2 Peter 2:7Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

He knows how to reward those who practice righteousness, as He rewarded Noah and Lot. The course of the speech is this: it has been said that false teachers will be punished for their blasphemies and corrupt life.

Examples are presented: God did not spare the angels who sinned, and He did not spare the first world. Then those who struggled in righteousness are mentioned.

It is said that God preserved both Noah and Lot, for their chastity, from the destruction of the people contemporary with them. For Noah was not carried away by the impiety of the people before the flood.

Lot in no way imitated the corruption of the inhabitants of Sodom. When they demanded the Angels, whom he had received in human form as strangers, for impurity, he did not hand Them over.

He endured a very great deal of abuse from the crowd pressing upon him. This is what is indicated by the word “oppressed.”

For his hospitality and piety, Lot came out unharmed from Sodom, while the whole surrounding country was punished with fire and brimstone. By this the Lord clearly showed that He does not abandon those who hope in Him, but subjects those who turn away from Him to torments and punishment. For his wife, who went out with him, was of another mind and did not agree with him. She was set as a sign: she became a pillar of salt and has remained even to this day.

Peter adds the story of Lot to the other examples he has given, so as to teach us that one can avoid being a companion of corrupt people and thus escape a punishment equal to theirs.

As an example of God’s terrible judgment upon heretical corrupters and those corrupted by them, the apostle first cites the fallen angels. The Lord bound them with chains of Hades’ darkness and delivered them to be kept for judgment and punishment, despite their former most exalted dignity.

Second, the apostle points to the example of the ungodly world before the flood. By the justice of God, it was entirely covered by the waves of the flood. Only the household of Noah, preacher of righteousness, was preserved, eight souls in all.

The examples of the destruction of men during the flood, and likewise during the annihilation of the cities of Sodom, are given to show the certain destruction of heretics. Compared with the world before the flood and the inhabitants of Sodom and the other destroyed cities, they are both fewer in number and more guilty.

Jesus Christ Himself says that the ancient ungodly cities would have repented if they had seen what the cities contemporary with Him saw (see Mt 10:15; Lk 10:12).

But heretics could have known both the greater glory of Christ and all His sufferings for our deliverance from sins. Therefore they are more guilty than the inhabitants of the destroyed cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Concerning holy Lot, the Apostle said that he was tormented in soul as he looked upon the impiety of the Sodomites, and he numbers him among the choir of martyrs. Such also is your rank. When you are tormented in soul by encountering crude unbelievers, you partake of the grace of martyrdom.