2 Peter 2:7 - Meaning and Application

When God sends destruction on the ungodly, he also commands deliverance for the righteous. If he rains fire and burning sulfur on the wicked, he will still protect the righteous, and they will be hidden in the day of his anger. We see this in the way he preserved Lot.

Lot is described here as a righteous man. He was righteous in the main direction of his heart and in the overall pattern of his life. God does not call people righteous or wicked because of one single act, but by the general course of their lives. Lot lived in the middle of a deeply corrupt and sinful generation, a people who had turned away from all that was good. He did not follow the crowd into evil, but lived uprightly in a city marked by injustice.

We also see the effect that the sins of others had on this righteous man. The sinner may enjoy his wickedness, but it brings grief and distress to the soul of the righteous. In bad company, we cannot avoid either guilt or sorrow. If the sins of others do not trouble us, then it will be hard for us to stay pure ourselves.

The text also says that this grief and distress lasted day after day. Getting used to their wickedness did not make it seem normal to him, and it did not lessen the horror he felt. This is the man whom God kept safe from the destroying judgment that wiped out everyone around him. From this example we learn that God knows how to rescue his people and punish his enemies.

We should also remember that the righteous must expect temptations and trials. The devil and his servants will press hard on them, hoping they will fall. If we are going to reach heaven, we must go through many troubles. So it is our duty to expect them and prepare for them. The Lord knows those who belong to him. He has set apart the godly for himself, and if there is only one righteous person in a whole city, he still knows that person. If there are many, he does not overlook any of them.

God is never at a loss for ways to deliver his people. We often cannot see any way out, but he can find many ways. Delivering the godly is God’s own work, something he takes up with both wisdom and power. He rescues them from temptation, keeps them from falling into sin, and preserves them from being ruined by their troubles. If he can bring them out of temptation, he could also keep them from entering it, if he did not see such trials as necessary.

God also deals very differently with the godly and the wicked. When he saves his people from destruction, he hands their enemies over to the ruin they deserve. The unjust do not share in the salvation God brings to the righteous. The wicked are kept for the day of judgment. There is indeed a day of judgment, when God has appointed to judge the world. For unrepentant sinners, their present safety is only a keeping of them for that day, when God’s righteous judgment will be made known.