Tuesday-Hard Words

With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood!

2 Peter 2:14

If you haven’t figured it out yet, I like lists. Lists take a bunch of words and ideas and organize them from top to bottom. All the extra stuff is taken out, leaving behind only the meat.

Lists save you time. Instead of having to read through a whole bunch of words, someone has taken the time to put them into order. You don’t have to sift through all those thoughts and organize them in your head. All that’s done for you. All you have to do is read and enjoy the list.

Think about bacon or fried chicken. You can buy it in the store, bring it home, cook it, and it will be delicious. Or you can buy it pre-cooked and start eating it while you sit in your car. Yes, maybe the home cooked will taste a little bit better, but then you have to wait and do all the work.

Peter pulls out a list of what these false teachers are like. He doesn’t hold anything back either. God has opened his eyes to see more than what our eyes can. He describes what they are like on the inside and on the outside.

As you read this list, it’s easy to see that Peter’s not trying to win friends and influence people. There’s no “spin” in what he’s writing. There’s no attempt to ease into the topics. The words he uses are blunt and to the point. There is absolutely no chance that anyone’s going to misunderstand what he’s saying.

• Eyes full of adultery. Could you start out with anything clearer? The thing about adultery is that it starts out invisible. You can’t see it because it’s in the heart. But it eventually comes out with words, suggestions, and touching that only tries to abuse and have power over the weak.

• Never stop sinning. Do you know what it’s like to be in a rut and unable to get out? This kind of rut is much worse than your car not being able to move. It’s when we’ve been sinning over and over again. We’ve practiced sinning so much that we’re experts at it and it’s just what we do without thinking.

• Seduce the unstable. These people will use anything to get people’s attention. They will use any kind of bait to attract attention. Just look at the bait that the serpent used with Eve[1]. The purpose of bait is to leave a safe place just so you can have a moment of pleasure[2].

• Experts in greed. It’s like these people went to a class to learn greed from an expert. They’ve been watching TED Talks on how to increase their selfishness to new heights. They even write a blog that tells stories about their past exploits and their egoism.

Put all four of these things together, you’ve got hard-core selfish people. They’ve been living greedy lives for so long that it’s all they know. Greed has become their middle name. Their permanent address is 666 Selfish Street.

When you see someone like this, you want to turn and run in the other direction. You don’t want to have anything to do with them. They take any happiness and joy you might be feeling and they just suck it right out of the air. It’s like they have this cloud of selfishness all around them and there’s no way to avoid it.

So, how does Peter finish describing these selfish people? What can you call these false prophets that bring nothing but distraction and destruction to the people around them? Peter uses an unusual and powerful description. He calls them an accursed brood.

They’ve got a curse on them that they’ve earned. It’s not a mistake that they’re this way. They’re responsible for who they are and what they’ve become. It’s not a curse that someone else put on them. They put it on themselves.

I have to tell you that I really don’t like to say these kind of things. If I have a choice, I like to say nice things. Words that encourage. I want to write stuff that not only makes you feel good, but it’s something that you want to pass on to your friends and family. You want to print it out and post it on your refrigerator.

But there are times when we can’t. There are those important forks in the road when we need to say the hard things. For the benefit and health of someone, we must say words that we know are going to hurt, but it’s for their good. Not to say these truths is only going to let an open wound stay open. Get infected. Eventually lead to a much more serious problem.

God did this. He said that we were sinners and his enemy. He didn’t hold anything back when he told us the truth. But he also didn’t hold anything back when Jesus died for us. It was his hard words that started our path back to him.

Noodling Questions

• Describe a time that someone said hard words to you.

• How hard were God’s words to you about your own sin?

• List three ways that hard words can lead to healing and restoration.

[1] Genesis 3:1,3

[2] Hebrews 11:25