2 Pet. 2:17. These are waterless springs, clouds and mists driven by a storm: for whom the gloom of eternal darkness is reserved.
2 Pet. 2:18. For, uttering great swelling words of vanity, they entice through the lusts of the flesh and lewdness those who have barely escaped from those living in error.
2 Pet. 2:19. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him he is also enslaved.
Having inserted much into the middle of his discourse, including among other things the example of Balaam, the apostle again begins to speak about the impure Gnostics. He likens them to waterless springs, because they have lost the purity of preaching and the sweet water of life. He compares them to clouds driven by the wind, meaning an adverse wind, which is why he also called it a tempest, since a tempest brings whatever it drives into complete disorder. They are, he says, clouds that are not bright, as the saints are, but dark, full of gloom. He also gives the reason for this, namely that out of vanity they utter swelling words, enticing through fleshly lust into debauchery those who had completely escaped it, or who, if they were once in error, had afterwards submitted themselves to the Lord. They themselves, he says, being slaves of the aforementioned impurity, which he rightly also called corruption, promise freedom to those they deceive. And as to why they promise freedom to others while themselves being slaves of sin, he brings forth a fine proof of this: whoever is overcome by any passion is also a slave to it. But this will be explained more fully further on.
2 Pet. 2:20. For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.
2 Pet. 2:21. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.
2 Pet. 2:22. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: The dog returns to his own vomit, and the washed sow goes to wallow in the mire.
By these words he confirms two points: first, that the one who is defeated necessarily serves his conqueror, and second, that those who have known the truth but again cling to their former impiety fall into an evil worse than before. He also adds a proverb confirming the same thing (Prov. 26:11). The meaning of the discourse is as follows: if those who through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ have escaped the defilements of the world become entangled in them again and are overcome by them, then they are undoubtedly enslaved by them, and their condition becomes worse than it was before their knowledge of this slavery, for Satan strives to make them fall into greater evil. For this reason the apostle says that, given such a future for those who willingly return to evil, it would have been better for them not to have known the truth than, having known it, to fall into greater evil. For even a dog returning to its own vomit becomes still more disgusting, just as a pig seeking to wash itself of filth, if it does so in filth itself, turns out even filthier than before.