2 Peter 2:19
While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.
Those who promise liberty are themselves servants and slaves of corruption, sin and Satan, even while they boast of freedom and independence and despise God's claims. By whatever or by whom a person is overcome, by the same he is brought into bondage and ruled. The liberty they promise is freedom to commit sin and rebel against God's revealed will, for sin is transgression of the law, and it is not true liberty but helpless slavery to sin and Satan and demonic power. It describes false teachers and professed reformers who with great swelling empty words of vanity and smooth fair speeches allure through the lusts of the flesh those who had clean escaped from error, drawing them to follow the carnal heart on the broad path of pleasure and sinful indulgence. Those who have escaped the pollutions of the world through knowing Jesus Christ can become entangled and overcome again with a latter end worse than the beginning, as Adam by yielding was defeated and brought into captivity with his dominion passing to his conqueror, yet all lost through the first Adam will be restored by the second, and corruption in the world through lust must be escaped by becoming partakers of the divine nature through Christ's merits.
Liberty Promised, Bondage Kept
Those who hold out liberty to others are themselves servants and slaves of corruption, of sin, and of Satan, even while they boast of freedom and independence and treat the claims of God with contempt. They promise emancipation while living in sin and moral corruption, conquered and held by the very evil that has overcome them. False teachers allure with great swelling empty words through the lusts of the flesh those who had clean escaped from those who live in error, yet their own condition is bondage. Boasted liberty from God's law and encouragement of sinful indulgence, especially violation of the seventh commandment, do not prove freedom, for Satan has overcome such teachers and holds them.
The verse lays down the universal principle that by whatever or by whom a person is overcome, by the same he is brought into bondage and ruled and made a slave. What conquers a man enslaves him, so that defeat means captivity to the conqueror. Teachers who promise freedom to lawbreakers are themselves the proof, for being overcome by sin they are brought under its dominion.
The liberty so promised is freedom to commit sin and to rebel against God's revealed will, with sin understood as transgression of the law. It is liberty to break God's law, to reject its restraints, to excuse wrongdoing when reproved, and to portray God's restrictions as unjust, oppressive, and the cause of human sin. Calling transgression liberty and belittling the law does not change its nature, for those who offer freedom by setting aside obedience offer license to disobey.
That promised freedom is not true liberty but helpless slavery to sin and Satan and demonic power. The boast of great freedom in smooth flowery words covers abject subjection to the will of demons, alliance with the powers of darkness, and loss of strength to go contrary to their will. Being overcome by Satan and brought into bondage, the promisers can give only the bondage they themselves endure, a blind leading of the blind.
Teachers Who Enslave Followers
The verse describes false teachers and professed reformers who allure, with great swelling empty words of vanity and with smooth flowery words and fair speeches, those who had clean escaped from those who live in error. They draw them through the lusts of the flesh and wantonness to follow the promptings of the carnal heart on the broad path of pleasure and sinful indulgence. They boast of new light, knowledge, love of truth, liberty and independence while living in licentiousness and adultery, denying the Lord by iniquitous works while claiming to be His followers. That licentiousness centers especially in violation of the seventh commandment. Boasting of freedom and independence while treating God's claims with contempt does not make them free, for what overcomes a person brings that person into slavery to sin and Satan.
They call the requirements of God's law bondage and obedience to them slavish fear, and they set aside the Bible for human speculations. They cover dangerous heresies with garments of righteousness and make revolting crimes be considered blessings. They portray God's restraints as unjust and oppressive and as the cause of human sin. The same rebellious spirit that opposed God's law in heaven leads them on earth to reject restraint. When sin is reproved that spirit leads them to resist correction, excuse and justify wrongdoing, blame those who reprove them, and seek the sympathy of others.
The verse belongs to the warning in 2 Peter 2-3 and 1 John about men who caused much trouble in the early church. Men who for years refuse to give up their opinions and think their judgment infallible become unacceptable to God and spoil the church. They follow the pattern of Lucifer, who cherished and strengthened wrong ideas and refused to alter his opinions until the Lord could not accept him. Deceiving angels present pleasing sophistries through such men to confuse minds and immortalize theories injurious to the Lord's work, so all must be on guard because similar conditions must be met today.
The verse is fulfilled in those who are given light and messages of warning yet will not receive them but exalt themselves, as A. T. Jones has done. Its warning applies to leaders who promote false teachings, whose promises of freedom do not make their teaching or influence liberating, so that following them draws others into error. It shows the condition of spiritualists in the last days, who themselves are in the veriest bondage to Satan, under the most abject slavery to the will of demons. They are controlled by his power and allied to the powers of darkness with no strength to go contrary to the will of demons, the blind leading the blind.
Falling Away and Escape
By yielding to temptation Adam was defeated by Satan and brought under Satan's power into captivity to him. Because man became Satan's captive, the dominion over the earth given to Adam at creation passed to his conqueror. Satan thus usurped that dominion and became the god of this world, and not only man but the earth itself came under the power of the wicked one. All that was lost through the first Adam will be restored by the second, for Christ by paying the penalty of sin redeems man and recovers the dominion he forfeited.
Those who have escaped the pollutions of the world through knowing Jesus Christ and the Lord and Saviour, through the way of righteousness and the holy commandment, can become entangled and overcome again. Their latter end then becomes worse than the beginning, and turning from the known way is worse than never having known it. Salvation is therefore not unconditional or irrevocable, and those who have known the truth can fall away and be lost. The corruption that brings such bondage is in the world through lust, and it must be escaped by becoming partakers of the divine nature.
Through Christ's merits people can overcome that corruption in the world caused by lust and obey God's commandments. They are not free to follow their natural inclinations, but owe themselves and God a character like Christ's. Escaping requires trusting the Saviour day by day while struggling against the temptations of the enemy and receiving grace to conquer, so there is no excuse for failing to serve Christ. Escape comes by eating Christ's flesh and drinking His blood, which means taking Christ as the Word of God into the inner nature for nourishment as a stalk receives nourishment from nature, staying connected with Christ and living by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
Pursuing what is thought to be liberty by a wayward, self-guided course brings a bondage worse than slavery. It wastes God-given capabilities, leads more often in the wrong direction than the right, makes wrong impressions that destroy lasting influence, and causes good to be evil spoken of. It makes the person soured, unsanctified and unholy, bringing years of disappointment and shame and a stain upon the soul. Freedom from that bondage requires changing conduct, heeding experienced counsel and the wisdom of those whom the Lord teaches, and placing the will on the side of the will of God. Determining to listen to no counsel but one's own and to work out every problem alone reaps what is sown, missing the right way altogether or returning at last wounded, bruised and dwarfed in religious character, humbled, penitent and confessing error after tiring of beating the air.