NO TURNING BACK

Passage: 2 Peter 2:13-22

Key verse: 20

NIV

13 They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight.(A) They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you.[a](B) 14 With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce(C) the unstable;(D) they are experts in greed(E)—an accursed brood!(F) 15 They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam(G) son of Bezer,[b] 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.(H)

17 These people are springs without water(I) and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them.(J) 18 For they mouth empty, boastful words(K) and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping(L) 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.”(M) 20 If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing(N) our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ(O) and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.(P) 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.(Q) 22 Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,”[c](R) and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”

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Footnotes
  1. 2 Peter 2:13 Some manuscripts in their love feasts
  2. 2 Peter 2:15 Greek Bosor
  3. 2 Peter 2:22 Prov. 26:11
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Source: BibleGateway

ESV

13 suffering wrong as (A)the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure (B)to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions,[a] while (C)they feast with you. 14 They have eyes full of adultery,[b] (D)insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts (E)trained in greed. (F)Accursed children! 15 Forsaking the right way, (G)they have gone astray. They have followed (H)the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved (I)gain from wrongdoing, 16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; (J)a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness.

17 (K)These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. (L)For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. 18 For, (M)speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely (N)escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them (O)freedom, (P)but they themselves are slaves[c] of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. 20 For if, (Q)after they have escaped the defilements of the world (R)through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, (S)the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For (T)it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from (U)the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The (V)dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

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Footnotes
  1. 2 Peter 2:13 Some manuscripts love feasts
  2. 2 Peter 2:14 Or eyes full of an adulteress
  3. 2 Peter 2:19 For the contextual rendering of the Greek word doulos, see Preface
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Source: BibleGateway

1. Springs without water (13-19)

People who entice believers to live a pleasure-seeking life are waterless springs. Those who seek to quench their thirst in material things or in a worldly life will become more thirsty. False teachers promise freedom while they themselves are slaves of sinful desire. Such greedy persons are as foolish as Baalam, whose donkey was smarter than he! (Nu 22)

2. A dog who returns to its own vomit (2

-22)

Our worldly friends and family boast of their so-called freedom and try to entice us to go back to a worldly life. But if we have escaped the corruption of the world, been set free by Jesus, and tasted the joy of knowing him, we are very foolish if we listen to enticements that pull us back to the world. It would be better not to have known the way of righteousness at all than to become like dogs that return to their own vomit.

Prayer: Lord, I don't want to live like a dog or a sow. Renew my joy in Jesus today and help me to grow up in him.

One Word: Don't go to a waterless spring