2 Peter 2:21

For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness The verb for "known" is, like the noun in the preceding verse, that which implies the fullest form of knowledge, as in 1 Corinthians 13:12; 2 Corinthians 6:9; 1 Timothy 4:3. The "way of righteousness" is like the "way of truth" in 2 Peter 2:2, a comprehensive description of the religion of Christ as a whole, regarded here in its bearing on life, as there in its relation to belief.

to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them The word "delivered" implies, as in Luke 1:2; 1Co 11:2; 1 Corinthians 11:23; 1 Corinthians 15:3; Jude, 2 Peter 2:3, the oral teaching of the elements of Christian faith and life which was imparted to all converts prior to their baptism. Stress is laid on the "commandment" because the Apostle is contemplating chiefly the sins of impurity of which the heresiarchs had been guilty rather than their dogmatic heresies as such.