True lessons from false teachers

 This week's verses are 2 Peter 2:14-16:

Their eyes, full of adultery, never stop sinning; they entice unstable people. They have trained their hearts for greed, these cursed children! By forsaking the right path they have gone astray, because they followed the way of Balaam son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness, yet was rebuked for his own transgression (a dumb donkey, speaking with a human voice, restrained the prophet’s madness).

 These verses are talking about false teachers, people who present themselves as faith workers, but who have their own agenda. They use people's hunger for God to make money, and become cursed as a result. But while Peter is talking about false teachers, he could also be talking about us.

He says that their eyes are full of adultery, that they never stop sinning. Adultery stems from not being satisfied with the relationship we have, or from not respecting the bounds of others' relationships. Are we satisfied with our relationship with God? Do we want sin badly enough that we'll betray God's truth in order to get it? When something is off limits, do we still try to have a taste anyway?

He says that they entice unstable people. In other words, they take advantage of weaker people and use them to their advantage. How do we treat the weaknesses of others? Do we have people whose vulnerability we exploit for our own benefit and take for granted? Are we less interested in helping them than we are in keeping them around to look down on?

They have trained their hearts for greed. How does that happen? Maybe when we indulge ourselves every chance we get, we get spoiled and greedy. I've heard people use the term "lifestyle inflation" to describe this phenomenon. Maybe we start with a coffee as a special treat before work. Then it becomes a coffee every day. Then it becomes fancy coffee. Then it's coffee with a pastry. Then it's coffee with a pastry and a couple YouTube videos. Then it's two pastries, and so on. Eventually your sense of what is a baseline need and what is a luxury becomes completely skewed.

Have we trained our hearts for greed? If we had to live the way the world's poor lived, would it be as "comfortable" for us as it is for them? Or would their baseline be our torment? Would we compromise our principles to stay at our baseline instead? Would we be less generous in order to stay living the way we do now?

Peter says that these teachers liked the wages of unrighteousness, and that they went off the right path as a result. Sometimes doing the wrong thing brings us material benefits. It's hard to say "no" and stick to the way we're supposed to be living. But not doing so brings us into a cursed lifestyle where we depart from the path God would have us follow!

So what can we do about it? If you didn't like your answers to any of the questions above, write it down and discuss it with God in prayer. He will help you get back on the right path before it's too late. Train your heart to like the things he likes, and not the things that lead you astray. Entice others to do what is best for them, not what's best for you. Have faithful eyes, not eyes full of adultery. Even though these verses were meant to warn people about false teachers, there are some true lessons in them for all of us.