“But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves” (2 Peter 2:1).
2 Peter 2:1 identifies another characteristic of false teachers: they deny the sovereign Lord who bought them. In a general sense, this tells us that such teachers do not teach the truth about Christ. This leads us to a simple and effective method to help identify false teachers. One of the fastest ways to uncover what someone truly believes about Christianity is to simply ask, “Who is Jesus?”
For instance, there are self-proclaimed Christian organizations that believe Jesus was “a” God. While that belief may seem unobjectionable at first glance, it does not correspond with what we read in the Scriptures. You see, Jesus isn’t simply a god, He is the God (John 1:1, Romans 9:5, Titus 2:13). This reiterates an important point from an earlier study: a key characteristic of many heretical teachings is the denial of Jesus’ divinity.
The heretical teachers of 2 Peter 2:1 professed to be Christians in word but denied the Lord who bought them in deed. While this portion of Scripture does not specify the doctrines these teachers denied, it clearly involved one or more aspects of Jesus’ life and ministry. In other words, their doctrine and conduct revealed their profession of faith in Christ to be fraudulent. Perhaps we might say that He bought them, but they never bought Him.
This portion of Scripture also refers to the fact that these teachers will “bring swift destruction on themselves.” The word rendered “swift” in this passage is tachinos in the original language of this verse. Other forms of this word are translated “soon” in Revelation 1:1 and “speedily” in Luke 18:8. This word also forms the basis for our modern-day word “tachometer.”
A tachometer is a gauge that monitors the revolutions per minute (or “RPM”) in an internal combustion engine. This suggests that the destruction of these heretical teachers may not take place immediately. But once that judgment begins, it will gather momentum rapidly, just like a tachometer measures the escalating speed of an engine. Thus, in the words of one source, “Man brings upon himself the vengeance which God brings upon him.” (1)
Finally, we should remember that Peter once denied Jesus three times at an earlier point in his life. Therefore, he speaks with the voice of experience in counseling his readers to beware of such individuals.
(1) Jamieson, F. a. B. (2000, February 19). Commentary on 2 Peter 2. Blue Letter Bible. https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/jfb/2Pe/2Pe_002.cfm