Arrogant people, so full of themselves they have no fear of slandering anyone else or anything else. Creatures driven by base instinct, following the polluted desires of their flesh, and with no regard for authority. Jazzed by doing what shouldn’t be done and doing it in broad daylight, always on the prowl for the next piece of forbidden fruit. With their hearts trained in greed, on the look out for unstable people to seduce. Welcome to church (2Peter 2:10-14).

What!?!?

This morning I was arrested by a phrase of just a few words but with profound implications. Ended up chewing on something quite bitter.

They are spots and blemishes, delighting in their deceptions while they feast with you.

(2Peter 2:13 CSB)

They feast with you. That’s what caught my attention this morning. These creepy cads, these despicable degenerates, these sin-driven scoundrels, they feast with you. You, as in the people of God to whom Peter is writing. They, as in false teachers among the people of God who “bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them” (2Pet. 2:1).

Say it isn’t so!

If it wasn’t, Peter wouldn’t have written. If it couldn’t happen, the Spirit wouldn’t have said it could happen. If it could only happen somewhere else, then why was this written for our instruction?

And so, I noodle on this disturbing description of those who feast with you and wonder how we could end up at the same table . . . and with me picking up the check to boot?

Well, I think there’s a clue given in this passage as to how spots and blemishes end up feasting and fellowshiping among the people of God.

They have gone astray by abandoning the straight path and have followed the path of Balaam, the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of wickedness.

(2Peter 2:15 CSB)

I’m guessing that not many heretics begin with a decision and determination to be a heretic. That few sit down at a white board to brainstorm their life’s mission statement and come up with “Go to Church and Deny Jesus!” That few meet with a committee charged with filling the pulpit on a Sunday morning and handout business cards with the tag line, “Bringing Something Better than Good News, Bringing Feel-Good News.” Probably not how it happens.

Instead, at least in part, it begins by going astray and abandoning the straight path. Not talking about a seismic shift initially, just a slight “course correction.” Finding the straight path a somewhat restrictive path, wandering just a little bit off the path. Finding the way of the kingdom impractical at times when it comes to navigating the way of the world, willing to improvise and ad lib in order to make things more palatable and enjoyable.

And what fuels which is, at first, but a slight variation of the truth so that it becomes full-blown heresy? Those willing to listen. Those willing to follow. Those willing to buy in (literally) and pay out to these false teachers the wages of wickedness. Remember, they feast with you.

False teachers thrive where there are followers open to false teaching. Those themselves who, either deliberately or ignorantly, are willing to abandon the straight path. Those ungrounded in the Scriptures, or too grounded in themselves, who are willing to follow their own instincts rather than commit to knowing and obeying God-breathed instruction. The fact that these false teachers feast with you is not just a warning about deceptive sellers of truth but also a warning about being an unawares, or unconcerned consumer of what’s being sold as truth. They feast with you.

O that we would be so grounded in what’s true we would discern immediately what’s false. So committed to the straight path that we have no interest in those who talk of some new and improved path. So abiding in the shadow of the Master’s cross that we would repel anything which hints of wavering from the Master’s call.

Only by His grace. Only for His glory.