Among us exist offenders of the Gospel message who have, indeed, “For it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, become partakers of the Holy Spirit, tasted the good word of God and the miracles of the coming age, and then have committed apostasy, to renew them again to repentance, since they are crucifying the Son of God for themselves all over again and holding him up to contempt.” Hebrews 6:4-6. HCSB.

Peter provides a vivid picture of how ‘wanna be’ Believers operate so true Christians can know how to avoid their evil activity. He writes, “For whatever a person succumbs to, to that he is enslaved. For if after they have escaped the filthy things of the world through the rich knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they again get entangled in them and succumb to them, their last state has become worse for them than their first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment that had been delivered to them. They are illustrations of this true proverb: ‘A dog returns to its own vomit,’ and ‘A sow, after washing herself, wallows in the mire.’” 2 Peter 2:19(b)-22. 

False believers are acquainted with the principles of Jesus’ teaching in Scripture but resist true faith and repentance. They have intellectual knowledge about Jesus but not faith. “For ignoring the righteousness that comes from God and seeking instead to establish their own righteousness, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law, with the result that there is righteousness for everyone who believes.” Romans 10:1-4. Cross-bearing is foreign to them, “Then he said to them all, “If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will save it.” Luke 9:23-24. 

Peter seemed certain that attempts made to reform these would be a waste of time and used powerful words to illustrate those who reject Jesus Christ. Rebellious people are like pigs wallowing in the mud or wild dogs eating their own vomit. 

In 2 Peter 5:1-1, perseverance is essential to faith. There will always be false teachers in the local church attempting to deceive as many as possible. “Children, it is the last hour, and just as you heard that the antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. We know from this that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us because if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But they went out from us to demonstrate that all of them do not belong to us. 1 John 2:18-19. 

Born-again believers will not return to their past. They are empowered by the grace of God and the Holy Spirit, and their reward is eternal life. We find this truth in John 3:16-18, “For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him. The one who believes in him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.”

Jesus is Lord.