Not everyone who speaks in the spirit is a prophet, but only if he follows behaviorally in the path of the Lord. Accordingly, from their conduct the false prophet and the true prophet will be known.

It is typical of false teachers that they cannot accept the full equality of the persons of the Trinity.

Peter says this so that people will not just listen to everyone who claims to be a prophet, without discerning whether they really are or not. He tells them to be careful not to listen to false prophets instead of the true ones.

They revile the way of truth because they have turned orthodox doctrine into heresy, or because they have rejected the rule given to them at their baptism, or because they have abandoned the way of truth.

The heresy of the Nicolaitans^[1] had already appeared at that time. Peter says that it was evil in two ways. The Nicolaitans were wrong in their doctrine, and they were also wicked in their behavior. It reminds us of what was said about the Jews: Because of you my name is blasphemed among the Gentiles.^[2]

The way of truth will be blasphemed by the heretics not only in those people whom they manage to win over to their errors but also in those who reject Christianity by the wicked things which they see these heretics doing, and because they know no better, imagine that all Christians must be caught up in the same depravity.

Peter says this in order to persuade his hearers to avoid the heresy of the Nicolaitans, who were guilty of a double sin. For not only was their doctrine most ungodly, their lives also were totally obscene.

The destruction of these people comes from none other than the God of Israel, who is never idle or asleep.

They were doing this for money. Excess is sometimes geared toward wickedness and sometimes toward profit, but here the addition of the word exploit makes the meaning clear. They will indeed have their reward, which is death. The phrase of old indicates God’s foreknowledge of what they would do. For just as God foresaw who would be good and prepared good things for them in heaven, so he also foresaw who would be evil and prepared the other place for them.

If the condemnation of these people started such a long time ago, we can be sure that it will not end any time soon.

The angels were in heaven and were thrown into the abyss. But on the other hand, Elijah^[1] and Enoch^[2] were raised into the kingdom of heaven.

It is a fixed and unchanging religious truth that the devil and his angels are never to return to the life and holiness of the saints. From Scripture we know that God’s sentence implies that he dragged them down by infernal ropes to Tartarus and delivered them to be tortured and kept in custody for judgment. They will be received into everlasting fire and there tortured forever and ever.

When Christ came from heaven, he bound the leaders of the demons in hell. This is clear from the way in which he commanded the spirits, lest they be thrown into the abyss. For he bound some and ordered others to depart, as we can see from sayings like Look, I have given you power over unclean spirits;^[1] Cast out demons,^[2] and so on. Afterwards, in order to perfect the punishment of those whom he had earlier bound, he cast them into eternal fire.^[3]

The angels sinned in three ways, by their pride, by their envy and by their lust. In this verse it is made clear that sin can occur even if it is not done overtly in the flesh. It is obvious that the essence of sin is consent to do evil.

It is to be remembered that the wicked angels were not created that way by God. They became evil by their own sins. Therefore they too will have to undergo the last judgment, even though they have already been cast into the fiery prison of the lower depths. Hell is referred to in this way in order to emphasize that it is as far away from the heights of heaven as it can possibly be.

If God did not spare the rebellious angels, who had stood in honor before him because of the immortality of their nature, how much less will he spare mere humans, whom he has created out of perishable matter!

The ungodliness of those who lived in the time from Adam to Noah was what caused the flood.

Here Peter means the world as it was before the flood, when people lived in it just as they do now. Basically it was the same planet that we live on, but there were some differences. For example, the earth changed its shape when the waters overflowed it during the flood, and there were fewer mountains and valleys than there are now. This would be easy to deny if it were not for the fact that every year we see how the shape of the land is altered by periodic flooding. It is bad enough now, so think how much worse it must have been after the great flood.

Noah was spared because he was not led astray by the ungodliness of those who lived before the flood. God honored him because he did what was right.

Do you want to know why these things happened? There was one sin which was more wicked and disgusting than any other which those people were committing. It was because of that that God gave them this judgment.

God wished to proclaim the judgment that is to come when he sent fiery death from heaven upon a wicked people, setting an example for those who desire to lead wicked lives.

Here is proof that all the ungodly will be punished. For Peter goes over the examples of Sodom and Gomorrah so that anyone who sees this will not behave wickedly, knowing that if he does so he will suffer the same kind of punishment as they did.

The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah has two sides to it. First of all, the cities were reduced to ashes, and then the Dead Sea was made to go over the ruins, in which nothing can live. If God did that to visible cities, so that they would stand forever afterwards as an example of how he punishes the ungodly, it is clear that fire awaits the wicked in the spiritual realm and that the smoke of their torment will ascend forever.

By rescuing Lot the Lord made clear that he does not abandon those who hope in him but that he hands those who turn away over to punishment and torture.

Peter adds the story of Lot to his other examples in order to teach us that it is possible to avoid doing evil and thus to escape from the punishment which they will receive.

The evil words and deeds of the Sodomites were a daily agony for this righteous man, who saw what they were doing but was unable to put it right, though in spite of everything, he was able to keep himself pure.

We need to be clearly convinced that our distress at such evil deeds and our compassion for those who suffer earns the greatest reward with God and guarantees acceptance with him. All the more so, because in the face of what often appears to be an overwhelming, threatening wrath, the mental equilibrium of those who are overcome with grief is lost. This is why Peter wrote about Lot in this way.

Like us, Lot saw and heard many unrighteous things which might have tempted him into doing evil, but when he gave hospitality to the angels and the men of Sodom wanted to take them away and abuse them, Lot refused to give in, in spite of what he would suffer at their hands because of that refusal.

Peter says that the punishment of the wicked is kept in reserve until the day of judgment, not because they are not already receiving punishment for their sins, even before that day, but because then their punishment will be much greater. The reason for this is that at the last judgment they will be punished in their resurrected bodies, whereas now they are suffering only in their souls.

Peter knows that God will deliver the godly from their trials and afflictions and that the ungodly are being preserved only to face their punishment on the day of judgment. Notice how all along he has been using the examples of wicked people in order to reinforce the message that the deliverance of the righteous is foreordained and thereby to comfort those who emulate the righteous by showing that they are much better off than the ungodly.

Man did not fall away from the supreme Being as to be absolutely nothing, but insofar as he turned himself toward himself he became less than he was when he was adhering to him who is the supreme Being. To be no longer in God but in oneself is not to be nothing, but rather to be heading in that direction. For this reason, Holy Scripture gives another name to the proud, calling them rash and self-willed.

This refers to the Simonians,^[1] who combined wicked behavior with false doctrine.

Peter says that fornicators will suffer even more serious punishments than ordinary sinners, because of the gravity of their offense.

These are the Nicolaitans and Gnostics, whose wickedness has appeared under different names, a confusion which reflects their evil deeds. For by inventing their own fabulous stories about the origin of the world they rejected the biblical teaching about God’s creation and providential ordering of all things. The end result was that they fell into all kinds of moral depravity.

What Peter is saying here is that the evil spirits are quite prepared to curse the angels as much as they can, but these curses are not returned in kind. Rather, the angels reserve any judgment against them to the Lord, even though they are more powerful than the demons.

The angels who dwell in holiness are stronger than human beings, even if it is true that we are more blessed than they are. Angels look after holy people who are helped by them, since human beings cannot offer consolation to angels.

The inspired psalmist said this when he sang: Man, when honored, had no understanding. He is like the beasts that perish.^[1] Although human beings had laws, their morals were irrational, and they soon degenerated into animals whose only end was destruction.

Just as it is natural for dumb animals to be led into a trap in their search for food, so the heretics, like such animals, have spurned the pure and holy doctrine of the whole church in order to satisfy their corrupt appetites. Church history tells us that there were many such groups in apostolic times, like the Simonians, the Menandrians, the Basilidians, the Nicolaitans, the Ebionites, the Marcionites, the Cerdonians, and so on.

These men are compared to animals because they live only by their bodily instincts and not with their mind or rational soul. For this reason they are easily ensnared by corruption and are so far gone in depravity that they do not even know when they are being cursed.

Peter means that after they went astray they were able to lead others astray after them, but that in the end they will have to pay the price of their wickedness.

Peter calls their punishment the just reward for their unrighteousness, since they not only live in wickedness themselves but they also blaspheme the lifestyle of those who try to live righteously. Bound up in their own wicked errors, they never stop trying to seduce others as well.

These people have nothing pure about them. Rather, like stains on clothing they pervade everyday life and corrupt everything they touch. If they are taken to a social gathering and are able to turn it into an orgy, they are delighted because they have won others over to their lusts. Their social life is not rooted in love but in filth.

These people even greeted one another with kisses which were full of lust. What was meant to be a sign of peace was transformed into adultery by those who had turned away from God.

Peter says that these people are not motivated by love. Their only interest is to find the right moment when they can seduce women.

The right way is the way of Christ, who said: I am the way, the truth and the life.^[1]

As we know from the Old Testament,^[1] Balaam was hindered by God for his greed in trying to obtain a living off his prophetic spirit. He obstinately tried to run to Balak a second time, and only after he was corrected by the fear of God and the terrors which he met along the way was he able to get the word of blessing right, so that what he said was from God and not his own wicked preference. For even his tongue was not totally given over to the service of a lie.

There is nothing quite like the love of money to tempt the licentious into corrupting the word of truth.

If the grace of God could work through the animal without affecting the animal—for the ass was not saved—but only as a means of helping the Israelites, it is perfectly clear that he is prepared to work in us, which is why this story is so poignant.

The ass spoke with a human voice so that Balaam would understand what God was saying to him. He had become a madman because of his disobedience to the commandments of God, and dumb animals are wiser than that, since they observe the law of nature.

The common interpretation of this is that Balaam’s ass condemned him because it obeyed the angel and submitted to him, whereas Balaam, although he heard God, did not go and warn the people, nor did he obey God’s will. Thus the ass became Balaam’s teacher.

Peter calls these people dry springs—springs, because they have received knowledge of the Lord Christ, but dry, because they do not live in accordance with that knowledge.

These people are empty wells of the kind that animals fall into and die in, because there is no water at the bottom.

They did not have the living word of the Spirit, the channel of delights which overflows to the glory of the nations. They were not clear-sighted like the saints. They were in some sense like clouds but more like mists covered in darkness and ignorance, for they were governed by an evil spirit.

Pride is always vain because it makes people stupid, as they are without God insofar as they are proud.

They are not punished merely for their un-godliness but for the enormity of it as well.

When a man is said to be given up to his desires, he derives guilt from them, because, deserted by God, he yields and consents to them, is conquered, seized, attracted and possessed by them.

A man is the slave of whatever vice controls him.

These men promised people freedom from deception when in fact they were encouraging others to lapse back into it.

The one who is enslaved to any single passion is also dominated by it and is unable to obey the commandments of the Lord.

We cannot fathom the depths of God’s mercy toward us. Yet we must take care not to be ensnared again by the devil’s traps and become entangled once more in the very errors which we have renounced. For the ancient enemy does not stop laying down traps everywhere and doing whatever it takes to corrupt the faith of believers.

Since we have been set free from the power of the devil through the grace of Christ and without any preceding merits of our own, dearest brothers, let us try as hard as we can, with his help, always to engage in good works, fearing what the apostle Peter proclaims in these terrible words.

Look what the apostle Peter has to say about Christians who live in the mire and impurities of this world.

It is always worse to sin knowingly than to sin in ignorance.

From this we learn two things. First,a person must serve the one who has overcome him, whoever that may be. Second, those who go back to their former ways after knowing the truth find themselves in an even worse state than the one from which they were originally rescued.

To know the way of righteousness is to know Christ and the holy gospel. Peter is talking here about people who have been baptized after professing faith in Jesus but who have then turned away from him.

Peter shows by this that these men were not liberating those who followed them from their deception but merely making that deception worse.

Peter is saying that the evil awaiting those who turn away from their faith is so great that it would have been better if they had never accepted it in the first place. At least that way their wickedness would seem natural, instead of being as bizarre as a dog returning to its own vomit.

Repentance consists in no longer doing the same things, for he who reverts to the same sins is like a dog returning to his vomit.

This verse refers to what Solomon said in his Proverbs: Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool that repeats his folly.^[1]

What is going on here is that we have people who take delight even in things which nature has rejected and who are prepared to indulge in the very things which they themselves have corrupted. People like that are even more abominable than they were before, just as a sow looks even worse after she has covered herself in mud.