2 Peter 2:13

2 Peter 2:13 ‘suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong. They count it. pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you,'

‘suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong' -‘suffering themselves, as the penalty for the suffering they have inflicted' (TCNT) Compare with Galatians 6:7; Romans 1:27; Colossians 3:25; Acts 1:18. The KJV reads ‘And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness'. Besides spiritual death (Romans 6:23), and eternal death, sin also has earthly consequences. ‘Such pleasure is corrupt and has in it the seeds of corruption and destruction. The aim of the man who gives himself to such fleshly things is pleasure; and his tragedy is that in the end he loses even the pleasure…if. man makes them his only joy, in the end he so ruins himself in bodily health and in spiritual and mental character, that he cannot even enjoy them…the glutton destroys his appetite in the end; the drunkard ruins his health; the sensualist destroys his own body; the self-indulgent ruins his own character and his own piece of mind…..In themselves they lose their thrill, so that as time goes on it takes more and more of them to satisfy…everything must be done to make the thrill sharper and more intense' (Barclay pp. 391-392) See also 2 Timothy 3:13.

‘They count it. pleasure to revel in the daytime' -‘Revel'-‘indulgence, reveling' (Arndt p. 828). ‘pleasure'-from whence we get the English word “hedonism”. ‘in the daytime'-‘They think that pleasure consists in the indulgence of the moment' (TCNT). Even the pagans considered drunkenness in the daytime to be inexcusable (1 Thessalonians 5:7). Usually most worldly people keep their sins private, and reserve participation in some vice for the night hours. But the above individuals have ceased to care what other people think, they are brazen and bold and have lost the ability to blush or feel ashamed of their sins (Jeremiah 2:12).

‘They are stains and blemishes' -‘Stains'-‘a moral blemish' (Thayer p. 584) (Ephesians 5:27) ‘Blemishes'-‘blot, disgrace, insult' (Thayer p. 420). ‘they are. stain and disgrace' (TCNT) ‘These men, because of their licentious behavior, were disgraces to society, and certainly to true religion, or genuine spiritual living.' (Oberst p. 310)

Points to Note:

In this context we clearly seen the relationship between false doctrine and immorality. It is impossible to have. message that is morally pure and yet doctrinally corrupt. 2. Not only are such men turning non-Christians off from the truth (2 Peter 2:2), but are also tainting the Church. Jesus expects His body to be without stain (Ephesians 5:27); therefore, such men need to be removed (Matthew 18:15).

‘reveling in their deceptions' -‘reveling'-‘to live in luxury, live delicately' (Thayer p. 219). ‘deceptions'-The Manuscripts here vary between ‘deceivings' and ‘love feasts'. Judges 1:12 ‘these are they who are hidden rocks in your love feasts when they feast with you, shepherds that without fear feed themselves.'

‘as they carouse with you' -‘to entertain together, to feast sumptuously with' (Thayer p. 604); ‘to feed abundantly' (Robertson p. 167); ‘the word originally conveys the idea of ‘sumptuous feasting' (Vincent p. 698). ‘that stuff themselves at your tables by means of their deceptions' (Ber).

Points to Note:

At this point many denominational writers cite what was known as the ‘love feast' that arose after the days of the apostles. It was supposedly. meal before the Lord's Supper, at which the poorer Christians mingled with the wealthier and partook in common with the rest of the food provided by the wealthy. This apparently was incorporated from the meals which non-Christians had enjoyed in various pagan brotherhoods. As time went on the love feast became something completely detached from the Lord's Supper. 2. We know that such. feast isn't under consideration in these passages, for Paul directly commanded the Corinthians to have all social meals outside of the assembly (1 Corinthians 11:22; 1 Corinthians 11:34). Thus the ‘love-feast' found in post-apostolic times is not what is being referred to in the above passages. The ‘love-feast' described in post-apostolic writings probably grew out of the desire among some Christians to combine the religious and fraternal meals they had enjoyed in trade guilds, etc…with the worship of the New Testament Church. 3. The love-feast here doesn't appear to be the Lord's Supper, for it does appear that they false teachers were gorging themselves. 4. It makes more sense to say that the love-feasts were simply the meals that Christians enjoyed with other Christians in their own homes (Acts 2:46). 5. This reveals how these false teachers were being able to live such pampered lives. They were taking advantage of the hospitality given by other Christians (2 Peter 2:3). Not only were they eating everything in sight, and taking advantage of every free meal they could find. In addition, the expression ‘hidden rocks' in Judges 1:12. seems to indicate that they were using this time to spread their error to their unsuspecting hosts and other guests. 6. The statement ‘reveling in their deceptions' could infer that these men were secretly enjoying how they were completely fooling and taking advantage of other Christians. They really thought that they had everyone fooled.