2 Peter 2:10

but chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness Literally, in the lust of defilement, the genitive being either that of a characterising attribute, or implying that those of whom the writer speaks had fallen to a depth of baseness in which they seemed to desire impurity for its own sake, apart even from the mere pleasure of indulged appetite. (Comp. Romans 1:28.) In the parallel passage of Jude, 2 Peter 2:7, we have the addition "going after strange flesh." The Apostle seems to have in view the darker forms of impurity which were common throughout the Roman Empire (Romans 1:24-28). St Paul uses the cognate verb in Titus 1:15.

and despise government More literally, lordship, or, perhaps better, dominion. In Ephesians 1:21; Colossians 1:16 the word seems used of angelic authorities. Here apparently, as in Jude 2 Peter 2:8, the abstract noun is used as including all forms of authority, just as St Paul uses "power" in Romans 13:1-2.

Presumptuous are they Better, Daring, or perhaps, Darers.

they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities Better, they do not tremble as they blaspheme (or revile) glories. The last word may be used like "principalities" and "powers," as including all forms of the dignity that gives glory, but the context seems to shew that it also is used with special reference to angels. This passage, with the parallel in Jude, 2 Peter 2:8-9, suggests the inference that the undue "worshipping of angels" in the Judaizing Gnosticism which had developed out of the teaching of the Essenes (Colossians 2:18) had been met by its more extreme opponents with coarse and railing mockery as to all angels whether good or evil, and that the Apostle felt it necessary to rebuke this licence of speech as well as that which paid no respect to human authority.