Scripture Daily

Context No. 1491 of 4322 · 2 Peter

Context · Reflection

2 Peter 2:1-16: in context

1But false prophets also arose among the people, as false teachers will also be among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master who bought them, bringing on themselves swift destruction. 2Many will follow their immoral ways, and as a result, the way of the truth will be maligned. 3In covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words: whose sentence now from of old doesn’t linger, and their destruction will not slumber. 4For if God didn’t spare angels when they sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus, and committed them to pits of darkness to be reserved for judgment; 5and didn’t spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly, 6and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, having made them an example to those who would live in an ungodly way, 7and delivered righteous Lot, who was very distressed by the lustful life of the wicked 8(for that righteous man dwelling among them was tormented in his righteous soul from day to day with seeing and hearing lawless deeds), 9then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, 10but chiefly those who walk after the flesh in the lust of defilement and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, 11whereas angels, though greater in might and power, don’t bring a slanderous judgment against them before the Lord. 12But these, as unreasoning creatures, born natural animals to be taken and destroyed, speaking evil in matters about which they are ignorant, will in their destroying surely be destroyed, 13receiving the wages of unrighteousness; people who count it pleasure to revel in the daytime, spots and defects, reveling in their deceit while they feast with you; 14having eyes full of adultery, and who can’t cease from sin, enticing unsettled souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children! 15Forsaking the right way, they went astray, having followed the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of wrongdoing; 16but he was rebuked for his own disobedience. A speechless donkey spoke with a man’s voice and stopped the madness of the prophet.

Peter warns that false teachers will arise, secretly bringing in destructive errors, exploiting people with deceptive words out of greed, following, he says, the way of Balaam, who loved the wages of wrongdoing. But in the middle of the warning he sets a series of examples of God's dealings, the fallen angels, the flood from which Noah was preserved, Sodom from which Lot was rescued, and draws a conclusion: the Lord knows how to rescue the godly out of trial, and to hold the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment.

Amid a stern warning about false teachers and corruption, Peter plants a firm comfort: the Lord knows how to rescue the godly out of trial and to keep the unrighteous for judgment. He grounds it in examples. When the flood came, God preserved Noah; when Sodom burned, God delivered Lot, who had been tormented day after day by the wickedness around him. God did not abandon his own to share the fate of the corrupt around them; he knew how to rescue them out of it. And the same God who rescues the godly knows how to hold the unrighteous, the false teachers and the corrupt, under judgment until the appointed day. There is real assurance in this for anyone who feels surrounded by corruption, weary of the wickedness around them, or troubled that the false and the greedy seem to prosper. Two truths stand together. First, God knows how to rescue his own; the godly caught in a corrupt world, like Lot in Sodom, are not forgotten or abandoned to the fate of the wicked. Second, the unrighteous do not finally get away; God holds them for judgment, and their apparent prosperity is a delay, not an escape. Whatever the false teachers seem to gain, and however corrupt the surrounding world, the Lord knows how to deliver the godly and to reckon with the unrighteous in his time. The one who preserved Noah and rescued Lot has not lost that knowledge.

When I feel surrounded by corruption, or troubled that the false and greedy seem to prosper, can I rest in Peter's assurance, that the Lord knows how to rescue the godly out of trial and to hold the unrighteous for judgment, as he preserved Noah and delivered Lot?

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