2 Peter 2:15, commentary and pictures

To forsake the right way and follow the way of Balaam is to turn from known light and duty to pursue unjust gain through covetousness, which is idolatry. Balaam had stood as a prophet of God who knew Israel was protected and could not be cursed, yet pride and desire for Balak's gifts and honor led him to accept the bribe and try to serve both God and His enemies. Loving the wages of unrighteousness was his deliberate choice to cling to what Moab offered instead of breaking with it at once and returning to God in deep repentance, and when the Spirit's restraint lifted his unchecked covetousness drove him to counsel Moab to seduce Israel into fornication and idolatry. The same forsaking is seen in professed believers and teachers before the Lord's coming who claim light and truth while practicing licentiousness, adultery, and greed, exploiting unstable souls with deceptive words and bringing reproach on the way of truth. Knowledge of divine things and a place in God's work give no security apart from dependence on the Redeemer, for one cherished sin indulged until it rules the life will lead away from integrity, and trading obedience for worldly gain, Sabbath-breaking for advantage, or dishonest business for profit ends in loss, judgment, and the misery that follows sin.

Balaam's Way Explained

Balaam had stood in the right way as a good man and a prophet of God, with light given him about Israel and about his own duty. The right way for him was to break at once with Moab, to stop presuming on mercy, and to return to God with deep repentance, so that his expressed wish to die the death of the righteous would come true. Instead, his love of the reward for wrongdoing was a deliberate determination to hold on to what Moab offered.

To love the wages of unrighteousness is to cherish unjust gain through covetousness, which is idolatry. Though he professed to serve the Most High as Master, feared God's power, and claimed to be His prophet, he became double-minded and a time-server, seeking honor and gain from the Lord's enemies and trying to please both God and people. He knew that God protected Israel and that his curse could not harm them, yet pride and the promised gifts led him to accept the bribe and to try to make his course agree with Balak's purpose. Though God gave him sacred messages and opportunities to turn back, he chose the wages over God's favor, clung to avarice and presumption, rejected mercy, and joined God's enemies in pursuing a course God had forbidden.

His covetousness for the reward and promotion to honor offered by Balak was not overcome but only held in check while the controlling influence of God's Spirit was upon him. After he returned to his place and the Spirit left him, covetousness prevailed until he was willing to resort to any means to obtain what he desired. Knowing that Israel's prosperity depended on observance of God's law and that there was no way to bring a curse upon them except by seducing them to transgression, he decided to secure Balak's reward by advising the Moabites how to bring the curse upon Israel. He counseled an idolatrous feast with music to attract the Israelites, then using the most beautiful Midianitish women to entice them to corrupt themselves, to transgress God's law, to sacrifice to idols, and to commit fornication and idolatry. The counsel succeeded because many Israelites regarded him as a prophet of God and were persuaded to join and mix with that idolatrous people.

A cherished sin grows through repetition until it rules the life and leads away from integrity and God's service. Through that one fault of covetousness Satan gained entire control over him and caused his ruin.

Apostasy Before Christ's Coming

The description in 2 Peter 2-3 is of men who caused much trouble in the early church by holding opinions they refused to give up, thinking their judgment infallible, and bringing in strange things, pleasing sophistries, and theories that injure the Lord's work, and similar conditions must be met today, so all must be on guard against them. It is a picture of the state of things prior to the coming of the Lord and a sign of the soon coming of Jesus Christ, seen in professed believers, reformers, and teachers who claim light, knowledge, and love of the truth while practicing licentiousness, adultery, and covetousness. The right way they forsake is sanctification and honor in possessing the vessel and abstaining from lust, which they leave for gain gotten by beguiling unstable souls and making merchandise of followers with feigned words.

Inside the professed truth these false teachers do not love the truth but take pleasure in unrighteousness, holding the strong delusion that licentiousness and adultery do not displease God. Though professing to know God and believe the truth, even claiming to teach God's law and standing as watchmen upon the walls of Zion, they deny Him by breaking that law and by abominable, disobedient, reprobate works, so that the way of truth is evil spoken of and reproach is brought upon it. Through covetousness they use deceptive words to exploit people, counting daytime rioting as pleasure and feasting with believers as spots and blemishes while reveling in deceit, with eyes full of adultery unable to stop sinning, trapping unstable souls with hearts trained in greed, low and vile in thought and common in talk and deportment, practicing iniquity and wantonness while claiming to believe the truth. Their condition comes because they hold truth apart from life, with a Christian profession without practicing the truth and without a real living Christian principle having controlling power upon conduct and character, leaving them with no moral power to resist temptation.

They are cursed children, spots and blemishes, wells without water, promising liberty while themselves servants of corruption, and their judgment does not linger and their damnation does not slumber, but the mist of darkness is reserved for them forever. The wages of unrighteousness also describe the misery and suffering that follow sin, under whose accumulated consequences the earth and many innocent people suffer. People can forsake the right way and follow Balaam's example, loving the reward of wrongdoing, and their former standing on the right way does not make them secure from turning aside. Knowledge of divine things and an important place in God's work do not keep a person from being overcome unless they depend on their Redeemer.

Choosing Gain Over Obedience

To forsake the right way and follow Balaam is to trade obedience to God for worldly gain, loving the wages of unrighteousness by going astray after unrighteous reward. The tempter works to draw men away from serving God by holding out worldly gain and honor, urging that over-conscientiousness stands in the way of prosperity and pressing them to leave the path of strict integrity. Once that path is left, one wrong step makes the next easier, until those controlled by greed and hunger for power will do and dare terrible things.

Knowing the claims of the Sabbath yet dishonoring it in pursuit of wealth or advantage is following Balaam's way. To refuse the Sabbath after knowing its claims dishonors the Creator and barters away the highest interests of the soul for worldly advantage. The gain so expected ends in loss, with punishment and accountability to God for those who dishonor Him to obtain it.

The same forsaking reaches anyone in business who abandons principle or acts dishonestly for profit, for such gain gotten through unrighteousness dishonors God and brings accountability to Him. It also reaches people in official positions who seek unjust reward and boast of their power, loving gain obtained through unrighteousness after abandoning the right way. Against such wrongdoing God's people are to pray, trusting the supreme authority of their heavenly Governor.

Those who suppose they can set aside integrity for a time to secure worldly advantage and then turn back at will entangle themselves in Satan's snare. From that snare they seldom escape.