“For if God didn’t spare the angels who sinned but cast them into hell and delivered them in chains of utter darkness to be kept for judgment; and if he didn’t spare the ancient world, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others, when he brought the flood on the world of the ungodly; and if he reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes and condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is coming to the ungodly; and if he rescued righteous Lot, distressed by the depraved behavior of the immoral (for as that righteous man lived among them day by day, his righteous soul was tormented by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, especially those who follow the polluting desires of the flesh and despise authority.”
We will now move on to what will happen to the false teachers that we have been talking about for the last three blog posts. It took me three posts to write about the first three verses of chapter 2, and now I’m going to cover six verses in one post. One of the reasons for this is because verses four through ten are one sentence! Indeed, it is one of the longest in the New Testament. Peter makes two points: the ungodly will be judged, and the righteous will be delivered. He does this by using three examples from the Old Testament.
Verse three leads us into the passage we are going to study today. “Their condemnation, pronounced long ago, is not idle, and their destruction does not sleep.” Peter is referring to the false teachers. The first example that he uses is the fallen angels. He starts, “For if God didn’t spare the angels who sinned but cast them into hell and delivered them in chains of utter darkness to be kept for judgment…” Of the three examples that Peter gives, this is the most ambiguous. Jude writes about these angels in his letter. This passage in Jude is very similar to Peter’s. “Now I want to remind you, although you came to know all these things once and for all, that Jesus saved a people out of Egypt and later destroyed those who did not believe;and the angels who did not keep their own position but abandoned their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains in deep darkness for the judgment on the great day. Likewise, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns committed sexual immorality and perversions, and serve as an example by undergoing the punishment of eternal fire” (5-7).
One possibility of the angels that Peter is referring to are the sons of God who took wives for themselves in Genesis 6:1-4. According to Jewish tradition, especially that which is found in the book of I Enoch, these were angels who sinned and were punished at the time of the flood. Douglas Moo writes in The NIV Application Commentary, “This tradition was not simply made-up from whole cloth; the writers were elaborating on Genesis 6:1-4, a passage that tells about ‘sons of God’ who were attracted to the ‘daughters of men’, married them, and had children with them. In the Jewish tradition we are referring to, the ‘sons of God’ were angels, and their cohabitating with women was basic reason why God judged the world of Noah’s day.” Peter would have been familiar with the pseudo-epigraphical book of I Enoch (Jude quoted from it in his letter, so we know it was circulated during this time) and because Peter lists the angels, then Noah, followed by Sodom and Gomorrah and Lot, this shows a chronological order where this would make sense.
My husband and I are watching Stephen Armstrong’s Verse by Verse Ministry’s study of Revelation. We are on chapter 9, and he teaches that the angels that are kept in the Abyss (verse 2-3) that are let out during the Tribulation to wreak havoc on the people that are left, are the fallen angels from Genesis 6 who have been locked away until this time. It is an interesting thought!
The other possibility is that these are angels who fell when Satan fell because of his rebellion against God. Isaiah 14: 12-15 describes the fall of a human king, but its poetic language also describes the fall of Satan. “Shining morning star, how you have fallen from the heavens! You destroyer of nations, you have been cut down to the ground. You said to yourself, ‘I will ascend to the heavens; I will set up my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of the gods’ assembly, in the remotest parts of the North. I will ascend above the highest clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ But you will be brought down to Sheol into the deepest regions of the Pit.” We are told that our battle is against the cosmic powers of darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens (Ephesians 6:12). We know that most of the fallen angels (demons) are loose and active today. What we are not told explicitly in the Bible is why some of the fallen angels have been cast into hell and delivered in chains of utter darkness to be kept for judgment as Peter describes here. But the reality is, it doesn’t matter. Peter’s point is that God will judge them.
Next, Peter brings up Noah and the flood. Kenneth Gangel notes this in his commentary. “Peter was greatly impressed by the significance of the Flood for he referred to it three times in his two epistles (1 Peter 3:20; 2 Peter 2:5; 3:6).” Peter uses the example of the Flood to show that God brought judgment on those that sought out sin- in this case, the whole world- while saving Noah and his family.
The last example is Sodom and Gomorrah. Peter writes, “…and if he reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes and condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is coming to the ungodly…” Douglas Moo writes, “We should not be surprised that Peter moves from the Flood to Sodom and Gomorrah in order to illustrate God’s judgment; the pairing of these two famous disasters was well established. Jesus himself used these two events to warn about God’s sudden judgment on sensuous people (Luke 17: 26-29).”
What may be surprising is what Peter says next. “…and if he rescued righteous Lot, distressed by the depraved behavior of the immoral (for as that righteous man lived among them day by day, his righteous soul was tormented by the lawless deeds he saw and heard) …” This is in reference to the story found in Genesis 19:1-29. When I read this story, I read about a man who was willing to give his virgin daughters to the men of the city, a man who hesitated when the angels told him he must leave with his family at once because God was going to destroy the city, the man who questioned God’s instructions and asked to run to a closer location than the mountains. But Peter calls him righteous! He says he was distressed by the sin that was happening around him. Douglas Moo writes, “Yet Peter’s brief characterization of Lot is not without basis in the Old Testament text. As Peter points out, Genesis 19 suggests that Lot did not participate in the rampant homosexuality that characterized the cities and was, indeed, distressed by it. While certainly far from perfect, Lot never lost his basic orientation to the Lord.”
Peter used examples to show that judgment is coming. The ungodly will be judged. The righteous will be saved. John Barry writes this in The Faithlife Study Bible. “Peter’s point is that justice will come one way or another. For those who are in relationship with Christ this will be a day of great mercy, but for those intentionally living against Christ this will be a day of reckoning and wrath as He purges evil from the world.”
Peter finishes his sentence with “…especially those who follow polluting desires of the flesh and despise authority…” Apparently, these false teachers were bringing sexual sins into the church. When we despise authority, we rebel and put ourselves in charge. We become proud. We see this happening today. Sexual sin is celebrated. Pride has its own month. The church has embraced sexual sin. We would do well to remember Peter’s warning here. We need to stand strong in condemning sin. We need to remember that Jesus did take a stand on homosexuality and sex outside of marriage. In Matthew 19, when the Pharisees were questioning him on divorce, this was his answer. “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that he who created them in the beginning made them male and female, and he also said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate” (vs. 4-6). Jesus’s stand is one man, with one woman, married for life. Don’t be afraid to take a biblical stand. Peter wrote this section to remind his readers that God will judge (or has judged) the unrighteous (the fallen angels, the world at the time of the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah) and He knows how to rescue the righteous.
We know from 1 Peter that we might suffer for taking our stand, but our reward is not here. When we read this verse, we need to read it in the context of all of Scripture. We know that our reward is waiting for us in Heaven. I’m going to end with this reminder from 1 Peter.
“Dear friends, don’t be surprised when the fiery ordeal comes among you to test you, as if something unusual were happening to you. Instead, rejoice as you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may also rejoice with great joy when his glory is revealed” (4:12-13).
Grace be with you!
Abundant Joy 