2 Peter Chapter 2
2 Peter 2:1 TPT In the past there arose false prophets among God’s people, just as there will continue to be false teachers who will secretly infiltrate in your midst to divide you, bringing with them their destructive heresies. They will even deny the Master, who paid the price for them, bringing swift destruction on themselves.
Guzik: But there were also false prophets: Even as there were holy men of God who spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit (2Pe_1:21), so also there were false prophets - and false teachers today. Peter states this as a fact, not a possibility; and he says they are among you, not only on the outside of the church
b. Who will secretly bring in destructive heresies: False teachers work secretly. It isn’t that their teaching is secret, but the deceptive nature of their teaching is hidden. Of course, no false teacher will announce himself as a false teacher!
c. Destructive heresies: False teachers bring in destructive heresies that destroy by telling lies about Jesus Christ and His work for us and in us. By these heresies people are hurt and destroyed. Heresy isn’t harmless.
d. Even denying the Lord who bought them: False teachers deny the Lord who bought them. In this, Peter says that at the very least, they appear to be saved, otherwise Peter would never say that the Lord bought them. At the same time, they are false, destructive teachers.
i. Just because a person has what appears to be a godly walk and relationship with Jesus Christ, they can still be bringing in destructive heresies. Often times, the worst damage is done by a good man who teaches lies. His lies are accepted far more easily because of the good character of the man.
e. Bring on themselves swift destruction: False teachers are promised swift destruction, even though they at least appear to be bought by the Lord, they are under His judgment.
Russell: There were -- In the past.
False prophets -- "Grievous wolves" in sheep's clothing. Who evidently spoke by an inspiration, or power in them almost like the real prophets of God; these were the counterfeits. (Jer_23:21)
There shall be -- Among us. As the Jew was blinded by a false view of the Law, so now, many will be hindered by reason of the false presentation of the doctrine of grace from false teachers who claim that to err is human, to forgive, divine.
False teachers -- Peter thus positively asserts that there would be teachers of falsehood right in the midst of God's people. Misrepresenting; putting darkness for light and light for darkness. Who pretend to be shepherds; but are self-seekers, wolfish; they do not lay down their lives for the sheep, but feed upon the sheep.
The apostles say little about the general unbelief of the world, but they do warn us repeatedly of those who will privately bring infidelity into the Church.
Privily -- Privately, secretly. Deceptively; covering the real purport of their teachings.
Shall bring in – Introduce to the fold.
Damnable heresies -- Heresies of destruction. (Diaglott) Errors leading to condemnation and rejection. To undermine the faith and to turn the faithful aside from the hopes and promises and simplicities of the Gospel. Many of the Lord's true followers have been dreaming about the conversion of the world, while the great enemy, Satan, has been sowing tares with liberal hand in their very midst.
The time has come "when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and shall be turned unto fables." (2Ti_4:3, 4)
Destructive heresies swiftly destroy the teachers as teachers and others follow their destructive ways and bring the true teachings of Scripture into disrepute.
Denying the Lord -- Yet with much feigned reverence and humility they profess allegiance to him, thus falsely presenting themselves as messengers of truth. (2Co_11:13-15)
That bought them -- "With his own precious blood." (1Pe_1:19) Or ransomed them.
"Ye were bought with a price." (1Co_6:20)
The ransom was and still is a sure test. Every doctrine that denies the ransom is an active opponent of the truth, is anti-(against) Christ; every doctrine that ignores it is seriously wrong, not of God. In the days of the apostles, and especially now, some acknowledge Jesus as Lord, but deny that he "bought them."
Swift destruction -- Contrary to the Universalist theory or the No Second Death theory. Death is the penalty of willful sin.
2 Peter 2:2 TPT Many will follow immoral lifestyles. Because of these corrupt false teachers, the way of truth will be slandered.
Guzik: Many will follow their destructive ways: This shows that just because something “works” in attracting a crowd of followers, it doesn’t mean that it is of God. We know that God’s work will always bear fruit, but the devil’s work can also increase.
i. The most distressing aspect of the work of false teachers is not that they are among you (2Pe_2:1). False teachers always have been and always will be among Christians. The most distressing fact is that so many Christians will follow their destructive ways.
b. Because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed: When false teachers are at work, and when crowds are following them, the way of truth is blasphemed. God’s holy name and honor are disgraced.
Russell: Many shall follow -- Few, therefore, will be able to stand--a Little Flock. All but the "very elect" of God will be more or less stumbled by the errors and worldliness of our day.
Pernicious ways -- Destructive of the very foundation of hope and its corresponding license in dealing with Scriptures which oppose them. Destructive of the truth, destructive of the faith once delivered to the saints. As for those who come under the power of the Adversary we can only expect that their hearts and minds will become more and more perverse.
By reason -- The goats and wolves in sheep's clothing striving for places of authority in the church.
The way of truth -- The true way of salvation--through the ransom--the way of the cross.
Evil spoken of -- The ecclesia is far better off without any public servant than to have for a leader a golden- tongued "goat," who would surely not "direct their hearts into the love of God," but seductively into wrong channels.
2 Peter 2:3 TPT They are only out for themselves, ready to exploit you for their own gain through their cunning arguments. Their condemnation has been a long time coming. But their destruction does not slumber or sit idly by, for it is sure to come.
Guzik: All this is presented with deceptive words, because false teaching never announces itself.
Their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber: Peter assures us that false teachers will be judged. Even though it seems they prosper, their judgment is not idle. God’s wrath pours out on them in allowing them to continue, thus heaping up more and more condemnation and hardness of heart in themselves.
Gill: And through covetousness;.... Which is generally a prevailing vice among false teachers, they having no other end in view than themselves; either to gain popular applause and vain glory, which they are always covetous of; or to amass riches to themselves, after which they have an insatiable desire:
and their damnation slumbereth not; an avenging God, who has appointed them to damnation for their sins, slumbers not; the justice of God is not asleep, nor careless and negligent, but is awake, and watches over them, to bring the evil upon them they have deserved, and is in reserve for them, and will hasten to perform it; the determined destruction does not lie dormant, but in a little time will be stirred up, and fall with dreadful weight on such sinners, as may be concluded from the following awful instances.
2 Peter 2:4 TPT Now, don’t forget, God had no pity for the angels when they sinned but threw them into the lowest, darkest dungeon of gloom and locked them in chains, where they are firmly held until the judgment of torment.
Russell: Spared not -- In the time before the flood the angels had their trial.
Angels that sinned -- Angels of light who became disobedient. Fallen angels; demons. Who did not maintain their condition of loyalty to God. In Noah's day, by taking human wives; they "kept not their first estate." (Jud_1:6) They preferred to materialize and live in human conditions. This was in violation of the divine arrangement, and was the result of their loss of faith in God's wisdom and power. Mankind became a prey to these angels who "lusted after strange flesh." (Jud_1:6-7) Assuming human bodies, which they had been privileged to do for the purpose of assisting mankind, they misused those bodies.
The fallen angels, although restrained, have contact with each other and are well aware of procedures in general.
Cast them down -- Condemned them to an overthrow. These fallen spirits frequented the earth in the days of our Lord and the apostles. Hence they were not down in some place, but "down" in the sense of being degraded from former honor and liberty. Degraded them and delivered them into chains of darkness.
To hell -- Literally, tartaroo, the lower atmosphere. Hence, the devil is called "the prince of the power of the air." (Eph_2:2) The Greek word tartaroo refers more to an act than to a place. This is the only Scripture where this word is used.
Thus separated from the holy angels. If both mankind and the angels are to be judged during the same period, it would seem entirely reasonable that both should be associated with the earth and its atmosphere.
The translators of the Revised Version erred in giving the marginal reading of tartarus--a word used in Grecian mythology as the name for a dark abyss or prison.
Chains of darkness -- Cut off from fellowship with God and the holy angels and no longer permitted to materialize and thus to commingle with humanity.
Reserving them in chains, under darkness. The darkness of the night, for they can operate only under the cover of the night or conditions of darkness. Imprisoned, not in a special place, but in the sense of having their liberties restrained.
"Spirits in prison." (1Pe_3:19)
Restrained from materialization and from working their power in light, as they had done previously.
Whenever these fallen spirits, in spiritualistic seances, manifest their powers through mediums, pretending to be certain dead human beings, they must always do their work in the dark, because darkness is the chain by which they are bound. They have exercised their influence to whatever extent they have had permission. If they had had unlimited power they would have wrecked the world long ago.
This includes both Satan and the angels of lower order. For 4,400 years these fallen angels have been exiles from God. They have been restrained since the flood. They were not destroyed, because, while their fleshly bodies which they assumed might indeed perish, yet they would merely dematerialize, or assume their spirit conditions again.
The sentence against these was not death, but that they should be confined in chains of darkness until the judgment of the great day. The letting loose of the winds (Rev_7:1), powers of the fallen angels, would seem to show that God has let go his hand of restraint; resulting in the complete overthrow of the social order in anarchy. Now the great day nears, the chains are being gradually loosened, and these wicked spirits have greater liberties than ever before
Unto -- Until the judgment of the great day. The angels may have been more or less on trial since the time that they were consigned to the chains of darkness.
Judgment -- Greek, krisis, trial. The great Millennial day of judgment. In order to be tried at all, these fallen angels must have certain liberties granted, to prove them. A great trial, or testing, in respect to their willingness or unwillingness to do according to the divine will.
The work of the glorified Church will be not only to judge the world during the Millennial age, but it will include also the judgment of these fallen angels. (1Co_6:3)
2 Peter 2:5 TPT And he did not spare the former world in the days of Noah when he sent a flood to destroy a depraved world (although he protected Noah, the preacher of righteousness, along with seven members of his family).
Guzik: And did not spare the ancient world: God judged the ancient world, the world before Noah’s Flood, because the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Gen_6:5)
Russell: Spared not -- With the Flood the first world passed away; that dispensation, that order of things, came to an end.
The old world -- Greek, kosmos, order or state of things.
It was not the earth which came to an end, merely that order or condition of things which prevailed prior to the flood that ceased there. The first 1656 years of earth's history, down to the Deluge--
Long enough to furnish a test of loyalty of every member of the angelic host.
Saved Noah -- Sparing only Noah (who was perfect in his generation, not of the hybrid race, Gen_6:9), and his family. This was part of the preparation for the new dispensation. As Noah and his family were the only ones spared from the old order, so Christ is the Ark of Safety now for all who will be saved out of the present order of things.
The flood -- Which deluged the world and wiped out the whole mongrel race with which sin had peopled the earth.
An attestation to the truthfulness of the Deluge.
JFB: eighth — that is, Noah, and seven others. Contrasted with the densely peopled “world of the ungodly.”
preacher — not only “righteous” himself (compare 2Pe_2:8), but also “a preacher of righteousness”: adduced by Peter against the licentiousness of the false teachers (2Pe_2:2) who have no prospect before them but destruction, even as it overtook the ungodly world in Noah’s days.
Clarke: Spared not the old world - The apostle’s argument is this: If God spared not the rebellious angels, nor the sinful antediluvians, nor the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha, he will not spare those wicked teachers who corrupt the pure doctrines of Christianity.
2 Peter 2:6 TPT And don’t forget that he reduced to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, condemning them to ruin and destruction. God appointed them to be examples as to what is coming to the ungodly.
Guzik: Making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly: These three examples of judgment show us the important principle that Peter wants to highlight…Therefore, what makes the ungodly think they can escape God’s judgment? Their coming judgment is certain.
Or, as Jesus put it in Luk_10:10-12 to those who reject the truth: But whatever city you enter, and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, ‘The very dust of your city which clings to us we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near you.” But I say to you that it will be more tolerable in that Day for Sodom than for that city.
Russell: Sodom -- Of Sodom it is declared that the sin thereof was great, and God "took them away as he saw good." (Eze_16:50)
Condemned -- The Sodomites were not condemned to second death but were an example of those who would be.
Making them -- They were made an example of the ultimate doom that will come upon all who reject God's grace and die the second death.
An ensample -- An example of God's treatment of evildoers--both of His vengeance and of His mercy. His vengeance was manifested in their destruction; and His mercy is specially manifest in their promised deliverance. The Sodomites, and all of Adam's posterity, are included in the redemption work of Jesus.
2 Peter 2:7 TPT Yet he rescued a righteous man, Lot, suffering the indignity of the unbridled lusts of the lawless.
2 Peter 2:8 TPT For righteous Lot lived among them day after day, distressed in his righteous soul by the rebellious deeds he saw and heard.
2 Peter 2:9 TPT If the Lord Yahweh rescued Lot, he knows how to continually rescue the godly from their trials and to reserve the ungodly for punishment on the day of judgment.
Guzik: . And delivered righteous Lot: Peter already told us how the Lord delivered Noah (2Pe_2:5). Now, he shows us that the Lord delivered righteous Lot. Lot was righteous in God’s eyes, though perhaps it was hard for others to see his righteousness. Yet the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah tormented his righteous soul from day to day.
Lot’s soul was tormented, but he failed to follow through with godly actions and separate himself and his family from the ungodliness of Sodom and Gomorrah. The Lord delivered Lot because of his righteous soul; yet Lot lost everything because of his too-close association with those wicked cities.
Then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations: Even as the Lord delivered Lot, He knows how to deliver us from the temptations we face, and He knows how to reserve the unjust for the day of judgment. We can trust in God’s deliverance of the godly because it is just as certain as His judgment of the ungodly.
The unjust have reservation made for them: they are reserved for the day of judgment. But believers have no such reservation. God will deliver us from the very day of judgment, from the very time of wrath that He pours out on the earth (Rev_3:10).
Russell: Dwelling among them -- His determination to make the country of the Jordan his home does not signify that he had fellowship with the Sodomites.
Vexed -- Lot was sore distressed by the lascivious life of the wicked Sodomites.
His righteous soul -- Deluded into association with evil influences for the sake of worldly prosperity. He thought he could live separate from the contaminations of Sodom, and even exercise a good moral influence over the unrighteous.
Reserve the unjust -- Every wrong deed, every wrong principle acted upon, has an evil affect upon character; as all right doing brings blessing. So mankind, as they have obeyed or disobeyed, will be elevated or degraded in character when they enter the next age.
Day of judgment -- When "he will reward every man according to his works." (Mat_16:27)
To be punished -- Greek, kolasin, to cut off, as lopping off branches of trees, to prune. Since the new order will be such that nothing will be allowed to hinder it, a wrong course in this life will then receive retribution in the sense that it will be the result of a wrong condition.
Clarke: That righteous man dwelling among them - Lot, after his departure from Abraham, A. M. 2086, lived at Sodom till A. M. 2107, a space of about twenty years; and, as he had a righteous soul, he must have been tormented with the abominations of that people from day to day.
Meyer: Many instances are quoted from the past to prove the fearful judgments which must overtake such false teachers. The angels who placed their self-will in antagonism to their Maker were cast down to Tartarus-a Greek word used only here in the New Testament. The people who lived previous to the Flood, and they who afterward at Sodom disregarded the laws of purity and self-restraint, dictated alike by nature and conscience, were overwhelmed in destruction. But even amid such judgments, God discriminates His Noahs and His Lots, preserves and delivers them, and numbers them among His jewels, Mal_3:17. God has His eye on you and will succor you.
2 Peter 2:10 TPT And this especially applies to those who live their lives despising authorities and who abandon themselves to chasing the depraved lusts of their flesh. They are willfully arrogant and insolent, unafraid to insult the glorious ones.
Gill: But chiefly them that walk after the flesh,.... Not merely after the dictates of corrupt nature, as all men, and even God's elect do, in a state of unregeneracy; but "after strange flesh", as Jud_1:7 expresses it, after the flesh of men:
in the lust of uncleanness; not of fornication and adultery, but of sodomy, and sodomitical practices; sins exceeding great, not only contrary to the law and light of nature, but dishonourable to human nature; and are what prevail where idolatry, infidelity, errors, and heresies do; and which, as they are sins of the deepest dye, deserve the greater damnation, and are chiefly and more especially punished by God with great severity:
and despise government: of parents, to whom these proud boasters and blasphemers are generally disobedient; and of masters, pretending it to be contrary to their Christian liberty; and of magistrates on the same account, and as being a restraint upon their lusts; which is to despise the ordinance of God, his representatives, and to introduce anarchy and confusion, and to open a door to all manner of sin; and also the government of Christ, as head of the church, and King of Zion, whom they will not have to reign over them, and therefore reject his laws, and submit not to his ordinances; and likewise the government of the world itself by God; and so the Ethiopic version renders it, "despise their Creator"; denying his omniscience and his providence, giving out that he neither sees, observes, and takes notice of what is done in the world; nor does he himself do either good or evil, or concern himself about what is done by men.
Presumptuous are they; bold and daring, not fearing to speak against men of the most exalted character on earth, and against God Himself in heaven; see Psa_73:8.
Selfwilled; pleased with themselves, and their own conceits, their dogmas and opinions, with their high sense and profound judgment; and being obstinate in their sentiments, and resolutely bent to retain and defend them.
They are not afraid to speak evil of dignities; or "glories"; of the apostles, who were set in the first place in the church, and were the glory of Christ, 1Co_12:28; or of angels, styled thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers; or rather of civil magistrates, set in high places, and to whom glory and honour are due; which to do is contrary to the law of God, and of dangerous consequence, Exo_22:28.
2 Peter 2:11 TPT Yet even angels, who are greater than they in power and strength, do not dare slander them before the Lord.
Guzik: Much of what goes on under the name of spiritual warfare shows this kind of pride and presumption. While we recognize our authority in Jesus, we see that it is only in Jesus that we have it - and we leave the reviling accusations to Him alone.
JFB: before the Lord — In the presence of the Lord, the Judge, in reverence, they abstain from judgment [Bengel]. Judgment belongs to God, not the angels. How great is the dignity of the saints who, as Christ’s assessors, shall hereafter judge angels! Meanwhile, railing judgments, though spoken with truth, against dignities, as being uttered irreverently, are of the nature of “blasphemies” (Greek, 1Co_4:4, 1Co_4:5). If superior angels dare not, as being in the presence of God, the Judge, speak evil even of the bad angels, how awful the presumption of those who speak evil blasphemously of good “dignities.” 2Sa_16:7, 2Sa_16:8, Shimei; Num_16:2, Num_16:3, Korah, etc., referred to also in Jud_1:11; Num_12:8, “Were ye (Aaron and Miriam) not afraid to speak evil of My servant Moses?” The angels who sinned still retain the indelible impress of majesty. Satan is still “a strong man”: “prince of this world”; and under him are “principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world.” We are to avoid irreverence in regard to them, not on their account, but on account of God. A warning to those who use Satan’s name irreverently and in blasphemy. “When the ungodly curseth Satan, he curseth his own soul.”
2 Peter 2:12 TPT These individuals are nothing but brute beasts—irrational creatures, born in the wild to be caught and destroyed—and they will perish like beasts. They are professional insulters, who slander whatever they don’t understand, and in their destruction they will be destroyed.
Russell: These -- All the willfully wicked, disobedient or rebellious, disobedient; lovers of evil.
Willful sinners against full light.
Natural brute beasts -- The willful rejector and opposer shall be cut off in the second death; die like a brute beast.
"And it shall come to pass, that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people." (Act_3:23)
Taken and destroyed -- Those who will not be obedient to the requirements of Christ's Kingdom will be cut off in the second death, having had the full measure of divine favor. All who fail to get the eternal life or happiness in God's provision will get eternal death, second death, utter extinction.
Own corruption -- Those who demonstrate their unwillingness to come into heart sympathy with righteousness.
Guzik: . (2Pe_2:12-13 a) Their spiritual doom is sealed.
Like natural brute beasts: Since they function in the flesh, not the spirit, they are like animals. They are fit only for destruction (made to be caught and destroyed) and they are ignorant.
And will receive the wages of unrighteousness: The ungodly will be “paid” for their evil - and their fleshly lives will be paid the wages of unrighteousness.
Clarke: Made to be taken and destroyed - Intended to be taken with nets and gins, and then destroyed, because of their fierce and destructive nature; so these false teachers and insurgents must be treated; first incarcerated, and then brought to judgment, that they may have the reward of their doings. And thus, by blaspheming what they do not understand, they at last perish in their own corruption; i.e. their corrupt doctrines and vicious practices.
2 Peter 2:13 TPT For all the evil they have done will come crashing down on them. They consider it their great pleasure to carouse in broad daylight. When they come to your love feasts they are but stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions as they feast with you.
Guzik: (2Pe_2:13-17) A list of the sins of the false teachers.
Carousing in their own deceptions: These ungodly false teachers are a dangerous and corrupting presence in the body of Christ, not only deceiving others but deceiving themselves.
Clarke: They that count it pleasure to riot in the day time - Most sinners, in order to practice their abominable pleasures, seek the secrecy of the night; but these, bidding defiance to all decorum, decency, and shame, take the open day, and thus proclaim their impurities to the sun.
Sporting themselves - Forming opinions which give license to sin, and then acting on those opinions; and thus rioting in their own deceits.
While they feast with you - It appears they held a kind of communion with the Church, and attended sacred festivals, which they desecrated with their own unhallowed opinions and conduct.
Barnes: Spots they are and blemishes - That is, they are like a dark spot on a pure garment, or like a deformity on an otherwise beautiful person. They are a scandal and disgrace to the Christian profession.
Sporting themselves - Under the garb of the Christian profession, they give indulgence to the most corrupt passions.
With their own deceivings - Jude, in the parallel place, Jud_1:12, has, “These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you.” Several versions, and a few manuscripts also, here read “feasts” instead of “deceivings,” The common reading, however, is undoubtedly the correct one, (see Wetstein, in loc.); and the meaning is, that they took advantage of their false views to turn even the sacred feasts of charity, or perhaps the Lord’s Supper itself, into an occasion of sensual indulgence. Compare the notes at 1Co_11:20-22. The difference between these persons, and those in the church at Corinth, seems to have been that these did it at design, and for the purpose of leading others into sin; those who were in the church at Corinth erred through ignorance.
While they feast with you - This word means to feast several together; to feast with anyone; and the reference seems to be to some festival which was celebrated by Christians, where men and women were assembled together, 2Pe_2:14, and where they could convert the festival into a scene of riot and disorder.
2 Peter 2:14 TPT They are addicted to adultery, with eyes that are insatiable, with sins that never end. They seduce the vulnerable and are experts in their greed—they are but children of a curse!
Guzik: Having eyes full of adultery: Their heart is set on the flesh, and their eyes on adultery, both spiritual and sexual. They prey on the unstable to join them in their ways (enticing unstable souls).
i. Literally, Peter says that their eyes are full of an adulterous woman. “They lust after every girl they see; they view every female as a potential adulteress.” (Green)
JFB: full of adultery — literally, “full of an adulteress,” as though they carried about adulteresses always dwelling in their eyes: the eye being the avenue of lust [Horneius]. Bengel makes the adulteress who fills their eyes, to be “alluring desire.”
that cannot cease — “that cannot be made to cease from sin.”
beguiling — “laying baits for.”
unstable — not firmly established in faith and piety.
heart — not only the eyes, which are the channel, but the heart, the fountain head of lust. Job_31:7, “Mine heart walked after mine eyes.”
covetous practices — The oldest manuscripts read singular, “covetousness.”
cursed children — rather as Greek, “children of curse,” that is, devoted to the curse. Cursing and covetousness, as in Balaam’s case, often go together: the curse he designed for Israel fell on Israel’s foes and on himself. True believers bless, and curse not, and so are blessed.
Clarke: Beguiling unstable souls - The metaphor is taken from adulterers seducing unwary, inexperienced, and light, trifling women; so do those false teachers seduce those who are not established in righteousness.
Exercised with covetous practices - The metaphor is taken from the agonistae in the Grecian games, who exercised themselves in those feats, such as wrestling, boxing, running, etc., in which they proposed to contend in the public games. These persons had their hearts schooled in nefarious practices; they had exercised themselves till they were perfectly expert in all the arts of seduction, overreaching, and every kind of fraud.
2 Peter 2:15 TPT They have wandered off the main road and have gone astray, because they are prophets who love profit—the wages they earn by wrongdoing. They are following the example of Balaam, son of Beor,
2 Peter 2:16 TPT who was rebuked for evil by a donkey incapable of speech yet that spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
Guzik: Following the way of Balaam: They are like Balaam, who was guilty of the greatest of sins - leading others into sin, and that for the sake of his own gain. Balaam had to be restrained by a dumb donkey because he would not listen to God.
These are wells without water: These ungodly false teachers are empty - useless as wells without water - and like clouds that bring only darkness, and no nourishing rain.
Russell: The way of Balaam -- Type of a class that teach error for profit.
Wages of unrighteousness -- The reward of iniquity.
When a reward was offered Balaam if he would curse Israel, he was willing, in order to secure the reward, to conform to the evil proposition in spirit, in intention. Some of these Balaams are in the ministry and for the sake of salary and the maintenance of their positions, and the friendship of the wealthy Balaks, are willing to preach doctrines which they do not believe.
Clarke: The way of Balaam - Is the counsel of Balaam. He counselled the Moabites to give their most beautiful young women to the Israelitish youth, that they might be enticed by them to commit idolatry. See the notes on Num_22:5, etc., and Num_23:1 (note), etc.
Barnes: But was rebuked for his iniquity - The object of Peter in this seems to be to show that God employed the very extraordinary means of causing the ass on which he rode to speak, because his iniquity was so monstrous. The guilt of thus debasing his high office, and going forth to curse the people of God - a people who had done him no wrong, and given no occasion for his malediction - was so extraordinary, that means as extraordinary were proper to express it. If God employed means so extraordinary to rebuke “his” depravity, it was to be expected that in some appropriate way he would express his sense of the wickedness of those who resembled him.
Forbade the madness of the prophet - That is, the mad or perverse design of the prophet. The word here rendered “madness” means, properly, being aside from a right mind. … It is used here to denote that Balaam was engaged in an enterprise which indicated a headstrong disposition; an acting contrary to reason and sober sense. He was so under the influence of avarice and ambition that his sober sense was blinded, and he acted like a madman. He knew indeed what was right, and had professed a purpose to do what was right, but he did not allow that to control him; but, for the sake of gain, went against his own sober conviction, and against what he knew to be the will of God. He was so mad or infatuated that he allowed neither reason, nor conscience, nor the will of God, to control him!
2 Peter 2:17 TPT These people are dried-up riverbeds, waterless clouds pushed along by stormy winds—the deepest darkness of gloom has been prepared for them.
Barnes: These are wells without water - Jud_1:12-13 employs several other epithets to describe the same class of persons. The language employed both by Peter and Jude is singularly terse, pointed, and emphatic. Nothing to an oriental mind would be more expressive than to say of professed religious teachers, that they were “wells without water.” It was always a sad disappointment to a traveler in the hot sands of the desert to come to a well where it was expected that water might be found, and to find it dry. It only aggravated the trials of the thirsty and weary traveler. Such were these religious teachers. In a world, not unaptly compared, in regard to its real comforts, to the wastes and sands of the desert, they would only grievously disappoint the expectations of all those who were seeking for the refreshing influences of the truths of the gospel. There are many such teachers in the world.
Clouds that are carried with a tempest - Clouds that are driven about by the wind, and that send down no rain upon the earth. They promise rain, only to be followed by disappointment. Substantially the same idea is conveyed by this as by the previous phrase. “The Arabs compare persons who put on the appearance of virtue, when yet they are destitute of all goodness, to a light cloud which makes a show of rain, and afterward vanishes” - Benson. The sense is this: The cloud, as it rises, promises rain. The expectation of the farmer is excited that the thirsty earth is to be refreshed with needful showers. Instead of this, however, the wind “gets into” the cloud; it is driven about, and no rain falls, or it ends in a destructive tornado which sweeps everything before it. So of these religious teachers. Instruction in regard to the way of salvation was expected from them; but, instead of that, they disappointed the expectations of those who were desirous of knowing the way of life, and their doctrines only tended to destroy.
To whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever - The word rendered “mist” here, (ζόφος zophos,) means properly muskiness, thick gloom, darkness, (see 2Pe_2:4); and the phrase “mist of darkness” is designed to denote “intense” darkness, or the thickest darkness. It refers undoubtedly to the place of future punishment, which is often represented as a place of intense darkness. When it is said that this is “reserved” for them, it means that it is prepared for them, or is kept in a state of readiness to receive them. It is like a jail or penitentiary which is built in anticipation that there will be criminals, and with the expectation that there will be a need for it.
2 Peter 2:18 TPT They spout off with their grandiose, impressive nonsense. Consumed with the lusts of the flesh, they lure back into sin those who recently escaped from their error.
Guzik: (2Pe_2:18-19) The allure of the false teachers.
They speak great swelling words of emptiness: The message of the ungodly false teachers is empty of real spiritual content, though it is swollen big with words. Their allure is to the lusts of the flesh in their audience - just as the crowds who wanted bread from Jesus, but didn’t want Jesus Himself (Joh_6:25-27; Joh_6:47-66).
b. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves: They promise freedom, but freedom can never be found in the flesh, only in God’s Spirit. Freedom isn’t found in what Jesus can give us, but only in Jesus Himself. When we seek freedom in the wrong way, we become slaves of corruption (decay and death).
c. By him also he is brought into bondage: In being overcome by the flesh and the false teachers, they become slaves to both.
Russell: Were clean escaped -- Those who accept Christ during this Gospel age, are reckoned as having passed from death unto life; as having escaped the wrath, "the corruption that is in the world." (2Pe_1:4) They shall escape this special wrath, but they do not escape the general wrath which is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness.
Clarke: They speak great swelling words of vanity - The word ὑπερογκα signifies things of great magnitude, grand, superb, sublime; it sometimes signifies inflated, tumid, bombastic. These false teachers spoke of great and high things, and no doubt promised their disciples the greatest privileges, as they themselves pretended to a high degree of illumination; but they were all false and vain, though they tickled the fancy and excited the desires of the flesh; and indeed this appears to have been their object.
Those that were clean escaped - Those who, through hearing the doctrines of the Gospel, had been converted, were perverted by those false teachers.
Barnes: For when they speak great swelling words of vanity - When they make pretensions to wisdom and learning, or seem to attach great importance to what they say, and urge it in a pompous and positive manner. Truth is simple, and delights in simple statements. It expects to make its way by its own intrinsic force, and is willing to pass for what it is worth. Error is noisy and declamatory, and hopes to succeed by substituting sound for sense, and by such tones and arts as shall induce men to believe that what is said is true, when it is known by the speaker to be false.
They allure through the lusts of the flesh - The same word is used here which in 2Pe_2:14 is rendered “beguiling,” and in Jas_1:14 “enticed.” It does not elsewhere occur in the New Testament. It means that they make use of deceitful arts to allure, ensnare, or beguile others. The “means” which it is here said they employed, were “the lusts of the flesh;” that is, they promised unlimited indulgence to the carnal appetites, or taught such doctrines that their followers would feel themselves free to give unrestrained liberty to such propensities. This has been quite a common method in the world, of inducing people to embrace false doctrines.
2 Peter 2:19 TPT They promise others freedom, yet they themselves are slaves to corruption, for people are slaves to whatever overcomes them.
Barnes: While they promise them liberty - True religion always promises and produces liberty (see Joh_8:36), but the particular liberty which these persons seem to have promised, was freedom from what they regarded as needless restraint, or from strict and narrow views of religion.
They themselves are the servants of corruption - They are the slaves of gross and corrupt passions, themselves utter strangers to freedom, and bound in the chains of servitude. These passions and appetites have obtained the entire mastery over them, and brought them into the severest bondage.
For of whom a man is overcome ... - Or rather “whatever” gets the mastery of him, whether it be avarice, or sensuality, or pride, or any form of error.
Gill: While they promise them liberty,.... Not Christian liberty, which lies in a freedom from sin, its dominion, guilt, and condemnation, and in serving God with liberty, cheerfulness, and without fear; but a sinful carnal liberty, a liberty from the law of God, from obedience to it as a rule of walk and conversation, and from the laws of men, from subjection to the civil magistrate, and from servitude to masters, and obedience to parents; a liberty to lay aside and neglect the ordinances of the Gospel at pleasure, and to live in all manner of sin and wickedness; a liberty which is contrary to the nature, will, and work of Christ, to his Spirit, and to the principle of grace in the heart, and to the Gospel, and to the conduct and conversation of real saints. Now this was the snare by which the false teachers beguiled unstable souls; liberty being what is greatly desirable to men, and is suited to their carnal lusts and interests: but a vain promise was this, when
they themselves are the servants of corruption; of sin, which has corrupted all mankind in soul and body; and particularly the lust of uncleanness, which these men walked in, and by which they not only corrupted themselves, but the good manners of others also; and which tended and led them both to ruin and destruction, signified by the pit of corruption: and yet these very preachers, that promised liberty to others, were the servants of sin; they were under the power and government of sin.
2 Peter 2:20 TPT Those who escape the corrupting forces of this world system through the experience of knowing about our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Messiah, then go back into entanglement with them and are defeated by them, becoming worse off than they were to start with.
2 Peter 2:21 TPT It would have been much better for them never to have experienced the way of righteousness than to know it and then turn away from the sacred obligation that was given to them.
Guzik: (2Pe_2:20-22) The danger of falling away and following after false teachers
The latter end is worse for them than the beginning: It is better for a person to have never known a thing about Jesus than to hear some truth, hold to it, and later reject it. Greater revelation has a greater accountability.
Russell: Than the beginning -- They are worse than those who have always been of the world.
Better for them -- For those who have once been clearly in the truth and have forsaken it. F629; Those that have received the grace of God in vain. Those who sin willfully after receiving a knowledge of the truth--and consequently no hope for them in the coming age. (Heb_10:26) They have had their blessing.
Not to have known -- They are in a much worse condition than the world.
"It is impossible to renew them again unto repentance." (Heb_6:6)
"When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness and committeth iniquity, and dieth in them (unrepentant), for his iniquity that he hath done shall he die." (Eze_18:26)
After they have known -- Been "begotten by the Word of God." Having known the Lord and having once experienced his tender care and helpfulness in all of life's affairs.
To turn from -- Having wandered off, losing their first love; having forgotten that they were purged from their old sins. There can be no more imputation of Christ's merit to such.
2 Peter 2:22 TPT They become illustrations of the true proverb: A dog will return to his own vomit and a washed pig to its rolling in the mud.
Guzik: A dog returns to his own vomit: Their nature as dogs is displayed by the way they return to the vomit of the flesh and the world. They are like the brute beasts described in 2Pe_2:12, more animal that godly because they live for the flesh.
“The dog which has got rid of the corruption inside it through vomiting it up cannot leave well enough alone; it goes sniffing around the vomit again.” (Green)
Russell: The true proverb -- Proverbs 26:11.
The dog -- Because the dog nature and disposition are still there.
Is turned -- Returned.
To his own vomit -- If we cease to desire to do God's will, we cut loose from our Lord and begin to walk according to our own will, as natural and no longer spiritual beings. This step must prove fatal.
That was washed -- "He washed us from our sins in his own blood." (Rev_1:5)
Wallowing -- The class who returns to sin again. Those who turn willfully and deliberately back to the will of the flesh. Losing the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of the truth, and abandoning their consecration altogether. Having once been delivered out of Babylon and returning thither.
In the mire -- Of sectarianism and blasphemy against God. Filthy, in having the very gross sins that the world has. If a new creature sinned willfully, he would no longer be a new creature.
"Those who draw back unto perdition." (Heb_10:39)
Removing the covering of sins, and falling back where he was before. To the ways of sin and the gratification of the flesh. These have gone back on their covenant and there is nothing left for these but "the blackness of darkness." (Jud_1:13) These will die the second death. Whether their number is large or small is not for us to judge. We may reasonably hope that such unfaithful characters do not predominate.
Guzik: But there were also false prophets: Even as there were holy men of God who spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit (2Pe_1:21), so also there were false prophets - and false teachers today. Peter states this as a fact, not a possibility; and he says they are among you, not only on the outside of the church
b. Who will secretly bring in destructive heresies: False teachers work secretly. It isn’t that their teaching is secret, but the deceptive nature of their teaching is hidden. Of course, no false teacher will announce himself as a false teacher!
c. Destructive heresies: False teachers bring in destructive heresies that destroy by telling lies about Jesus Christ and His work for us and in us. By these heresies people are hurt and destroyed. Heresy isn’t harmless.
d. Even denying the Lord who bought them: False teachers deny the Lord who bought them. In this, Peter says that at the very least, they appear to be saved, otherwise Peter would never say that the Lord bought them. At the same time, they are false, destructive teachers.
i. Just because a person has what appears to be a godly walk and relationship with Jesus Christ, they can still be bringing in destructive heresies. Often times, the worst damage is done by a good man who teaches lies. His lies are accepted far more easily because of the good character of the man.
e. Bring on themselves swift destruction: False teachers are promised swift destruction, even though they at least appear to be bought by the Lord, they are under His judgment.
Russell: There were -- In the past.
False prophets -- "Grievous wolves" in sheep's clothing. Who evidently spoke by an inspiration, or power in them almost like the real prophets of God; these were the counterfeits. (Jer_23:21)
There shall be -- Among us. As the Jew was blinded by a false view of the Law, so now, many will be hindered by reason of the false presentation of the doctrine of grace from false teachers who claim that to err is human, to forgive, divine.
False teachers -- Peter thus positively asserts that there would be teachers of falsehood right in the midst of God's people. Misrepresenting; putting darkness for light and light for darkness. Who pretend to be shepherds; but are self-seekers, wolfish; they do not lay down their lives for the sheep, but feed upon the sheep.
The apostles say little about the general unbelief of the world, but they do warn us repeatedly of those who will privately bring infidelity into the Church.
Privily -- Privately, secretly. Deceptively; covering the real purport of their teachings.
Shall bring in – Introduce to the fold.
Damnable heresies -- Heresies of destruction. (Diaglott) Errors leading to condemnation and rejection. To undermine the faith and to turn the faithful aside from the hopes and promises and simplicities of the Gospel. Many of the Lord's true followers have been dreaming about the conversion of the world, while the great enemy, Satan, has been sowing tares with liberal hand in their very midst.
The time has come "when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and shall be turned unto fables." (2Ti_4:3, 4)
Destructive heresies swiftly destroy the teachers as teachers and others follow their destructive ways and bring the true teachings of Scripture into disrepute.
Denying the Lord -- Yet with much feigned reverence and humility they profess allegiance to him, thus falsely presenting themselves as messengers of truth. (2Co_11:13-15)
That bought them -- "With his own precious blood." (1Pe_1:19) Or ransomed them.
"Ye were bought with a price." (1Co_6:20)
The ransom was and still is a sure test. Every doctrine that denies the ransom is an active opponent of the truth, is anti-(against) Christ; every doctrine that ignores it is seriously wrong, not of God. In the days of the apostles, and especially now, some acknowledge Jesus as Lord, but deny that he "bought them."
Swift destruction -- Contrary to the Universalist theory or the No Second Death theory. Death is the penalty of willful sin.
2 Peter 2:2 TPT Many will follow immoral lifestyles. Because of these corrupt false teachers, the way of truth will be slandered.
Guzik: Many will follow their destructive ways: This shows that just because something “works” in attracting a crowd of followers, it doesn’t mean that it is of God. We know that God’s work will always bear fruit, but the devil’s work can also increase.
i. The most distressing aspect of the work of false teachers is not that they are among you (2Pe_2:1). False teachers always have been and always will be among Christians. The most distressing fact is that so many Christians will follow their destructive ways.
b. Because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed: When false teachers are at work, and when crowds are following them, the way of truth is blasphemed. God’s holy name and honor are disgraced.
Russell: Many shall follow -- Few, therefore, will be able to stand--a Little Flock. All but the "very elect" of God will be more or less stumbled by the errors and worldliness of our day.
Pernicious ways -- Destructive of the very foundation of hope and its corresponding license in dealing with Scriptures which oppose them. Destructive of the truth, destructive of the faith once delivered to the saints. As for those who come under the power of the Adversary we can only expect that their hearts and minds will become more and more perverse.
By reason -- The goats and wolves in sheep's clothing striving for places of authority in the church.
The way of truth -- The true way of salvation--through the ransom--the way of the cross.
Evil spoken of -- The ecclesia is far better off without any public servant than to have for a leader a golden- tongued "goat," who would surely not "direct their hearts into the love of God," but seductively into wrong channels.
2 Peter 2:3 TPT They are only out for themselves, ready to exploit you for their own gain through their cunning arguments. Their condemnation has been a long time coming. But their destruction does not slumber or sit idly by, for it is sure to come.
Guzik: All this is presented with deceptive words, because false teaching never announces itself.
Their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber: Peter assures us that false teachers will be judged. Even though it seems they prosper, their judgment is not idle. God’s wrath pours out on them in allowing them to continue, thus heaping up more and more condemnation and hardness of heart in themselves.
Gill: And through covetousness;.... Which is generally a prevailing vice among false teachers, they having no other end in view than themselves; either to gain popular applause and vain glory, which they are always covetous of; or to amass riches to themselves, after which they have an insatiable desire:
and their damnation slumbereth not; an avenging God, who has appointed them to damnation for their sins, slumbers not; the justice of God is not asleep, nor careless and negligent, but is awake, and watches over them, to bring the evil upon them they have deserved, and is in reserve for them, and will hasten to perform it; the determined destruction does not lie dormant, but in a little time will be stirred up, and fall with dreadful weight on such sinners, as may be concluded from the following awful instances.
2 Peter 2:4 TPT Now, don’t forget, God had no pity for the angels when they sinned but threw them into the lowest, darkest dungeon of gloom and locked them in chains, where they are firmly held until the judgment of torment.
Russell: Spared not -- In the time before the flood the angels had their trial.
Angels that sinned -- Angels of light who became disobedient. Fallen angels; demons. Who did not maintain their condition of loyalty to God. In Noah's day, by taking human wives; they "kept not their first estate." (Jud_1:6) They preferred to materialize and live in human conditions. This was in violation of the divine arrangement, and was the result of their loss of faith in God's wisdom and power. Mankind became a prey to these angels who "lusted after strange flesh." (Jud_1:6-7) Assuming human bodies, which they had been privileged to do for the purpose of assisting mankind, they misused those bodies.
The fallen angels, although restrained, have contact with each other and are well aware of procedures in general.
Cast them down -- Condemned them to an overthrow. These fallen spirits frequented the earth in the days of our Lord and the apostles. Hence they were not down in some place, but "down" in the sense of being degraded from former honor and liberty. Degraded them and delivered them into chains of darkness.
To hell -- Literally, tartaroo, the lower atmosphere. Hence, the devil is called "the prince of the power of the air." (Eph_2:2) The Greek word tartaroo refers more to an act than to a place. This is the only Scripture where this word is used.
Thus separated from the holy angels. If both mankind and the angels are to be judged during the same period, it would seem entirely reasonable that both should be associated with the earth and its atmosphere.
The translators of the Revised Version erred in giving the marginal reading of tartarus--a word used in Grecian mythology as the name for a dark abyss or prison.
Chains of darkness -- Cut off from fellowship with God and the holy angels and no longer permitted to materialize and thus to commingle with humanity.
Reserving them in chains, under darkness. The darkness of the night, for they can operate only under the cover of the night or conditions of darkness. Imprisoned, not in a special place, but in the sense of having their liberties restrained.
"Spirits in prison." (1Pe_3:19)
Restrained from materialization and from working their power in light, as they had done previously.
Whenever these fallen spirits, in spiritualistic seances, manifest their powers through mediums, pretending to be certain dead human beings, they must always do their work in the dark, because darkness is the chain by which they are bound. They have exercised their influence to whatever extent they have had permission. If they had had unlimited power they would have wrecked the world long ago.
This includes both Satan and the angels of lower order. For 4,400 years these fallen angels have been exiles from God. They have been restrained since the flood. They were not destroyed, because, while their fleshly bodies which they assumed might indeed perish, yet they would merely dematerialize, or assume their spirit conditions again.
The sentence against these was not death, but that they should be confined in chains of darkness until the judgment of the great day. The letting loose of the winds (Rev_7:1), powers of the fallen angels, would seem to show that God has let go his hand of restraint; resulting in the complete overthrow of the social order in anarchy. Now the great day nears, the chains are being gradually loosened, and these wicked spirits have greater liberties than ever before
Unto -- Until the judgment of the great day. The angels may have been more or less on trial since the time that they were consigned to the chains of darkness.
Judgment -- Greek, krisis, trial. The great Millennial day of judgment. In order to be tried at all, these fallen angels must have certain liberties granted, to prove them. A great trial, or testing, in respect to their willingness or unwillingness to do according to the divine will.
The work of the glorified Church will be not only to judge the world during the Millennial age, but it will include also the judgment of these fallen angels. (1Co_6:3)
2 Peter 2:5 TPT And he did not spare the former world in the days of Noah when he sent a flood to destroy a depraved world (although he protected Noah, the preacher of righteousness, along with seven members of his family).
Guzik: And did not spare the ancient world: God judged the ancient world, the world before Noah’s Flood, because the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Gen_6:5)
Russell: Spared not -- With the Flood the first world passed away; that dispensation, that order of things, came to an end.
The old world -- Greek, kosmos, order or state of things.
It was not the earth which came to an end, merely that order or condition of things which prevailed prior to the flood that ceased there. The first 1656 years of earth's history, down to the Deluge--
Long enough to furnish a test of loyalty of every member of the angelic host.
Saved Noah -- Sparing only Noah (who was perfect in his generation, not of the hybrid race, Gen_6:9), and his family. This was part of the preparation for the new dispensation. As Noah and his family were the only ones spared from the old order, so Christ is the Ark of Safety now for all who will be saved out of the present order of things.
The flood -- Which deluged the world and wiped out the whole mongrel race with which sin had peopled the earth.
An attestation to the truthfulness of the Deluge.
JFB: eighth — that is, Noah, and seven others. Contrasted with the densely peopled “world of the ungodly.”
preacher — not only “righteous” himself (compare 2Pe_2:8), but also “a preacher of righteousness”: adduced by Peter against the licentiousness of the false teachers (2Pe_2:2) who have no prospect before them but destruction, even as it overtook the ungodly world in Noah’s days.
Clarke: Spared not the old world - The apostle’s argument is this: If God spared not the rebellious angels, nor the sinful antediluvians, nor the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha, he will not spare those wicked teachers who corrupt the pure doctrines of Christianity.
2 Peter 2:6 TPT And don’t forget that he reduced to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, condemning them to ruin and destruction. God appointed them to be examples as to what is coming to the ungodly.
Guzik: Making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly: These three examples of judgment show us the important principle that Peter wants to highlight…Therefore, what makes the ungodly think they can escape God’s judgment? Their coming judgment is certain.
Or, as Jesus put it in Luk_10:10-12 to those who reject the truth: But whatever city you enter, and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, ‘The very dust of your city which clings to us we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near you.” But I say to you that it will be more tolerable in that Day for Sodom than for that city.
Russell: Sodom -- Of Sodom it is declared that the sin thereof was great, and God "took them away as he saw good." (Eze_16:50)
Condemned -- The Sodomites were not condemned to second death but were an example of those who would be.
Making them -- They were made an example of the ultimate doom that will come upon all who reject God's grace and die the second death.
An ensample -- An example of God's treatment of evildoers--both of His vengeance and of His mercy. His vengeance was manifested in their destruction; and His mercy is specially manifest in their promised deliverance. The Sodomites, and all of Adam's posterity, are included in the redemption work of Jesus.
2 Peter 2:7 TPT Yet he rescued a righteous man, Lot, suffering the indignity of the unbridled lusts of the lawless.
2 Peter 2:8 TPT For righteous Lot lived among them day after day, distressed in his righteous soul by the rebellious deeds he saw and heard.
2 Peter 2:9 TPT If the Lord Yahweh rescued Lot, he knows how to continually rescue the godly from their trials and to reserve the ungodly for punishment on the day of judgment.
Guzik: . And delivered righteous Lot: Peter already told us how the Lord delivered Noah (2Pe_2:5). Now, he shows us that the Lord delivered righteous Lot. Lot was righteous in God’s eyes, though perhaps it was hard for others to see his righteousness. Yet the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah tormented his righteous soul from day to day.
Lot’s soul was tormented, but he failed to follow through with godly actions and separate himself and his family from the ungodliness of Sodom and Gomorrah. The Lord delivered Lot because of his righteous soul; yet Lot lost everything because of his too-close association with those wicked cities.
Then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations: Even as the Lord delivered Lot, He knows how to deliver us from the temptations we face, and He knows how to reserve the unjust for the day of judgment. We can trust in God’s deliverance of the godly because it is just as certain as His judgment of the ungodly.
The unjust have reservation made for them: they are reserved for the day of judgment. But believers have no such reservation. God will deliver us from the very day of judgment, from the very time of wrath that He pours out on the earth (Rev_3:10).
Russell: Dwelling among them -- His determination to make the country of the Jordan his home does not signify that he had fellowship with the Sodomites.
Vexed -- Lot was sore distressed by the lascivious life of the wicked Sodomites.
His righteous soul -- Deluded into association with evil influences for the sake of worldly prosperity. He thought he could live separate from the contaminations of Sodom, and even exercise a good moral influence over the unrighteous.
Reserve the unjust -- Every wrong deed, every wrong principle acted upon, has an evil affect upon character; as all right doing brings blessing. So mankind, as they have obeyed or disobeyed, will be elevated or degraded in character when they enter the next age.
Day of judgment -- When "he will reward every man according to his works." (Mat_16:27)
To be punished -- Greek, kolasin, to cut off, as lopping off branches of trees, to prune. Since the new order will be such that nothing will be allowed to hinder it, a wrong course in this life will then receive retribution in the sense that it will be the result of a wrong condition.
Clarke: That righteous man dwelling among them - Lot, after his departure from Abraham, A. M. 2086, lived at Sodom till A. M. 2107, a space of about twenty years; and, as he had a righteous soul, he must have been tormented with the abominations of that people from day to day.
Meyer: Many instances are quoted from the past to prove the fearful judgments which must overtake such false teachers. The angels who placed their self-will in antagonism to their Maker were cast down to Tartarus-a Greek word used only here in the New Testament. The people who lived previous to the Flood, and they who afterward at Sodom disregarded the laws of purity and self-restraint, dictated alike by nature and conscience, were overwhelmed in destruction. But even amid such judgments, God discriminates His Noahs and His Lots, preserves and delivers them, and numbers them among His jewels, Mal_3:17. God has His eye on you and will succor you.
2 Peter 2:10 TPT And this especially applies to those who live their lives despising authorities and who abandon themselves to chasing the depraved lusts of their flesh. They are willfully arrogant and insolent, unafraid to insult the glorious ones.
Gill: But chiefly them that walk after the flesh,.... Not merely after the dictates of corrupt nature, as all men, and even God's elect do, in a state of unregeneracy; but "after strange flesh", as Jud_1:7 expresses it, after the flesh of men:
in the lust of uncleanness; not of fornication and adultery, but of sodomy, and sodomitical practices; sins exceeding great, not only contrary to the law and light of nature, but dishonourable to human nature; and are what prevail where idolatry, infidelity, errors, and heresies do; and which, as they are sins of the deepest dye, deserve the greater damnation, and are chiefly and more especially punished by God with great severity:
and despise government: of parents, to whom these proud boasters and blasphemers are generally disobedient; and of masters, pretending it to be contrary to their Christian liberty; and of magistrates on the same account, and as being a restraint upon their lusts; which is to despise the ordinance of God, his representatives, and to introduce anarchy and confusion, and to open a door to all manner of sin; and also the government of Christ, as head of the church, and King of Zion, whom they will not have to reign over them, and therefore reject his laws, and submit not to his ordinances; and likewise the government of the world itself by God; and so the Ethiopic version renders it, "despise their Creator"; denying his omniscience and his providence, giving out that he neither sees, observes, and takes notice of what is done in the world; nor does he himself do either good or evil, or concern himself about what is done by men.
Presumptuous are they; bold and daring, not fearing to speak against men of the most exalted character on earth, and against God Himself in heaven; see Psa_73:8.
Selfwilled; pleased with themselves, and their own conceits, their dogmas and opinions, with their high sense and profound judgment; and being obstinate in their sentiments, and resolutely bent to retain and defend them.
They are not afraid to speak evil of dignities; or "glories"; of the apostles, who were set in the first place in the church, and were the glory of Christ, 1Co_12:28; or of angels, styled thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers; or rather of civil magistrates, set in high places, and to whom glory and honour are due; which to do is contrary to the law of God, and of dangerous consequence, Exo_22:28.
2 Peter 2:11 TPT Yet even angels, who are greater than they in power and strength, do not dare slander them before the Lord.
Guzik: Much of what goes on under the name of spiritual warfare shows this kind of pride and presumption. While we recognize our authority in Jesus, we see that it is only in Jesus that we have it - and we leave the reviling accusations to Him alone.
JFB: before the Lord — In the presence of the Lord, the Judge, in reverence, they abstain from judgment [Bengel]. Judgment belongs to God, not the angels. How great is the dignity of the saints who, as Christ’s assessors, shall hereafter judge angels! Meanwhile, railing judgments, though spoken with truth, against dignities, as being uttered irreverently, are of the nature of “blasphemies” (Greek, 1Co_4:4, 1Co_4:5). If superior angels dare not, as being in the presence of God, the Judge, speak evil even of the bad angels, how awful the presumption of those who speak evil blasphemously of good “dignities.” 2Sa_16:7, 2Sa_16:8, Shimei; Num_16:2, Num_16:3, Korah, etc., referred to also in Jud_1:11; Num_12:8, “Were ye (Aaron and Miriam) not afraid to speak evil of My servant Moses?” The angels who sinned still retain the indelible impress of majesty. Satan is still “a strong man”: “prince of this world”; and under him are “principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world.” We are to avoid irreverence in regard to them, not on their account, but on account of God. A warning to those who use Satan’s name irreverently and in blasphemy. “When the ungodly curseth Satan, he curseth his own soul.”
2 Peter 2:12 TPT These individuals are nothing but brute beasts—irrational creatures, born in the wild to be caught and destroyed—and they will perish like beasts. They are professional insulters, who slander whatever they don’t understand, and in their destruction they will be destroyed.
Russell: These -- All the willfully wicked, disobedient or rebellious, disobedient; lovers of evil.
Willful sinners against full light.
Natural brute beasts -- The willful rejector and opposer shall be cut off in the second death; die like a brute beast.
"And it shall come to pass, that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people." (Act_3:23)
Taken and destroyed -- Those who will not be obedient to the requirements of Christ's Kingdom will be cut off in the second death, having had the full measure of divine favor. All who fail to get the eternal life or happiness in God's provision will get eternal death, second death, utter extinction.
Own corruption -- Those who demonstrate their unwillingness to come into heart sympathy with righteousness.
Guzik: . (2Pe_2:12-13 a) Their spiritual doom is sealed.
Like natural brute beasts: Since they function in the flesh, not the spirit, they are like animals. They are fit only for destruction (made to be caught and destroyed) and they are ignorant.
And will receive the wages of unrighteousness: The ungodly will be “paid” for their evil - and their fleshly lives will be paid the wages of unrighteousness.
Clarke: Made to be taken and destroyed - Intended to be taken with nets and gins, and then destroyed, because of their fierce and destructive nature; so these false teachers and insurgents must be treated; first incarcerated, and then brought to judgment, that they may have the reward of their doings. And thus, by blaspheming what they do not understand, they at last perish in their own corruption; i.e. their corrupt doctrines and vicious practices.
2 Peter 2:13 TPT For all the evil they have done will come crashing down on them. They consider it their great pleasure to carouse in broad daylight. When they come to your love feasts they are but stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions as they feast with you.
Guzik: (2Pe_2:13-17) A list of the sins of the false teachers.
Carousing in their own deceptions: These ungodly false teachers are a dangerous and corrupting presence in the body of Christ, not only deceiving others but deceiving themselves.
Clarke: They that count it pleasure to riot in the day time - Most sinners, in order to practice their abominable pleasures, seek the secrecy of the night; but these, bidding defiance to all decorum, decency, and shame, take the open day, and thus proclaim their impurities to the sun.
Sporting themselves - Forming opinions which give license to sin, and then acting on those opinions; and thus rioting in their own deceits.
While they feast with you - It appears they held a kind of communion with the Church, and attended sacred festivals, which they desecrated with their own unhallowed opinions and conduct.
Barnes: Spots they are and blemishes - That is, they are like a dark spot on a pure garment, or like a deformity on an otherwise beautiful person. They are a scandal and disgrace to the Christian profession.
Sporting themselves - Under the garb of the Christian profession, they give indulgence to the most corrupt passions.
With their own deceivings - Jude, in the parallel place, Jud_1:12, has, “These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you.” Several versions, and a few manuscripts also, here read “feasts” instead of “deceivings,” The common reading, however, is undoubtedly the correct one, (see Wetstein, in loc.); and the meaning is, that they took advantage of their false views to turn even the sacred feasts of charity, or perhaps the Lord’s Supper itself, into an occasion of sensual indulgence. Compare the notes at 1Co_11:20-22. The difference between these persons, and those in the church at Corinth, seems to have been that these did it at design, and for the purpose of leading others into sin; those who were in the church at Corinth erred through ignorance.
While they feast with you - This word means to feast several together; to feast with anyone; and the reference seems to be to some festival which was celebrated by Christians, where men and women were assembled together, 2Pe_2:14, and where they could convert the festival into a scene of riot and disorder.
2 Peter 2:14 TPT They are addicted to adultery, with eyes that are insatiable, with sins that never end. They seduce the vulnerable and are experts in their greed—they are but children of a curse!
Guzik: Having eyes full of adultery: Their heart is set on the flesh, and their eyes on adultery, both spiritual and sexual. They prey on the unstable to join them in their ways (enticing unstable souls).
i. Literally, Peter says that their eyes are full of an adulterous woman. “They lust after every girl they see; they view every female as a potential adulteress.” (Green)
JFB: full of adultery — literally, “full of an adulteress,” as though they carried about adulteresses always dwelling in their eyes: the eye being the avenue of lust [Horneius]. Bengel makes the adulteress who fills their eyes, to be “alluring desire.”
that cannot cease — “that cannot be made to cease from sin.”
beguiling — “laying baits for.”
unstable — not firmly established in faith and piety.
heart — not only the eyes, which are the channel, but the heart, the fountain head of lust. Job_31:7, “Mine heart walked after mine eyes.”
covetous practices — The oldest manuscripts read singular, “covetousness.”
cursed children — rather as Greek, “children of curse,” that is, devoted to the curse. Cursing and covetousness, as in Balaam’s case, often go together: the curse he designed for Israel fell on Israel’s foes and on himself. True believers bless, and curse not, and so are blessed.
Clarke: Beguiling unstable souls - The metaphor is taken from adulterers seducing unwary, inexperienced, and light, trifling women; so do those false teachers seduce those who are not established in righteousness.
Exercised with covetous practices - The metaphor is taken from the agonistae in the Grecian games, who exercised themselves in those feats, such as wrestling, boxing, running, etc., in which they proposed to contend in the public games. These persons had their hearts schooled in nefarious practices; they had exercised themselves till they were perfectly expert in all the arts of seduction, overreaching, and every kind of fraud.
2 Peter 2:15 TPT They have wandered off the main road and have gone astray, because they are prophets who love profit—the wages they earn by wrongdoing. They are following the example of Balaam, son of Beor,
2 Peter 2:16 TPT who was rebuked for evil by a donkey incapable of speech yet that spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
Guzik: Following the way of Balaam: They are like Balaam, who was guilty of the greatest of sins - leading others into sin, and that for the sake of his own gain. Balaam had to be restrained by a dumb donkey because he would not listen to God.
These are wells without water: These ungodly false teachers are empty - useless as wells without water - and like clouds that bring only darkness, and no nourishing rain.
Russell: The way of Balaam -- Type of a class that teach error for profit.
Wages of unrighteousness -- The reward of iniquity.
When a reward was offered Balaam if he would curse Israel, he was willing, in order to secure the reward, to conform to the evil proposition in spirit, in intention. Some of these Balaams are in the ministry and for the sake of salary and the maintenance of their positions, and the friendship of the wealthy Balaks, are willing to preach doctrines which they do not believe.
Clarke: The way of Balaam - Is the counsel of Balaam. He counselled the Moabites to give their most beautiful young women to the Israelitish youth, that they might be enticed by them to commit idolatry. See the notes on Num_22:5, etc., and Num_23:1 (note), etc.
Barnes: But was rebuked for his iniquity - The object of Peter in this seems to be to show that God employed the very extraordinary means of causing the ass on which he rode to speak, because his iniquity was so monstrous. The guilt of thus debasing his high office, and going forth to curse the people of God - a people who had done him no wrong, and given no occasion for his malediction - was so extraordinary, that means as extraordinary were proper to express it. If God employed means so extraordinary to rebuke “his” depravity, it was to be expected that in some appropriate way he would express his sense of the wickedness of those who resembled him.
Forbade the madness of the prophet - That is, the mad or perverse design of the prophet. The word here rendered “madness” means, properly, being aside from a right mind. … It is used here to denote that Balaam was engaged in an enterprise which indicated a headstrong disposition; an acting contrary to reason and sober sense. He was so under the influence of avarice and ambition that his sober sense was blinded, and he acted like a madman. He knew indeed what was right, and had professed a purpose to do what was right, but he did not allow that to control him; but, for the sake of gain, went against his own sober conviction, and against what he knew to be the will of God. He was so mad or infatuated that he allowed neither reason, nor conscience, nor the will of God, to control him!
2 Peter 2:17 TPT These people are dried-up riverbeds, waterless clouds pushed along by stormy winds—the deepest darkness of gloom has been prepared for them.
Barnes: These are wells without water - Jud_1:12-13 employs several other epithets to describe the same class of persons. The language employed both by Peter and Jude is singularly terse, pointed, and emphatic. Nothing to an oriental mind would be more expressive than to say of professed religious teachers, that they were “wells without water.” It was always a sad disappointment to a traveler in the hot sands of the desert to come to a well where it was expected that water might be found, and to find it dry. It only aggravated the trials of the thirsty and weary traveler. Such were these religious teachers. In a world, not unaptly compared, in regard to its real comforts, to the wastes and sands of the desert, they would only grievously disappoint the expectations of all those who were seeking for the refreshing influences of the truths of the gospel. There are many such teachers in the world.
Clouds that are carried with a tempest - Clouds that are driven about by the wind, and that send down no rain upon the earth. They promise rain, only to be followed by disappointment. Substantially the same idea is conveyed by this as by the previous phrase. “The Arabs compare persons who put on the appearance of virtue, when yet they are destitute of all goodness, to a light cloud which makes a show of rain, and afterward vanishes” - Benson. The sense is this: The cloud, as it rises, promises rain. The expectation of the farmer is excited that the thirsty earth is to be refreshed with needful showers. Instead of this, however, the wind “gets into” the cloud; it is driven about, and no rain falls, or it ends in a destructive tornado which sweeps everything before it. So of these religious teachers. Instruction in regard to the way of salvation was expected from them; but, instead of that, they disappointed the expectations of those who were desirous of knowing the way of life, and their doctrines only tended to destroy.
To whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever - The word rendered “mist” here, (ζόφος zophos,) means properly muskiness, thick gloom, darkness, (see 2Pe_2:4); and the phrase “mist of darkness” is designed to denote “intense” darkness, or the thickest darkness. It refers undoubtedly to the place of future punishment, which is often represented as a place of intense darkness. When it is said that this is “reserved” for them, it means that it is prepared for them, or is kept in a state of readiness to receive them. It is like a jail or penitentiary which is built in anticipation that there will be criminals, and with the expectation that there will be a need for it.
2 Peter 2:18 TPT They spout off with their grandiose, impressive nonsense. Consumed with the lusts of the flesh, they lure back into sin those who recently escaped from their error.
Guzik: (2Pe_2:18-19) The allure of the false teachers.
They speak great swelling words of emptiness: The message of the ungodly false teachers is empty of real spiritual content, though it is swollen big with words. Their allure is to the lusts of the flesh in their audience - just as the crowds who wanted bread from Jesus, but didn’t want Jesus Himself (Joh_6:25-27; Joh_6:47-66).
b. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves: They promise freedom, but freedom can never be found in the flesh, only in God’s Spirit. Freedom isn’t found in what Jesus can give us, but only in Jesus Himself. When we seek freedom in the wrong way, we become slaves of corruption (decay and death).
c. By him also he is brought into bondage: In being overcome by the flesh and the false teachers, they become slaves to both.
Russell: Were clean escaped -- Those who accept Christ during this Gospel age, are reckoned as having passed from death unto life; as having escaped the wrath, "the corruption that is in the world." (2Pe_1:4) They shall escape this special wrath, but they do not escape the general wrath which is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness.
Clarke: They speak great swelling words of vanity - The word ὑπερογκα signifies things of great magnitude, grand, superb, sublime; it sometimes signifies inflated, tumid, bombastic. These false teachers spoke of great and high things, and no doubt promised their disciples the greatest privileges, as they themselves pretended to a high degree of illumination; but they were all false and vain, though they tickled the fancy and excited the desires of the flesh; and indeed this appears to have been their object.
Those that were clean escaped - Those who, through hearing the doctrines of the Gospel, had been converted, were perverted by those false teachers.
Barnes: For when they speak great swelling words of vanity - When they make pretensions to wisdom and learning, or seem to attach great importance to what they say, and urge it in a pompous and positive manner. Truth is simple, and delights in simple statements. It expects to make its way by its own intrinsic force, and is willing to pass for what it is worth. Error is noisy and declamatory, and hopes to succeed by substituting sound for sense, and by such tones and arts as shall induce men to believe that what is said is true, when it is known by the speaker to be false.
They allure through the lusts of the flesh - The same word is used here which in 2Pe_2:14 is rendered “beguiling,” and in Jas_1:14 “enticed.” It does not elsewhere occur in the New Testament. It means that they make use of deceitful arts to allure, ensnare, or beguile others. The “means” which it is here said they employed, were “the lusts of the flesh;” that is, they promised unlimited indulgence to the carnal appetites, or taught such doctrines that their followers would feel themselves free to give unrestrained liberty to such propensities. This has been quite a common method in the world, of inducing people to embrace false doctrines.
2 Peter 2:19 TPT They promise others freedom, yet they themselves are slaves to corruption, for people are slaves to whatever overcomes them.
Barnes: While they promise them liberty - True religion always promises and produces liberty (see Joh_8:36), but the particular liberty which these persons seem to have promised, was freedom from what they regarded as needless restraint, or from strict and narrow views of religion.
They themselves are the servants of corruption - They are the slaves of gross and corrupt passions, themselves utter strangers to freedom, and bound in the chains of servitude. These passions and appetites have obtained the entire mastery over them, and brought them into the severest bondage.
For of whom a man is overcome ... - Or rather “whatever” gets the mastery of him, whether it be avarice, or sensuality, or pride, or any form of error.
Gill: While they promise them liberty,.... Not Christian liberty, which lies in a freedom from sin, its dominion, guilt, and condemnation, and in serving God with liberty, cheerfulness, and without fear; but a sinful carnal liberty, a liberty from the law of God, from obedience to it as a rule of walk and conversation, and from the laws of men, from subjection to the civil magistrate, and from servitude to masters, and obedience to parents; a liberty to lay aside and neglect the ordinances of the Gospel at pleasure, and to live in all manner of sin and wickedness; a liberty which is contrary to the nature, will, and work of Christ, to his Spirit, and to the principle of grace in the heart, and to the Gospel, and to the conduct and conversation of real saints. Now this was the snare by which the false teachers beguiled unstable souls; liberty being what is greatly desirable to men, and is suited to their carnal lusts and interests: but a vain promise was this, when
they themselves are the servants of corruption; of sin, which has corrupted all mankind in soul and body; and particularly the lust of uncleanness, which these men walked in, and by which they not only corrupted themselves, but the good manners of others also; and which tended and led them both to ruin and destruction, signified by the pit of corruption: and yet these very preachers, that promised liberty to others, were the servants of sin; they were under the power and government of sin.
2 Peter 2:20 TPT Those who escape the corrupting forces of this world system through the experience of knowing about our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Messiah, then go back into entanglement with them and are defeated by them, becoming worse off than they were to start with.
2 Peter 2:21 TPT It would have been much better for them never to have experienced the way of righteousness than to know it and then turn away from the sacred obligation that was given to them.
Guzik: (2Pe_2:20-22) The danger of falling away and following after false teachers
The latter end is worse for them than the beginning: It is better for a person to have never known a thing about Jesus than to hear some truth, hold to it, and later reject it. Greater revelation has a greater accountability.
Russell: Than the beginning -- They are worse than those who have always been of the world.
Better for them -- For those who have once been clearly in the truth and have forsaken it. F629; Those that have received the grace of God in vain. Those who sin willfully after receiving a knowledge of the truth--and consequently no hope for them in the coming age. (Heb_10:26) They have had their blessing.
Not to have known -- They are in a much worse condition than the world.
"It is impossible to renew them again unto repentance." (Heb_6:6)
"When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness and committeth iniquity, and dieth in them (unrepentant), for his iniquity that he hath done shall he die." (Eze_18:26)
After they have known -- Been "begotten by the Word of God." Having known the Lord and having once experienced his tender care and helpfulness in all of life's affairs.
To turn from -- Having wandered off, losing their first love; having forgotten that they were purged from their old sins. There can be no more imputation of Christ's merit to such.
2 Peter 2:22 TPT They become illustrations of the true proverb: A dog will return to his own vomit and a washed pig to its rolling in the mud.
Guzik: A dog returns to his own vomit: Their nature as dogs is displayed by the way they return to the vomit of the flesh and the world. They are like the brute beasts described in 2Pe_2:12, more animal that godly because they live for the flesh.
“The dog which has got rid of the corruption inside it through vomiting it up cannot leave well enough alone; it goes sniffing around the vomit again.” (Green)
Russell: The true proverb -- Proverbs 26:11.
The dog -- Because the dog nature and disposition are still there.
Is turned -- Returned.
To his own vomit -- If we cease to desire to do God's will, we cut loose from our Lord and begin to walk according to our own will, as natural and no longer spiritual beings. This step must prove fatal.
That was washed -- "He washed us from our sins in his own blood." (Rev_1:5)
Wallowing -- The class who returns to sin again. Those who turn willfully and deliberately back to the will of the flesh. Losing the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of the truth, and abandoning their consecration altogether. Having once been delivered out of Babylon and returning thither.
In the mire -- Of sectarianism and blasphemy against God. Filthy, in having the very gross sins that the world has. If a new creature sinned willfully, he would no longer be a new creature.
"Those who draw back unto perdition." (Heb_10:39)
Removing the covering of sins, and falling back where he was before. To the ways of sin and the gratification of the flesh. These have gone back on their covenant and there is nothing left for these but "the blackness of darkness." (Jud_1:13) These will die the second death. Whether their number is large or small is not for us to judge. We may reasonably hope that such unfaithful characters do not predominate.
