2 Peter 2:3-9, Certainty of Judgment

The similarities of 2 Peter 2:3-9 and Jude 1:5-7 are obvious.  It is possible one had read the other.  This in no way denies the inspiration of either.  They are dealing with a similar problem and did so by applying the “Apostles doctrine.”

Peter affirms God’s judgment upon false teachers.  Leading God’s people astray with deceptive words is no minor issue.  Their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.  He uses several OT illustrations to prove his case.

·        2:4-5 (Gen. 6-9, esp. 6:1-4): Some consider the angels who sinned as referring to Satan who sinned and was cast out of heaven along with other angels who took his side.  I prefer the position that these angels were the sons of God who inhabited humans, the men of renown mentioned in Gen. 6:4.  The chains of darkness refer to the Abyss, a term used in Luke 8:31 when the demons begged Jesus not to send them there.  Rev. 9:1-12 speaks of demons who are released from the Abyss briefly to torment the earth.  Satan will be bound there during the earthly reign of Christ (Rev. 20:1-3).  Peter uses a term (tartarus, trans. hell NKJV) that is the Greek term for the abode of the wicked dead.  It is the only use of this term in the NT.  Thus its definition is found in this verse: it is a place where demons are reserved for future judgment.  In that sense it is not “hell”, the lake of fire.  Thus, in the flood, these troublemakers were judged along with the ancient world, the ungodly who rejected the preaching of Noah.  At the same time God saved Noah and his family.

·        2:6-8 (Gen. 19): The judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah was a similar kind of situation.  God destroyed these cities for their extreme wickedness.  As Peter said, they became an example to this day, a warning to those who continue to live ungodly lives.  And as He did with Noah and his family, so God delivered righteous Lot and his family (other than his wife who turned back from the safety she could have had by staying with her husband).  

Some people struggle with the thought that Lot was righteous.  He did, after all, choose to live in Sodom, leaving Abraham the seemingly worse farm location (Gen. 13:5-13).  Even worse, Lot was ready to give his daughters to the mob of Sodomites for their sexual gratification so as to save the men who had taken safety in his house (Gen. 19:1-11).  But the proper understanding is that Lot hated the sin of the society where he chose to live; as Peter says, he was tormented by it.  He tried to reprove them in a terrible way but the attempt showed where his heart was.  In answer to Abraham’s prayer (Gen. 18:16-33), God delivered righteous Lot while judging the ungodly.


The point is this: the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment.  The “reserving” shows that judgment has not been idle; it has begun.  But it also implies there is more and greater judgment to come.  Let us not doubt these truths but trust the Lord to keep His promise to judge as well as to be faithful in delivering the righteous.