2 Peter 2:14 14having eyes full of adultery and unceasing sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greediness, cursed children.
Peter’s strong invective against the false teachers and prophets continues. Obviously, he took heresy seriously. He must have had a keen sense of the danger of following false teachers and falling into the temptation of pride and the lifestyle it leads to. The early Christians needed clarification and a strong reminder of the gospel and what it meant to live as God’s holy people in an adverse cultural situation. The eternal destiny of the readers was at stake. Without knowledge of the gospel, it is easy to be persuaded by nice-sounding rhetoric, glitzy leaders, or popular personalities. Peter gives five descriptions of these problem people.
First, they have eyes full of adultery. Jesus warned about how a lustful look is the same as adultery (Matthew 5:28). Adultery and lust are fueled by a desire to obtain what is rightfully ours. Peter could be using the word in a metaphoric sense in this verse. Adultery is an image in the Bible, especially for Israel in the book of Hosea, for unfaithfulness to one’s first love. The false teachers desired power and position that was not rightfully theirs.
Their misguided and selfish desires led them to unceasing sin. Sin had become their lifestyle and habit. They no longer—if ever—loved Christ, and replaced loving Christ with loving themselves and their selfish pursuits. They were greedy for glory, replacing the position of God with themselves. This led to being bad influences on people with unstable souls,weak convictions, and an easy time being persuaded to accept wrong teaching.
Most false teachers do not begin purposefully leading people astray, but they begin to put themselves first. They train their hearts in greediness, which is another way to describe how people can deceive themselves and harden their hearts or sear their consciences against conviction of sin. Paul also warned in 1 Timothy 4:2 of false teachers with similar problems. The first steps of apostasy are to allow one’s conscience to become weak by compromising in small areas. As time goes by, sin is redefined and soon ignored. Self replaces worship of God, and soon a person becomes blinded and hardened against the conviction of sin. Peter’s last point in this verse is a bit of exasperation in calling them cursed children. The sad outcome for those who lead others into sin is the judgment of God.