READ: 2 PETER 2:12-22 (NKJV)

12 But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption,

13 [and] will receive the wages of unrighteousness, [as] those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. [They are] spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you,

14 having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. [They have] a heart trained in covetous practices, [and are] accursed children.

15 They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the [son] of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;

16 but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet.

17 These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.

18 For when they speak great swelling [words] of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error.

19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.

20 For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.

21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known [it,] to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.

22 But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”

THE MESSAGE:

The scripture says ‘by their fruits, we shall know them.’ In the same vein, false teachers are also known by their character.

The following are the conducts of false teachers:
(1) They are carnally minded
(2) They make light of spiritual things
(3) They are deceivers
(4) They are adulterers
(5) They are covetous and hypocritical.

Christians should be firmly rooted in the word of God, and possess the spirit of discernment in order to know when false teachers are at work because we have them within and around us. We must be watchful.

PRAYER: Father Lord, expose and expunge false teachers from among us in Jesus name. Amen.