Whose end [is] destruction
Everlasting destruction, the destruction of both body and soul in
hell, ( Matthew
10:28 ) ; and this is the end, the reward and issue of bad
principles and practices; the broad roads of sin and error lead
to destruction, ( Matthew 7:13
) ; however pleasing such ways may be to men, the end of them is
eternal death; destruction and misery are in all the ways of
profaneness and heresy; not only immoralities, but heresies, such
as strike at the efficacy of Christ's cross, his blood,
righteousness, and sacrifice, are damnable ones, and bring upon
men swift destruction, ( 2 Peter 2:1 ) ; and how
should it otherwise be, for there is no salvation but by the
cross of Christ? and if men are enemies to that, and the efficacy
of it, and the way of salvation by it, there is no more, nor any
other sacrifice for sin, ( Hebrews
10:26 ) , but a fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery
indignation, ( Hebrews
10:27 ) ; and this will be the case of all barren and
unfruitful professors, who are like the earth, that brings forth
briers and thorns, and is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be
burned, ( Hebrews 6:8 ) ; for
what will the hope of such an one, founded on his profession,
though he may have got credit and reputation among men, avail,
when God takes away his soul?
whose god [is their] belly;
the belly was the god of the Cyclops, they sacrificed to none but
to themselves, and to the greatest of the gods, their own belly
F1; as money is the covetous man's god,
whom he loves, adores, and puts his confidence in, so the belly
is the god of the sensualist, the epicure, and voluptuous person;
he has more regard for the service of that, than for the service
of God? and of this complexion were these professors; they were
lovers of pleasure, more than lovers of God, ( 2 Timothy
3:4 ) ; all their pretensions to religion, to Christ, and his
Gospel, were only to serve themselves, their own bellies, and not
the Lord Jesus Christ, and to do good to the souls of men: or
their belly may be said to be their god, because they placed
religion in the observance of meats and drinks, either allowed or
forbidden in the law of Moses, which profited not those that were
occupied therein, ( Hebrews 9:10
) ; for the kingdom of God, the Gospel dispensation, internal
religion, and the exercise of it, lies not in these things, but
in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, ( Romans 14:17
) :
and whose glory [is] in their shame;
in their evil practices committed in secret, of which it was a
shame to speak; in their hidden things of dishonesty, crafty
walking, and deceitful handling of the word of God, which were
vile and scandalous, ( 2
Corinthians 4:2 ) ; in corrupting the Gospel, and the
churches of Christ, with their false doctrine; in observing and
urging the ceremonies of the law, which were dead, and ought to
be buried; and particularly circumcision in the flesh, in that
part of the body which causes shame, and in this was their glory,
( Galatians 6:13 ) . The
idol Baal Peor, and which is no other than the Priapus of the
Heathens, is called by this name, ( Hosea 9:10 ) ; so the
prophets of Baal are in the Septuagint on ( 1 Kings
18:19 1 Kings
18:25 ) called the prophets, (thv aiscunhv) , "of that shame"; it may be the apostle
may have a regard to the secret debaucheries of these persons; or
because they made their belly their god, he calls it their shame
in which they gloried, and which was the name given to the idols
of the Gentiles:
who mind earthly things.
The Arabic version renders it, "who entertain earthly opinions";
and some by, "earthly things" understand the ceremonies of the
law, called the elements and rudiments of the world, which these
false teachers were fond of, and were very diligent to inculcate
and urge the observance of; though rather worldly things, such as
honour, glory, and popular applause, and wealth, and riches, are
meant; for they sought their own things, and not the things of
Christ; through covetousness, with feigned words, they made
merchandise of men, and amassed to themselves great sums of
money; and yet were greedy dogs, could never have enough,
everyone looking for his gain from his quarter, ( Isaiah 56:11
) : and now persons of such characters as these were by no means
to be followed, but such who are hereafter described.