Though God, by virtue of his creating the world (including the angels), was clearly the Sovereign to whom obedience was due, the rebellious angels declined to give God that obedience. According to Genesis 6:1–2, people became brutes, “taking” whatever woman they wished. Genesis 6:5 adds that “the wickedness of man was great in the earth,” so that God determined to destroy mankind. Though Genesis 6 does not mention fallen angels (the “spirits in prison” of 1 Peter 3:19), God’s further revelation attributes a role to demons whereby they instigate people to do evil (Ephesians 2:2; Ephesians 6:12; John 12:31). Peter conveys precisely that thought when he here merges the disobedience of the angels with the disobedience of earth’s population in Noah’s day. So the pronoun “they” grows to include more than the rebellious angels and enfolds also the people whom they spurred on to greater works of disobedience.
20 because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.