2 Peter 2:19

While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. PROMISE THEM LIBERTY - instances of their "great swelling words" (). The liberty which they propose is such as fears not Satan, nor loathes the flesh. Pauline language, adopted by Peter: cf. ; Romans 6:16; ; ; ; : cf....

19._While they promise them liberty. _He shews their inconsistency, that they falsely promised liberty, while they themselves served sin, and were in the worst bondage; for no one can give what he has not. This reason, however, does not seem to be sufficiently valid, because it sometimes happens that wicked men, and wholly unacquainted with Christ, preach usefully concerning the benefits and blessings of Christ. But we must observe, that what is condemned here is vicious doctrine, connected with impurity of life; for the Apostle's design was to obviate the deceptive allurements by which they ensnared the foolish. The name of liberty is sweet, and they abused it for this end, that the hearer, being loosed from the fear of the divine law, might abandon himself unto unbridled licentiousness. But the liberty which Christ has procured for us, and which he offers daily by the gospel, is altoge...

17-22 The word of truth is the water of life, which refreshes the souls that receive it; but deceivers spread and promote error, and are set forth as empty, because there is no truth in them. As clouds hinder the light of the sun, so do these darken counsel by words wherein there is no truth. Seeing that these men increase darkness in this world, it is very just that the mist ofdarkness should be their portion in the next. In the midst of their talk of liberty, these men are the vilest slaves; their own lusts gain a complete victory over them, and they are actually in bondage. When men are entangled, they are easily overcome; therefore Christians should keep close to the word of God, and watch against all who seek to bewilder them. A state of apostacy is worse than a state of ignorance. To bring an evil report upon the good way of God, and a false charge against the way of truth, must e...

Verse 19. _WHILE THEY PROMISE THEM LIBERTY_] Either to live in the highest degrees of spiritual good, or a freedom from the Roman yoke; or from the yoke of the law, or what they might term needless restraints. Their own conduct showed the falsity of their system; for they were slaves to every disgraceful lust. _FOR OF WHOM A MAN IS OVERCOME_] This is an allusion to the ancient custom of selling for slaves those whom they had conquered and captivated in war. The ancient law was, that a man might either kill him whom he overcame in battle, or _keep him_ for a slave. These were called _servi_, slaves, from the verb _servare_, to _keep_ or _preserve_. And they were also called _mancipia_, from _manu capiuntur_, they are taken captive by the hand of their enemy. Thus the person who is overcome by his lusts is represented as being the slave of those lusts. See...

WHILE THEY PROMISE THEM LIBERTY - True religion always promises and produces liberty (see the notes at John 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. This is often the case with those who deride the restraints of serious piety. They are themselves the slaves of appetite, or of the rules of fashionable life, or of the laws of honor, or of vicious indulgences. “He is a freeman whom the truth makes free,

EXPOSITION 2 PETER 2:1 BUT THERE WERE FALSE PROPHETS ALSO AMONG THE PEOPLE; rather, as in the Revised Version, _but there arose false prophets also among the people. _The transition is simple and natural. Besides the true prophets mentioned in the last chapter, who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, there arose false prophets, men who wore "a rough garment to deceive" (Zechariah 13:4), and assumed without warrant the prophetic character. Such pretenders would commonly prophesy false things; but the word ψευδοπροφῆται_ _seems principally to imply the absence of a Divine mission. By "the people" (λαός) is meant the people of Israel, as in Romans 15:

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 suite...

II. THE EVIL TO COME THROUGH FALSE TEACHERS CHAPTER 2 _ 1. The source of the evil (2 Peter 2:1)_ 2. The lessons from the past. (2 Peter 2:4) 3. The description of the apostates (2 Peter 2:11) 2 Peter 2:1 The Apostle Peter is now being used by the Spirit of God to prophesy. He predicts the coming evil for the professing church, that apostate teachers would do their vicious work. As pointed out in the introduction every other writer of the Epistles bears the same witness and that witness is mostly found in the second Epistles and in the Epistle of Jude. (See...

Uttering vain words they snare in the lusts of the flesh those who were just escaping (or, had actually escaped) from heathen vices, promising them liberty, while all the time they are themselves the slaves of sin. Having once been rescued from the defilements of the world, they have again become enslaved, and their last state is worse than their first; better to remain a heathen than become an apostate. 2 PETER 2:22. The first proverb is found in Proverbs 26:11; the second is, apparently, not derived from a Heb. source, and its interpretation is difficult. The sense is, not that the creature has washed itself clean in water (so apparently RV), still less that it has been washed clean (as AV), and then returns to the mud, but that, having once bathed in filth, it never ceases to delight in it (Big

FALSE PROPHETS (2 Peter 2:1) _ 2:1 There were times when false prophets arose among the people, even as amongst you too there will be false teachers, men who will insidiously introduce destructive heresies and deny the Lord who bought them; and by so doing they will bring swift destruction on themselves._ That there should arise false prophets within the Church was something only to be expected, for in every generation false prophets had been responsible for leading God's people astray and for bringing disaster on the nation. It is worth while looking at the false prophets in the Old Testament story for their characteristics were recurring in the time of Peter and are still recurring today. (i) The false prophets were more interested in gaining popularity than in telling the truth. Their policy was to tell people what they wanted to hear. The false prophets said, "P