Beguiling Unstable Souls

2 Peter 13-22
These ungodly false teachers are a dangerous and corrupting presence in the body of the Messiah, not only deceiving others but deceiving themselves. Their heart is set on the flesh, and their eyes on adultery, both spiritual and sexual. They prey on the unstable to join them in their ways (enticing unstable souls).
They have a heart trained in covetous practices: They are equipped, but not for ministry, only for selfish gain - they are truly accursed, skilled in the arts which covetous men adopt in order to cheat others out of their property. A leading purpose which influenced these men was to obtain money. One of the most certain ways for dishonest men to do this is to make use of the religious principle; to corrupt and control the conscience; to make others believe that they are eminently holy, or that they are the special favorites of heaven; and when they can do this, they have the purses of others at command. For the religious principle is the most powerful of all principles; and he who can control that, can control all that a man possesses. The idea here is that these persons had made this their study, and had learned the ways in which men could be induced to part with their money under religious pretences. We should always be on our guard when professedly religious teachers propose to have much to do with money matters. While we should always be ready to aid every good cause, yet we should remember that unprincipled and laid-back men often assume the mask of religion that they may practice their arts on the credulity of others, and that their real aim is to obtain their property, not to save their souls.
We all train our hearts in something, training them either in covetousness and lust, or in godliness.
Does this explain why so many ministers fall? I have personally been to places were they drum up the offering for one and a half hours, until the people were ready to give all they had. No wonder G-d has called us sheep, willing to follow an enticing pastor using religious principles on giving.
They have forsaken the right way, the straight path of honesty and integrity for religion is often represented as a straight path, and to do wrong is to go out of that path in a crooked way.
The particular point to which Peter refers in which they imitated Balaam, seems to have been the love of gain, or covetousness, in being professed religious teachers, or the servants of G-d in inducing others to sin, referring to the same kind of sins in both cases.
These are wells without water: These ungodly false teachers are empty - useless as wells without water - and like clouds that bring only darkness, and no nourishing rain. It only aggravated the trials of the thirsty and weary traveler, they would only grievously disappoint the expectations of all those who were seeking for the refreshing influences of the truths of the gospel. There are many such teachers in the world.
When they make pretensions to wisdom and learning, or seem to attach great importance to what they say, and urge it in a pompous and positive manner. Truth is simple, and delights in simple statements. It expects to make its way by its own inherent force, and is willing to pass for what it is worth. Error is noisy and theatrical, and hopes to succeed by substituting sound for sense, and by such tones and arts as shall induce men to believe that what is said is true, when it is known by the speaker to be false. They allure through the lusts of the flesh - This has been quite a common method in the world, of inducing men to embrace false doctrines. Their allure is to the lusts of the flesh in their audience - just as the crowds who wanted bread from Y’Shua, but didn't want Y’Shua Himself (John 6:25-27, 47-66).
Through much wantonness - The meaning here is, that they made use of every variety of lascivious arts to beguile others under religious pretences. This has been often done in the world; for religion has been abused to give seducers access to the confidence of the innocent, only that they might betray and ruin them.
Those that were clean escaped from them who live in error - In the case referred to here it was by professedly religious teachers--and is this never done now? Are there none, for example, who have been addicted to habits of overindulgence, who had been almost reformed, but who are led back again by the influence of religious teachers? Not directly and openly, indeed, would they lead them into habits of intemperance. But, when their reformation is begun, its success and its completion depend on total abstinence from all that intoxicates. In this condition, nothing more is necessary to secure their entire reformation and safety than mere abstinence and nothing more may be necessary to lead them into their former practices than the example of others who indulge moderately.
They are themselves the slaves of appetite, or of the rules of fashionable life, or of the laws of honor, or of vicious indulgences.
Under all the appearances of reformation, still their evil nature remained, as really as that of the dog or the swine, and that nature finally prevailed. There was no thorough internal change, any more than there is in the swine when it is washed, or in the dog, This passage, therefore, would seem to demonstrate that there never had been any real change of heart, and of course there had been no falling away from true religion. It should not, therefore, be quoted to prove that true Believers may fall from grace and perish. The dog and the swine had never been anything else than the dog and the swine, and these persons had never been anything else than sinners.
And the sow that was washed - This proverb is not found in the Old Testament, but it was common in the Rabbinical writings, and is found in the Greek classics. Its meaning is plain, and of the truth of what is affirmed no one can have any doubt. No matter how clean the swine is made by washing, thin would not prevent it, in the slightest degree, from rolling in filth again. It will act out its real nature. So it is with the sinner. No external reformation will certainly prevent his returning to his former habits; and when he does return, we can only say that he is acting according to his real nature--a nature which has never been changed, any more than the nature of the dog or the swine.
The true point of this passage is to show that the persons referred to never were changed; that whatever external reformation might have occurred, their nature remained the same; and that when they apostatized from their outward profession, they merely acted out their nature, and showed that in fact there had been no real change. It will also prove that we should rely on no mere external reformation, no outward cleansing, as certain evidence of piety. G-d looks upon the heart; and it is only the religion that has its seat there, that can secure our final salvation.