01:21 .. for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will .. but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God 02:01 .. but false prophets also arose among the people .. just as there will also be false teachers among you .. .......... who will secretly introduce destructive heresies .. even denying the Master who bought them .. bringing swift destruction upon themselves 02:02 .. many will follow their sensuality .. and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned 02:03 .. and in their greed they will exploit you with false words .. their judgment from long ago is not idle .. and their destruction is not asleep 02:04 .. for if God did not spare angels when they sinned .. but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness .. .......... reserved for judgment 02:05 .. and did not spare the ancient world .. but preserved Noah .. a preacher of righteousness .. with seven others .. .......... when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly
02:06 .. and if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes .. .......... having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter 02:07 .. and if he rescued righteous Lot .. oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men 02:08 .. (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man .. while living among them .. .......... felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds) 02:09 .. then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation .. and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment 02:10 .. and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority .. daring .. self-willed .. .......... they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties 02:11 .. whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord 02:12 .. but these .. like unreasoning animals .. born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed .. reviling where they have no knowledge .. .......... will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed 02:13 .. suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong .. they count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime .. they are stains and blemishes .. .......... reveling in their deceptions .. as they carouse with you 02:14 .. having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin .. enticing unstable souls .. .......... having a heart trained in greed .. accursed children
02:15 .. forsaking the right way .. they have gone astray .. having followed the way of Balaam .. the son of Beor .. .......... who loved the wages of unrighteousness 02:16 .. but he received a rebuke for his own transgression .. for a mute donkey .. speaking with a voice of a man .. .......... restrained the madness of the prophet 02:17 .. these are springs without water and mists driven by a storm .. for whom the black darkness has been reserved 02:18 .. for speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires .. by sensuality .. .......... those who barely escape from the ones who live in error
02:19 .. promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption .. for by what a man is overcome .. .......... by this he is enslaved 02:20 .. for if .. after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ .. .......... they are again entangled in them and are overcome .. the last state has become worse for them than the first 02:21 .. 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 02:22 .. It has happened to them according to the true proverb . . . a dog returns to its own vomit .. and .. a sow .. after washing .. .......... returns to wallowing in the mire
Where God sends his true messengers with his word .. the devil always sends some to seduce and deceive .. and especially to deny Christ’s redemptive work .. such men bring swift destruction upon themselves .. even though they prosper for a while . . . . v 1 smooth-tongued false teachers seldom deny Jesus Christ “who TAUGHT” .. but they do deny Jesus “who BOUGHT” .. The devil hates the doctrine of the CROSS of Christ .. and hence all the conflicting theories as to his death