Forsaken Faith Leads to Catastrophic Consequences

We all would agree that Peter writes specifically about Christians possessing a saving knowledge (epignōsis) — that deep personal and experiential, relational, morally transformative knowledge of Jesus Christ (1:2–3, 1:8). But did you know that he also uses another term for general knowledge (gnōsis) or distant knowledge (1:5–6) for a special group of people within his church community?  

Both epignōsis and gnōsis have a root definition of 'knowledge.' But the difference between epignōsis and gnōsis is gnōsis is knowledge without the deep, personal intimate experience of the saving knowledge. For Peter there is no concept of salvation inherent in gnōsis as there is in epignōsis.

Peter only uses saving knowledge (epignōsis) in reference to believers and reserves the general distant knowledge (gnōsis), for the most part, to reference false teachers.  This is very telling because in the flow of his argument, gnōsis is not a neutral term.  It is diagnostic. It exposes the origin story of these false teachers who are poisoning the church community.

In the beginning of his second letter, Peter greets all of his readers as “those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours” (1:1) and those to whom God’s grace and peace has been multiplied in the saving knowledge (epignōsis) of Jesus.(1:2)   And in 1:4 Peter explicitly says that they all had “become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world” (1:4).  Why would Peter begin his letter wanting to emphasize the genuine quality of the community's faith? It is very clear that Peter identifies all his readers as believers specifically as a result of their personal-experiential, saving-knowledge epignōsis of Jesus. 

And he makes no distinctions as to the state of their spiritual condition.  They are all saved believers in Jesus. It is only at verse 9 where he does make a distinction: between those believers who are growing in their faith and those believers who are not growing in their faith.  Here is where Peter begins to distinguish saving knowledge (epignōsis) — the deep, personal-experiential, relational, morally transformative knowledge of Jesus Christ from the reserved, distant, non-relational generic unsaving knowledge (gnōsis).

He says in verse 8 that there is a group of believers among the believing community who through their “lack of spiritual growth are now spiritually unproductive and unfruitful”, so much so, that they have become “so short-sighted that they are now blind, having forgotten that they were cleansed from their former sins” (1:9).  This “lack” of growth has caused these Christians to reach a spiritual state in which they have disregarded their faith that they had once obtained (1:1).  And these are the people for whom Peter reserves the use of gnosis, the now relationally-distant people who once obtained epignōsis, but now no longer see its value and have allowed their relationship with Jesus to deteriorate into abandonment. They have denied, disavowed and forsaken the Master who bought them and have walked away from their saving relationship with Jesus.(2:1, 15)

So, the reason, Peter never uses epignōsis-saving knowledge in reference to these false teachers in his letter, is obvious; because these once-believers no longer possess epignōsis. They have abandoned Jesus.  They once had epignōsis, but no longer.  The relational distance inferred in gnōsis is now the specific identifier of such once-believers!

Note that the exact same phrase Peter uses to specifically identify the believers, saying they had “become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world” (1:4), is also the same phrase he uses to specifically identify the false teachers: “they escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge (epignōsis) of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2:20).  With the connection between 1:4 and 2:20, the false teachers who once obtained faith, and once escaped the world through their epignōsis (ἐπίγνωσις) of Jesus— are now proved to be the very ones who have abandoned their faith.  They had saving knowledge.  They tasted real transformation. They stood in real grace. They began walking the right way. But they eventually walked away from it.  They have denied and abandoned their Master who bought them. (2:1) 

So, gnōsis is the diagnostic term Peter uses to specifically identify the once-believing but now false teachers.  Gnōsis is what remains of epignōsis when someone abandons Jesus, which the false teachers have clearly done (2:1).  They have forsaken their deep, intimate, relational saving knowledge (epignōsis) of Jesus and have drifted into a tepid, stale, ineffective and unproductive knowledge (gnōsis) of him. Gnōsisis is the shell of Christian knowledge without the substance. The form without the power. The memory of truth without the obedience to truth.  And that is exactly who the false teachers of 2Peter have become.

And once they abandoned epignōsis (2:1), they became empty. Because what remains after abandoning epignōsis is simply gnōsis — a thin, brittle, powerless apostate version of Christian knowledge that cannot sustain life and cannot resist corruption.  They have a form of godliness but deny its power. (2Tim 3:5)

Peter describes their current state of apostasy with brutal clarity:

• They denied their Master who bought them - 2:1

• They have forsaken the right way —2:15

• They are entangled again in corruption —2:20

• They bring swift destruction on themselves (2:1).

•  Their last state is worse than their first (2:20). (implying an intermediate state - of belief)

• Their destruction is the result of abandoning epignōsis (2:20–21).

• They are reserved for final judgment and destruction (3:7).

A dismal gnōsis of Jesus, that hollow, abstract, detached, de‑personalized awareness that survives only as an echo after epignōsis has been abandoned is the result of what happens when someone walks away from the Master who bought them: Because when saving knowledge-epignōsis is abandoned, all that is left is gnōsis which leads to instability, corruption and destruction (3:7).  Gnōsis becomes the tattered remains and evidence of salvific departure. It is the residue of the faith they once obtained (1:1) but no longer hold dear. It is the hollowed‑out version, a veneered sample of Christian knowledge that fuels arrogance and blinds people to their own destruction.

As such, Peter says the condition of these people is, deemed in God’s eyes as, catastrophically worse than before they heard the gospel: “Their last state has become worse for them than the first” (2:20).

Why? Because walking away from epignōsis leaves you with just enough gnōsis to be confident in performance, but without the power of epignōsis to be transformed. Just enough gnōsis to teach, but without experiencing the motivation and ower of epignōsis to obey. Just enough gnōsis to sound spiritual, but without the stamina of epignōsis to stay faithful.  Just enough gnōsis to desire the approval of man, but without the desire of epignōsis to seek the approval of Jesus.

That’s how forsaken faith leads to catastrophic consequences!