2 Peter 2:4-10 The translation I used today is the NET. I find it useful because of the footnotes that are posted with it. It may be helpful for you as you study.
If you don't remember the details about Lot it is good to read the account found in Genesis (ch)13-19. As I read it I find it hard to believe what is subsequently written about Lot in 2 Peter 2 given the details of his life in Sodom (G.18,19). He seems to have had very limited influence in the spiritual life of it's residents. He seems to have been accepted as a ruler in the city so was well known (we find him seated in the gate ch.19:1). (The gate of the city was where business affairs and other important transactions took place. Ruth 4:1-2). But he had no influence in its moral/spiritual life.
As we read further in Gen.19 we find that as the angels explored the situation of Sodom it was anything but holy. In fact it was filled with wickedness. In fact Lot had fallen precariously close to being like one of them. As we read 2 P.2:8 it seems to me that Lot was unwilling to remove himself from the circumstances he was in, but God rescued him. We see the grace of God in this whole account, 1st in God's willingness to spare the cities if there were a certain number of righteous people found, and 2nd, we see it in his rescue of Lot. From any human observation Lot's life did not deserve rescue, but because he was a child of God (noted by the words 'righteous man') God delivered him. The thought of 2 Pet.2:9 is that if God would deliver even Lot from where he had placed himself, how much more willing is God to deliver godly men from trial. He never leaves nor forsakes those who are His own.
Pastor Paul.
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