2 Peter 2:12
But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption; But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;
Those described follow corrupt desires and speak against what they do not understand, and like natural brute animals made to be taken and destroyed they shall utterly perish in their own corruption. They reject authority and revile what they do not understand in an arrogant and abusive manner. This class is the spiritualists and others manifested in the last days. Their teachings and deceptive manifestations are heresies warned of in Scripture.
It describes those who profess sacred truth while living in fleshly lust and uncleanness, holding truth apart from life without purity, refinement, and controlling Christian principle upon conduct and character, so that they have no moral power to resist Satan and fall an easy prey to adultery and wanton iniquity. It is a picture given of the state of things prior to His coming, held before His people as a sign of the soon coming of Jesus Christ. It is fulfilled when men and women claiming to teach the law of God break that law and watchmen are charged with adultery.
It exposes professed reformers and false teachers who practice licentiousness and adultery under a cloak of godliness, speak evil of what they do not understand, bring reproach so that the truth is evil spoken of, count it pleasure to riot in the daytime, are spots and blemishes sporting with their deceivings, have eyes full of adultery that cannot cease from sin, beguile unstable souls, have hearts exercised with covetous practices, are cursed children who have forsaken the right way to follow the way of Balaam who loved the wages of unrighteousness, and shall utterly perish in their own corruption and receive the reward of unrighteousness. They deny Christ by iniquitous works of licentiousness, are wells without water and clouds carried with a tempest, speak great swelling words of vanity about light and love of truth while alluring through lusts of the flesh and wantonness those who had clean escaped from error, promise liberty while themselves servants of corruption, and for them the mist of darkness is reserved forever. They are not open unbelievers but profess to believe the truth while loving not the truth and having pleasure in unrighteousness, holding the delusion that licentiousness is not displeasing to God, living in covetousness and feasting with believers, under sure and unsleeping judgment.
It also describes men who caused much trouble in the early church by clinging to wrong opinions they refused to give up, thinking their own judgment infallible, and bringing in strange pleasing sophistries and theories that confuse minds and injure the work, and the same kind of men and conditions will be met today so all must be on guard. As part of the larger passage it gives a rule to take Jesus as the pattern, not exalting self but being meek and lowly in heart as He was when He came to earth as the greatest teacher and traveled on foot from place to place, learning from Him and becoming what God would have, and carrying on the work sensibly with men and women connected in it, each carrying their part in a way that glorifies God. It warns against speaking evil of things one does not know, so that those in responsibility must not judge the work by a proud ambitious human estimate but need the meek and lowly spirit of Christ. When church members have not turned to the Lord with full purpose of heart they are not prepared to receive His messengers, so they question the message and criticize the messenger and speak evil of things they do not understand with hard and unimpressible hearts, and their evil speaking is as seed sown that springs up and defiles many.