Here’s what the Apostle Peter says about false teachers…

These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.
For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.
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 in bondage.
For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.

2 Peter 2:17-20

Peter goes on to say that, when Christians follow false teachers away from Christ, the end result is worse than if they had never been Christians in the first place. How can this be?

Read on…

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 unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

2 Peter 2:21-22

Put simply, it is more offensive. It is more depraved. It is more disgusting to the eyes of God to see His washed and purified children return to the muck and mire of sin, than it is to know there are those in the world who have never been obedient to God and will forever be in that mire. It’s worse to think about someone who managed to escape from a bottomless pit and then willingly jumped back in than it is to pity those who never escaped in the first place. Both scenarios are tragic, but one is tremendously more so.

Why would anyone intentionally return to the pit? Why go back to the mud? It happens far too often; but why does it happen at all? Why would anyone leave the riches of salvation?

The answer is because Satan is a skillful liar. He is a conman and a crook. He promises and promises but when it comes time to deliver, he never pays up. He offers you all the nicest things the world has to offer, but if you take him up on his offer, you’ll end up with nothing.

~ Matthew