Commentary - 2 Peter 2:17-22

Bird's-eye view

In this latter portion of the second chapter, Peter brings his indictment of the false teachers to a thunderous conclusion. Having detailed their character and their doom by way of historical example, he now turns to a series of vivid metaphors to describe their fundamental emptiness and the spiritual reality of their apostasy. These are not men who are simply mistaken; they are spiritual black holes. They promise what they do not have, and they lead their victims back into the very slavery from which they had appeared to escape. Peter’s language is stark and uncompromising because the danger is ultimate. He is describing a spiritual condition that is worse than ignorance, a state of having known the truth only to repudiate it for a return to the muck. The passage serves as a severe warning against the allure of a grace that makes room for sin, showing it to be no grace at all, but rather a damnable lie.

The central thrust is a contrast between appearance and reality. The false teachers appear to offer water, but are dry wells. They promise liberty, but are themselves slaves. They have a form of knowledge, but it only serves to make their final state worse. Peter concludes with two earthy, barnyard proverbs that leave no room for misunderstanding. The nature of a thing will eventually show itself. A dog is a dog, and a pig is a pig, and no amount of religious window dressing can alter that fundamental reality. This is a sobering reminder that true conversion is a change of nature, not just a change of vocabulary or external habit.

Outline

Context In 2 Peter

This passage is the culmination of Peter's extended warning against false teachers that dominates the second chapter. He began by reminding his readers that just as there were false prophets in Israel's history, so there will be false teachers among the church (2 Pet 2:1). He has described their destructive heresies, their greed, and their sensuality. He has assured his readers of their certain judgment, citing the examples of the fallen angels, the world of Noah's day, and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Now, in verses 17-22, he shifts from historical precedent to a direct, metaphorical description of these men and their followers. This section functions as the final, devastating summation of their spiritual bankruptcy and the terrible end of those who follow them. It sets the stage for chapter 3, where Peter will address the content of their scoffing, particularly their denial of the Lord's return.

Verse by Verse Commentary

17 These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been kept.

Peter begins with two potent metaphors for profound disappointment. A spring without water in an arid land is a cruel joke. It promises life and refreshment but delivers nothing but dust and mockery. This is the essence of the false teachers' ministry. They have the outward appearance of being a source of spiritual life, but they are utterly empty. They cannot give what they do not have. The second image is of mists, or clouds, driven by a storm. Again, a cloud promises rain, but these are just vapor, accomplishing nothing but being tossed about. They have no substance, no grounding, and are at the mercy of the winds of their own passions and demonic doctrine. Jude uses similar imagery, calling them "clouds without water, carried along by the wind" (Jude 1:12). The end for such men is not annihilation, but a reserved place in "the black darkness." This is not a temporary state; it has been "kept" for them. It is their final, eternal inheritance, a darkness that is the logical counterpart to the light they professed to have but actually hated.

18 For speaking out arrogant words of vanity, they entice by sensual lusts of the flesh, those who barely escape from the ones who conducted themselves in error,

Here Peter explains their method. How do these empty wells attract anyone? They do it with "arrogant words of vanity." This is high-sounding nonsense, theological bombast that is untethered from reality. It sounds impressive, deep, and sophisticated, but it is empty air. And what is this impressive-sounding teaching in service of? It is bait for a trap, and the bait is "sensual lusts of the flesh." They are antinomians of some stripe, abusing the grace of God as a license for immorality (Jude 1:4). They preach a "liberty" that is actually an accommodation to the flesh. Their target audience is particularly vulnerable: "those who barely escape from the ones who conducted themselves in error." These are new converts, or those who are still weak and ungrounded in the faith. They have made a break from their old pagan life, but the break is not yet clean. They are susceptible to a message that offers them Jesus without the cross, salvation without sanctification, and heaven without holiness. The false teachers see this vulnerability and exploit it mercilessly.

19 promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.

This is the central irony. The great promise of these teachers is "freedom." But this is a classic bait-and-switch. They are promising something they not only don't possess, but of which they are the very antithesis. They themselves are "slaves of corruption." The word for corruption here points to decay and ruin. They are enslaved to that which is perishing and which destroys. Peter then lays down a spiritual axiom: "for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved." If your lust for pornography overcomes you, you are a slave to it. If your greed overcomes you, you are a slave to mammon. If your pride overcomes you, you are a slave to self. These false teachers have been thoroughly conquered by their own sinful passions, and a slave cannot confer freedom on anyone. As Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin" (John 8:34). The freedom they offer is a mirage; the only thing they can do is bring others into the same bondage they suffer.

20 For if they are overcome, having both escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and having again been entangled in them, then the last state has become worse for them than the first.

Peter now describes the terrifying trajectory of apostasy. He speaks of those who had "escaped the defilements of the world." This was a real, observable change. They cleaned up their act. They did this "by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." They were part of the covenant community, they heard the gospel, they made a profession of faith, and they experienced a certain level of external reformation. But this reformation was not regeneration. They were washed, but they were not changed. And so, they become "again entangled" in the very sins they had left behind and are "overcome." The result is that "the last state has become worse for them than the first." Why worse? Because they now sin against a greater knowledge. They have known the truth and have turned their backs on it. They have tasted the goodness of the word of God and have then trampled the Son of God underfoot (Heb 6:4-6, 10:29). To have been in the light and then to choose the darkness is a far greater condemnation than to have only ever known the darkness.

21 For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them.

This verse reinforces the previous one. Peter is not mincing words. He is saying that from the standpoint of final judgment, it would have been preferable for these individuals to have remained ignorant pagans. To know "the way of righteousness", the gospel path, and then to consciously "turn away from the holy commandment" is to commit a sin of the highest order. The "holy commandment" is the apostolic teaching, the faith once for all delivered to the saints. To repudiate this is not a simple mistake; it is a damnable treason. This is a hard teaching, but a necessary one. Knowledge brings responsibility. To be brought into the very precincts of the kingdom of God, to hear the king's decree, and then to spit in his face is to invite a far heavier judgment than the man who never heard the decree at all.

22 The message of the true proverb has happened to them, “A DOG RETURNS TO ITS OWN VOMIT,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.”

Peter concludes with two devastatingly graphic proverbs. The first is from Proverbs 26:11. The dog vomits because what it ate was foul and did not agree with it. This represents the apostate's initial revulsion to his sin when he first comes under the influence of the gospel. He gets rid of the filth. But because the dog is still a dog, its nature has not changed. It does not reason that the vomit was bad; it only knows that it was once food. And so it returns. This is a picture of someone who makes an external profession but has not been born again. The second proverb makes the same point. You can take a sow out of the mud, hose her down, and put a ribbon on her. You now have a clean pig. But you do not have a lamb. Because her nature is still that of a pig, her deepest desire is to return to the mire. The washing was external. The problem was not the mud on the pig, but the pig in the mud. So it is with these apostates. They were cleaned up externally by their association with the church, but their inner nature was never transformed by the Holy Spirit. And so, inevitably, they return to the filth that their unchanged hearts truly love. It is a grim, but powerfully clear, picture of the difference between reformation and regeneration.

Application

The warnings in this passage are as relevant today as they were in the first century. We live in an age awash with teachers who offer a Christianity without cost, a freedom that is a cover for the flesh, and a gospel that is all comfort and no challenge. They are springs without water, and many are thirsty.

First, we must develop a sharp discernment. The primary weapon of these false teachers is "arrogant words of vanity." We must not be impressed by theological jargon, celebrity status, or charismatic presentation. The test of any teaching is its faithfulness to the "holy commandment," the Word of God, and the fruit it produces. Does it lead to holiness and a hatred of sin, or does it make excuses for it?

Second, we must understand the nature of true freedom. True freedom is not the ability to do whatever you want; that is the very definition of slavery to your passions. True freedom is the power, given by the Holy Spirit, to do what you ought. It is freedom from the dominion of sin, not freedom to dabble in it.

Finally, this passage forces us to examine the nature of our own conversion. Has there been a fundamental change of nature, or just an external washing? Do we hate the sin we once loved? Do we love the righteousness we once ignored? The sign of regeneration is not a past decision, but a present direction. A true sheep may fall into the mud, but he will not want to wallow there. A pig, on the other hand, finds it to be home. By the grace of God, may we be those who have not only been washed, but have been made new creatures in Christ, whose deepest desire is for the green pastures of our Shepherd, and not the mire of the world.