and specially those who walk after the flesh in [the] lust of uncleanness, and despise lordship. Bold [are they], self-willed; they do not fear speaking injuriously of dignities
Peter has just said that God keeps the unjust for the day of judgment. This verse names the people He singles out: those ruled by unclean desire, and those who despise authority.
The verse does not only say that God will judge. It names the kind of person He has most in view.
"Modern theology" has invented a "god" who is too weak or too indifferent to do anything but spare everybody and everything, so that he can show himself to be "love". That is not the God of the New Testament, and just as little the God of the Old... God will rescue the godly and keep the unjust for judgment. This is especially true of people marked by unclean living and contempt for authority.
Lust and lawlessness are not two unrelated faults here. Each produces one of the words the verse uses to describe these men.
These lawless men follow the flesh in its uncontrolled desires. So they have no patience with any restraint that would stand in the way of satisfying that desire; they "despise authority". Because lust and lawlessness mark them, they are "bold" and "self-willed". Unclean lust makes men bold in wickedness. Lawlessness makes them self-willed.
The chapter opens with false teachers. This verse describes how they live.
The two evils mentioned in verse 10 seem always to go with "destructive heresies" as their natural result. The flesh is drawn to these heresies. It loves to please itself and do its own will, and to despise and speak against everything that would hold it in check. The truth condemns the flesh; the heresy feeds it instead.
God has a purpose in placing rulers over people, so contempt for them is no small fault.
Unclean lust is not the only thing that specially offends God, or the only thing people feed by abusing the grace of the gospel. Despising authority is another. In His providence God has set up the authority of rulers as a check against evil. And what undermines that check more than the self-will of people in these last days? It pleads freedom against law, so that it can indulge itself and rebel.
ESV's "willful" appears in older translations as "self-willed". The word means more than plain selfishness.
The adjective is found in Titus 1:7 and 2 Peter 2:10. It means self-pleasing rather than self-loving (philautos, 2 Timothy 3:2). It describes a stubborn, contrary man. He is not just selfish. He is never so pleased with himself as when he snubs other people.
The charge ends at their speech. Even angels, who are far stronger, do not speak this way.
As the letter of James shows, the tongue is above all the pointer to what a person feels, aims at and is. A man cannot always do what he would like, but his lips show what he is, in daring and self-will. Seeing some people placed above others in authority is enough to stir up hatred and a desire for revolution, to pull them down and destroy them. With such presumption in people who bear the Christian name, the apostle contrasts the humility and awe of angels. They are greater in might and power, yet their sense of reverence before God holds back their speech in His presence, whatever evils stir their disgust.
The verse describes others, but it also warns believers.
Today we need to remind each other "to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people" (Titus 3:1-2). There is no shortage of people who live for unclean desire and despise authority. May the Lord keep His own in the path of obedience.
- Restraint refused. The two evils here are one refusal with two faces. These men will not restrain the flesh, and they will not own any authority above them.
- Appetite first. Unclean lust makes a man bold in wickedness. That boldness then attacks every restraint above him.
- Lawlessness next. God set up the authority of rulers as His brake on evil. Self-will pleads freedom against law so it can indulge itself.
- The tongue last. A man cannot always do what he wants, but his lips still show his daring. That is why the charge ends at their speech.
- Judgment certain. God does not spare everyone out of indifference. He rescues the godly, and He keeps the unjust — "especially" these — for the day of judgment.
when angels, who are greater in might and power, do not bring against them, before the Lord, an injurious charge.
Peter has just described teachers who throw off every restraint and feel free to insult those in high position. This verse answers them with one comparison. Beings far stronger than we are refuse to speak the way these men speak.
The verse takes one thing for granted about angels. They rank above us in creation.
They are of a higher order of creation than man. One amazing statement proves it, and it shows the truth of God the Son becoming man: He "was made a little lower than the angels" (Heb. 2:9).
So Peter's point is not that angels are too weak to accuse. Something else holds them back.
The tongue shows what a person is. Put the angels' restraint beside the boldness of men who cannot keep quiet.
As the letter of James shows, the tongue reveals better than anything else the inner man's feelings, aim and character. He cannot always do what he would; but his lips express what he is in audacity and self-will. Simply that some hold authority above others is enough to stir up hatred and revolutionary desires — a wish to pull them down and destroy them. Men do not tremble to speak insultingly of dignities... The apostle sets against this presumption in the baptised the humility and awe of angels. They are greater in might and power. Yet their reverence before God is such that they hold back their speech in His presence, whatever the evils that stir their disgust.
Note the phrase "before the Lord." Their silence is not indifference to evil. They feel it. They will not speak that way in God's presence.
The ESV calls it "a blasphemous judgment"; older translations say "a railing accusation." Its purpose gives it away.
Christians should never let such men deceive them. Even angels, greater in power and might than men are, do not stoop to evil speaking like railing accusation. After all, such speech only serves to put another person down, with no honest concern for his proper good.
That is the test. Speech that aims to pull someone down, with no interest in their good, is railing — whatever name it goes by.
The loose tongue is not the disease. It is the symptom of a principle that rejects authority at every level.
These verses give us the very thing that is coming up now in our own day: the principle of self-will. What marks this class of evil-doers is that they allow themselves unrestrained freedom in their conduct. They fling off the authority of Christ first, and then every other authority as well. That is just what we see around us today.
The next verse brings a sharp fall. It compares men who talk as though they outrank angels to a creature far below them.
The contrast between verses 11 and 12 is very striking. These false teachers are but men. Angels are greater than man in power and might. Yet they would never accuse those in dignity or authority in the reckless way these men do, however much such people might deserve blame. These teachers speak of dignities as if they were greater than the angels themselves. In fact they are just like — not angels — but "natural brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed." The animal without reason — that is what the word "brute" means — may carelessly destroy what it cannot understand, like the proverbial bull in a china shop. These men are like that. As far as words can do it, they violently attack and destroy what they do not understand.
People often talk lightly about Satan and about their own power over him. This verse, with Michael's answer to the devil in Jude, speaks to that.
Sometimes one shudders at the light, empty talk so common today about the power of the enemy, and about our power over him and his works. We need to remember the word not to speak evil of dignities. We need to remember Michael's reply to Satan too: "The Lord rebuke you" (2 Peter 2:10-11; Jude 9, 10).
And there is a plain reason why railing never pays, even when the cause is right.
Suppose two people are railing, a good man and a bad man. The bad man's railing provokes the good man to rail. Then the good man goes down to the level of the bad, and it does not lessen the railing of the other at all. Here the angel's conduct is a pattern for the believer: that we are not provoked, and when we are reviled, do not revile in return, but act as the Lord Himself acted. He committed Himself to Him who judges righteously.
- Higher — angels rank above man in creation. Peter's argument rests on their strength, not their weakness.
- Restrained — what stops them is reverence "before the Lord," not blindness to the evil they see.
- Exposed — railing aims only to put someone down, with no honest concern for their good. The tongue reveals the inner man.
- Rooted — a loose tongue grows out of self-will. Self-will throws off Christ's authority first, and every other authority after.
- Lowered — men who talk as if they outranked angels prove themselves like animals without reason. Answer railing with railing, and you sink to the level of the man you answer.