2 Peter 2:7

2:1-9 Though the way of error is a hurtful way, many are always ready to walk therein. Let us take care we give no occasion to the enemy to blaspheme the holy name whereby we are called, or to speak evil of the way of salvation by Jesus Christ, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. These seducers used feigned words, they deceived the hearts of their followers. Such are condemned already, and the wrath of God abides upon them. God's usual method of proceeding is shown by examples. Angels were cast down from all their glory and dignity, for their disobedience. If creatures sin, even in heaven, they must suffer in hell. Sin is the work of darkness, and darkness is the wages of sin. See how God dealt with the old world. The number of offenders no more procures favour, than their quality. If the sin be universal, the punishment shall likewise extend to all. If in a fruitful soil the people abound in sin, God can at once turn a fruitful land into barrenness, and a well-watered country into ashes. No plans or politics can keep off judgments from a sinful people. He who keeps fire and water from hurting his people, Isa 43:2, can make either destroy his enemies; they are never safe. When God sends destruction on the ungodly, he commands deliverance for the righteous. In bad company we cannot but get either guilt or grief. Let the sins of others be troubles to us.

Yet it is possible for the children of the Lord, living among the most profane, to retain their integrity; there being more power in the grace of Christ, and his dwelling in them, than in the temptations of Satan, or the example of the wicked, with all their terrors or allurements. In our intentions and inclinations to commit sin, we meet with strange hinderances, if we mark them When we intend mischief, God sends many stops to hinder us, as if to say, Take heed what you do. His wisdom and power will surely effect the purposes of his love, and the engagements of his truth; while wicked men often escape suffering here, because they are kept to the day of judgment, to be punished with the devil and his angels.

Just (δίκαιον) Occurring three times in 2 Peter 2:7, 2 Peter 2:8. Vexed (καταπονούμενον) Only here and Acts 7:24. Κατά gives the force of worn down. So Rev., sore distressed. With the filthy conversation of the wicked (ὑπὸ τῆς τῶν ἀθέσμων ἐν ἀσελγείᾳ ἀναστροφῆς). Lit., by the behavior of the lawless in wantonness. Rev., the lascivious life of the wicked. Life or behavior (ἀναστροφῆς). See on 1 Peter 1:15. Wicked (ἀθέσμων), lit., lawless. Only here and 2 Peter 3:17. Wantonness (ἀσελγείᾀ), see on Mark 7:22.

2 Peter 2:7 . καταπονούμενον , the word applied to the condition of the slave whom Moses delivered, Acts 7:24 . It implies outward discomfort. ἀθέσμων . Cf. 2 Peter 3:17 , “a stronger word than ἄνομος , because θεσμός is used especially of a divine ordinance, a fundamental law” (Mayor).

Verse 7. - And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked; literally, and delivered righteous Lot, who was being worn out ( καταπονούμενον ; comp. Acts 7:24 , the only other place of the New Testament where the word occurs) with the behaviour of the lawless in licentiousness. The word translated "lawless" ( ἀθέσμων ) is found only in one other place of the New Testament ( 2 Peter 3:17 ); but it is near akin to the ἀθεμίτοις ("abominable") of 1 Peter 4:3 . 2 Peter 2:7

(7) And delivered just Lot. —Better, righteous Lot ; it is the same adjective as occurs twice in the next verse. These repetitions of the same word, of which there are several examples in this Epistle (“destruction” thrice, 2Peter 2:1-3 ; various repetitions, 2Peter 3:10-12 ; “look for” thrice, 2Peter 3:12-14 , &c), and which have been stigmatised as showing poverty of language, are perfectly natural in St. Peter, and not like the laboured efforts of a writer endeavouring to personate him. A person writing under strong emotion does not stop to pick his words; he uses the same word over and over again if it expresses what he means and no other word at once occurs to him. This is still more likely to be the case when a person is writing in a foreign language. The fact that such repetitions are frequent in the Second Epistle, but not in the First, is not only fully explained by the circumstances, but, as being so entirely in harmony with them, may be regarded as a mark of genuineness. “Delivered righteous Lot.” Here, as in the case of the Flood ( 2Peter 2:5 ), the destruction of the guilty suggests the preservation of the innocent. Is it fanciful to think that these lights in a dark picture are characteristic of one who had himself “denied the Master who bought him,” and yet had been preserved like Noah and rescued like Lot?

This brighter side is wanting in Jude, so that in the strictly historical illustrations this Epistle is more full than the other (see Note on 2Peter 2:15 ); it is where apocryphal books seem to be alluded to that St. Jude has more detail. The filthy conversation.—Literally, behaviour in wantonness (comp. 2Peter 2:2; 2Peter 2:18)—i.e., licentious mode of life. The word for “conversation,” or “behaviour,” is a favourite one with St. Peter—six times in the First Epistle, twice in this (2Peter 3:11); elsewhere in the New Testament only five times. Of the wicked.—Literally, of the lawless—a word peculiar to this Epistle; we have it again in 2Peter 3:17. The word translated “abominable” in 1Peter 4:3 is closely allied to it. The judgment on Sodom and Gomorrha forms a fitting complement to that of the Flood as an instance of God’s vengeance, a judgment by fire being regarded as more awful than a judgment by flood, as is more distinctly shown in 2Peter 3:6-7, where the total destruction of the world by fire is contrasted with the transformation of it wrought by the Flood.