This study is from an on going online Daily Bible Study at:
DailyBibleStudy.Org | Daily Bible Study Index Page | Daily Bible Study Online E-Book Library
2 Peter 2:3
3 And [kai] through [en] covetousness [pleonexia] shall they with feigned [plastos] words [logos] make merchandise [emporeuomai] of you [humas]: whose [hos] judgment [krima] now of a long time [ekpalai] lingereth [argeo] not [ou], and [kai] their [autos] damnation [apoleia] slumbereth [nustazo] not [ou]. KJV-Interlinear
3 and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. NASB
Whenever you stand up for truth in any way, there will be a line of folks ready and willing to confront you.
Without any background preparation, without any basis for their confrontation, without any reasonable purpose, there are those who will challenge the believer in order to intimidate them into backing down from their beliefs, or to cause embarrassment against them in the public eye.
The phrases, ‘feigned words,’ or ‘exploit with false words,’ really says it all.
Feigned means pretended, insincere, craftily contrived and so forth. And even though their words of challenge are in fact false, in their own minds they seem very reasonable.
The Bible is a large volume of many books. It contains thousands of verses, principles, concepts, and so forth. It would be impossible and unreasonable to cite every passage every time when you are discussing any given subject. The only way anyone can know what you are speaking about, is if they have the same access to the same background text, that you have.
Then, with both parties speaking from the same page, as it were, your conversation can have merit and meaning.
However, lets look to Jesus and the Pharisees. They had a confrontation. Jesus stated very plainly that He was the Son of God. He proved it with many miracles, which no human being could duplicate.
The Pharisees had the same scriptures that spoke of Him, but they had one more thing that prevented their understanding. They had arrogance.
They had their own beliefs as to what they expected from God, and from the expected Messiah. So they chose to reject truth, and they advanced their own beliefs to their own detriment.
You do not have to be a celebrity or someone in high office to be anti-God. In fact most of the world is anti-God and most of those folks have only their own personal views of life which guide them.
They choose to see what they want to see, and they argue the heck out of anyone they do not agree with. They will go so far as to mis-state or distort the words of the one they are disagreeing with.
Peter calls their bias here, greed, and that is really all that it is. Anyone who rejects truth, has a greed for their own views, which is nothing more than a bias for their own beliefs. That means simply that they will refuse to be objective, will refuse to listen, and therefore will be very nearly unteachable.
In general, leaders have an agenda for their rejection of truth. They want power, money, fame and such things. But the common person gains none of these things when they argue with truth. They have only their ego, which is supported by their arrogance of refusal to listen and be taught.
We live in a day of political correctness. People get insulted easily, especially when you say something that they believe in. Take politics for example, if person A likes a candidate, and person B says something negative about that candidate, then person A gets mad at B. You can apply this to any topic – sports, movies, music, food, hobbies, anything you can think of.
But in the grand scheme of things are any of these things really important? No. Not one of them advances you in your spiritual life. Agree or disagree about things in life, but do not allow that to interfere with your spiritual growth. Your eternal future is far more important than any, repeat, than any earthly subject that you can think of.
Peter reminds you here and now, that your judgment, your evaluation, your destiny, was established long ago. Long ago means in eternity past when God laid out His divine decrees.
No matter what candidate you like or dislike, no matter what color you like or dislike, no matter what you like or dislike in this world, your worldly preferences are irrelevant.
You have but one objective and that is to advance in your spiritual life.
You were born at least once, and hopefully born again into Christ. You will also leave this world someday. At that time you will face Jesus and your final evaluation. This you cannot avoid.
Life is not going to rubber stamp your beliefs so you can have everything your way, but if anything, will insult your beliefs, which is better for you, so you can get off your ego and onto a mode of humility so you can advance in your spiritual life.
Anything anti-God has an agenda of greed and selfishness designed to derail your life. Don’t subscribe to it.
Your future evaluation or judgment, whichever applies to you, is already on the calendar – Gods calendar.
He brought you into this world and He will remove you at His convenience.
The only real question is, will you use your time for growing up in your spiritual life, or will you use your time for acting like a baby when your feelings get hurt. Only you can make that choice. And if you make the wrong choices in life, you have only yourself to blame.
The Bible says that the word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than any two edged sword. That sword is designed to cut out your whining and surgically install spiritual toughness.
