These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.”

2 Peter 2: 17-19

In the passage above Peter warned of “empty, boastful words.” Have you ever listened to someone speak a lot of words and still essentially say nothing? I remember a leader in a company I worked for that could speak for half and hour and really not say anything of consequence.

Peter is talking about more than empty talk here. Evidently, the false teachers preached a permissive gospel, encouraging their hearers that real freedom is found in pursuing “sexual freedom.” Like any alluring error, there is a bit of truth mixed in with the falsehood. Sex was always part of God’s plan and Scripture gives us a ringing endorsement for sex within the marriage of a man and woman (Song of Solomon) and “marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral” (Hebrews 13:4).

Contrast Scripture with the idea that a loving God would never deny someone desired by their heart. After all, we’re under grace and free from the moral law. Do what feels right, it is!

A false gospel may sound appealing, but there is truth in the final phrase in the passage above. “People are slaves to whatever has mastered them.”

In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul addressed the same issue with a faction who viewed sexual appetites in the same way they viewed hunger for food. They said “I have the right to do anything” but Paul responded with two retorts as well. “Not everything is beneficial and I will not be mastered by anything” (1 Corinthians 6:12)

So, the error we hear today in our own culture isn’t a new thing, just a variant of what has happened before. And that’s why we need to be reminded again and again that there is great freedom is the Gospel as Jesus provided the way for us to live free from the baggage of sin, not to live free to pursue the sin of our choice.