is them. The message that God gave them to teach has been perverted to fit their own evil desires … so they can have what they want when they want it. In essence, they are calling God’s message “MINE”. But in the process they have become enslaved to their own depravity – being mastered by the very sin nature that separates from God.
God has given us freedom from our own selfishness. We are no longer slaves to our self indulgences … unless we choose to be. We should be vigilant so that we do not return to the things of the past that separated us from our fellowship with God. And when the old man calls, we should call more loudly to our God and Father who will save us.
We are no longer four years old. We have graduated beyond the “mine” stage of life. We now have freedom in Christ to do His will …and reap the benefits of being His.
Agape’
Mr. Jim
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