Sifting flour, spam blocking, and plastic

As I made homemade biscuits this morning I thought about the lesson “Spiritual Error is Rampant”, which is based on 2 Peter 2:1-22. I recalled decades ago my mother had to sift the flour when she made biscuits. This removed debris as well as an occasional bug that could be found in flour back in the 50’s. It reminded me that we have to sift the words we hear from Bible teachers, or material we read on the web to make sure it is free from error.

A more modern idea came to mind reading 2 Peter 2:18, where Peter mentions that false teachers lure, or bait people, like fishing, as they appeal to lustful desires and sinful human nature. Today, email spammers “phish” by making an appeal to the same lustful desires and sinful nature. We use spam blockers to arrest such messages before they reach us. In the same way, we must filter Bible teaching and preaching to eliminate erroneous material.

One more idea comes from verse 3, where Peter used the adjective plastos, from which we get our word plastic, to describe the words used by false teachers. Their words are molded like plastic to sound good, but they are deceptive and false. This reminds me of products that are made of plastic and look good, but they don’t last. They eventually are unsatisfying. Can you think of examples of where plastic is used today that really creates a deception? For example, a car bumper made of plastic looks good, but it doesn’t offer any real protection.