Bible Passage Scripture Block

For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.

They would be better off remaining in their sins and worldliness, if, after turning from them because of the knowledge they have about Jesus their Savior, they turn back and again are ensnared. In other words, they would be better off never knowing the way of Christ and His holy commandments if they will only reject them later.

Peter is concluding a lengthy instruction/warning about false teachers (2:1) rising up among them and embarks on a treatise about the danger of coming to a “swift destruction” (vs 1) and how “the way of truth will be blasphemed” (vs 2). He provides examples including some illuminating information re: angels (vs 4) and several more from the Old Testament including Noah (vs 5), Sodom and Gomorrah (vs 6), and Balaam (vs 15). This section closely parallels Jude 1 and Peter relates this process of one’s descent to spiritual destruction with Proverbs 26:11, “Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.”