2 Peter 2:4, commentary and pictures

God did not spare the angels when they sinned but cast them out of heaven into darkness and confinement, to be held under judgment until their final punishment. Their rebellion began with Lucifer, who was lifted up by his beauty and led other angels on probation to reject Christ, His law and their loyalty to God. Their guilt matched the great light and heavenly privilege they had enjoyed in God's presence, so their choice could not be changed and no provision was made to pardon and restore them. Unlike the fallen angels who were left to perish, fallen humanity was reached by the Son of God to be rescued. Their fate stands as a certain warning that God will punish the unjust, including false teachers and all who reject light, while He knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation.

Rebellion and Expulsion

The angels who sinned were originally sinless, equal in nature, power and glory with the holy angels, very beautiful and very glorious, yet wholly dependent on God for happiness and for the light and intelligence they enjoyed. Their high and happy state was kept only by obedience and fidelity to the Creator's law, with no provision to save those who chose to transgress.

One angel began the controversy and carried it on until there was rebellion in the heavenly courts, that leader being Lucifer, who instigated rebellion against God and formed the fallen into a confederacy under his leadership for which punishment is prepared for the originator of evil. Lifted up because of his beauty and wanting to be exalted, he forgot that his beauty of person and character came from the Lord Jesus, obscured that Christ was the only begotten Son of God, and came to consider that counsel need not be taken from Christ. His sinful character developed by cherishing and strengthening wrong ideas and refusing to alter his opinions until he would not work in harmony with God.

Satan seduced and deceived angels who were on probation into rebelling against Christ, against God's law and against loyalty to God, and they failed their test and fell. Under his influence they spoke against loyalty, refused to obey heaven's laws and to consult Christ, and helped corrupt the heavenly family. So joined to him they refused obedience and became a confederacy under his leadership, tempting and trying others and seeking to provoke God.

Before the fall the loyal angels warned Satan and those affected what must follow if he persisted, that He who could create the angels could by His power overturn all their authority and in some signal manner punish their audacity and terrible rebellion. To resist the law of God, which was as sacred as an angel himself, was rebellion deserving punishment. They called the rebellious to close their ears to deceptive reasoning and to go to God and confess their wrong for even admitting a thought of questioning His authority.

God did not allow the rebellious to remain in heaven but expelled and cast them out, and they lost their high and happy estate and are kept under judgment in darkness reserved unto judgment. This expulsion shows that God does not tolerate sin because sin is opposed to His holiness, and it made His justice and judgment clear to the heavenly host. Their punishment followed their choice to break God's law and reject His authority.

Their rebellion did not bring greater good or liberty but brought a lost condition of discord, despair, and loss of the peace and joy they had known in Christ's presence. Satan led them into rebellion and bears responsibility for their ruin, they would never return to their former place in heaven, and they became an example of evil copied by those who know truth yet act corruptly instead of following Christ.

God cast Satan and his angels out of heaven for their sinful revolt and they came to this world. No other world besides our own has fallen under their rebellion, so this world alone has become the theater of the struggle between right and wrong in which all men are involved.

They fell through insubordination and anxiety to become independent of God, wanting light direct from God apart from the means He ordained and refusing connection with His appointed help. When light from the throne showed His will and truth they refused to see it and opposed it, separated from God, went to the ranks of the enemy, and fell with Satan into disloyal opposition to God, joining fallen people in resisting goodness, obedience and God's law. Anyone who stubbornly resists God after receiving sufficient light and evidence is counted with transgressors and brings final ruin upon himself.

Meaning of Punishment

God did not spare the angels that sinned but cast them down to hell, into darkness, and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment, where they are kept in confinement under judgment. Along with the flood upon the world of the ungodly and the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, their casting down shows that the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. Their fate is an example of the punishment and judgment awaiting the ungodly, the unjust, and those who reject light and evidence, including false teachers who lead others astray.

Their guilt and punishment corresponded to the great light, knowledge, experience and heavenly privileges they had received. They had known God's character, goodness, mercy, wisdom and glory and had witnessed His glory, yet rebelled in the presence of His glory. Therefore no more favorable setting could be given them and no greater revelation could be given to change their choice or to place them in a better condition to be tested.

Great privileges do not protect those who reject light, for greater light brings greater responsibility and makes the ruin and judgment more severe when it is refused, so that when an angel falls he becomes a fiend. Chains of darkness are the portion of every transgressor of God's law who grafts himself into Satan, the first transgressor who constantly leads men into sin, and cherishes sinful attributes. Sin cuts the soul off from God, leaving the sinner under His abiding wrath, and when seen too late it brings remorse, despair, hatred and conscious separation. This conscious separation is unquenchable fire, and for every unrepentant sinner who refuses to forsake sin and receive forgiveness and grace unto salvation it ends in the destruction of soul and body.

Certain Judgment on Ungodly

The fate of the angels who sinned stands as an example of the punishment and judgment awaiting the ungodly. God did not spare those angels but cast them into hell, confined them in chains of darkness, and reserved them for judgment, and their fate is the example of the judgment awaiting the unjust and all who reject light and evidence, including false teachers who lead others astray. That casting down proves that the judgment of false teachers who bring in damnable heresies and with feigned words make merchandise of people lingers not and their damnation slumbers not. It is fulfilled in the course of those who receive light yet exalt themselves and refuse it.

Together with the flood brought upon the world of the ungodly with Noah saved, and the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah made an example to after ungodly livers with Lot delivered, it teaches that the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. God punishes transgressors of His law, whether the angels who sinned or the people of the ancient world and Sodom, and these judgments are recorded as warnings and instruction for later generations. As God did not spare the angels when they sinned, He cannot spare human beings who disregard His will.

Like the angels, the dwellers in Eden and Adam and Eve were placed on probation, where their high and happy estate and their life, happiness and gifts could be kept only by fidelity to the Creator's law. To obey is to live and to disobey is to perish, for transgression forfeits God's rich gifts and brings misery and ruin. Their fate warns that disobedience brings all under the penalty of God's law, since obedience was required of all in heaven and on earth. God's law could condemn sin but could not pardon it, and the fallen angels could not be restored to God's favor. Satan's grief at losing heaven did not amount to true repentance, because it did not lead to love for God or willing obedience to His law.

No Redemption for Angels

The angels who sinned were not spared but were left to perish in their rebellion rather than pardoned and restored, with no hope of redemption and no provision made to save those who chose to transgress. Their high and happy state had been kept only by obedience and fidelity to the Creator's law, and when they rebelled against that law they could no longer remain in heaven. Their guilt and punishment corresponded to the great light, knowledge, experience and heavenly privileges they had received, for they had known God's character, goodness, mercy, wisdom and glory and had rebelled in the very presence of His glory. No more favorable setting could be given them and no greater revelation could be made to change their choice or place them in a better condition to be tested.

Their fate stands in contrast to fallen humanity, which the Son of God reached out to rescue while the angels were left to perish. That the angels sinned and that God did not spare them but cast them into darkness to be reserved unto judgment forms the background for Satan's success in deceiving angels before he led Adam and humanity into sin.

Fallen Angels Still Active

The angels that sinned were originally sinless and equal in nature, power, and glory to the holy angels, but they joined Satan's rebellion and have since worked with him against God and humanity. They fell because they refused to obey heaven's laws and fell into opposition to God, and they continue to tempt and try people, seeking to provoke God. Fallen angels join with fallen people in resisting goodness, obedience, and God's law, while Satan, who himself fell through apostasy, works against those who obey.

There is a class of fallen angels shut away from heaven who kept the highest education and intelligence that can be given and understand all about heaven. They are not ignorant, but work upon high men, wealthy men, and various parties and take the lead of the parties of the world. They inspire beautiful and attractive sentiments that come through people who practice wickedness and not godliness, in order to deceive and overcome those who do not watch unto prayer. Believers will just as truly have to meet these powers of darkness, so they must stand intelligently on the Word and educate children to have a true understanding of the Scriptures in order to stand true and help others who need help the most.

Deceiving angels present pleasing sophistries to confuse the minds of God's people with theories injurious to the Lord's work. This is the same work as men who caused much trouble in the early church by clinging to their own opinions as infallible, beginning with Lucifer, whose sinful character developed by cherishing and strengthening wrong ideas and refusing to alter his opinions until the Lord could not accept him, and the warning must be met today with all on guard not to let the church be spoiled. The angels that sinned were great and once good, but when light from the throne of God showed them His will and His truth they refused to see the light and opposed the truth, so they separated themselves from God, went over to the ranks of the enemy, and fell with Satan. Learned men who teach that the first day is the Sabbath of the Lord, and scoffers in the last days who deny the promise of the Lord's coming and wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction, are not greater than those angels, and all who choose to follow their own ways contrary to the divine will will fall with him.

The fallen angels are a pattern for those who join themselves to evil powers in order to harm people who love God and proclaim present truth. Their fall, in which they were seduced and deceived by Satan, is compared with a person's mind being taken captive and influenced by evil angels. Their example shows that angels sinned without fully realizing what they were doing, describing how a person can link himself with Satan and be drawn into wrongdoing by degrees.

Warning and Deliverance Today

The passage from 2 Peter 2:1-9 sets forth the work that means everything and must be understood and made a business. It calls for coming out of darkness into marvelous light and seeking heaven with all the heart and understanding, living with circumspection and not heedlessness, confessing mistakes and becoming overcomers. It calls for refusing the sayings and customs of the world as a peculiar people showing forth the praises of Him who called out of darkness into marvelous light. It must be kept in view by searching the Scriptures in which eternal life is found, leaving without excuse if found deficient at last, because coming into sacred relation to Christ and beholding His life and character brings partaking of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

The fall teaches that each soul is individually accountable to God, must love God with all the heart and do His will, and as a servant of Jesus Christ pledged by baptismal vows must clothe himself with the righteousness of Christ and carry out the living example of the Lord Jesus. Anyone who stubbornly resists God after receiving sufficient light and evidence is counted with transgressors and brings final ruin upon himself. Wanting light direct from God apart from the means He ordained and refusing connection with His appointed help repeats the independence by which beautiful and glorious angels, though dependent on God for happiness and for light and intelligence, fell from their high estate through insubordination, and leaves a person liable to deception and to be overthrown. Those who know the truth but act corruptly are copying the example of the angels who sinned and fell from heaven and became an example of evil, instead of following Christ.

The chains of darkness describe those who reject light and are left bound in darkness and unbelief. Satan binds them while they believe they are doing right, leaving them unable to see truth clearly. He keeps them careless and unable to recognize their danger while they think they are right, and through careless choices confines them under judgment. When a person opens wide the door of the heart, Satan is invited in to tempt and to bind that person with fetters of darkness. A person fastens these chains upon himself by lacking courage to correct his errors, losing a precious opportunity to pursue truth and God's favor.

Gospel truth hardens when it does not save, and rejection of light leaves men captives bound about by chains of darkness and unbelief. The soul that refuses to listen to the invitations of mercy from day to day can soon listen to the most urgent appeals without an emotion stirring the soul. Those who persistently reject God's light are left by God to the spiritual bondage and darkness their own hardened unbelief forges, left unrestrained to continue their downward course, as when the scribes and Pharisees saw compelling evidence that Jesus was the promised Savior yet answered it with hatred and unbelief. So too the teachers of Israel were bound more tightly by unbelief and prejudice as they shut their eyes to the light, until Jesus turned away from them.

The same chains picture people bound by inner distress, whose remorse, weakness, and lack of moral strength leave them unable to see clearly or find their way, though they long for pardon and peace. They are in bondage to sin and despair, helpless to free themselves, and Christ has done all for them, with faith, hope, and love bringing them nearer to perfect holiness. Others struggle with weakness, lack of resolution, and little moral power, calling for tender sympathy and help. Satan strives to keep people bound under his power and prevent them from joining Christ, which makes earnest, persistent labor necessary to win souls. All must be on guard not to let the church be spoiled, for as the sinning angels under Satan's influence spoke against loyalty to God and helped corrupt the heavenly family, so people who yield to evil influences can lose their own judgment and will, and when deceiving angels present pleasing sophistries to confuse minds with theories injurious to the work the warning must be met today.