Had we been witnesses to the first couple in the Garden of Eden, do you suppose we’d have seen any difference between Adam and Eve immediately before the fall compared to immediately after the fall? Outwardly they’d have appeared the same. Their hair color and skin texture remained the same. They didn’t get shorter or taller, more or less muscular, thinner or fatter. However, if we could peer into them spiritually, we’d have found them spiritually dead. Their physical condition versus their spiritual condition were contrary.
Religion offers the opportunity to appear to be a different person. Ritual and activity affect the outward appearance, but skin-deep appearances don’t reveal the realities of the heart. We see the outward, but only God truly knows the heart. The only way to escape the fires of eternal Hell is by personally knowing Jesus and having Him give you a new heart (Jn 17:1-3; 2 Pet 2:2, 3, 12).
False teachers (and false believers) put on a good outward show, but God condemns their false faith in Him.

I. Pollution vs Corruption (2 Pet 2:20). In salvation, the believer escapes (apopheugo) from the corruption (phthora) that is in the world (2 Pet 1:4). Phthora is internal rot that works from within; the sin nature (Rom 8:21; 1 Cor 15:2; Gal 1:6; 5:16-21). False teachers, however, perish in their own corruption (phthora) though having a temporary escape (apopheugo) from the pollutions (miasma) of the world. Miasma describes a vapor that depletes, corrupts, poisons, or spreads disease, something external. Whatever the false teachers may have, it’s only an outward deliverance from outward poison produced by the world, not the inward sin of the soul.



II. Knowing About vs Knowing. False teachers possess the knowledge of Jesus, but don’t know Him personally (Mt 7:21-23; Heb 6:4-6; 10:26-29). They play Christian but their latter end is worse because they are eternally damned. God never lets anyone get away with spiritual games like claiming to love Jesus and still loving to live like the Devil. Knowing Jesus means obeying Him, and when we fail to obey Him, He calls us to repentance (Lk 15:11-32).
It would have been better for these not to have known the way of righteousness than having known it. They know the holy commandment of God’s Word. They know of Jesus, who is the way of truth (2 Pet 2:2) just like the demons who attacked the sons of Sceva (Acts 19:13-16), but He doesn’t know them (Mt 7:21-23). They have the facts about Jesus, but lack a personal relationship with Him. They know the words and ideas of the Scripture, but lack God’s gift of faith unto salvation (Eph 2:8-9). They would be better off ignorant of Jesus than to know the way, the truth, and the life and reject Him (John 14:6).

III. Overcome vs Overcoming. In His death and resurrection, Jesus overcame Satan, sin, and the world (Jn 16:33; Col 2:14-15). In Christ, everyone who is regenerated is also an overcomer, triumphing over Satan, sin, and the world (Eph 2:2; 11-Col.2.14" class="scriptRef">Col 2:11-14; 1 Jn 2:13-14; 4:4; 5:4-5; Rev 2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21). Overcoming isn’t something reserved for an elite or super-spiritual believer; it is the reality of every Christian.
But false teachers are entangled (entwined so as to interfere) and overcome (to be continually overpowered) by sin. They are not the overcomers of Scripture. They sink back into the polluted mist of the evil of this world over which Satan has a limited authority delegated him by God (Gen 2:14-15; 6-Job.1.7" class="scriptRef">Job 1:6-7, 12; 2:1, 6; Mk 5:7-13; 2 Cor 4:4; Eph 2:2; 1 Jn 5:20; Rev 12:3-4, 9).
They are close to the truth, yet far away enough to be lost. They are not possessed of the Spirit (Jude 1:19), are accursed children (2 Pet 2:14), religious but not redeemed. Here we understand the need to be even more diligent to make our calling and election sure (2 Pet 1:10), for sin can deceive and delude all of us into thinking we are born again when God has not given us a like precious faith … by the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ (2 Pet 1:2).