2 Peter 2:7-9

The reminder of Lot shows that God will not only punish the wicked but He will also extricate the righteous from the judgment He will send on the ungodly that surround them. This example, as well as the example of Noah (2 Peter 2:5), assured Peter’s faithful readers that God would not lose them in the mass of sinners whom He would judge. The destruction of Jerusalem was going to destroy the unbelieving Jews living there in A.D. 70. [Note: See J. Dwight Pentecost, "The Apostles’ Use of Jesus’ Predictions of Judgment on Jerusalem in A.D. 70," in Integrity of Heart, Skillfulness of Hands, p. 142.] However the primary warning deals with eschatological deliverance and punishment at the return of Christ. [Note: Bauckham, p. 254.] Another view is that the trials in view are all those challenges to faith that Christians experience in this world. [Note: Moo, p. 106.]

Of course, many righteous people have died along with the ungodly in what have appeared to be God’s judgments. One example of this is the faithful remnant in Israel who died in the wars that resulted in Israel’s and Judah’s captivities. Note that Peter said God is able to deliver the righteous. He did not say that He would do so in every case. This is still a ground for comfort in that if the will of God is such, the righteous will not suffer with the wicked. In the end God will separate these two groups eternally, and no righteous person will suffer eternal judgment (cf. Matthew 13:30).

Had Peter not told us Lot was a righteous man we might have concluded otherwise. Lot’s righteousness strengthens Peter’s illustration.

"’Righteous’ is a relative term; and in this case we must look at Lot both in comparison with the defective morality of the age and also with the licentiousness of those with whom he is here contrasted. Moreover, in the midst of this corruption he preserves some of the brighter features of his purer nomad life." [Note: Alfred Plummer, "The Second Epistle General of Peter," in Ellicott’s Commentary on the Whole Bible, 8:453.]

We cannot always tell who the righteous are, but God knows (cf. Matthew 13:24-30). How a person behaves may be misleading. Not only may some unbelievers appear to be saints, but some believers, such as Lot, appear to be unsaved. If every genuine believer gives evidence of his salvation by his good works, as some interpreters assert, then Lot was the exception to the rule. It seems more likely that Lot was what the New Testament calls a carnal believer.

"It is possible for a Christian to live close to sin, but he may barely escape with his life." [Note: Barbieri, p. 111.]