Dogs and Sows

I was just thinking…

A member of the church family raised the question last Sunday, “What about that passage that speaks about a ‘dog returns to its own vomit’ and a ‘sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire’?” These two commonly known proverbs were used by Peter in his teaching.
The context of the broader passage in 2 Peter 2:18-22 addresses the deceptive practices of false teachers. Some see in the passage the possibility for a person to be a follower of Jesus and, then at some point in his or her life, renounce the faith and revert to living as many unconverted folks live.
The clearest path, I believe, to the likely meaning of the passage is offered in the Expositor’s Bible Commentary, edited by Frank E. Gaebelein. Volume 12 of that series includes the commentary on 1 and 2 Peter, by Edwin A. Blum. Dr. Blum (page 282) sums up the discussion in convincing fashion:

Verse 20 mentions the possibility of reverting to the old paganism after having ‘escaped the corruptions of the world’ through knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Is it possible, then, for Christians to lose their salvation? Many would answer affirmatively on the basis of this and similar texts (e.g. Heb. 6:4-6; 10:26). But this verse asserts only that false teachers who have for a time escaped from worldly corruption through knowing Christ and then turn away from the light of the Christian faith are worse off than they were before knowing Christ. It uses no terminology affirming that they were Christians in reality (e.g. “sons of God,” “children,” “born again,” “regenerate,” “redeemed”). The New Testament makes a distinction between those who are in the churches and those who are regenerate (cf. 2 Cor. 13:5; 2 Tim 2:18-19; 1 John 3:7-8). “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us….but their going showed that none of them belonged to us” -1 John 2:19. So when Peter says, “They are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning,” the reference is to a lost apostate.

These apostates (“fallen away”) apparently had experienced some superficial attachment to the message of Christ, but had never committed their lives to Him. They were unsaved church members whose spiritual natures were unchanged and who eventually reverted to the ways of the world.
This parallels the truth of Proverbs 26:11-“As a dog returns to his own vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.” A second proverb that circulated and was well-known related to a pig, that having been washed, returned to wallowing in the mire. That is what Peter is describing in 2 Peter 2:18-22, where he employs the proverb of a washed and cleaned up dog and pig, to underscore his point. These two animals, by reason of their dog and pig natures (even if washed, powdered, and perfumed), will do what dogs and pigs do—return to the place where they previously vomited, or make their way back to wallow in the mud. They are still unchanged in their nature. So are the natures of those who revert to Godless living—their natures are unchanged. Although they may experience a time of moral improvement, people whose natures are not changed by Jesus, will eventually give evidence of their true, unregenerate nature and continue to live as unsaved individuals.

To the contrary, Simon Peter, in the messages in our New Testaments that bear his name, supports the principle that believers are kept securely in their relationship with Jesus. He speaks in chapter 1, verses 3 through 5 of God who “has begotten us to a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
It would be inconsistent for Peter to make the case that we are “kept by the power of God” in one place in Scripture, and then surface the notion in another that we are not kept by His power, and that we can be separated from His salvation. Either God keeps us, or He doesn’t.
Jesus gives those who trust Him a new nature. (2 Corinthians 5:17-“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new”). When they sin, these “new creations” (Christian believers) are unsettled and quickly come under conviction until they return to their Creator and Savior and find forgiveness.
In their new natures, God’s children will demonstrate a “family resemblance.” We will have our Father’s eyes-seeing people with the needs as He sees them; have our Father’s arms-embracing, consoling, and assisting hurting people; have our Father’s hands-compassionately reaching out to meet the needs of others; have our Father’s feet-going to minister to people at places both near and far away.
The early believers were called “Christians-little Christs-imitators of Christ.” They consistently behaved like Him; not like dogs and pigs! His nature was inside them.