2 Peter 2:18

18 They speak empty, bragging words. They make their appeal to the earthly longings of people's sinful nature. They tempt new believers who are just escaping from the company of sinful people.

2 Peter 2:18 Meaning and Commentary

2 Peter 2:18

For when they speak great swelling [words] of vanity
Marvellous things against the God of gods, great things and blasphemies against God, his name, his tabernacle, and his saints; see ( Daniel 11:36 ) ( Revelation 13:5 Revelation 13:6 ) ; or against men, dominions, and dignities, ( 2 Peter 2:10 ) ; or it may design their self-applauses and vain glorying in themselves, and their empty boast of knowledge and learning; and also express the windiness of their doctrines, and the bombast style, and high flown strains of rhetoric in which they were delivered; as likewise the flattering titles they bestowed on men for the sake of their own worldly interest and advantage; see ( Jude 1:16 ) and hereby

they allure, through the lusts of the flesh, [through much]
wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error:
that is, from those who lived in the error of Heathenism or Judaism, from whom, and which, they were clean escaped; or truly, really, and entirely delivered, being fully convinced of the falsity thereof, and of the truth of the Christian religion; though some copies, as the Alexandrian, and two of Beza's, and two of Stephens's, read, not (ontwv) , "truly", but (oligwv) , "a little"; and the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "a very little"; to which agrees the Complutensian edition; and the Syriac version renders it "in a few words", or "almost"; and according to the Ethiopic version, "a few persons" are designed; but be they more or less, and truly, or but a little, and for a little while, or almost, escaped from their former errors, in which they were brought up, and lived; yet by the carnal lusts and liberties, lasciviousness and wantonness, which these false teachers indulged, they were allured, ensnared, and drawn by them into their wicked principles and practices.

2 Peter 2:18 In-Context

16 But a donkey corrected him for the wrong he did. Animals don't speak. But the donkey spoke with a human voice. It tried to stop the prophet from doing a very dumb thing.

17 Those false prophets are like springs without water. They are like mists driven by a storm. The blackest darkness is reserved for them.

18 They speak empty, bragging words. They make their appeal to the earthly longings of people's sinful nature. They tempt new believers who are just escaping from the company of sinful people.

19 They promise to give freedom to the new believers. But they themselves are slaves to sinful living. A person is a slave to anything that controls him.

20 They may have escaped the sin of the world. They may have come to know our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But what if they are once again caught up in sin? And what if it has become their master? Then they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.