This verse expands on the previous verse, asserting that it would have been much better for these people to remain heathen, rather than to become Christians and then to turn their backs on the Christian way of life. The connection of this verse to the verse before it is expressed by the connective For, which has the sense of “Because” or “It is a fact.”

It would have been better (literally, “it was better” or “it were better”) expresses a judgment on a present state that is considered unsatisfactory, and a preference for a previous state that does not now exist. The present state that is regarded as unsatisfactory is to have known the way of righteousness only to be unfaithful to it; whereas the previous state, which is preferred, is never to have known the way of righteousness. Peter uses the word “know” again here, for which see comments on “knowledge” in the discussion of 1.2.

The way of righteousness is a new term introduced by Peter at this point. Righteousness is one of those words in the New Testament that has a variety of meanings. Some understand the way of righteousness to be equivalent to the Christian faith or the Gospel, and to mean the same as “the way of truth” in verse 2. However, the emphasis here may be on its moral aspects: right conduct, a godly life, a life lived according to the will of God, the Christian way of life. Way is a term used to refer to the Christian life and has already been discussed in 2 Peter 2.2.

The expression translated turn back indicates a change of mind, or a change in a course of action, either for better or for worse. Here, of course, it is for the worse, for these people turn back from the holy commandment. Here again Peter introduces a new technical term. Holy commandment seems to be parallel to the way of righteousness in the first part of the verse; here it probably refers to Christian teaching as a whole, with emphasis on its ethical and moral demands. This commandment is described as holy because it originates from God and is sustained by God. This source is the significance of the term delivered, which is the same term used in Jude 3; see comments there for further discussion. The unnamed agent is perhaps Jesus Christ, but he acts through the apostles, who are given the responsibility of instructing new converts to the faith. In many languages the phrase holy commandment delivered to them may be expressed as “the sacred command that they received,” or the translator may use an impersonal pronoun to avoid the passive and say “the sacred command that they (agents not named) have given to them.”

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Second Letter from Peter. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .