Baiting the Hook

597. "Baiting the Hook"                     August 31, 2012
2 Peter 2-Part 7
It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life.  2 Peter 2:21 NLT

LET IT GLOW
 
My parents liked to go fishing when I was growing up. Mom would catch the most fish, but Dad would have the most fun, helping me catch fish when I was a kid. One particular time we took a picnic lunch and fished on the neighbors creek, downstream from Grandpa's farm. It was a clear, shallow stream on a tall bank with trees overhanging. That's where we got down to business after eating our lunch. Dad baited my hook with wiggly worms, threw the hook with a bobbin into the water, and sat beside me, teaching me patience. (I didn't realize that he could see what the fish were doing.) Eventually those fish took the bait and I excitedly reeled in the catch.
Just as I used bait to lure the fish to swallow my hook, Peter talks about how false teachers did the same thing. Let's get a clearer look.

How are these ungodly false teachers able to allure, attract followers?
Allure means to bait, catch by a bait; entice, deceive (Thayer's Lexicon); a verb meaning to attract by some proposed pleasure or advantage; charming, tempting (Webster's Dictionary)

Warren Wiersbe, in his book Be Alert explains:

1. They are elequent promoters of their doctrine.
2. They appeal to the base appetite of the old nature.
3. They appeal to immature people, who have recently escaped from their old ways.

Am I watching out for those who would like to allure me, bait me, away from faith in Jesus?

LET IT GROW

In reading verses 18-22, I found out what these ungodly false teachers were like:

• They brag about themselves with empty, foolish boasting. (verse 18)
• They lure back into sin those who have barely escapted fraom a lifestyle of deception, with an appeal to twisted sexual desires. (verse 18)
• They promise freedom, but are slaves of sin and corruption themselves. (verse 190
• They are worse off than before because they had escaped the wickedness of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then got tangled up and enslaved by sin again.(verse 20)
• They knew the way of righteousness, but rejected the command to live a holy life. (verse 21)
• They prove the truth of the proverbs: A dog returns to its vomit and A washed pig returns to the mud.

I don't want to be like one of these teachers, niether do I want to be lured away from Jesus and His teachings. Do I stay alert to the source of teachings, which should be the Bible? Am I warning others of false doctrines? Be sure that I don't take the bait of these deceivers.

LET IT GO

Make sure the source of  the teaching I listen to is the Bible, not an added word of man.

Stay close to the Spirit so a teaching is not appealing to my flesh.

Warn immature believers of the false doctrine and teachers that are out there in the world trying to allure them away from the Truth.