Amongst commentators there is some debate as to whether Peter is referring to the false teachers or those who have been enticed by them. Both the false teachers and those enticed by them were in equal danger.1 Given his denouncement of the false teachers (2 Peter 2:10–19), it makes more sense to see them as being primarily in view.2
20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.