2 Peter 2:20-22 now turns to describe the victims of these false teachers. The victims were believers who once enjoyed a deeper, fuller knowledge of God, but after falling into the immorality that the false teachers were promoting, they have now found themselves slaves to sin. Peter warns them that the moral state of the believer who becomes enslaved to the sin of immorality is worse than the moral state of the believer enjoying a deep rich fellowship with God. Peter even says it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and turn away from the commandment given to them to be holy. Their behavior would be like dogs eating what they have vomited, or clean pigs then rolling in the mud.
In 2 Peter 2:20-22, Peter warns believers about the severe adverse consequences of being seduced by the immorality of the false teachers. He begins 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 (v. 20).
For if, introduces a conditional statement that explains the consequences, after they, referring to believers, have escaped the defilement of the world. This refers to believers that had avoided the immorality the world promotes (2 Peter 1:4, 2:18). Peter reviews how these believers escaped being defiled by the world; they did so by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The word knowledge is not mere intellectual knowing. This knowledge translates the Greek word “epignosis” which refers to the enjoyment of deeper, fuller, richer intimacy with their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:11, 3:18). That Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior shows clearly that we are speaking here of believers.
This word knowledge is the same word Peter used back in Chapter 1 when he referred to the believers receiving this letter, who had the same faith as he, who also had a knowledge “epignosis” of Christ:
“seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge [“epignosis”] of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.” (2 Peter 1:3-4)
Although these believers did avoid the defilements of the world for a time, “having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust,” unfortunately some did not escape the immorality that the false teachers were promoting. Peter tells us that they are again entangled in them, meaning that the believers ultimately became involved in the immorality and corruption of the false teachers.
Not only are the believers entangled in the sins of immorality, they also are overcome by them. This means that these believers were defeated and enslaved to the sinful lifestyle of immorality to the point that they were walking in defeat, being enslaved by the lust of their flesh.
Peter sternly warns these defeated believers of the consequences of this moral slavery to the lust of their flesh by telling them, the last state, meaning the current moral state of being enslaved to their fleshly lusts, has become worse for them than the first.
The first state refers back to the phrase escaped the defilements of the world. Before they gained the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ they were entangled in the defilements of the world. Then, through Christ, they escaped these defilements.
But now they are entangled in them again and are overcome. It is bad to sin due to ignorance. It is dramatically worse to have knowledge of what is right and choose to behave badly anyway. There is substantially greater accountability for willful disobedience. As Hebrews 10:26-27 asserts, willful disobedience will be met with judgement fire—the same fire that will consume the adversaries will burn away the wood, hay, and stubble of false deeds (1 Corinthians 3:12-15).
For believers, the fire of judgement is a refining fire (Malachi 3:2). In this life, God chastises His people (Hebrews 12:5-6) and allows them to be refined through trials (James 1:2-3, 12). In the next life, He refines believers with judgment fire (1 Corinthians 3:15). This is all so we can be conformed to His image (Romans 8:29).
Because of these adverse consequences for sin, Peter now asserts: 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 (v. 21).
For refers to the prior verse which insists sin leads to our being enslaved to fleshly lusts. Peter now introduces a conditional comparison, it would have been betterfor them, referring to the believers who had become enslaved to immorality, to have not known, meaning not to have learned the way of righteousness, referring to the path or teachings about living righteously. This is because those with knowledge have a higher accountability than those who are ignorant. As Jesus asserted:
“From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.” Luke 12:48b
This is even more so the case for teachers. James tells us:
“Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.” (James 3:1)
We can, therefore, understand why these false teachers have laid up for themselves such pending judgment.
Peter now completes the comparison, that it would have been better not knowing righteousness than having known it, referring to having learned the teachings about righteous living, to turn away from the holy commandment given to them. What the false teachers are turning away from is the holy commandment given to them (v. 21).
We saw in 2 Peter 2:1 that these false teachers are believers, having been “bought” by “the Master” who is Jesus. So they are new creations in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). They are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works (Ephesians 2:10). But rather than walking in the Spirit and thus fulfilling the Law, they are walking in intentional disobedience to the holy commandment given to them (Romans 8:4).
Thus, they are storing up wrath for themselves in this life, as we are taught in Romans 1:24, 26, 28 (where sin is shown to progress from lust to addiction to loss of mental health). They are storing up wrath at the judgment for being self-seeking instead of seeking to do good (Romans 2:5-10). Their destiny is to be like the believers at the judgment seat of Christ whose deeds are consumed in the fire of Christ’s judgment and are, therefore, “saved, yet so as through fire” (1 Corinthians 3:15).
We might summarize this by saying that living in ignorance is superior to willful disobedience. We see this same concept in 1 John 1:7-9:
1 John 1:8 says we all have sin.
1 John 1:9 says if we confess the sins we know, Jesus will forgive them and restore fellowship with Him
1 John 1:7 indicates that if we walk in the light, Jesus covers sins of which we are ignorant.
We can take from this that the best thing is to have knowledge and apply it faithfully, as we saw in 2 Peter 1:5-7. This is the path to the greatest rewards in this life as well as the next (2 Peter 1:11,Revelation 3:21). The next best is to have ignorance but walk faithfully in whatever light you have. The worst, by far, is to be willfully disobedient. Willful disobedience will be met with severe discipline.
The phrase holy commandment refers to the truth they we’re taught how to walk in God’s ways. Peter mentions in his first letter the commandment “to be holy as He is holy” (1 Peter 1:16,Leviticus 19:2). This fits the context and explains that the “way of righteousness” refers to the teaching about living righteously contained in this commandment.
Why would it have been better not to have known the teaching about living holy, than having known it to turn away from the holy commandment “to be Holy” that was taught them?
The answer is that God holds people accountable for the light of truth revealed to them. The more light given, the stricter the judgment (James 3:1, 4:17, 2 Peter 3:2). Because the Christians whom Peter addressed had been taught that immorality was wrong and had experienced the true knowledge of deep, rich intimacy with God, if his readers then turned away from that teaching and intimacy with God and engaged in immorality, God’s discipline would be painfully certain.
Peter describes such behavior as like the behavior of a dog or a pig. It has happened to them according to the true proverb, referring to the consequences of their sinful behavior as illustrated in a proverb (Proverbs 26:11), A dog returns to its own vomit, and a sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire (v. 22).
We need to remember that the people whom Peter is addressing are believers. They have been warned about false teachers among them (1 Peter 2:1). And alas, some believers had been influenced by the false teachers to engage in the immoral behavior they were promoting. Peter tells us that these believers were behaving badly like a dog returning to his vomit or a washed pig returning to wallow in the mud. Peter never questions their belief, but he does address their immoral behavior and its consequences.
The practical application here is that God always gives His children a choice. He wants us to love Him voluntarily. Otherwise, it is not love. And when we choose to obey His Word and serve and love others as we want to be loved, that is loving God. On the other hand, when believers go back into fleshly living, we get the rewards of fleshly living and the deeds of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21), which is like a dog returning to vomit. To vomit is to send something bad for the body out of the body, to purge a sickness, but dogs have been known to afterward consume their vomit even though their body had just rejected it. This is an intentionally disgusting illustration; it is by its disgusting imagery that the spiritual truth is made clear. To go back to sinning after we have been forgiven of sin and know how to live righteously is irrational, and disgusting, and makes us sick.
In saying this, Peter is repeating the same idea he expressed in Chapter 1, where he describes a believer who lacks the qualities that come from growth in Christian maturity and has, therefore, fallen into sin as being “blind” and “having forgotten his purification from his former sins” (2 Peter 1:9). It is blindness not to see that walking in faith leads to life and sin leads to slavery and death. The truth is all around us if we are willing to see (Romans 1:20).
2 Peter 2:20-22
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.
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.
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.”
Set to dark mode
2 Peter 2:20-22 meaning
In 2 Peter 2:20-22, Peter warns believers about the severe adverse consequences of being seduced by the immorality of the false teachers. He begins 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 (v. 20).
For if, introduces a conditional statement that explains the consequences, after they, referring to believers, have escaped the defilement of the world. This refers to believers that had avoided the immorality the world promotes (2 Peter 1:4, 2:18). Peter reviews how these believers escaped being defiled by the world; they did so by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The word knowledge is not mere intellectual knowing. This knowledge translates the Greek word “epignosis” which refers to the enjoyment of deeper, fuller, richer intimacy with their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:11, 3:18). That Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior shows clearly that we are speaking here of believers.
This word knowledge is the same word Peter used back in Chapter 1 when he referred to the believers receiving this letter, who had the same faith as he, who also had a knowledge “epignosis” of Christ:
“seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge [“epignosis”] of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.”
(2 Peter 1:3-4)
Although these believers did avoid the defilements of the world for a time, “having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust,” unfortunately some did not escape the immorality that the false teachers were promoting. Peter tells us that they are again entangled in them, meaning that the believers ultimately became involved in the immorality and corruption of the false teachers.
Not only are the believers entangled in the sins of immorality, they also are overcome by them. This means that these believers were defeated and enslaved to the sinful lifestyle of immorality to the point that they were walking in defeat, being enslaved by the lust of their flesh.
Peter sternly warns these defeated believers of the consequences of this moral slavery to the lust of their flesh by telling them, the last state, meaning the current moral state of being enslaved to their fleshly lusts, has become worse for them than the first.
The first state refers back to the phrase escaped the defilements of the world. Before they gained the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ they were entangled in the defilements of the world. Then, through Christ, they escaped these defilements.
But now they are entangled in them again and are overcome. It is bad to sin due to ignorance. It is dramatically worse to have knowledge of what is right and choose to behave badly anyway. There is substantially greater accountability for willful disobedience. As Hebrews 10:26-27 asserts, willful disobedience will be met with judgement fire—the same fire that will consume the adversaries will burn away the wood, hay, and stubble of false deeds (1 Corinthians 3:12-15).
For believers, the fire of judgement is a refining fire (Malachi 3:2). In this life, God chastises His people (Hebrews 12:5-6) and allows them to be refined through trials (James 1:2-3, 12). In the next life, He refines believers with judgment fire (1 Corinthians 3:15). This is all so we can be conformed to His image (Romans 8:29).
Because of these adverse consequences for sin, Peter now asserts: 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 (v. 21).
For refers to the prior verse which insists sin leads to our being enslaved to fleshly lusts. Peter now introduces a conditional comparison, it would have been better for them, referring to the believers who had become enslaved to immorality, to have not known, meaning not to have learned the way of righteousness, referring to the path or teachings about living righteously. This is because those with knowledge have a higher accountability than those who are ignorant. As Jesus asserted:
“From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.”
Luke 12:48b
This is even more so the case for teachers. James tells us:
“Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.”
(James 3:1)
We can, therefore, understand why these false teachers have laid up for themselves such pending judgment.
Peter now completes the comparison, that it would have been better not knowing righteousness than having known it, referring to having learned the teachings about righteous living, to turn away from the holy commandment given to them. What the false teachers are turning away from is the holy commandment given to them (v. 21).
We saw in 2 Peter 2:1 that these false teachers are believers, having been “bought” by “the Master” who is Jesus. So they are new creations in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). They are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works (Ephesians 2:10). But rather than walking in the Spirit and thus fulfilling the Law, they are walking in intentional disobedience to the holy commandment given to them (Romans 8:4).
Thus, they are storing up wrath for themselves in this life, as we are taught in Romans 1:24, 26, 28 (where sin is shown to progress from lust to addiction to loss of mental health). They are storing up wrath at the judgment for being self-seeking instead of seeking to do good (Romans 2:5-10). Their destiny is to be like the believers at the judgment seat of Christ whose deeds are consumed in the fire of Christ’s judgment and are, therefore, “saved, yet so as through fire” (1 Corinthians 3:15).
We might summarize this by saying that living in ignorance is superior to willful disobedience. We see this same concept in 1 John 1:7-9:
We can take from this that the best thing is to have knowledge and apply it faithfully, as we saw in 2 Peter 1:5-7. This is the path to the greatest rewards in this life as well as the next (2 Peter 1:11, Revelation 3:21). The next best is to have ignorance but walk faithfully in whatever light you have. The worst, by far, is to be willfully disobedient. Willful disobedience will be met with severe discipline.
The phrase holy commandment refers to the truth they we’re taught how to walk in God’s ways. Peter mentions in his first letter the commandment “to be holy as He is holy” (1 Peter 1:16, Leviticus 19:2). This fits the context and explains that the “way of righteousness” refers to the teaching about living righteously contained in this commandment.
Why would it have been better not to have known the teaching about living holy, than having known it to turn away from the holy commandment “to be Holy” that was taught them?
The answer is that God holds people accountable for the light of truth revealed to them. The more light given, the stricter the judgment (James 3:1, 4:17, 2 Peter 3:2). Because the Christians whom Peter addressed had been taught that immorality was wrong and had experienced the true knowledge of deep, rich intimacy with God, if his readers then turned away from that teaching and intimacy with God and engaged in immorality, God’s discipline would be painfully certain.
Peter describes such behavior as like the behavior of a dog or a pig. It has happened to them according to the true proverb, referring to the consequences of their sinful behavior as illustrated in a proverb (Proverbs 26:11), A dog returns to its own vomit, and a sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire (v. 22).
We need to remember that the people whom Peter is addressing are believers. They have been warned about false teachers among them (1 Peter 2:1). And alas, some believers had been influenced by the false teachers to engage in the immoral behavior they were promoting. Peter tells us that these believers were behaving badly like a dog returning to his vomit or a washed pig returning to wallow in the mud. Peter never questions their belief, but he does address their immoral behavior and its consequences.
The practical application here is that God always gives His children a choice. He wants us to love Him voluntarily. Otherwise, it is not love. And when we choose to obey His Word and serve and love others as we want to be loved, that is loving God. On the other hand, when believers go back into fleshly living, we get the rewards of fleshly living and the deeds of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21), which is like a dog returning to vomit. To vomit is to send something bad for the body out of the body, to purge a sickness, but dogs have been known to afterward consume their vomit even though their body had just rejected it. This is an intentionally disgusting illustration; it is by its disgusting imagery that the spiritual truth is made clear. To go back to sinning after we have been forgiven of sin and know how to live righteously is irrational, and disgusting, and makes us sick.
In saying this, Peter is repeating the same idea he expressed in Chapter 1, where he describes a believer who lacks the qualities that come from growth in Christian maturity and has, therefore, fallen into sin as being “blind” and “having forgotten his purification from his former sins” (2 Peter 1:9). It is blindness not to see that walking in faith leads to life and sin leads to slavery and death. The truth is all around us if we are willing to see (Romans 1:20).