Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 2 Peter · About this commentary
The Lord Knows How to Deliver
2 Peter 2:7-9
7 and delivered righteous Lot, who was very distressed by the lustful life of the wicked · WEB
The same three precedents that prove judgment also prove rescue — and the man they rescue is not an obvious hero.
And delivered righteous Lot. The description is generous, and it is worth noticing how generous: Genesis shows Lot choosing the valley for its water, lingering when the angels pulled at him, and bargaining for a smaller town Genesis 19:16 Genesis 19:20. None of that is denied here, and none of it is mentioned.
What the letter reports instead is his interior life. He was distressed by the lustful conduct around him, and verse 8 says the righteous man, dwelling among them, was tormented in his righteous soul day after day by what he saw and heard. The distress is the evidence. A man in the wrong place who never stops being uncomfortable there is not the same as a man at home in it.
Then verse 9 draws the conclusion the whole conditional was built for, and it has two halves that must be kept together: the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of trial, and how to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment. The same competence does both. Rescue and reckoning are one skill, exercised on schedule.
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