2:19

The false teachers taught the people who had recently become Christians that they could live however they wanted to live because they were free. In other words, these teachers taught that God no longer required people to obey his laws. But in fact, the teachers were slaves to their own wicked behavior, and they themselves were not free to do what was right.

2:19a

freedom: Peter did not specify what the false teachers promised freedom from. Most probably they were promising that those who followed them would be free from the need to obey any rules on how a Christian should behave. They were probably teaching that Christians could therefore behave just as they wanted to, even immorally. In languages where there is no word for freedom, you could translate this as: “You are no longer under the law,” or “God does not require you to obey his laws any more.”

2:19b

slaves to depravity: The Greek word that Berean Standard Bible translates depravity is the same word that Peter used in 1:4, where Berean Standard Bible translated it “corruption.” See note on 1:4b. The wicked way that they behaved controlled them and would ruin them.

2:19c

For: This word links 19c to 19b. You may need to make the link clearer by saying something like “I call them slaves because….”

a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him: This was probably a well-known proverb. Peter quoted it to explain why he had called the false teachers “slaves of depravity” in 19b. They had allowed their desire to do wicked and immoral things control them and so now they were like slaves to those wicked actions and could behave in no other way.

mastered: The Greek word here means “overcome by, defeated by.”

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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.