What does it mean in 2 Peter 2:21 that it would have been better if they hadn’t known righteousness?
What does this mean?
2 Peter 2:21
NKJV - 21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.
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Tim Maas
In the church in Peter's time, false teachers were claiming that, since God had forgiven the sins of believers through faith in Christ's atoning death and resurrection, those believers were thus subsequently free to sin as much as they wanted. However, those individuals could no longer claim ignorance of God's Law as an excuse for violating it (just as even such ignorance was not an acceptable excuse for sin in God's eyes, since He had made His presence and nature known since the beginning of time by the order of His created universe (Romans 1:19-23)). Thus, it was even more egregious and inexcusable to God that, having learned about Christ and the judgment that He endured to atone for sin (and also presumably having placed their faith in Him), those individuals would then claim to be free to sin as much as they wanted.
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