2 Peterchapter 2

A.False Teachers, and a God Who Knows How to Rescuevv. 1-9

1 Now there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow in their depravity, and because of them the way of truth will be defamed. 3 In their greed, these false teachers will exploit you with deceptive words. The longstanding verdict against them remains in force, and their destruction does not sleep. 4 For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them deep into hell, placing them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment; 5 if He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, among the eight; 6 if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes as an example of what is coming on the ungodly; 7 and if He rescued Lot, a righteous man distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless 8 (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— 9 if all this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.

B.Creatures of Instinct and the Madness of Balaamvv. 10-16

10 Such punishment is specially reserved for those who indulge the corrupt desires of the flesh and despise authority. Bold and self-willed, they are unafraid to slander glorious beings. 11 Yet not even angels, though greater in strength and power, dare to bring such slanderous charges against them before the Lord. 12 These men are like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be captured and destroyed. They blaspheme in matters they do not understand, and like such creatures, they too will be destroyed. 13 The harm they will suffer is the wages of their wickedness. They consider it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deception as they feast with you. 14 Their eyes are full of adultery; their desire for sin is never satisfied; they seduce the unstable. They are accursed children with hearts trained in greed. 15 They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness. 16 But he was rebuked for his transgression by a donkey, otherwise without speech, that spoke with a man’s voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

C.Wells Without Water, the Dog and the Washed Sowvv. 17-22

17 These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. 18 With lofty but empty words, they appeal to the sensual passions of the flesh and entice those who are just escaping from others who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves to depravity. For a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. 20 If indeed they have escaped the corruption of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, only to be entangled and overcome by it again, their final condition is worse than it was at first. 21 It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then to turn away from the holy commandment passed on to them. 22 Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”

Commentary on this chapter: read the Exposition

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Chapter summary

False teachers will come as false prophets once did, privily bringing in destructive heresies, 'denying even the Master that bought them.' Three judgments prove God knows how to act, and the chronology is the argument: 'God spared not angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell, and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment' (2:4), the Genesis 6 offenders in the house's Watchers reading, named just before the ancient world that perished with Noah preserved, and before Sodom turned into ashes.

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Drawn from Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory, Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary, John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and John Calvin, Commentaries.

Context

Epistle · Peter — 2 Peter overview

A. 1–9 False Teachers, and a God Who Knows How to Rescue
B. 10–16 Creatures of Instinct and the Madness of Balaam
C. 17–22 Wells Without Water, the Dog and the Washed Sow

Top cross-references8 chapters ▾

Jude 110 verses
- Jude 1:4For certain men have crept in among you unnoticed—ungodly ones who were designated long ago for condemnation. They turn the grace of our God into a license for immorality, and they deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
- Jude 1:6And the angels who did not stay within their own domain but abandoned their proper dwelling—these He has kept in eternal chains under darkness, bound for judgment on that great day.
- Jude 1:7In like manner, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, who indulged in sexual immorality and pursued strange flesh, are on display as an example of those who sustain the punishment of eternal fire.
- Jude 1:9But even the archangel Michael, when he disputed with the devil over the body of Moses, did not presume to bring a slanderous charge against him, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”
- Jude 1:10These men, however, slander what they do not understand, and like irrational animals, they will be destroyed by the things they do instinctively.
- Jude 1:11Woe to them! They have traveled the path of Cain; they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam; they have perished in Korah’s rebellion.
- Read Jude 1: 4 more there →
2 Peter 23 verses
- 2 Peter 2:3In their greed, these false teachers will exploit you with deceptive words. The longstanding verdict against them remains in force, and their destruction does not sleep.
- 2 Peter 2:18With lofty but empty words, they appeal to the sensual passions of the flesh and entice those who are just escaping from others who live in error.
- 2 Peter 2:20If indeed they have escaped the corruption of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, only to be entangled and overcome by it again, their final condition is worse than it was at first.
- Read 2 Peter 2 →
Romans 22 verses
- Romans 2:8But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow wickedness, there will be wrath and anger.
- Romans 2:24As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”
- Read Romans 2 →
Luke 172 verses
- Luke 17:26Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man:
- Luke 17:28It was the same in the days of Lot: People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building.
- Read Luke 17 →

4 more chapters this one speaks with

Genesis 192 verses
- Genesis 19:16But when Lot hesitated, the men grabbed his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters. And they led them safely out of the city, because of the LORD’s compassion for them.
- Genesis 19:29So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, He remembered Abraham, and He brought Lot out of the catastrophe that destroyed the cities where he had lived.
- Read Genesis 19 →
Romans 131 verse
- Romans 13:13Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.
- Read Romans 13 →
Hebrews 61 verse
- Hebrews 6:4It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit,
- Read Hebrews 6 →
Matthew 71 verse
- Matthew 7:15Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.
- Read Matthew 7 →

Cross-references from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and OpenBible.info.