The general subject of this chapter is stated in the first verse, and it embraces these points: (1)That it might be expected that there would be false teachers among Christians, as there were false prophets in ancient times; (2)That they would introduce destructive errors, leading many astray; and... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT THERE WERE FALSE PROPHETS ALSO AMONG THE PEOPLE - In the previous chapter, 2 Peter 2:19, Peter had appealed to the prophecies as containing unanswerable proofs of the truth of the Christian religion. He says, however, that he did not mean to say that all who claimed to be prophets were true mess... [ Continue Reading ]
AND MANY SHALL FOLLOW THEIR PERNICIOUS WAYS - Margin: “lascivious.” A large number of manuscripts and versions read “lascivious” here - ἀσελγείαις aselgeiais - instead of “pernicious” - ἀπωλείαις apōleiais (see Wetstein), and this reading is adopted in the editions of the Greek Testament by Tit... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THROUGH COVETOUSNESS - This shows what one of the things was by which they were influenced - a thing which, like licentiousness, usually exerts a powerful influence over the teachers of error. The religious principle is the strongest that is implanted in the human bosom: and men who can obtain a... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR IF GOD SPARED NOT THE ANGELS THAT SINNED - The apostle now proceeds to the proof of the proposition that these persons would be punished. It is to be remembered that they had been, or were even then, professing Christians, though they had really, if not in form, apostatized from the faith 2 Pete... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SPARED NOT THE OLD WORLD - The world before the flood. The argument here is, that he cut off that wicked race, and thus showed that he would punish the guilty. By that awful act of sweeping away the inhabitants of a world, he showed that people could not sin with impunity, and that the incorrigi... [ Continue Reading ]
AND TURNING THE CITIES OF SODOM AND GOMORRHA INTO ASHES - Genesis 19:24. This is a third example to demonstrate that God will punish the wicked. Compare the notes at Jude 1:7. The word here rendered “turning into ashes” τεφρωσας tephrōsas, occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It is from τέφρα... [ Continue Reading ]
AND DELIVERED JUST LOT - Genesis 19:16. This case is incidentally referred to, to show that God makes a distinction between the righteous and the wicked; and that while the latter will be destroyed, the former will be saved. See 2 Peter 2:9. Lot is called “just,” because he preserved himself unconta... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THAT RIGHTEOUS MAN DWELLING AMONG THEM - The Latin Vulgate renders this, “For in seeing and hearing he was just;” meaning that he maintained his uprightness, or that he did not become contaminated by the vices of Sodom. Many expositors have supposed that this is the correct rendering; but the mo... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD KNOWETH ... - That is, the cases referred to show that God is able to deliver his people when tempted, and understands the best way in which it should be done. He sees a way to do it when we cannot, though it is often a way which we should not have thought of. He can send an angel to take h... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT CHIEFLY - That is, it may be presumed that the principles just laid down would be applicable in an eminent degree to such persons as he proceeds to designate. THAT WALK AFTER THE FLESH - That live for the indulgence of their carnal appetites. Notes, Romans 8:1. IN THE LUST OF UNCLEANNESS - In... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREAS ANGELS - The object, by the reference to angels here, is to show that they, even when manifesting the greatest zeal in a righteous cause, and even when opposing others, did not make use of reproachful terms, or of harsh and violent language. It is not known precisely to what Peter alludes he... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT THESE, AS NATURAL BRUTE BEASTS - These persons, who resemble so much irrational animals which are made to be taken and destroyed. The point of the comparison is, that they are like fierce and savage beasts that exercise no control over their appetites, and that seeM to be made only to be destroy... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SHALL RECEIVE THE REWARD OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS - The appropriate recompense of their wickedness in the future world. Such people do not always receive the due recompense of their deeds in the present life; and as it is a great and immutable principle that all will be treated, under the government o... [ Continue Reading ]
HAVING EYES FULL OF ADULTERY - Margin, as in the Greek, “an adulteress;” that is, gazing with desire after such persons. The word “full” is designed to denote that the corrupt passion referred to had wholly seized and occupied their minds. The eye was, as it were, full of this passion; it saw nothin... [ Continue Reading ]
WHICH HAVE FORSAKEN THE RIGHT WAY - The straight path of honesty and integrity. Religion is often represented as a straight path, and to do wrong is to go out of that path in a crooked way. FOLLOWING THE WAY OF BALAAM THE SON OF BOSOR - See Numbers 22:5, following. In the Book of Numbers, Balaam is... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT WAS REBUKED FOR HIS INIQUITY - The object of Peter in this seems to be to show that God employed the very extraordinary means of causing the ass on which he rode to speak, because his iniquity was so monstrous. The guilt of thus debasing his high office, and going forth to curse the people of Go... [ Continue Reading ]
THESE ARE WELLS WITHOUT WATER - Jude 1:12 employs several other epithets to describe the same class of persons. The language employed both by Peter and Jude is singularly terse, pointed, and emphatic. Nothing to an oriental mind would be more expressive than to say of professed religious teachers, t... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR WHEN THEY SPEAK GREAT SWELLING WORDS OF VANITY - When they make pretensions to wisdom and learning, or seem to attach great importance to what they say, and urge it in a pompous and positive manner. Truth is simple, and delights in simple statements. It expects to make its way by its own intrins... [ Continue Reading ]
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 THEMSE... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR IF AFTER THEY HAVE ESCAPED THE POLLUTIONS OF THE WORLD - This does not necessarily mean that they had been true Christians, and had fallen from grace. People may outwardly reform, and escape from the open corruptions which prevail around them, or which they had themselves practiced, and still ha... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR IT HAD BEEN BETTER FOR THEM ... - Compare the notes at Matthew 26:24. It would have been better for them, for: (1)Then they would not have dishonored the cause of religion as they have now done; (2)They would not have sunk so deep in profligacy as they now have; and, (3)They would not have in... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT IT IS HAPPENED UNTO THEM ACCORDING TO THE TRUE PROVERB - The meaning of the proverbs here quoted is, that they have returned to their former vile manner of life. Under all the appearances of reformation, still their evil nature remained, as really as that of the dog or the swine, and that nature... [ Continue Reading ]