In 2:4-9 Peter speaks concerning God’s judgment of old on both angels and men. Verse 4 says, “For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but delivered them to gloomy pits, having cast them down to Tartarus, being kept for judgment.” These angels are the fallen angels (see notes 192 in 1 Pet. 3 and 41 in Rev. 12), who were the first fallen ones in the universe in the sequence of historical facts recorded in this chapter. These angels have been delivered to gloomy pits, having been cast down to Tartarus. Tartarus is a deep and gloomy pit, where the fallen angels are detained as in a prison (see note 193 in 1 Pet. 3).
In Tartarus the fallen angels are being kept for judgment or kept unto judgment. This will be the judgment of the great day (Jude 6), which will probably be the judgment of the great white throne, executed upon all the dead, upon the demons, and probably also upon the fallen angels (Rev. 20:11-15). It is logical for all the angels, demons, and men who have joined Satan in his rebellion to be judged at the same time, in the same way, and with the same result, immediately after their evil leader is judged and cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:10). Into that place they also will be cast (see second paragraph of note 172 in 1 Pet. 1).
In verse 5 Peter says, “And did not spare the ancient world, but guarded Noah, the eighth, a herald of righteousness, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly.” To say that Noah was the eighth means that he was one of the eight (1 Pet. 3:20). Here Peter says that Noah was a herald of righteousness. To be righteous and godly or unrighteous and ungodly is crucial with respect to God’s governmental judgment (2 Pet. 2:5-9). To be righteous is to be right with man before God, and to be godly is to express God before man. This was the manner of life Noah and Lot lived, which spared them from God’s governmental judgment according to His righteousness.
Noah did not preach the gospel, but he preached God’s righteousness over against the corruption of his generation. As we have pointed out, Peter speaks of righteousness because his emphasis is on God’s government. Noah’s preaching of righteousness was related to God’s government. God told Noah that He would wipe out the world and that Noah should preach righteousness to his generation. God exercised His judgment upon that corrupted generation by bringing a flood upon the world of the ungodly.
Verse 6 continues, “And having reduced to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, He condemned them to ruin, having set an example to those who intend to live an ungodly life.” To live an ungodly life is to live in the flesh in the lusts of men, not in the will of God; it is to work out the desire of the nations (1 Pet. 4:2-3) and to live in a vain, ungodly manner of life (1 Pet. 1:18).
In verses 7 and 8 Peter says, “And rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the licentious manner of life of the lawless (for that righteous man making his home among them, in seeing and hearing, tormented his righteous soul day after day with their lawless works).” In these verses Peter uses three cases: the case of the fallen angels, the case of Noah and his generation, and the case of Lot and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. These cases are presented according to their biblical sequence. In Genesis first the fallen angels are judged by God, then there is the judgment of Noah’s generation, and later there is the judgment upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Peter tells us in 2:7 that righteous Lot was oppressed by the licentious manner of life of the lawless. The word “lawless” here means unprincipled; it is a different word in Greek from lawless in verse 8. The lawless here especially denotes those who violate the law of nature and conscience. As God judged the lawless ones in Sodom and Gomorrah, He will also judge today’s sodomites.
In verses 7 and 8 Peter uses the word “righteous” three times in speaking of righteous Lot, that righteous man, and his righteous soul. This word is used in relation to God’s government. Likewise, the Greek words rendered lawless in verses 7 and 8 are also used here as governmental terms.
In verse 9 Peter says, “The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment.” The godly are those like Noah and Lot who live a godly life, in contrast to an ungodly life. The unrighteous are those who live an unrighteous life, in the licentious manner of the lawless, like those in Noah’s time and those in Sodom and Gomorrah. The day of judgment will be the day of the final judgment of the great white throne. The unrighteous ones who lived at the time of Noah and Lot must still face the judgment at the great white throne. After that judgment has been carried out, they will be cast into the lake of fire.