Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”
2 Peter 2:22
(notice all the 2's...J)
2 Peter 2 has the title "False Teachers and Their Destruction". Peter was writing to "those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours" (2 Peter 1:1). He reminded them that "God's divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness." (2 Peter 1:3) and that our knowledge of this God came from reliable eyewitnesses: "For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty." (2 Peter 1:16). But there were false teachers. They taught destructive heresies and exploited believers with fabricated stories to satisfy their greed and follow their depraved conduct (2 Pet 2:1-3, see also vv 10-19). God will surely punish them in due time and He will rescue the godly people just as he had rescued Noah (from the great flood) and Lot (from the destroyed cities of Sodom and Gomorrah).
Peter was at the end of his life (2 Pet 1:14). Seeing how some people who claimed to be believers had turned their backs on God had caused him to speak passionately to us who are holding on to our faith. He warned us: "If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them."(2 Pet 2:20-21), and concluded by quoting two proverbs “A dog returns to its vomit,” (from Proverbs 26:11) and “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.” (I cannot find the reference for this proverb).
Proverbs are meant to help us understand truths by observing ordinary events that cause us to react emotionally, like seeing a dog returning to its vomit or a female pig (sow) returning to the mud after she has been washed clean. How foolish is that?!
This confession I found on the Internet is quite helpful:
"Peter talks about those who may have gotten an emotional lift from following the Savior, but then turned back when the going got rough, or it wasn't the latest fad to be doing. At the end of John 6, we see where the Lord's following went from 70 to 12 quickly, when he told them what it would require to take the commitment to the next level. Matthew 6 also tells, in the famous Sermon on the Mount, about seed that falls on different soil, with rocky soil representing how somebody "enjoyed the party" of following the Savior when it was fun and popular, but then drifted away when they discovered it would not always be this great emotional high moment that they could live on for the rest of their lives.
I am 48, and have seen this many times in my day (I say this as one who, sadly, is not his most faithful follower at the moment). People love the emotional experience, the commaradity of being with others who share the same joy, and the fun of the new experience. But, as time goes on, they find out it requires more commitment and personal sacrifice, and see the old life as more inviting and thrilling. This is the picture Peter paints in the passage."
So the take home message:
- God's message of salvation is true: Jesus Christ died on the cross to save me from my sin. Any other messages that take me away from that are false, no matter how good they sound.
- God will protect me from wandering away. I stay with the basics - love him by obeying him and listen to him regularly.
- Don't be a fool! I have a new life, live in it!
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" (2 Cor 5:17)
This inductive bible study may be a good resource for this passage of scripture for further study:
http://calvary-bible.org/wp-content/uploads/small_group_study/2-peter/2_Peter_2_13-22.pdf
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