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Look out, some people teach lies
1 In God’s book we read about his people a long time ago. Sometimes some liars started to teach God’s people things that were wrong. They reckoned they were saying God’s words, but they were lying. And the same sort of thing will happen now. There will be people among you that will teach things that are wrong. If you listen to them, you will go wrong, and it will be bad for you. Those people will even turn against Jesus. He is our leader, and he died to save them. And one day soon, God will punish them for that wrong thing they do. 2 Those liars will teach people to do bad things, and a lot of people will listen to them and do those bad and dirty things. And if people that are not Christians see that, they will rubbish God and his true way.
3 Those lying teachers only want your money. So they will tell you tricky lies to get you to give them money. A long time ago, God said that he will punish them, and he is ready to do that. One day, he will properly finish up those liars.
God saves people that live his way
4 Think about these stories from a long time ago. At one time, some of God’s angel messengers did the wrong thing. They didn’t do what God told them to do, so God punished them. He threw them down into the dark hole called hell. He is keeping them there now, and later he will judge them.
5 At another time, the people in the world did lots of bad things and didn’t live God’s way. There was only one man that lived the right way. His name was Noah. He tried to tell all the other people to live God’s way too, but they didn’t listen to him. So God sent a big flood of water and drowned all those bad people. But he kept Noah safe, and he kept the 7 other people in his family safe too.*
6-8 Then later, the people in the towns called Sodom and Gomorrah did really bad things. But there was one man there that lived the right way. His name was Lot. He saw all the bad things that they did, and he got really upset. Every day, he heard them, and he saw them do really bad and dirty things, and he got really upset. He was so sad that he felt sick. Then God judged those bad people in those towns, and he properly punished them. He burned up those towns, and he burned up all the people in them. They were just piles of ashes after that. But God saved Lot. God didn’t burn him up. You see, God did that to show everybody that he will punish bad people that will not listen to him.*
9 Those stories show us that God knows how to save his people. They are the people that listen properly to him and live his way, and he saves them from trouble. But when the day comes for him to judge everyone, he will punish people that don’t live the right way. 10 Yes, God will really punish people that do dirty things. They think about wrong ways to get their bodies to feel good, then they do those bad things. They reckon they don’t have to listen to any boss, not even God. So God will properly punish those bad people, even more than he will punish other bad people.
Lying teachers are like animals
Those lying teachers think they are better than everyone else, and they think they can do anything they want to. They even rubbish strong spirits. 11 Not even God’s angel messengers do that. Angels are much stronger than the other spirits, but whenever angels stand in front of God, they don’t talk against those other spirits or tell God to punish them.
12 But those lying teachers are like animals that don’t think at all, like the animals that people catch and kill. Those teachers rubbish things they don’t understand, and they will end up dead, just like those stupid animals. 13 They do a lot of things that hurt other people, so God will hurt them. He will do payback to them. They think it’s fun to do any bad thing that they want to do, even in the day-light. And whenever you Christians have dinner together, they join in with you, and they laugh about their lies and the bad things they do. Now think about a white shirt. If it just has a few dirty spots on it, people say that the whole shirt is dirty. Well, you good people are like that white shirt, and those people are like the dirty spots on it. There are only a few of them, but they do bad things, and they shame all of you. 14 They are always looking for a woman to sleep with, like a man sleeps with his wife. They do bad things, and they keep looking for more bad things to do. If somebody doesn’t strongly trust Christ, those people will trick that person and get them to go wrong. They are really greedy, wanting lots of money and things. They are the sort of people that God says he will properly punish. 15-16 They left the right way and went the wrong way. They stopped doing good things, and now they do bad things. Remember the story about Balaam, the son of Beyor. He loved money so much that he did bad things to get it. Then God made a donkey talk to him with a man’s voice. It told him he was going wrong, and it stopped him from being even more stupid. Those people are just like Balaam. They are stupid, and they go the wrong way, just like Balaam did.*
God will punish lying teachers
17 Those lying teachers are useless. You know that a dry water-hole is useless, and so is a cloud that doesn’t bring any rain. The wind just blows it away. That mob are just like that, they are useless too. God has got a place for those liars. It is a really dark, sad place, and he is going to put them in it and keep them there. 18-19 That mob teach with words that sound good, but they are useless. They say we are free now, so we can do anything we like. They say that it is all right to do bad things. That is what they teach, but it is wrong.
You know, there are some people that used to go wrong, but then they turned around and started to go right. But now those liars are tricking them and getting them to go wrong again. Those liars tell them that they can do any bad things they like, to get their bodies to feel good. Those liars promise to free people, but they themselves are not free. They can’t stop themselves from doing bad and dirty things. It’s like this. If somebody can’t stop themselves from doing something, that thing is their boss and they have to work for it. So it’s like those bad things are their boss. They are not free.
20 Jesus Christ is our leader, and he is the one that saves us. At one time, those liars knew Jesus, and he helped them get away from the dirty things that the people in this world do. But now they are leaving him, and they are getting mixed up again with those bad things. Those bad things are now their boss, and they are worse off now than before. 21 God will punish everyone that goes the wrong way. He will even punish people that never knew the right way. But these people knew the right way, and then they turned back and went the wrong way, so God will punish them more than those others.
22 People sometimes say these true words, “A dog gets sick and vomits up its food, but then it comes back and eats that same food again.” And people also say, “You can wash the mud off a pig, but then it goes back and rolls on the muddy ground again.” Those words tell us about those lying teachers. Those teachers are just like that dog and that pig, they turned back to the bad things again.*
* 2:5 Genesis 6:1—7:24 * 2:6-8 Genesis 19:24 * 2:15-16 Numbers 22:4-35 * 2:22 Proverbs 26:11