2 Peter 2

 

 1 But (1) (*) there were false prophets also among the (a) people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, which privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that hath bought them, and bring upon themselves swift damnation.

 

(1) As in times past there were two kinds of Prophets, the one true and the other false, so Peter foretelleth them that there shall be some true and some false teachers in the Church, in so much that Christ himself shall be denied of some, which notwithstanding shall call him redeemer.

(*) Acts 20:29; 1 Timothy 4:2; Jude 1:11 .
(a) Under the Law, while the state and policy of the Jews was yet standing.

 

 2  (2) And many shall follow their (*) damnable ways, by whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of,

 

(2) There shall not only be heresies, but also many followers of them.

(*) Or, insolent and wanton.

 

 3  (3) And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make (b) (*) merchandise of you, (4) whose judgment long since resteth not, and their destruction slumbereth not.

 

(3) Covetousness for the most part is a companion of heresy, and maketh merchandise even of souls.
(b) They will abuse you, and sell you as they sell cattle in a Fair.

(*) This evidently seen in the Pope and his Priests, which by lies and flatteries sell men's souls, so that it is certain that he is not the successor of Simon Peter, but of Simon Magus.
(4) Comfort for the godly: God who cast the Angels that fell away from him headlong into the darkness of hell, at length to be judged; and who destroyed the old world with the flood, and preserved Noah the eighth person, and who burned Sodom, and saved Lot, will deliver his elect from these errors, and will utterly destroy those unrighteous.

 

 4 For if God spared not the (*) Angels that had sinned, but cast them down into (c) hell, and delivered them into (d) chains of darkness, to be kept unto damnation;

 

(*) Job 4:18; Jude 1:6 .

(c) So the Grecians called the deep dungeon under the earth, which should be appointed to torment the souls of the wicked in.
(d) Bound them with darkness as it were with chains; and by darkness, he meaneth that most miserable state of life, that is full of horror.

 

 5 Neither hath spared the (e) old world, but saved (*) Noah the eighth person a (f) preacher of righteousness, and brought in the Flood upon the world of the ungodly,

 

(e) Which was before the Flood; not that God made a new world, but because the world seemed new.

(*) Genesis 7:1 .
(f) For he ceased not for the space of one hundred and twenty years to warn the wicked both by word and deed, what wrath of God hanged over their heads.

 

 6 And (*) turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes, condemned them and overthrew them, and made them an example unto them that after should live ungodly,

 

(*) Genesis 19:24 .

 

 7  (*) And delivered just Lot vexed with the uncleanly conversation of the wicked;

 

(*) Genesis 19:16 .

 

 8 (For he being righteous, and dwelling among them, in (g) seeing and hearing, (h) vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds.)

 

(g) Which way soever he looked and turned his ears.
(h) He had a troubled soul, and being vehemently grieved, lived a painful life.

 

 9 The Lord (i) knoweth to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment under punishment.

 

(i) Hath been long practiced in saving and delivering the righteous.

 

 10  (5) And chiefly them that walk after the flesh, in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government, which are presumptuous, and stand in their own conceit, and fear not to speak evil of them that are in (k) dignity.

 

(5) He goeth to another sort of corrupt men, which notwithstanding are within the bosom of the Church, which are wickedly given, and do seditiously speak evil of the authority of Magistrates,
(which the Angels themselves that minister before God, do not dispraise.) A true and lively description of the Romish Clergy (as they call it.)
(k) Princes and great men, be they never so high in authority.

 

 11 Where as the Angels which are greater both in power and might, (*) give not (♣) railing judgment against them before the Lord.

 

(*) 1 Kings 22:22; Job 1:12 .

(♣) Albeit the Angels condemn the vices and iniquity of wicked Magistrates, yet they blame not the authority and power which is given them of God.

 

 12  (6) But these, as (*) natural brute beasts, led with sensuality and (l) made to be taken, and destroyed, speak evil of those things which they know not, and shall perish through their own (m) corruption,

 

(6) A lively painting out of the same persons, wherein they are compared to beasts, which are made to snare themselves to destruction, while they give themselves to fill their bellies; For there is no greater ignorance than is in these men, although they most impudently find fault with those things of which they know not; and it shall come to pass that they shall destroy themselves as beasts, with those pleasures wherewith they are delighted, and dishonor and defile the company of the godly.

(*) As beasts without reason or wit follow whether nature leadeth them; so these wicked men destitute of the Spirit of God, only seek to fulfill their sensuality, and as they are vessels made to destruction, and appointed to this judgment, so they fall into the snares of Satan to their destruction.
(l) Made to this end, to be a prey to others; So do these men willingly cast themselves into Satan's snares.
(m) Their own wicked manners shall bring them to destruction.

 

 13 And shall receive the wages of unrighteousness, as they which count it pleasure daily to live deliciously. (*) Spots they are and blots, (♣) delighting themselves in their deceivings, (n) in feasting with you,

 

(*) Or, little rocks.

(♣) For in your holy feasts they fit as members of the Church whereas indeed they be but spots, and so deceive you, read Jude 1:12 .

(n) When as by being amongst the Christians in the holy banquets which the Church keepeth, they would seem by that means to be true members of the Church, yet they are indeed but blots on the Church.

 

 14  (7) Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease to sin, beguiling unstable souls, they have hearts exercised with covetousness, cursed children;

 

(7) He condemneth those men, as shewing even in their behavior and countenance an immeasurable lust, as making merchandise of the souls of light persons, as men exercised in all the crafts of covetousness, to be short, as men that sell themselves for money to curse the sons of God after Balaam’s example, whom the dumb beast reproved.

 

 15 Which forsaking the right way, have gone astray, following the way of (*) Balaam, the son of Bosor, which loved the wages of unrighteousness.

 

(*) Numbers 22:23; Jude 1:11 .

 

 16 But he was rebuked for his iniquity, for the dumb ass speaking with man’s voice forbade the foolishness of the Prophet.

 

 17  (*) (8) These are (o) wells without water, and (♣) clouds carried about with a tempest, to whom the (p) black darkness is reserved forever.

 

(*) Jude 1:12 .

(8) Another note whereby they may be well known what manner of men they are, because they have inwardly nothing but either utterly vain or very hurtful, although they make a shew of some great goodness, but they shall not escape unpunished for it, because under pretence of false liberty, they draw men into the most miserable slavery of sin.
(o) Which boast of knowledge, and have nothing in them.

(♣) They have some appearance outward, but within they are dry and barren, or at most they cause but a tempest.
(p) Most gross darkness.

 

 18 For in speaking (q) swelling words of vanity, they (r) beguile with wantonness through the lusts of the flesh them that were (s) clean escaped from them which are wrapped in error,

 

(q) They deceive men with vain and swelling words.
(r) They take them as fish are taken with the hook.
(s) Unfeignedly and indeed clean departed from Idolatry.

 

 19 Promising unto them liberty, and are themselves the (*) servants of corruption; for of whomsoever a man is overcome, even unto the same is he in bondage.

 

(*) John 8:34; Romans 6:20 .

 

 20  (9) (*) For if they, after they have escaped from the filthiness of the world, through the (♣) acknowledging of the Lord, and of the Saviour Jesus Christ, are yet tangled again therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.

 

(9) It is better to have never known the way of righteousness, than to turn back from it to the old filthiness; and men that do so are compared to dogs and swine.

(*) Matthew 12:45; Hebrews 6:4; Hebrews 10:26 .

(♣) Which cometh by hearing the Gospel preached.

 

 21 For it had been better for them not to have acknowledged the way of righteousness, than after they have acknowledged it, to turn from the holy (*) commandment given unto them.

 

(*) Or, doctrine.

 

 22 But it is come unto them, according to the true proverb, (*) The dog is returned to his own vomit, and the sow that was washed, to the wallowing in the mire.

 

(*) Proverbs 26:11 .

 

 

Steve

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