2 Peter 2:7

7 and if He 1rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the 2sensual conduct of 3unprincipled men

2 Peter 2:7 Meaning and Commentary

2 Peter 2:7

And delivered just Lot
Who was a just man, being justified by the righteousness of Christ imputed to him; and having the new man formed in him, which is created in righteousness and true holiness; and living soberly, righteously, and godly, though not without sin: for there is not a just man that lives and sinneth not; this righteous man was delivered from the burning of Sodom by the means of angels, ( Genesis 19:16 Genesis 19:17 ) . The Jews are very injurious to this good man's character, and give a very different one of him from this of the apostle's; they call him a wicked man, a perfect wicked man, as wicked as the inhabitants of Sodom F4; and say, that because they abounded in sin, therefore Lot chose to dwell among them F5; and affirm F6, that all the time he was with Abraham, God did not join himself to him, and did not commune with Abraham on his account; but, when he was separated from him, did; they call him the evil imagination, and the old serpent that was accursed, and cursed Lot F7; but Philo the Jew F8 speaks better of him, and says that he did not embrace and delight in the iniquities of the inhabitants, though he did not arrive to the perfection of wisdom; and the author of the book of Wisdom calls him the "righteous man",

``When the ungodly perished, she delivered the righteous man, who fled from the fire which fell down upon the five cities.'' (Wisdom 10:6)

as the apostle does here; and very truly, since it follows:

vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked;
the inhabitants of Sodom, who had no regard to the laws of God or man, or to the law and light of nature; but as worse than brute beasts, lived daily in the commission of unnatural lusts; and therefore their conversation is rightly said to be filthy, and was a grievous burden to righteous Lot: for to a good man, not only his own sins, but the sins of others, whether professors or profane, are a burden, and make him groan under them, being grievously fatigued with them, as this good man was, and weary of life because of them, as Rebekah was, through the daughters of Heth.


FOOTNOTES:

F4 Tzeror Hammot, fol. 14. 4. & 16. 4. & 20. 2.
F5 Jarchi in Gen. xiii. 10.
F6 Zohar in Gen. fol. 57. 2. Jarchi in Gen. xiii. 13.
F7 Zohar in Gen. fol. 56. 1, 2. Tzeror Hammor, fol. 7. 3. & 14. 3. & 20. 2. Bereshit Rabba, sect. 44. fol. 39. 1.
F8 De Vita Mosis, l. 2. p. 662.

2 Peter 2:7 In-Context

5 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;
6 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;
7 and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men
8 (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 ),
9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,

Cross References 3

  • 1. Genesis 19:16, 29
  • 2. Genesis 19:5f; 2 Peter 2:2, 18; Jude 4
  • 3. 2 Peter 3:17
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