Blood-Bought?

OK, we’ve been bought. So what does that mean? Peter in addressing those of the faith had this to say about false prophets and teachers:

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. (2 Pet. 2:1-3)

I won’t go into the implied eschatology of this passage although I believe that false teaching has been robust throughout the history of the man-made edifice known as the church, and further that the conditions alluded to by the Apostle will be especially robust as we approach the close of the age. Rather, let us simply become somewhat sobered by just such a scenario. I was more than a little sobered as I read this passage recently. My thoughts particularly centered on that phrase that claimed that these false teachers will be “even denying the Master who bought them”.

The KJV uses the word Lord, whereas the NASB discriminates a little by using the word Master. I believe that the NASB is the more accurate. The Greek word here is not the usual word for Lord, that being kurios, rather it is the Greek word despotes wherein we get the English word despot. W. E. Vine explains by defining kurios as “a lord who exercises power”. Christ is certainly that. He goes on to define despotes as “one who has absolute ownership and uncontrolled power” over his slave. (Vine, III, 46) Some lexicons add “slave owner” to that definition.

Simon Kristemaker words it thus:

To Jesus has been given all authority and power in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18). In the Greek, the word is despotes, from which we have the derivative despot. It is closely connected with the verb to buy. In the New Testament, this Greek verb occurs twenty-five times in a commercial setting, “but on five other occasions it describes the ‘buying’ of Christians. This clearly reflects the contemporary terminology of the slave-market.” With his blood Christ has bought his people that they may do his will…Just as a master has bought slaves from whom he expects obedience, so Jesus as sovereign Lord has bought his servants and demands obedience. (New Testament Commentary: Peter & Jude, Grand Rapids: Baker 1993, p. 282)

Do you get the impression that most Christians think of Christ in these terms? I promise you that false teachers who are tending toward heresies and leading others astray don’t think of Him in this way. Does it offend you that you have been bought? Does it offend you that the One who bought you lays claim to be a despot in your life? I hope not. Either we have been “bought with a price”, or we have not. If not, then, we are bastards and not adopted children.

I fear that there are many pseudodidaskaloi (false teachers) out there right now doing exactly what the Apostle warned (is warning) us about, and that there are many who are right now following their sensuality. This is serious. Yes, we have been bought by a Despot, but One who is all-loving, all-compassionate, all-powerful and is soon to return in power. What sort of a servant (slave) ought we to be? We have been blood-bought. Thank God!!!