2 Peter 2:1 1 But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. Berkhof gives what is probably the most commonly accepted interpretation of 2 Peter 2:1 among five point Calvinists:
The most plausible explanation ... is that given by Smeaton, as the interpretation of Piscator and of the Dutch annotations, namely, "that these false teachers are described according to their own profession and the judgment of charity. They gave themselves out as redeemed men, and were so accounted in the judgment of the Church while they abode in their communion."I prefer interpreting "the Lord who bought them" in 2 Peter 2:1 as referring to Christ's granting these false teachers for a time the privileges of corporate membership in God's people. Christ had redeemed them in a corporate sense by removing them from the outward domain of the world and making them outwardly a part of the covenant people. They had for a time been delivered from the sinful pagan lifestyle through the common operations of the Spirit and the sanctifying influence of God's people. They were, however, only washed pigs. This redemption was not the efficacious salvific redemption that transforms inner character.
Systematic Theology, page 397This is consistent with the context of 2 Peter 2:1. Peter contrasts the OT prophets who were moved by the Holy Spirit (1:21) with the OT "false prophets" who were "among the people" (2:1). Both the true prophets and the false prophets were outward members of OT Israel. Peter then basically argues that those to whom he is writing shouldn't be surprised that there are false teachers among them, because there were in OT times false prophets among the covenant people. These NT false teachers are members of the church in the same sense that the OT false prophets were members of Israel.
2 Peter 2:1 uses the word agorazo (bought). Agorazo can refer to efficacious salvific redemption. For example, 1 Corinthians 6:20 says "For you were bought at a price." Every other verse where agorazo speaks about efficacious salvific redemption, there is specific mention of the price paid, as in 1 Corinthians 6:20 above. The omission of any mention of the price paid in 2 Peter 2:1 is evidence that this verse is talking about redemption in another sense.
The 2 Peter 2:1 phrase "denying the Lord who bought them" appears to be based on Deuteronomy 32:61 where Moses is talking about corporate Israel in rebellion against the One who formed them as a nation:
These false teachers in 2 Peter had professed faith in Christ and had for a time escaped the sinful pagan lifestyle through the common operations of the Spirit and the sanctifying influence of the fellowship of the saints:
Deuteronomy 32:6 6 Do you thus deal with the LORD, O foolish and unwise people? Is He not your Father, who bought you? Has He not made you and established you?
2 Peter 2:20-22 20 For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. 21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: "A dog returns to his own vomit," and, "a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire." The word in 2 Peter 2:1 translated "Lord" is despotes. Peter uses it to refer to the human master who is sovereign lord over a slave (1 Peter 2:18). Vine's Expository Dictionary defines the word as meaning "a master, lord, one who possesses supreme authority." These false teachers, by joining the church, had submitted themselves to Christ as the Sovereign Master of the covenant people. It is in Jesus' capacity as Soveriegn Master that they had denied Jesus through their return to a sinful lifestyle. They had been restrained for a time even as the words of Balaam's donkey had restrained his madness (2:15). Jude uses this same word despotes and then immediately talks about those members of Israel who were saved out of Egypt and then destroyed in the wilderness:
Jude 4-5 4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God (despotes) and our Lord Jesus Christ. 5 But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.
End Notes
1 The Hebrew here translated "bought" in Deuternonomy 32:6 is qanah. Here is the beginning of the definition found in BDB: The LXX translates qanah with the Greek word ktaomai, which, like agorazo, can mean to buy or purchase:
1. get, acquire (all poet.) : a. of God as originating, creating, Gn 14:19; 14:22, Dt 32:6 (Isr.), Psalm 139:13; Pr 8:22. b. of God as victoriously redeeming his people Ex 15:16 Is 11:11 Psalm 74:2
Acts 1:18 18 (Now this man purchased a field with the wages of iniquity; ... Acts 8:20 20 But Peter said to him, "Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money! Acts 22:28 28 The commander answered, "With a large sum I obtained this citizenship." And Paul said, "But I was born a citizen."