The Judgment of False Teachers

1But there were also false prophetsa among the people, just as there will be false teachersb among you. They will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who boughtc them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves. 2Many will follow their unrestrained ways, and the way of truth will be blasphemed because of them.d 3They will exploite you in their greedf with deceptive words. Their condemnation,g pronounced long ago, is not idle, and their destruction does not sleep.

4For if God didn’t spareh the angels who sinned but threw them down into Tartarusi, j and delivered them to be kept in chainsk of darkness until judgment;l 5and if He didn’t spare the ancient world, but protected Noah,m a preacher of righteousness, and seven others,n, o when He brought a flood on the world of the ungodly; 6and if He reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrahp to ashes and condemned them to ruin,q making them an example to those who were going to be ungodly;r, s 7and if He rescued righteous Lot,t distressed by the unrestrained behavior of the immoral 8(for as he lived among them, that righteous man tormented himself day by day with the lawless deeds he saw and heardu) — 9then the Lord knows how to rescuev the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment,w 10especially those who follow the polluting desires of the flesh and despise authority.x

Bold, arrogant people! They do not tremble when they blaspheme the glorious ones; 11however, angels, who are greater in might and power, do not bring a slanderous charge against them before the Lord.y 12But these people, like irrational animals — creatures of instinct born to be caught and destroyed — speak blasphemies about things they don’t understand, and in their destruction they too will be destroyed, 13suffering harm as the payment for unrighteousness. They consider it a pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, delighting in their deceptionsz as they feast with you. 14They have eyes full of adulteryaa and are always looking for sin. They seduce unstable people and have hearts trained in greed. Children under a curse!ab 15They have gone astray by abandoning the straight pathac and have followed the path of Balaam,ad the son of Bosor,ae who loved the wages of unrighteousnessaf 16but received a rebuke for his transgression: A donkey that could not talk spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s irrationality.ag

17These people are springs without water, mists driven by a whirlwind. The gloom of darkness has been reserved for them.ah 18For by uttering boastful, empty words,ai they seduce, with fleshly desires and debauchery, people who have barely escapedaj from those who live in error. 19They promise them freedom, but they themselves are •slaves of corruption, since people are enslaved to whatever defeats them.ak 20For if, having escaped the world’s impurity through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,al they are again entangled in these things and defeated, the last state is worse for them than the first.am 21For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousnessan than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandao deliveredap to them.aq 22It has happened to them according to the true proverb: A dog returns to its own vomit,ar, as and, “a sow, after washing itself, wallows in the mud.”