also there shall be false teachers, who shall privily bring in
destructive heresies, denying even the Master that bought them,
bringing upon themselves swift destruction._ It is as though the
Apostle would say, Be not unduly dismayed. The lamp of Old Testament
prophecy shows that yours is a lot which has befallen others. As
Israel of old was God's people, so the Church of Christ is now. And
among them again and again false prophets arose, not only those of
Baal and Asherah, not only those who served the calves at Dan and
Bethel, but those who called themselves by Jehovah's name, and of
whom He says to Jeremiah, "The prophets prophesy lies in My name; I
sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake I unto
them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a
thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart" (Jer. xiv. 14). The
picture is exactly repeated for these Asian Churches. False teaching
had attached itself to the true, used its language, and professed to
be at one with it, except in so far as it was superior. For the
history of corruptions in the faith repeats itself, and--
"Wherever God erects a house of prayer,
The devil always builds a chapel there."
It is the most perilous aspect of error when it parades itself as the
truest truth. Hence the name by which St. Peter calls this dangerous
teaching: "destructive heresies." They beguile unstable souls to their
ruin. Their exponents choose the name of Christ to call themselves by,
but cast aside the doctrine of the Cross both in its discipline for
their lives, and as the altar of human redemption. And the men to whom
St. Peter alludes were either among the teachers, or put themselves
forward to teach; and there was a danger lest their authority should
be recognised. They accepted Christ, but not as He loves to be
accepted. He has called Himself Lord and Master, and has paid the
price which makes Him so; but by their interpretations both of His
nature and His office these men in very deed renounced and deserted
His service, ignored their relation as His bondservants, and in this
way denied the Master that bought them. Soon they chose other masters
and became the slaves of the world and the flesh. Thus they entered on
the path that leads to destruction, and soon it will come upon them.
They who destroyed others shall themselves be destroyed. The lords
whom they serve have all their empire in this life; and when the end
thereof comes, it comes all too soon, and is a dread overthrow of
everything they have set store by. On their lot the lamp of prophecy
sheds its light: "How suddenly do they perish and come to a fearful
end."
_And many shall follow their lascivious doings; by reason of whom the
way of the truth shall be evil spoken of._ St. Jude, who had seen the
results of such teaching, says these men turned the very grace of God
into lasciviousness; they perverted the teachings of the Gospel
concerning the freedom which is in Christ, and their phraseology they
made to have a Pauline ring about it. Did he not teach how Christ had
made men free? Had they not heard from him that men should cast off
trust in the bondage of the Law? In this wise they taught a doctrine
of lawless self-indulgence, which they extolled as the token of entire
emancipation and of a loftier nature on which the taint of sins could
leave no defilement. In the blindness of their hearts, self-chosen
blindness, of which they boasted as knowledge, they gave themselves
over to the flesh, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
St. Peter knows that baits of this sort appeal to the natural man;
that there is within the citadel of the heart a traitorous weakness
which is ready to betray it to the enemy. So, with prophetic
foresight, he laments, Many shall follow after them. And such sinners
do not sin unto themselves: their falling away brings calamity on the
whole Church of Christ. It did so then; it does so still. The faithful
cannot escape from the obloquy which is due to the faithless; and the
world, which cares little for Christ, will readily point to the evil
lives which it sees in the renegade brethren, and draw the conclusion
that in secret the rest run to the same excess of riot. Evil-speaking
of this kind became abundantly common in the first Christian
centuries, and furnishes the object of many Christian apologies.
_And in covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of
you._ St. Paul in writing to Timothy gives a comment which throws much
light on these words. He tells of men who consent not to sound words,
even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, thus denying the Master that
bought them. He speaks of them as bereft of the truth, supposing that
godliness is a way of gain; and he adds, "They that desire to be rich
fall into a temptation and a snare, and many foolish and hurtful
lusts, such as drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of
money is a root of all kinds of evil, which some reaching after have
been led astray from the faith, and have pierced themselves through
with many sorrows" (1 Tim. vi. 3-10). From the first days of the
Church's history we see, from the instances of Ananias and Sapphira,
and of Simon, with his offer of money to the Apostles, that both among
the disciples and the would-be teachers covetousness made itself very
apparent. The communistic basis on which the society was constituted
lent itself to the schemes of those who desired to make a gain of
their Christian profession. In the time when St. Peter wrote the evil
had spread. Teachers were discovering that, by a modification or
adaptation of the Christian language and doctrines, they could draw
after them many followers. These were the feigned words to which the
Apostle alludes, and the contributions of their satisfied hearers
were proving a gainful merchandise. The Gnostic teachers were of
various sorts, but of all alike the language was boastful as coming of
superior insight; great, swelling words they spake, having men's
persons in regard because of the prospects of advantage. The evil was
a sore one, and is so wherever it finds entry. And later ages have
also known somewhat of its mischief. It is the wisdom of all Christian
communities so to order themselves that their teachers and guides may
be safe from this temptation. For such teachers do not stop at small
beginnings of error, but prophesy smooth things, and close their eyes
at evil; nay, in this case they seem to have encouraged sensual
living, as though it were an indication of the freedom of which they
boasted.
_Whose sentence now from of old lingereth not, and their destruction
slumbereth not._ In thought the Apostle reads the book of prophecy. It
is as if he said, "It is written in the prophetic word." And when the
overthrow of the sinners comes to pass, those who behold it may say,
"Thus is the prophecy fulfilled." The doom of such sinners is sure.
They may seem to live their lives with impunity for a while, as though
God's eternal law were inoperative; but the issue is certain. None
such escape. God's mills grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small.
And the lot of such men is destruction. Of illustrations the Apostle
chooses three, applying each to a different vice of these teachers of
error. These men were proud; so were the angels that sinned, but their
pride was only a prelude to their fall. These men were disobedient; so
were the antediluvian sinners, and would neither hearken nor turn, and
so the Flood came and swept them all away. These men were sensual; so
were the dwellers in the Cities of the Plain, and their overthrow
remains still a memorial of God's wrath against such sinners. Verily
the sentence of all such men is written from of old.
_For if God spared not angels when they sinned, but cast them down to
hell, and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved unto
judgement._ To each of the three instances which St. Peter adduces the
reader is left to supply the unmistakable conclusion, "Neither will He
spare the sinners of to-day." The sentences are all the more solemn
from their incompleteness. Some have thought that the reference in
this verse is to the narrative found in Gen. vi. 3; but that account
is very full of difficulties, and there is no mention of a judgement
upon those who offended. It seems more sound exposition to take the
Apostle's words as spoken of him concerning whom Christ has told us
(John viii. 44) that he was a murderer from the beginning and stood
not in the truth, and of the condemnation of whose pride St. Paul
speaks to Timothy (1 Tim. iii. 6). For him and for his fellow-sinners
the Gospel teaches us (Matt. xxv. 41) that eternal fire was prepared,
and an apostle (James ii. 19) says that "the devils believe and
shudder," it must be in apprehension of a coming judgement. All that
St. Peter here says is implied in these Scriptural allusions to Satan
and his fall; and it is more prudent to apply to them the highly
figurative language of the Apostle here, which is exactly after his
manner, than to seek for fanciful interpretations of the Mosaic story.
We may rest assured by the way in which these things are spoken of,
though but dimly, by Christ and His Apostles, that they formed a
portion of Jewish religious teaching and constituted part of the faith
of St. Peter and his contemporaries, though there is but little
mention of the fallen angels in the Old Testament.
_And spared not the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven
others, a preacher of righteousness, when He brought a flood upon the
world of the ungodly._ Here the Apostle points to a consolation for
the converts amid their trials. The ungodly do not escape, be their
multitude ever so great. A world full of sinners is involved in one
common overthrow. Nor are the righteous forgotten, though their number
be but few. The lamp of prophecy sheds much light here. Amid all God's
dispensations toward Israel, His faithful ones were the remnant only;
but these were saved by the grace of the Lord, they were brought out
from the destruction, and not forsaken, and had a promise that they
should take root downward and bear fruit upward. The words in which
St. Peter describes the chief person of the few saved in the Deluge
appear intended to point out that feature in Noah's history which most
resembled the lot of the Asian Churches. They were now, as he was of
old, God's heralds in the midst of a naughty world; and to bring to
their minds the thought of his long-sustained opposition and mockery
could hardly fail to nerve them to stand fast. What lot could be more
desperate than the Patriarch's? For a hundred and twenty years by
action and by word he published his message, and it fell on deaf ears;
yet God was guarding him (ἐφύλαξεν) through it all, and
words could not express more complete safety than when the early
record tells us, ere the Flood came, "The Lord shut him in."
_And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned
them with an overthrow, having made them an example unto those that
should live ungodly._ These cities stood in a land fair enough to be
likened to the garden of the Lord. To Lot himself their fertile fields
had been a temptation, and by yielding thereto he brought on himself a
plenitude of sorrow; and the sacred record counts his deliverance
rather to the faith and righteousness of Abraham than to himself. God
remembered Abraham, and brought Lot out of the overthrow. One of the
fairest parts of His world God condemned for the wickedness of them
that inhabited it. Nature was defaced for man's sin, and still lies
desolate as a perpetual homily against such ungodly living as often
comes of wealth and fulness of bread. After such a state were these
false teachers seeking while they made their gain of their disciples;
and in the later times of which St. Jude speaks, having fostered all
that was carnal within and around them, in those things which they
understood naturally, there they cast themselves away.
_And delivered righteous Lot, sore distressed by the lascivious life
of the wicked (for that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing
and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their
lawless deeds)._ The thrice-named righteousness of Lot is perhaps thus
set down because of the struggle which it must have been to maintain
the fear of Abraham's God among such sinful surroundings. Lot was in
the land of the enemy, and his deliverance is pictured as a very
rescue: he was saved, yet so as by fire. He had gone down into the
plain with thoughts of a life of abundance, and it may be of ease, a
contrast to the wandering life which he had hitherto shared with
Abraham. Instead of this he found anguish and distress of mind, which
no amount of temporal prosperity could alleviate; and to this would be
added self-reproach. It was of his own choice that he was dwelling
among them. The Apostle paints his misery in the strongest terms. He
was distressed; and of the sights and sounds on every side, and never
ceasing, he made a torture to his soul. It was no mere offence to him
that these things were so: it was very anguish to see men setting at
defiance every law human and Divine. To behold the evils of a
lascivious life waxing rampant in the midst of the Christian Churches,
and countenanced by those who assumed the office of teachers, must
have been an agony to the faithful akin to that with which Lot
tortured himself. St. Peter would strengthen the drooping hearts of
the brethren; and no greater comfort could there be found than this
which he offers, taking the lamp of prophecy and shedding its rays of
hope into the dark places of their lives.
_The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation._ Already
he has given the lesson (i. 6) that true godliness must have its root
in patience. It is a perfect trust, which rests securely on the
Father's love, and willingly waits His time. The hearts of the
faithful ones must have found solace in the thought which he here
joins to his former teaching. The trials they endure are grievous, but
"The Lord knows" is an unfailing support. The floods of ungodliness
make His servants many a time afraid; but when they feel that there,
as amid the raging ocean, the Lord ruleth, they are not overwhelmed.
They are protected by Omnipotence; and the tiny grains of sand, which
check the fierce tide, are an emblem of how out of weakness He can
ordain strength. Hence there comes a knowledge to the struggling saint
which makes him full of courage, whatever trials threaten. The world
has its wrathful Nebuchadnezzars, whose threats at times are as a
fiery furnace; but he is proof against them all who can say and feel,
"The Lord knows." I am not careful nor disturbed; my God, in whom I
trust, is able to deliver me, and He will deliver me. The Lord knoweth
the way of the godly, and His knowledge means safety and eternal
deliverance.
_And to keep the unrighteous under punishment unto the day of
judgement._ The unrighteous--yes, over them too God keeps ward. They
cannot hide themselves from Him, and through their conscience He makes
life a continuous chastisement. They may seem to men to walk on
heedlessly, but they have hidden tortures of which their fellows can
take no count. Even the offender against human laws, who dreads that
his sin will be found out, carries in his bosom a constant scourge.
Fear hath torment (κόλασιν ἔχει), and this it is of which
the Apostle speaks. And if the dread of man's judgement can work
terror, how much sorer must their alarm be who have the fiery
indignation of the wrath of God in their thoughts and stinging their
soul. Such men are kept all their life long under punishment. Yet in
this constant anguish we trace God's mercy: He sends it that men may
turn in time. His blows on the sinful heart are meant to be remedial;
and those who disregard His chastisements to the last will go away,
self-condemned, self-destroyed, despisers of Divine love, to a doom
prepared, not for them, but for the devil and his angels.
XXIV
"_BY THEIR FRUITS YE SHALL KNOW THEM_"
"But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of
defilement, and despise dominion. Daring, self-willed, they
tremble not to rail at dignities: whereas angels, though greater
in might and power, bring not a railing judgement against them
before the Lord. But these, as creatures without reason, born
mere animals to be taken and destroyed, railing in matters
whereof they are ignorant, shall in their destroying surely be
destroyed, suffering wrong as the hire of wrong-doing; _men_ that
count it pleasure to revel in the daytime, spots and blemishes,
revelling in their lovefeasts while they feast with you; having
eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; enticing
unsteadfast souls; having a heart exercised in covetousness;
children of cursing; forsaking the right way, they went astray
having followed the way of Balaam the _son_ of Beor, who loved
the hire of wrong-doing; but he was rebuked for his own
transgression: a dumb ass spake with man's voice and stayed the
madness of the prophet."--2 PETER ii. 10-16.
The Apostle now pictures in the darkest colours the evil-doing and
evil character of those who are bringing into the Churches their
"sects of perdition," those wolves in sheep's clothing who are mixing
themselves, and are likely to make havoc, among the flock of Christ.
He hopes that thus the brethren, being forewarned, will also be
forearmed. And not only does he describe these bold offenders: he also
reiterates in many forms the certainty of their evil fate. They aim at
destroying others, and shall themselves meet destruction; their
wrong-doing shall bring a recompense in kind upon their own heads.
They are a curse among the people, but the curse will also fall on
themselves; they are agents of ruin, and shall perish in the overthrow
which they are devising.
_But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of defilement,
and despise dominion._ These chiefly--that is, above other
sinners--does God keep under punishment. It cannot be otherwise, for
on them His chastisements have little effect. They have entered on a
road from which return is rare, neither do they take hold on the paths
of life; their whole bent is for that which defileth, not only
defiling them, but spreading defilement on every side. They are
renegades, too, from the service of Christ; and having cast off their
allegiance to Him, they make their lust their law. The verse describes
the same character in two aspects: those who walk after the flesh
follow no prompting but appetite, have no lord but self.
_Daring, self-willed, they tremble not to rail at dignities._ The
Apostle passes on to describe another and more terrible manifestation
of the lawlessness of these false teachers. They have so sunk
themselves in the grossness of material self-indulgence that they
revile and set at nought the spiritual world and the powers that exist
therein. In the term "dignities" the Apostle's thoughts are of the
angels, against whom these sinners scruple not to utter their
blasphemies. The good angels, the messengers from heaven to earth, the
ministering spirits sent forth to minister to those who shall be heirs
of salvation, they are bold to deny; while concerning the evil angels,
to whose temptations they have surrendered themselves, they scoff,
representing their lives as free and self-chosen, and at their own
disposal. The two terms "daring," "self-willed," seem to point
respectively to these two forms of blasphemy. They tremble not, they
dare to deny the existence of the good, and they shrink not to mock at
the influence of the powers of evil. Thus in mind and thought they are
as debased as in their bodies, and by their lessons they corrupt as
much as by their acts.
_Whereas angels, though greater in might and power, bring not a
railing judgement against them before the Lord._ The explanation of
this passage is not without difficulty, because of the indefiniteness
of the words "against them." To whom is reference here made? It can
hardly be questioned that by δόξαι, "dignities," literally
"glories," in the previous verse the Apostle meant angels, the
dignities of the spirit-world, in contradistinction to κυριότης,
"dominion," in which he before referred to those earthly
authorities whom these false teachers set at nought. The verbs used in
the two clauses support this view. The dominion they venture to
despise, at the dignities they rail, whereas they ought to be afraid
of them. Now even to the fallen angels there attaches a dignity by
reason of their first estate. In the New Testament the chief of them
is called by Christ Himself the "prince of this world" (John xiv. 30),
and by St. Paul "the prince of the power of the air" (Eph. ii. 2); and
he has a sovereignty over those who shared his rebellion and his fall.
Having described the railing of the false teachers in the previous
verse as directed alike against the evil angels and the good, it seems
preferable here to take "against them" as applying to the evil angels.
Even against them, though they must be conscious of their sin and
rebellion against God, the good angels, who still abide in the
presence of the Lord, bring no railing judgement, utter no reproach or
upbraiding.
There may have been in St. Peter's thought that solemn scene depicted
in Zech. iii., where, in the presence of the angel of the Lord, that
highest angel who is Jehovah's special representative, Joshua the
high-priest appears, and at his right hand Satan standing to be his
adversary, and to charge him, and the nation through him, with their
remissness in the work of the restoration of God's temple. There the
angel of the Lord, full of mercy, as Satan was full of hate, checked
the adversary's accusation, saying, "The Lord rebuke thee, Satan." The
same application of the words "against them" is suggested by the
apocryphal illustration in St. Jude (ver. 9), where in the contention
about the body of Moses no greater rebuke is administered to the devil
by the archangel Michael.
This exposition does not remove all difficulty. For as the angels in
the verse appear to be spoken of as superior in might and power to
these corrupt teachers, it seems natural at first sight to refer to
them the indefinite expression, and to explain that the angels, though
they be so exalted, bring no railing judgement before God against
these teachers and their evil doings. But from what Scripture tells us
of the angels, it is not easy to understand how or why they should
bring such a judgement. Nowhere is such an office assigned to, or
exercised by, these spiritual beings, nor are we anywhere told that
the observance of the deeds of the wicked is in their province. They
rejoice over one sinner that repenteth; they stand in God's presence
as the representatives of spotless innocence; they are sent forth by
God as His messengers of judgement and of love; but we never find them
as accusers of the wicked. That office Satan has taken for his own.
But the words which the Apostle uses seem hardly to make it necessary
that the comparison should be between angels and these teachers of
destruction. In the passage of Zechariah which we judge to have been
in St. Peter's mind when he wrote, the angel is that mightiest spirit
among the angelic host who is identified in the language of the
prophet with Jehovah Himself; and the angel in St. Jude's illustration
is the archangel Michael. Conceiving that by "angels" St. Peter
intends these chief members of the celestial powers, the sentence may
be taken to mean that the most glorious beings among the angelic
throng, those who are greater in might and power than the "dignities"
of whom he has spoken, bring no railing judgement even against the
fallen angels, whereas these men presume to blaspheme beings of an
order far above themselves. Such a conception of subordination in the
spirit-world as is here suggested is not foreign to New Testament
thought. St. Paul speaks of the angels in heaven as representing
"principality, power, might, and dominion" (Eph. i. 21); and in the
same Epistle the evil angels are mentioned in like terms: "the
principalities, the powers, the world-rulers of this darkness" (vi.
12). Similar language is found also in Col. i. 16. Taking this view of
St. Peter's meaning, the daring and presumption of these false
teachers are set in a stronger contrast. Whereas the highest angels,
those who stand first among the heavenly host and dwell in the
immediate presence of the Lord, though they might accuse Satan and his
angels of rebellion, yet refrain; these bold transgressors among the
race of men cast forth their blasphemy against the whole spiritual
world.