2 Peter 2:3 - Meaning and Application

People often think that a delay in punishment means a pardon is coming. If judgment does not happen quickly, they assume it will never happen at all. But the apostle says that false teachers may look successful for a time, yet their judgment is sure. God settled long ago how he will deal with them. Those unbelievers who try to turn others away from the faith are already condemned, and God’s wrath remains on them.

The righteous Judge will soon bring justice. The day of their disaster is coming, and their ruin moves quickly. To prove this, the apostle points us to several examples of God’s righteous judgment on sinners. These examples are meant to make us think carefully and take warning.

Look first at how God dealt with the angels who sinned. No greatness can protect a sinner from punishment. If angels, who are far stronger and wiser than we are, break God’s law, the sentence against them will be carried out. God did not spare them. The greater the offender, the more severe the punishment may be. These angels had the honor of a higher nature than ours, yet they were punished at once, with no delay and no mercy shown.

Sin also lowers and shames the one who commits it. The angels of heaven were thrown down from their high place and stripped of their glory and honor when they disobeyed. Anyone who sins against God harms himself openly. Those who rebel against the God of heaven will all be sent down to hell. There is no safe middle place between the heights of glory and the depths of misery.

Sin is the work of darkness, and darkness is the reward of sin. The darkness of misery and torment follows the darkness of sin. Those who refuse to walk by the light of God’s law will be cut off from the light of God’s favor and the comfort of his presence. As sin brings people under punishment, so misery and torment keep them under it. The darkness of their state holds them in their suffering, so they cannot escape. Even so, the full measure of their torment will not come until the day of judgment. The sinful angels are already in hell, yet they are still kept for the judgment of the great day.

Now see how God dealt with the old world, in much the same way. He did not spare the world before the flood. The number of offenders does not win God’s favor any more than rank or greatness does. If sin is widespread, the punishment may be widespread too. Yet if only a few are righteous, they will be preserved. God does not destroy the good with the bad. In anger, he still remembers mercy.

Those who preach righteousness in a time of widespread corruption, and who live in a blameless and godly way, will be kept safe in a time of general destruction. God can also use the very things he made for good as tools of judgment when he punishes sinners. He destroyed the whole world with water. But the cause of that judgment was plain, it was a world full of ungodly people. Ungodliness puts people outside God’s protection and leaves them open to destruction.

Consider also how God dealt with Sodom and Gomorrah. They lived in a region like the garden of the Lord, rich and fruitful, yet they were full of sin. God can quickly turn a fruitful land into barrenness, and a well-watered country into dust and ashes. No political alliance or public arrangement can shield a sinful people from judgment. Sodom and the nearby cities were no safer because of their organized rule than the angels were because of their higher nature, or the old world because of its great numbers.

God can use opposite means to punish hardened sinners. He destroyed the old world by water and Sodom by fire. The same God who keeps fire and water from harming his people (Isaiah 43:2) can use either one against his enemies. So they are never truly safe. The worst sins bring the heaviest judgments. Those who were most shameful in their wickedness were also marked out by their plagues. Those who sin greatly before the Lord must expect the most dreadful vengeance.

The punishments of earlier ages are meant to warn those who come after. We are meant to follow their example only in this sense, by learning from their lives and avoiding their way. Anyone who keeps living in sin should see what lies ahead if that path continues. Let us learn from every example of God’s judgment that Scripture records, so we do not fool ourselves into thinking we will escape punishment while we keep on sinning.