Second Peter

Verses four through 22 describe the vile spiritual condition of sinners in the church who have “forsaken the right way and gone astray” (2:16) from the God Who bought them (2:1). We must always keep in mind that the Bible was written for and about God’s people who are those who call themselves by His name (2 Chron. 7:14)–the ancient Israelites and His church today which He calls “the Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16).

Verses four through nine: In these verses the Lord, speaking through the Apostle Peter, voices His condemnation of all sexual sins. Using His treatment of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah as His example, He pronounces death and destruction on those who follow in the spiritual footsteps of the people of those cities who were famous for their homosexual lifestyle, saying that He “condemned” them to death, calling them “ungodly” people who were involved in “the filthy conversation (anastrophe–conduct) of the wicked” who would be “reserved unto the day of judgment to be punished.”

At this point I would like to remind the reader of a Biblical fact that seems to have escaped the religious community: sin is sin; sexual sin of any kind is sin. Fornication (sex between unmarried people) and adultery (sex between married people who are not married to each other) is just as sinful as any other sexual perversion, including homosexuality and lesbianism. I recall some 40 years ago when a member of the largest church in the city where I was living at the time told me that there were at least five “major adulteries” going on in that church. If he knew it, everyone knew it. Yet nothing was said or done about it. However, if a church member had come out of the sexual closet the church would have thrown him/her out without a second thought. Today, neither the fornicator/adulterer nor the sexual pervert are called to task. The church has selectively “forgotten” that “The wages of (any and every) sin is (still) death” (Rom. 6:23). Recall that Jesus told the rich man that ONE SIN would cost him eternal life (Mk. 10:21,22). Let us not forget that the “doctrines of devils” upon which the church is built are all sins, any one of which condemns the soul of the parishioner. See the Introduction of this website for a short list.

In verses 7-9 Peter reminds the people that, though saints must live among such spiritual reprobates on the social (not the spiritual) level, God will deliver them. God commands His people to have nothing to do with them on the spiritual level (2 Cor. 6:14-18). L.J.