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2 Peter 2:19<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity\u2014for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n That which you are committed to and controlled by is your master and you are its slave.<\/p>\n Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n This word \u201cfreedom<\/span>\u201d is translated from the Greek word, eleutherio<\/span><\/em> which means \u201cfreedom or independence<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSlaves<\/span>\u201d is translated from doulos<\/span><\/em>, which refers to \u201ca slave, one who is in a relation of servitude to another, his will being altogether consumed in the will of the master.\u201d<\/p>\n The word translated \u201cdepravity<\/span>\u201d is phthora<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cdecay, spoilage, corruption, ruin, or wasting away.\u201d<\/p>\n Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Peter now continues his description of the messages that these false teachers proclaim. In the previous verse we talked about the fact that these messages were well crafted messages, like orchestrations, that were intended to lure the people through the lusts of their flesh. The people who had come out of churches which preached a false message were then entrapped by these well crafted messages of these false teachers.<\/p>\n Peter now says that these messages contained promises of freedom. That\u2019s what many people want to hear, freedom from worry and independence from guilt. They want freedom from the rules of a righteous God and independence to make one\u2019s own decisions. They want free will without guilt. Unfortunately, true freedom only comes from submission and dependence (on the grace and mercy of God) but that\u2019s not the message that was being preached to these people.<\/p>\n Why? Because the teachers are themselves slaves to the corruption of their own selfish desires. They are literally incapable of preaching the message of peace through the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross, because they are themselves slaves to sin. And, Peter says, anyone who has been overcome by something or someone else is a slave to that which has overcome them. These false teachers have been overcome by their own selfish motives and have become enslaved by them. Hence, they are not able to see the truth, let alone preach it to others.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the message that we all need to take from today\u2019s verse. If we want to be an effective witness for God then we have to be slaves to God (His personal servants). We have to proclaim His message and we have to do it His way. Anything else is selfish ambition and cannot possibly portray the truth. This applies to both teacher and disciple. In order to effectively teach or to effectively learn we must be submitted and committed to God and God alone.<\/p>\n Application<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Peter doesn\u2019t sugar coat it and neither will I. So let\u2019s be completely honest with ourselves and answer the following two questions.<\/p>\n Who are you committed to, God, or your own selfish desires?<\/p>\n What are you submitted to, the will of God, or your own will?<\/p>\n I think it\u2019s time for all of us to pray!<\/p>\n In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2009 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n <\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone 2 Peter 2:19 They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity\u2014for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. Truth to Learn That which you are committed to and controlled by is your master and you are its slave. Behind the Words This word \u201cfreedom\u201d is translated from the Greek […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[328,329,330,331],"class_list":["post-974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-depravity","tag-freedom","tag-promise","tag-slaves"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-fI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"signature\"](\"\/signature.gif\")
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