The Unrighteous

2 Pet. 2:9-10

then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment unto the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defining passion and despise authority.

Why would it be important to know identifying characteristics of the ungodly? If I don't know who the enemy is, how can I protect myself? This passage lays it out pretty clearly. Why so much about these people? I think it is because they can manifest themselves themselves in so many ways. I need to be aware of all their methods if I am to stand strong in the power of Jesus.

• Indulge in the lust of defiling passion [ It's never a good thing when passion takes charge.]
• Despise authority [This is rampant in so many people.]
• Bold and willful, they do not tremble when they blaspheme the glorious ones [Isn't this our society? Nothing is sacred. What is evil has become the accepted norm.]
• Irrational animals, creatures of instinct born to be caught and destroyed
• Blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant [Especially about God, the Bible,  believers and their faith.]
• Will be destroyed in their destruction,  suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime.
• They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions while they feast with you. [How scary! They could be in our churches waiting for the right time to take someone down.]
• Eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin [This has become acceptable even in Christian circles.]
• They entice unsteady souls. [That is why I need to know how they appear.]
• Their hearts are trained in greed. [Greed is everywhere, even greed for evil.]
• Accursed children
• Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. [Lost themselves.]
• Followed the way of Balaam who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression, a donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet. [Making a profit anyway they can, there is no integrity.]
• Waterless springs and mists driven by a storm.
• The gloom of utter darkness is reserved for them.
• Speak loud boasts of folly, enticing by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who lived in error.
• Promise freedom but they are enslaved to corruption [This is big. they always offer freedom when it is actually enslaving sin.]
• If they had escaped the defilements of the world through Jesus Christ and they are again entangled, then the last state is worse than the first. [Their final end is so scary.]

Thank You Jesus for saving my soul, for redeeming from such a horrible end. Help me to see clearly and to rely on You for wisdom. I see the danger in relying on myself.

In His name,

Amen