2 Peter 2:14 - Exposition

Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; literally, of an adulteress. Compare our Lord's words in the sermon on the mount ( Matthew 5:28 ), which may have been in St. Peter's thoughts. For the second clause, comp. 1 Peter 4:1 , "He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin." Beguiling unstable souls; rather, enticing. The word δελεάζοντες , from δέλεαρ , a bait, belongs to the art of the fowler or fisherman, and would naturally occur to St. Peter's mind. He uses it again in 1 Peter 4:18 of this chapter (comp. also James 1:14 ). The word for "unstable" ( ἀστηρίκτους ) occurs only here and in 2 Peter 3:16 . It is a word of peculiar significance in the mouth of St. Peter, conscious, as he must have been, of his own want of stability in times past. He would remember also the charge once given to him, "When thou art converted, strengthen ( στήριξον ) thy brethren" ( Luke 22:32 ). An heart they have exercised with covetous practices; rather, trained in covetousness, according to the reading of the best manuscripts, πλεονεξίας . This is the third vice laid to the charge of the false teachers. They had practiced it so long that their very heart was trained in the habitual pursuit of gain by all unrighteous means. Cursed children; rather, children of curse. Like "the son of perdition," "children of wrath," "children of disobedience," "son of Belial," etc.