The parable of the prodigal reveals a vast difference between a son and a pig (Lk 15:11-32). The son was born in the house of the father, possessed the father’s nature, and when he came to his senses repented and returned from the far land to his father’s house. The pig was born in a pen, possessed a pig’s nature, and no matter how far he traveled, would always return to the sty.
As a prodigal returns to his father, and a sheep to its shepherd, so will a pig return to its mire and a dog to its vomit (2 Pet 2:22). Reformation cleans up the outside, but only regeneration changes the inside of a sinner. Temporary reformation without true repentance and rebirth only leads to greater sin and judgment (Warren Wiersbe). False teachers, like every false believer, put on a good show, but God condemns a false faith.


I. The Judgment of the Redeemed (2 Pet 2:20). Everyone is born a sinner, condemned by God (Gen 5:3; Ps 51:5; Rom 3:10, 23). Justly deserving His wrath for our sin (Gen 2:17; Ezek 18:20; Rom 6:23), God has forgiven the sins of His children, providing a Saviour from eternity past (Eph 1:4; 2 Tim 1:9; 1 Pet 1:17-21; Rev 13:8). Through faith in Jesus (Jn 3:16; Gal 3:26; Eph 2:8-9), God’s elect are redeemed from sin, death, and God’s wrath (Ps 103:10-12; Jn 5:24; Rom 5:9; 1 Thess 1:10), His wrath against sin being laid upon and fully paid by Jesus through His death on the cross (Is 53:6; 2 Cor 5:21). God doesn’t punish the righteous with the wicked, but accepts the death of the Righteous One for the wicked (Mk 10:45; Rom 5:6-8; 1 Jn 2:1-2).
Believers will be judged at death, not for their sins but for the motives and intentions in their service to Christ, and rewarded accordingly (Rom 14:10; 1 Cor 3:10-15; 2 Cor 5:9-11; 2 Jn 8). God’s saints, called and elected by Him, are assured of an abundant entrance into Christ’s kingdom (2 Pet 1:8-11). Peter didn’t consider his own death as something to fear but to look forward to (2 Pet 1:14). And so we need this reminder ourselves!


II. The Judgment of the Unsaved. For many people, Hell is a place reserved for Adolph Hitler and mass murderers, but not for them. Others portray it as a place of eternal fun and partying. Neither is the picture painted in the Bible.
Despite God’s common grace (Job 25:3), the unsaved live under the condemnation and wrath of God every moment of their lives (Jn 3:18, 36). At death, their souls enter Hades and await the resurrection of the wicked dead and the final judgment which the Bible calls the Great White Throne (Jn 5:29; 15" class="scriptRef">Rev 20:10-15). The Lake of Fire is a conscious torment (Lk 16:22-28) where there is eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth (Mt 8:12; 13" class="scriptRef">22:13; 24:51), unquenched fire (Mk 9:48), the body never dies (Lk 12:4-5), and is forever separated from God. Hell is as eternal as Heaven (Mt 25:41; 2 Thess 1:9) and Hell is the eternal destiny of every false teacher (2 Pet 2, 3, 9, 12-13, 17, 20-21; Jude 1:5-7, 13, 15).

III. Dogs and Hogs. Peter compares the brute beasts (2 Pet 2:12) now to dogs and hogs, despised creatures in the ancient world. Both were used to clean streets as they will eat anything including their own kind, and their own vomit and feces.
When a dog vomits, it’s cleaned on the inside; the pig may be removed from the pen and bathed; yet neither beast is fundamentally changed. That is Peter’s point in verse 22. Dogs and hogs (false teachers) can be educated, trained, or their environment altered, but they retain the same heart and their nature remain the same. They’re not the picture of justified people but those who reject the gospel and always return to ungodliness. They’ve always been dogs and hogs, never sons and sheep.
A false teacher can point to an experience, a prayer, a commitment, a choice, or a revelation, but not to a life transformed and proven by a sanctified life (2 Pet 1:2-11). Their experiences are genuine, but counterfeit; Satan is an expert counterfeiter (Gal 1:6-9; 2 Cor 11:13-15, 26), and so the false teacher is able to fool everyone he meets, except God (Mt 13:24-30, 36-43).