Cheryl Schatz

Mark,
On the previous part #2 of this topic you said:

Read 2 Peter 2, where Paul explicitly links false teachers with despising authority.

This has nothing to do with “authority” in the church. The Greek term is “lordship” and what they were despising is the lordship of Jesus.

The False Teachers despised the power and majesty of the Lord.
Bigg, C. (1901). A critical and exegetical commentary on the Epistles of St. Peter and St. Jude (279).