If the false teachers of chapter 2 and Jude are from among the Gnostics, it is easy to see why they opposed the apostles’ teaching about the end of time, the day of the Lord, and the destruction of the earth. The focus of the Gnostics was on the origin and role of evil, the restoration of the primitive order of things. They did not ask as the Christians did, What must I do to be saved? Redemption to them was not a matter of salvation from sin and personal ruin, but rather redemption of the spirit from matter. Once enlightened by a superior knowledge, you could not fall from that knowledge. This superior knowledge replaced "the simple faith" that the Christians emphasized. The Gnostics refused to accept that the Lord would come and judge the ungodly. Some among the Gnostics even taught that there would be a thousand years of unrestrained sensuality.

The apostle John had to maintain the truth of the Gospel in the face of constant opposition from Gnostics like Cerinthus. The epistle of first John was the apostle’s reply to the false notions about knowledge taught by the Gnostics. John wrote, "Hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments." (1 John 2:3.) "If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him." (1 John 2:29.) "And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in wickedness. And we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life." (1 John 5:19-20.) Note the references both to knowledge and to righteousness.

Knowledge, regardless of how deep and complete it may be, is not helpful if it does not lead one to obedience and submission to God’s will and way. Knowledge that saves leads one to a righteous life because God is righteous. The Gnostics and false teachers of the Peter’s day encouraged a licentious way of life. They twisted the grace of God into a license to sin.

It is with this background that Peter wrote the following words.

"While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption. For of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought into bondage. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are entangled again and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened to them according to the true proverb. The dog is turned to his own vomit and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire." (2 Peter 2:19-22.)

The Gnostics were promising the Christians liberty. They were antinomians; that is, they wanted to be free from all law and governments. Christians are not under law, but under grace. We are free from a law system of justification. But that does not mean that grace permits ungodliness as a manner of life. Freedom and liberty are often misunderstood. To be free in any sense does not mean that one has unbridled liberty to do anything that the flesh desires. Peter added, Of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. The NIV says, "For a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him." (2:19.)

The Gnostics were wrong about their full-blown doctrine of dualism borrowed from the Persians. But they were right about opposites in the world. John so much as agreed with some of their dualism. There is light and darkness, good and evil, right and wrong in the world. These are opposites in nature. To embrace one is to reject the other. To become a slave to one is to be free from the other. But no one can embrace these opposite spiritual concepts at the same time. To claim liberty to a lascivious way of life is to accept the bondage that it brings. The Gnostics erroneously thought that they could live sinfully and not be brought under the bondage of sin spiritually.

Earlier Peter wrote, "As free and not using your liberty as a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God." (1 Peter 2:16.) Paul likewise wrote, "For, brethren, you have been called into liberty. Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another." (Gal. 5:13.) There is an understandable word of caution here for all Christians about liberty and what it means. It does not mean that we can use the grace of God as a license to do wrong and fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Obviously, someone thought that one could do that very thing.

Knowledge of God and his will is not an evil thing. But the Gnostics over-emphasized the proper place of knowledge. They thought superior knowledge to the initiate was the much sought after goal. Having obtained that, you were enlightened and free. Peter taught that knowledge was needed among the Christian graces. (2 Peter 1:5-7.) But knowledge of God and divine things could never be complete. We grow in grace and knowledge. (2 Peter 3:18.) "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee." (Hosea 4:6.) Knowledge, of course, is significant.

Paul cautioned the Corinthians about knowledge. He wrote, "And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains and have not charity, I am nothing." (1 Cor. 13:2.) "Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but charity edifies. If any man thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. But if any man love God, the same is known of him." (1 Cor. 8:1-3.) Love is greater than faith and hope. If knowledge does not lead to faith and a closer walk with God, then that knowledge has not been helpful and even condemns the one possessing it. James wrote, "He that knows to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin." (James 4:17.)

We can hold to a form of Gnosticism today concerning knowledge. We can believe that knowledge of the truth alone sets us free from sin. But Jesus said, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:36.) Jesus did not say that knowledge would set you free. It is possible to know many good things from the Scriptures, but unless that knowledge moves us away from sin and closer to God then that knowledge cannot save. It is possible for members of the church to think that they are saved because they know the truth about baptism, about the Lord’s Supper, about the deity of Jesus, and a myriad other doctrines. We need knowledge in all of these areas, but just having knowledge will not save. I want to warn all of us. Our faith is a very rational faith based heavily upon knowing certain things. That can be very misleading. We need also to know that love is greater than knowledge. A relationship based upon knowledge of God is the key. The knowledge of the Savior should lead to the way of righteousness.

In more modern days, since the teachings of John Calvin (1509-1564), many deny the possibility of falling away from grace and salvation because of an undue emphasis on the sovereignty of God. They reason that if God is truly sovereign, then man cannot really do anything against the will of God. If a man chooses to live in sin, it is because God has already decreed who will be saved and who will be lost. This over-emphasis on sovereignty completely did away with man’s moral ability to choose his own way.

When we read the New Testament texts on the possibility of falling away, we are shocked that anyone could deny such seemingly plain statements. But if you have already been convinced that no one can do anything contrary to the will of God, then you refused to admit that man can disobey God. If he disobeys God, then God foreknew what he would do and foreordained this man’s condemnation.

Note how strong and plain the words of Peter are in this text. This person has escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Savior. He has known the way of righteousness and has turned from the holy commandment. He has become entangled again. Surely all of these words are saying that the person was lost, escaped the sins of the world by knowing the Savior, and became lost again. This is exactly what Jude said as well.

The Lord "saved the people out of the land of Egypt" and later destroyed them. (Jude 5.) They were once saved and later lost. The angels were once in the presence of God and then lost that estate. (verse 6.) Jude wrote to the Christians to warn them about these ungodly teachers among them. If they could not fall, why was he concerned? It is evident that he was concerned because they might be misled by these teachers and fall away from God. That is how both Jude and Peter ended their warnings about the false teachers. Jude ended his letter by saying plainly, "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy." (verse 24.)

Someone summed up Calvin’s doctrine of the impossibility of apostasy by saying,

If you seek it, you cannot find it

If you find it, you cannot get it

If you get it, you cannot lose it

If you lose it, you never had it!

This humorous quip shows a helpless, will-less condition for man. But Jesus said, "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself." (John 7:17.)

The latter end of one who once knew the way of righteousness and turned from it is worse for someone who never knew. Harvey Starling once said in a sermon, I had rather that my children were born in the darkness corner of civilization and never knew about the Savior, than to be born in America with all the advantages of knowing the truth and reject it. It is more serious and the punishment more severe because a person is more responsible if they understand and reject the good way. A person is more calloused and hardened to despise the grace of God and the death of Jesus on the cross.

"Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite the Spirit of grace?" (Heb. 10:29.)

These false teachers knew what they were doing. They purposefully sought out advantage against the goodwill of the Christians. They misled them knowing what they teaching. Isn’t it ironic that the knowledge of the Gnostics will in the end condemn them?

People do not turn away from Christianity because they have found some flaw in it. It is not because they have found something in science, (knowledge falsely so-called), that just keeps them from participating in it. They do not turn away because the way of sin and the world is better than the way of the Lord. According to Jesus, they turn away because they simply love darkness rather than light! (John 3:19.) Peter and Jude affirm what Jesus said. These teachers were determined to fulfill the lusts of the flesh. The way of self-centeredness is easier. Discipline is more difficult. Self-denial is never easy.