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Daily Devotions

2 Peter

2 Peter 
Day 
Day 36

"The latter end is worse"

Text: 2 Peter 2:20

ENTANGLED IN SIN

It is very likely, that these false teachers had some knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. They had some basic understanding of what the Lord had taught. But they had strayed and had become false teachers.

“For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world
through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
they are again entangled in them and overcome,
the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.”
2 Peter 2:20

1. “For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world”

a) “The pollutions of the world”

i) That would be obvious.

ii) Sin and its pollution were found everywhere.

b) “Escaped”

i) One may speak of having “escaped” from the pollutions of the world.

ii) However, it does not mean, that the person would not return to the world.

2. “Through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ”

a) Knowledge of the Lord and Saviour was available fairly easily.

b) Believers were actively bearing witness of their faith in the Lord.

c) Basic knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

i) The answer to sin lay in the salvation Jesus offered.

ii) The freedom from the power of sin lay in the Lord and in His word.

d) One may act on this basic understanding:

i) And as a result, escape from the pollution of sin.

ii) But the heart may remain empty.

iii) Sin may return and the state of the person is worse
(Matthew 12:43-45; Luke 11:24-26).

3. “They are again entangled in them and overcome”

a) The hearers return to their old sinful ways.

b) They get caught by their sins again.

c) They are now overcome by sin’s pollution and corruption.

4. “The latter end is worse for them than the beginning”

a) “The beginning”

i) They had knowledge of the Lord.

ii) But they had not been truly saved.

iii) They may have liked the moral teachings of Jesus.

iv) But they did not have real faith in the Lord.

b) “The latter end is worse”

i) The power of sin has gripped them.

ii) They had denied the Lord Jesus.

iii) They had indulged in sin.

iv) The latter state of their life would indeed be worse!