The First Commandment: Statutes and Precepts (1)

Deuteronomy 10.12-22

¹² “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³ and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good? ¹⁴ Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it. ¹⁵ The Lord delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day. ¹⁶ Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer. ¹⁷ For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. ¹⁸ He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing. ¹⁹ Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. ²⁰ You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast, and take oaths in His name. ²¹ He is your praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen. ²² Your fathers went down to Egypt with seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as the stars of heaven in multitude.”

Matthew 10.28; Luke 1.6; Romans 7.12; 1 John 2.1-6

2 Peter 2.22

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 Story:Peter is a tough guy. He doesn’t mince words. And the reason is because these are matters of life and death. People who profess to believe in Jesus and are “washed” in baptism, but then fall under the thrall of false teaching and turn back to indulge their fleshly ways demonstrate this much: They were never really saved at all. Sure, they had some “experience” of the Lord, and they professed to “believe” in Him. But that doesn’t count for anything unless it is backed up by a life of repentance and seeking the Lord. Dogs eat their vomit; clean sows ultimately find their way to the mud again. Just so with those whose hearts have never truly been turned to the Lord. We may not like the way Peter puts it, but we’d better make sure his warning doesn’t apply to us.

The Structure:We’ve endured an entire chapter of Peter warning us of the dangers of false teachers, of allowing ourselves to be enticed by passion and the flesh, and of clinging to a mere profession of faith as anything like true assurance of salvation. In this age of restoration, the purpose is to be restored and not just to know that we’re going to Heaven when we die. But restoration is hard work. It must be grounded in truth and pursued with diligence. It doesn’t just happen. And there are plenty of dangers and temptations to distract those insufficiently grounded in the Word and Christ from making any real progress in the faith.

How do you know that your profession of faith in Jesus Christ is true? How do you protect yourself against the allure of the vomit and the mire?

Each week’s studies in our Scriptorium column are available in a free PDF form, suitable for personal or group use. For this week’s study, “Beware False Teachers: 2 Peter 2.12-22,” simply click here.

T. M. Moore

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

His everywhere-steadfast love will never fail you.

2 Peter 2.21

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.

2 Peter 2.19, 20

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.

2 Peter 2.17, 18

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 wordsof emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error.

2 Peter 2.15, 16

¹⁵ They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the sonof 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.

2 Peter 2.13b, 14

They arespots 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 areaccursed children.

2 Peter 2.12, 13a

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 andwill receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime.

In the Christian life, it's grow in Christ, or decline.

ReVision studies are designed for individual or group use and explore various aspects of the Christian worldview. All ReVision studies are available in free PDF format and may be duplicated for group use.

The true disciple fears no one - but God.