(12-13a) Their spiritual doom is sealed.
But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption, and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime.
a. Like natural brute beasts: Since they function in the flesh, not the spirit, they are like animals. They are fit only for destruction (made to be caught and destroyed) and they are ignorant.
b. And will receive the wages of unrighteousness: The ungodly will be “paid” for their evil – and their fleshly lives will be paid the wages of unrighteousness.
i. “What these evil men, who were troubling Peter’s people, were doing, was to say that they loved and served Christ, while the things they taught and did were a complete denial of him.” (Barclay)
3. (13b-17) A list of the sins of the false teachers.
They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children. They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet. These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
a. Carousing in their own deceptions: These ungodly false teachers are a dangerous and corrupting presence in the body of Christ, not only deceiving others but deceiving themselves also.
i. “The word here rendered riot [carousing], comes of a root that signifies to break, for there is nothing that doth so break and emasculate the minds of men as rioting and reveling; luxury draws out a man’s spirits, and dissolves him.” (Trapp)
b. Having eyes full of adultery: Their heart is set on the flesh, and their eyes on adultery, both spiritual and sexual. They prey on the unstable to join them in their ways (enticing unstable souls).
i. Literally, Peter wrote that their eyes are full of an adulterous woman. “They lust after every girl they see; they view every female as a potential adulteress.” (Green)
c. They have a heart trained in covetous practices: They are equipped, but not for ministry, only for selfish gain – they are truly accursed. We all train our hearts in something, either training them in covetousness and lust, or in godliness.
i. “The metaphor is taken from the agonistae in the Grecian games, who exercised themselves in those feats, such as wrestling, boxing, running, etc., in which they proposed to contend in the public games. These persons had their hearts schooled in nefarious practices; they had exercised themselves until they were perfectly expert in all the arts of seduction, overreaching, and every kind of fraud.” (Clarke)
d. Following the way of Balaam: They are like Balaam, who was guilty of the greatest of sins – leading others into sin, and that for the sake of his own gain. Balaam had to be restrained by a dumb donkey because he would not listen to God.
e. These are wells without water: These ungodly false teachers are empty – as useless as wells without water – and like clouds that bring only darkness, and no nourishing rain.
4. (18-19) The allure of the false teachers.
For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.
a. They speak great swelling words of emptiness: The message of the ungodly false teachers is empty of real spiritual content, though it is swollen big with words. Their allure is to the lusts of the flesh in their audience, just as the crowds who wanted bread from Jesus, but didn’t want Jesus Himself (John 6:25-27, 6:47-66).
b. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves: They promise freedom, but freedom can never be found in the flesh, only in God’s Spirit. Freedom isn’t found in what Jesus can give us, but only in Jesus Himself. When we seek freedom in the wrong way, we become slaves of corruption (decay and death).
c. By him also he is brought into bondage: In being overcome by the flesh and the false teachers, these unfortunates became slaves to both.
5. (20-22) The danger of falling away and following after false teachers
For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”
a. The latter end is worse for them than the beginning: It is better for a person to have never known a thing about Jesus than to hear some truth, hold to it for a season, and then later reject it. Greater revelation has a greater accountability.
i. Their end is worse … than the beginning because they have returned to the pollutions of the world. “These [pollutions] are called miasmata, things that infect, pollute, and defile… St. Augustine has improved on this image: ‘The whole world,’ says he, ‘is one great diseased man, lying extended from east to west, and from north to south; and to heal this great sick man, the almighty Physician descended from heaven.’” (Clarke)
b. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness: Peter described a picture that certainly has the appearance of people losing their salvation.
· He speaks of those who have escaped the pollutions of the world.
· He speaks of those who did this through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
· He speaks of those who at one time had known the way of righteousness.
i. Christians warmly debate the issue of whether or not it is possible for a true Christian to ever lose their status as a true Christian and fall away to damnation. Perhaps the best way of understanding the issue is to say that it is certainly true that those who appear saved – those who fit the description of Peter here – can end up in a place where it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness.
ii. Regarding these, those with a Reformed perspective will say that they were actually never saved; those with an Arminian perspective will say that they were actually saved and lost their salvation. To bitterly divide along the lines of this debate – which focuses on things that are unknowable to outside observation – seems to fall into the category of being obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, as in 1 Timothy 6:4.
c. A dog returns to his own vomit: The nature as dogs is displayed by the way he returns to the vomit of the flesh and the world. He is like the brute beasts described in 2 Peter 2:12, more animal than godly because he lives for the flesh.
i. “The dog which has got rid of the corruption inside it through vomiting it up cannot leave well enough alone; it goes sniffing around the vomit again.” (Green)