2 Peter 2:14

2:10-16 Impure seducers and their abandoned followers, give themselves up to their own fleshly minds. Refusing to bring every thought to the obedience of Christ, they act against God's righteous precepts. They walk after the flesh, they go on in sinful courses, and increase to greater degrees of impurity and wickedness. They also despise those whom God has set in authority over them, and requires them to honour. Outward temporal good things are the wages sinners expect and promise themselves. And none have more cause to tremble, than those who are bold to gratify their sinful lusts, by presuming on the Divine grace and mercy. Many such there have been, and are, who speak lightly of the restraints of God's law, and deem themselves freed from obligations to obey it. Let Christians stand at a distance from such.

{7} Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children: (7) He condemns those men, showing even in their behaviour and countenance an unmeasurable lust, making trade of the souls of vain persons, as men exercised in all the crafts of covetousness, to be short, as men that sell themselves for money to curse the sons of God in the same way Balaam did, whom the dumb beast reproved.

Eyes Another illustration of Peter's emphasis on sight. It is the instrument of evil no less than of good. Compare Matthew 5:28. Adultery (μοιχαλίδος) Lit., an adulteress, but used as an adjective Matthew 12:39; Matthew 16:4. That cannot cease (ἀκαταπαύστους) Only here, in New Testament. Compare hath ceased (1 Peter 4:1). Beguiling (δελεάζοντες) Only here, 2 Peter 2:18, and James 1:14. From δέλεαρ, a bait. An appropriate word from Peter the fisherman. Rev., enticing. Unstable (ἀστηρίκτους) A compound of the word at 1 Peter 5:10, stablish. See note there, and see on 2 Peter 1:12. An heart they have exercised (καρδίαν γεγυμνασμένην ἔχοντες) The A. V. is awkward. Better, Rev., having a heart exercised. Exercised is the word used for gymnastic training, from which gymnastic is derived. With covetous practices The A. V. follows the old reading, πλεονεξίαις. The best texts read πλεονεξίας, covetousness. Rev., therefore, rightly, in covetousness. continued...

2 Peter 2:14 . Μοιχαλίδος , of an adulteress ) An adulteress has gained possession of their eyes, that is, alluring desire. The parallel word is, from sin .— δελεάζοντες , enticing ) with those eyes to disgraceful deeds of the flesh.— καρδίαν , the heart ) Besides the eyes , mention is also made of the heart: Ezekiel 6:9 .— κατάρας , of cursing ) not of blessing in Christ, 1 Peter 3:9 . Cursing especially follows covetousness . See the following verses.

Having eyes; he mentions the eyes, both because they let in the objects of lust into the heart, Job 31:1 Matthew 5:28 , and because the signs of lust in the heart appear especially in the eyes, Genesis 39:7 Proverbs 6:25 . Full of adultery; full of an adulteress, which either may be a Hebraism, the concrete being put for the abstract, as drunken for drunkenness, and thirsty for thirst, Deu 29:19 ; or it may be a proverbial expression of the wretchedness of such men’s hearts, when they still carried an adulteress in their eyes. That cannot cease from sin; never satisfied with looking upon, or still looking about for, such objects as might inflame their lusts; or still seeking with wanton looks to entice others to folly. Beguiling; either alluring them by their wantonness to embrace their false doctrines, promising them pleasures and carnal liberties, 2 Peter 2:18 ; or enticing them to lewdness, by instilling false doctrines into them, which tend to licentiousness. Unstable souls; those that were not well grounded in the faith and doctrine of holiness, who might therefore easily be drawn aside. An heart they have exercised with covetous practices; a heart wholly intent upon getting gain, accustomed to it, and skilful in it. Practices; the word is in the plural number, to show that the seducers had several arts and ways of exercising their covetousness. Cursed children; Greek, children of the curse.

14. 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.

14 . having eyes full of adultery ] The Greek gives literally the somewhat strange figure, having eyes full of an adulteress . The phrase is probably connected with a recollection of our Lord’s words as to the sin of looking on a woman, to lust after her, being equivalent to adultery ( Matthew 5:28 ). St John’s mention of the “woman Jezebel” in the Church of Thyatira ( Revelation 2:20-22 ) suggests the thought that there may have been some conspicuous woman of that type of character present to St Peter’s thoughts, who at once encouraged her followers to bring their dainties—even though they were things that had been sacrificed to idols,—to the Agapae of the Christian Church, and when they were there held them fascinated by her wanton beauty. The spell thus exercised is further described as causing a restlessness in evil. The eyes that were thus attracted could not “cease from sin.” beguiling unstable souls ] The Greek word for “beguiling” may be noted as one of those which St Peter had in common with St James. It means primarily to “take with a bait, or in a snare,” and in James 1:14 is rightly rendered “enticed.” The idea suggested is that the false teachers attended the Agapae as seducers of the innocence of others. a heart they have exercised with covetous practices ] Better, trained in covetousness . The words have an adequate meaning if we take “covetousness” in its ordinary sense.

Greed of gain as well as wantonness characterised the false teachers. (See note on 2 Peter 2:3 .) In not a few instances, however, there is so close a connexion between the Greek word and sins of impurity (comp. 1 Thessalonians 4:6 ; 1 Corinthians 5:11 ; Ephesians 5:3 ; Ephesians 5:5 ) that it is not unreasonable to see that meaning here also. The idiomatic use of the English phrase “taking advantage” of a woman’s weakness, presents a like association of thought. cursed children ] Better, children of a curse . The Apostle falls back on the old Hebrew idiom of expressing character by the idea of sonship. So we have “children of obedience in 1 Peter 1:14 . “Children of disobedience” ( Ephesians 2:2 ). The “son of perdition” ( John 17:12 ).

Verse 14. - Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; literally, of an adulteress. Compare our Lord's words in the sermon on the mount ( Matthew 5:28 ), which may have been in St. Peter's thoughts. For the second clause, comp. 1 Peter 4:1 , "He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin." Beguiling unstable souls; rather, enticing. The word δελεάζοντες , from δέλεαρ , a bait, belongs to the art of the fowler or fisherman, and would naturally occur to St. Peter's mind. He uses it again in verse 18 of this chapter (comp. also James 1:14 ). The word for "unstable" ( ἀστηρίκτους ) occurs only here and in 2 Peter 3:16 . It is a word of peculiar significance in the mouth of St. Peter, conscious, as he must have been, of his own want of stability in times past. He would remember also the charge once given to him, "When thou art converted, strengthen ( στήριξον ) thy brethren" ( Luke 22:32 ). An heart they have exercised with covetous practices; rather, trained in covetousness , according to the reading of the best manuscripts, πλεονεξίας . This is the third vice laid to the charge of the false teachers. They had practiced it so long that their very heart was trained in the habitual pursuit of gain by all unrighteous means. Cursed children; rather, children of curse. Like "the son of perdition," "children of wrath," "children of disobedience," "son of Belial," etc. 2 Peter 2:14

(14) Of adultery .—Literally, of an adulteress. This verse has no counterpart in Jude. That cannot cease from sin.—Literally, that cannot be made to cease from sin. (Comp. attentively 1Peter 4:1.) It was precisely because these men refused to “suffer in the flesh,” but, on the contrary, gave the flesh all possible licence on principle, that they could not “cease from sin.” Beguiling.—Strictly, enticing with bait. We have the same word in 2Peter 2:18, James 1:14, and nowhere else. If “deceits” be the right reading in 2Peter 2:13, this clause throws some light on it. In any case, the metaphor from fishing, twice in this Epistle and only once elsewhere, may point to a fisherman of Galilee. (Comp. Matthew 17:27.) With covetous practices.—Better, in covetousness. The word is singular, as in 2Peter 2:3, according to all the best MSS. and versions. Cursed children.—Rather, children of malediction. So Rheims; Wiclif has “sones of cursynge.” They are devoted to execration; malediction has adopted them as its own. (Comp. “son of perdition,” John 17:12; 2Thessalonians 2:3.)