Wednesday
2 Peter 2:17-22

One of my least favorite books I read in high school was Lord of the Flies, by William Golding. I hated how the story made me feel, but looking back, I realized the story was the perfect illustration of how lawlessness leads to the most devastating and crippling form of bondage. My heart ached for the schoolboys whose plane was shot down as they were trying to escape a raging war and who then found themselves abandoned on a deserted island left to their own devices. Because they were unsuccessful in their initial attempts for order, the reader is forced to watch these adolescents, who were all products of democratized western culture, spiraling out of control and devolving into murderous anarchy. Yuck!

And “YUCK!” is the image Peter paints of the false teachers who espouse an “anything goes” message to their converts while they themselves are suffering from the repercussions of being “slaves of corruption.”

Standing in stark contrast is the message of Christ. Jesus said in John 8:31-36: “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free … Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”