5 Patterns of False Teachers

How 2 Peter 2 Sheds an Important Light on What We Are Seeing in Today's Churches

I read a post from a well-known pastor who basically called anyone who criticized a known predatory leader a traitor to the faith. In other words, if you called out a false teacher, you were the accursed one for doing so.

We’re hearing this idea touted loudly from big platforms that there’s a spirit floating around the US that’s inciting “the accuser of the brethren.” If you call out a pastor for harming others, teaching a false gospel, worshipping money, or any of many other egregious practices, you are worse than an infidel, and you’re in participation with Satan himself—or Jezebel (another pet subject of these teachers).

Problem is, both testaments are replete with warnings about leaders who harm others and teachers who seduce people away from God. The command is to be aware, not be caught in their trap, and, most importantly, to expose folks like that.

It got me to thinking, what is a false teacher, and how can we figure out if we’re dealing with one? Thankfully, the entirety of 2 Peter 2 addresses this issue quite pointedly. As I read and re-read it, I began to see 5 patterns of behavior emerge. These are inherent traits of false teachers (pseudodidaskalos).

ONE. THEY ARE UNHINGED.

Reference: 2 Peter 2:2, 10

Peter refers to “debauched lifestyles.” This word comes from aselgia, and it means brazen excess and a lack of restraint. A person beset with this issue is blatant and no longer cares if his words or actions are shocking. William Barclay wrote, “The man who has aselgeia in his soul does not care how much he shocks public opinion so long as he can gratify his desires. Sin can get such a grip of a man that he is lost to decency and shame. He is like a drug taker who first takes the drug in secret but comes to a stage when he openly pleads for the drug on which he has become dependent.”

Peter warns that many people will follow such a person—they will blindly copycat, imitate, or herald the egregious words and actions of their leader whose lifestyle and words give them permission to do the same.

False teachers also have the characteristic of despising authority (vs. 10). They will gather around themselves people who like to have their ears tickled with shallow teaching but would never confront their favorite leader. (See 2 Timothy 4:3-4). There’s a symbiosis at play. Identifying with the famous leader gives followers clout. And the false teacher, cultivating that kind of hero worship, guarantees their insulation from criticism. This is why many false teachers dismantle local home-spun boards and replace them with friends or colleagues around the nation—or just eliminate them completely. Why? Because they despise authority—they only want praise.

It's important to note, though, that they despise authority over themselves, yet they cling tightly to their own authority. Their decisions always win. And everyone else must accommodate to their whims—or be run over.

Similarly, those who despise authority do so with recklessness (tolmetes). They hold contempt for the law, particularly any rule that would quash their own gain. They are self-willed (authades). You can see the word author in that Greek word—meaning originator or creator. The latter half comes from a word that might look familiar to you: hedone, which is the root of hedonism. They are controlled by doing only things that bring them (not others) happiness and pleasure. They craft narratives that make them heroic (or the victim for sympathy’s sake). They create structures and ministries that feed ego. They dismantle any avenues for rebuke or correction.

TWO. THEY ARE GREEDY FOR MORE

Reference: 2 Peter 2:3, 14

The word Peter uses here is also translated covetousness. The Greek word is pleonexia, which literally means “more have.” This greed is insatiable and selfish. In verse 14 in the NET Bible, it’s rendered “trained their hearts for greed.”

A false teacher’s central aim, often, is either more money, more prestige, more fame, more numbers, or more glory. The pursuit of more is addictive, and it can easily morph into an obsession, all couched in biblical language. Many money scandals have toppled churches because of pastors valuing the bottom line more than the needs of those they minister to. When the people of God become a financial means to an end, be careful. Image bearers are not dollar signs.

How sad that generosity, one of the most loveliest of Christian traits, is exploited by false teachers. They manipulate in order to appeal to follower’s desires to be the kind of people who give with joy.

THREE. THEY DECEIVE AND ENTICE WITH WORDS.

Reference: 2 Peter 2:3, 13, 14, 18

Like greed, false teachers exploit their followers through their words. The word for exploit is emporeuomai, which has the connotation of doing business. What an indictment of churches who run more like a business than a living body! People are not commodities, but more and more we are using the language of business and commerce as we build our edifices to Jesus.

Beyond the hidden intent of enticing people to part with their money, we must look at the word false, which is a fascinating Greek word (plastos). Can you see plasticity there? One source elaborates the word means “to form, fashion or mold any soft substance such as wax or clay) refers to words that are false in view of the fact that they are made-up or fabricated. These words are mentally constructed by these liars without any basis in fact” (See https://www.preceptaustin.org/2_peter_22-3#2:3).

We’ve seen this firsthand where pastors will word-for-word copy a sermon of another pastor, even copying their mannerisms and claiming the anecdotes are their own. This is wrong. It is lying. It is stealing. It is plagiarism, no matter how they try to justify it.

If pastors are unwilling to do their own study and soul work, and they simply perform another’s hard-won words, they are play-actors on a stage, but they are not fit for Christian leadership—a mantle that is heavy and should be entered into with profound gravitas and humility.

In 2 Peter 2:13, the apostle uses the word apate to connote deception. That word means to give a false impression, to beguile, mislead (on purpose) and delude. The word has a strong connotation of seduction—like the creepy witch in Snow White who entices the girl to eat the shiny apple (or, better yet, how Satan tempted the first couple to sin).

Enticing (in verses 14 and 18) is the word deleazo which simply means to trap an animal through baiting it. It means to ensnare. In the case of the false teacher, their method of entrapment is words.

Words are powerful. But when they are copied, performed, used in ways to entice and deceive, they are dangerous. Teachers of the Bible should pause and consider the difficulty and mantle of this office.

James 3:1 reminds us all: “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, because you know that we will be judged more strictly.” Pastors who disregard this and steal others’ words (or use words to harm or deceive others) should look themselves in the mirror (or better yet, look heavenward) and ask themselves if they have any fear of God in them.

FOUR. THEY ARE ENSLAVED TO SIN BUT PREACH FREEDOM.

Reference: 2 Peter 2:13-15, 17

Peter calls those who teach one thing, then act another way (in sin) as stains. The word here is spilos, which means dirty or foul spots. They soil the wedding dress of the bridegroom of Christ. When they revel in sin, they do so habitually, and they often carouse openly. While they may have initially hidden their sin, the more they get away with it (yes, even from the pulpit), the more they’re emboldened to flaunt their so-called “freedom.” In verse 15, Peter insinuates that these false teachers have actively gone astray. It is a choice.

Backing up to verse 14, we see that these false teachers never cease in sinning. They are corrupted—they cannot help but continue to lust, gossip, conquer, gather an overabundance of wealth and prestige. There is no end game—it’s more-more-more.

Sadly, we live in a society now that no longer cares about the character of its leaders. What matters more is ideology. If “my person” has the right agenda or the persuasive words that match my own, I will overlook lapses in character for the sake of the grand ideology—so that my view of the world will win. This type of capitulation is dangerous, and it does not reflect the qualifications of leaders spelled out in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1.

Never will you see Christian leadership qualifications be about expediency or agendas or political victory. Take a look at what typifies a good leader according to Timothy and Titus: “above reproach, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, an able teacher, not a drunkard, not violent, but gentle, not contentious, free from the love of money” (1 Timothy 3:2-4). They must be “blameless . . . not arrogant, not prone to anger, not a drunkard, not violent, not greedy for gain. Instead he must be hospitable, devoted to what is good, sensible, upright, devout, and self-controlled” (Titas 1:7-8).

Part of the problem of false teachers is that followers don’t hold them to these difficult standards of belief and behavior. Sadly, we’ve been more discipled by our world than we have by our Bibles in terms of what is godly leadership. The world’s view of an effective leader is bombastic, blatant, self-absorbed, rich, sexually predatory (often), argumentative, a winner, petty, vengeful, impure, and chaotic. These types of leaders may get things done—the corporate ladder might be climbed—but they leave a wake of destruction in their path. (And they don’t care if they hurt those they were tasked with shepherding. One predatory leader called this phenomenon, “blessed subtraction.”)

Peter finishes this thought by calling these false teachers “waterless streams, mists driven by a storm” (2 Peter 2:17). In other words, they display profound theatrics. They’re prone to making themselves victims to get more attention (and to remind us that anyone who opposes them or their friends is heretical). They elocute emotional sermons (storms) but in the aftermath, nothing of kingdom significance happens. Jesus said a good tree will produce good fruit (See Matthew 7:17), but these bombastic false teachers just leave behind storm damage and broken people.

As I thought about this, these words came to mind: caricature versus character. As a church, we’ve settled for leaders who perform their roles as caricatures, but their character is rotting from within. Eventually, the façade will crack, and the maintenance of the caricature, which is so out of sync with who the person actually is (a sin-chasing hider) will fail, resulting in the unmasking of many leaders.

We are seeing this on a devastating scale. Nearly every day the news cycle shares about another fallen seemingly “great” leader whose true nature came out under pressure.

FIVE. THEY ARE PRIDEFUL AND ARROGANT.

Reference: 2 Peter 2:18-19

Want to suss out a false teacher? Look at their boasting. Are they always right and everyone else is an idiot (or an apostate)? Do they never admit failure? Do they apologize? Are they willing to hear criticism without lashing out at the person who brings the correction? Are their opinions the only correct ones?

Peter says these false teachers speak high sounding but empty words. They are arrogant (hypoerogkos, which means above+swelling). In other words, they’re nursing inflated egos. Warren Wiersbe describes them this way: “They impress people with their vocabularies and oratory, but what they say is just so much hot air.”

The deeper arrogance comes when they promise freedom, yet they are deeply enslaved. It reminds me of the Ted Haggard scandal from years ago, where he preached vehemently against something he was secretly practicing. The word for slave here you may recognize: doulos—to be bound to another. False teachers are not servants of God, but instead they live in servitude of their appetite for sin. And yet their words from the pulpit lie. They promise what they themselves do not even understand. What arrogance! It’s the “do as I say, not as I do” problem.

In their arrogance and pride, they become corrupted—they externally and internally decay (phthora). The Snow-White imagery comes to mind—how the shininess of the red apple hides its poison from within.

But eventually the truth erupts. The stage play the false teacher’s been acting in may be rushing toward a climax right now (Look at the numbers! Look at the fame! Look at the influence!), but the denouement will end in tragedy. God will not be mocked. Those who lead others astray (and contribute to the deconstruction of the faith), and those who harm the flock in their arrogance, greed, and deception, will inevitably produce obvious rotting fruit. The apple, though shiny, is poisonous.

…

I want you to hear me: I love the church. I love ministry. I deeply appreciate leaders who help their people to flourish and grow. There are many, many God-fearing leaders who serve in the shadows without fanfare or stages. Those, I applaud.

But in some circles, we’ve dismissed those Eugene Peterson types as ineffective. We’ve wanted to be seen—to be relevant to the culture—to win. So we chased after (idolized even) leaders who mimic the world’s ethic—to our shame. We’ve forgotten the sermon on the mount and become more like Rome than the One who hung on a Roman cross. Lord have mercy.

I used to think all those verses about false prophets and false teachers were for “back then,” when Israel was shaping into a nation or the church was embryonic. But I’ve come to realize there will always be antichrists among us. It’s the deceptive strategy of the enemy himself—to introduce leaders who sound like Christians into the flock, wolves cleverly disguised as sheep.

It is good and right to hold up a mirror to those wolves. It is not an act of apostasy to shine a light on their curation of a dark kingdom. We are called to do so. Because we love the church, and we want to protect her.