2 Peter 2 – Quiet Home

Apostasy, turning away from the faith, has always been the natural bent of the world, and in particular, it is the character of these last days, a constant threat in the church. Just as false prophets arose among God’s people in the OT, so false teachers come now, leading many away from the truth with their new and “higher knowledge”. But God’s judgment awaits them now, just as those in former times have not escaped it. 2 Peter 2 must be compared to Jude 3-18, as both obviously treat material from a common outline. But the subject, the threat of false prophets and teachers, is a major theme everywhere in Scripture, beginning with the Serpent of Gen. 3 (e.g., cf. Is. 8:20; Mark 13:22; Acts 20:29; Gal. 1:6 ff.; 1 Tim. 4:1; 2 Tim. 4:3; 1 John 2:26; 2 John 6-11; etc.). The enemy within is often more destructive to the church than the natural enmity of the world without. Adam and Eve were placed in the garden, and were to go forth and subdue the earth (Gen. 1:28). But Satan enticed them from within their sanctuary.

2:1-3. Swift destruction (1); their destruction is not asleep (3); Destruction is the cat who watches the mouse hole through eyes closed to narrow slits. She appears to be asleep, but every muscle is tight as the foolish mice come forth to play. It is a false perspective that makes it seem to men that judgment is long in coming (cf. 3:8).

Sensuality (2); One of the most destructive heresies of these false teachers is rampant in churches today. Since we are not under law but under grace, we are free to ignore the law (antinomianism). God loves you unconditionally, they say. But the NT everywhere contradicts the notion that sin doesn’t matter. God is holy, and his people are to be holy. Sin causes the way of truth to be maligned, and sinners will be judged (cf. 1:5-11; Ro. 6:15; 2 Tim. 2:19; etc.). Yes, Jesus paid it all, but God is not mocked by those who love their sins and presume on Christ’s blood.

2:4. Hell; see Appendix 3. The Greek word Tartarus is used only here in the NT. The usual word employed for the place of torment is Gehenna. Since Gehenna was also the name of Jerusalem’s refuse dump, perhaps Peter thought it was a less appropriate metaphor when applied to angels rather than Jews, to whom the idea of being cast out of Jerusalem forever to such an unclean place would have produced the intended sense of horror.

2:5-9. These OT examples of God’s judgment on the wicked proved to be also the salvation of the righteous from the torment being inflicted upon their souls. God knows how to rescue the godly from being tempted beyond what they are able (cf. 1 Cor. 10:13), and to keep the wicked under punishment until all in both groups are called to stand before him for the final Day of Judgment (9).

2:10-12. These verses (cf. Jude 8-10 and notes) are subject to various interpretations. One very attractive view is that the angelic majesties (Lit., glories, margin) are fallen angels (cf. 4), glorious beings the leader of whom is Satan. This view is especially based on Jude 9, where the devil seems to be the example of such a glorious being. It is not our place to revile such high creatures as though we were stronger, but to resist them with the armor of faith and the word of God, just as Jesus did when he was tempted (cf. Jas. 4:7; 1 Pet. 5:9). One area where these Gnostic teachers were probably expressing their contempt for such creatures may have been by sharing in the feasts and licentiousness of idol temples (cf. 1 Cor. 10:19-20). This they would have thought they could do with no spiritual contamination.

But I tend to see these verses as still in the context of vv. 6-9, an application to the false teachers of the text about Lot’s rescue and the judgment of God on the men of Sodom and the other cities (Gen. 19:1 ff.). The men of Sodom did not have the sense to recognize or fear the two glorious angels sent by the Lord to rescue Lot, but saw them only as men to revile and shamelessly abuse. Yet these powerful beings did not revile the Sodomites to the Lord (10-11), but left their condemnation to God.

The irony is that these false teachers who claim to have higher spiritual power cannot even control their own fleshly desires. They demand respect, yet respect no authority. They claim secret knowledge, yet like unreasoning animals they are instinct driven. Just as raging wild beasts are born only to be captured and killed, so these men who revile where they have no knowledge and act like animals, will be destroyed with a destruction appropriate to such beasts, suffering the wages earned by doing wrong (12, 13a).

2:13. These shameless teachers do not even wait for the darkness to cover their revelry (cf. Ro. 13:13; 1 Thess. 5:7). Their deceptions as they carouse with you probably means their hypocrisy and drunken excesses at love feasts where communion was served (cf. 1 Cor. 11:17 ff.).

2:14-19. Their sensuality, immorality, greed, and love of money is a constant snare to the weak, especially new converts just trying to escape their previous sinful habits

associated with the debauchery of pagan worship. Their freedom is not the liberty of Christ, but freedom from all restraint (cf. 1 Cor. 6:12 ff.).

2:20-22. Apostasy from the truth is far worse than ignorance of it, just as a seared conscience is worse than a misguided one. The only truth and the only purity of conscience comes by faith in the truth and righteousness of Christ. Any turning away from him, whether to the legalism of one’s own righteousness (cf. Mt. 23:15), or back to the lawless defilements of the world, leaves a person in a worse state than the first. If they are overcome in this way, they are lost (cf. Heb. 6:4 ff; 10:26 f.). Peter well knew there was hope for the repentant denier of Christ. But the danger in view here is the sin of Judas, who thought his way better than the Lord’s. It is not only a sin of weakness, but of rejection of the known way of righteousness. Like Esau, Judas found no place for repentance (cf. Heb. 12:17).