Peter has already affirmed that false teachers will face God’s judgment (2 Peter 2:3); now he presents evidence to support this statement. Christian believers need to know that judgment is a certain reality so that we will not be deceived by those who advocate for lawlessness. Most of Peter’s examples are drawn from the Old Testament as well as the insights found in Jewish literature. Apparently the Jewish interpretative tradition was familiar to the Christian believers to whom he was writing.
Peter’s mention of the angels, the flood, and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah confirm that God has acted to bring judgment in the past. All these events were well known in the Christian community, examples that could not be disputed. The false teachers’ claim that judgment will never come is thus one that should be ignored because it is not true.
4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;