False Teachers

2 ¹In the past there were false prophets* among [God's] people. It is the same now. You will have some false teachers in your group. They will teach things that are wrong--teachings that will make people be lost. And those false teachers will teach in a way that will be hard for you to see that they are wrong. They will even refuse to accept the Master (Jesus) who bought their freedom. And so they will quickly destroy themselves. ²Many people will follow them in the evil (bad) things they do. And other people will say bad things about the Way of truth because of those people. ³Those false teachers only want your money. So they will use you by telling you things that are not true. But the judgment against those false teachers has been ready for a long time. And they will not escape the One (God) who will destroy them. ⁴When angels sinned, God did not let them go free without punishment. No! God sent them to hell. God put those angels in caves of darkness. They are being held there until the judgment. ⁵And God punished the [evil] people who lived long ago. God brought a flood to the world that was full of people who were against God. But God saved Noah and seven other people with Noah. Noah was a man who told people about living right. ⁶And God also punished the [evil] cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.* God burned those cities until there was nothing left but ashes. God made those cities be an example to show what will happen to people who are against God. ⁷But God saved Lot [from those cities]. Lot was a very good man. He was troubled because of the dirty lives of evil people. ⁸(Lot was a good man, but he lived with those evil people every day. Lot's good heart was hurt by the evil things that he saw and heard.) ⁹[Yes, God did all these things]. So the Lord [God] will always save the people who serve him. He will save them when troubles come. And the Lord will hold evil people and punish them while waiting for the day of judgment. ¹⁰That punishment is for those people who live by doing the bad things their sinful selves want, and it is for people who hate the Lord's authority (power). These [false teachers] will do anything they want, and they boast about themselves. They are not afraid to say bad things against the glorious [angels].* ¹¹The angels are much stronger and more powerful than these false teachers. But even the angels don't accuse the false teachers and say bad things about them to the Lord. ¹²But these false teachers speak evil against things they don't understand. These false teachers are like animals that do things without really thinking--like wild animals that are born to be caught and killed. And, like wild animals, these false teachers will be destroyed. ¹³These false teachers have made many people suffer. So they themselves will suffer. That is their pay for what they have done. These false teachers think it is fun to do evil things openly [where all people can see]. They enjoy the evil things that please them. So they are like dirty spots and stains among you--[they bring shame to you] in the meals that you eat together. ¹⁴Every time they look at a woman they want her. These false teachers are always sinning this way. They lead weaker people into the trap [of sin]. They have taught their own hearts to be selfish. They are under a curse.* ¹⁵These false teachers left the right way and went the wrong way. They followed the same way that Balaam went. Balaam was the son of Beor. He loved being paid for doing wrong. ¹⁶But a donkey told Balaam that he was doing wrong. And the donkey is an animal that cannot talk. But that donkey spoke with a man's voice and stopped the prophet's (Balaam's) crazy thinking. ¹⁷Those false teachers are like rivers that have no water. They are like clouds that are blown by a storm. A place in the deepest darkness has been kept for them. ¹⁸Those false teachers boast with words that mean nothing. They lead people into the trap [of sin]. They lead away people who are just beginning to come away from other people who live wrong. Those false teachers do this by using the evil things people want to do in their sinful selves. ¹⁹These false teachers promise that those people will have freedom. But the false teachers themselves are not free. They are slaves of things that will be destroyed. A person is a slave to the thing that controls him. ²⁰Those people were made free from the evil things in the world. They were made free by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But if those people go back into those evil things and those things control them, then it is worse for them than it was before. ²¹Yes, it would be better for those people to have never known the right way. That would be better than to know the right way and then to turn away from the holy teaching that was given to them. ²²What those people did is like this true saying: "When a dog vomits (throws up), he comes back to his vomit."* And, "After a pig is washed, the pig goes back and rolls in the mud again."

false prophets People who say they speak for God but do not really speak God's truth. Sodom and Gomorrah Cities that God destroyed to punish the evil people who lived there. the glorious {angels} Literally, "the glories" or "the glorious ones." under a curse Literally, "children of a curse," meaning that God will punish them. "When a dog ... vomit" Quote from Prov. 26:11.