2 Peter 2:10-22 Revised Standard Version
20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 It has happened to them according to the true proverb, The dog turns back to his own vomit, and the sow is washed only to wallow in the mire.
19. So, knowledge of Jesus can save us. How can one be again entangled and be in a state worse than the first?
Knowledge of and being saved by are two different things. Once you know about Christ, you must accept Him or else you are not saved. Knowing about the saving love of Christ and rejecting it is this worse condition. It is bad enough to not know and to not accept, but to know and reject? That is being on the highway to hell. Many people are on this path. It is hard to fathom, but there it is.
20. Does this mean one can turn back from salvation? No, it just says the way of righteousness. What is the difference?
This question is redundant. You cannot lose your salvation once you have it, but knowing the way of righteousness and following it are two different things. We talked a little about “once saved, always saved”. There is definition in the Bible about how to know you are saved. There is no way to know for sure about anyone else. If someone tells us they are saved, then we should treat them as if they are, but we cannot know they are.
21. Why does a dog return to its vomit?
It is an irrational animal, creature of instinct.
22. Why would anyone wash a pig?
Ignorance. When we look at the important things, the irrelevant become known by their lack of attention.
I followed the question up with “What should we as humans learn from these two phrases on animals?” The answer was that we too by our sin nature tend to turn back to sin and to wallow in it if we are not focused on following God. This is not the same as trying and failing. This is more “I know its wrong and I am not going to try to not do it” kind of behavior.
23. Peter has strung together a tremendous amount of information in a very short passage. How long should one take to study these verses?
I cannot believe I actually set up this question set for a single lesson. It took us many times over many weeks and that was pushing it. I did not actually ask this question this morning, but the outcome was that we could spend our entire lives learning from these verses. We should not camp out on one part of the Bible (even Proverbs) over and over to the neglect of the rest. I have heard of Christians who never read the Old Testament and I know that some people only study prophecy. All 66 books should take a turn in our study life. I’ll spend years on Job, but I will spend part of that times on other studies as well. Just as God and Jesus have many characteristics, our lives too should produce all kinds of fruit in season.
One more chapter and we are done with Peter. It feels like years since we first started with Peter in the gospels. It looks like we started meeting October of 2018 and started Peter February of 2019. So maybe two and a half years overall. I think we had ten lessons on Peter before his letters and several took more than one meeting. It looks like we started the letters last November. Maybe we can finish before it has been 12 months. And yes, it does seem we took a break in there somewhere.