2 Peter 2:13

2 Peter 2:13 suffering wrong as the hire of wrong-doing; men that count it pleasure to revel in the day-time, spots and blemishes, reveling in their deceivings while they feast with you;

Expanded Translation

Being wronged and treated unjustly as the wages (pay, reward) of their unrighteousness [or, as other manuscripts have, bringing upon themselves (receiving) the wages of unrighteousness]; persons considering it enjoyable and gratifying to live soft, luxurious, effeminent lives during the day-time, spots (morally stained) and blemishes (disgraces to society), living luxuriously, delicately, and in revelry, by their deception as they are feasting (banqueting) together with you.

suffering wrong as the hire of wrong-doing

If this reading is correct, the idea is that these men themselves were being injured, wronged, or treated unjustly as punishment (wages) for their own unrighteous deeds. But the marginal reading, receiving the hire of wrong-doing is preferred by many. This would simply mean they will be paid (i.e., punished) for their wickedness. Compare 2 Peter 2:12. The King James Version reads, And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness.

men that count it pleasure to revel in the day-time

Pleasure (hedone, compare our word hedonism) or gratification, has no wicked connotation by itself and in modest and legitimate surroundings. But as used in the New Testament, it is descriptive of those who are slaves to pleasure, especially sensual pleasure (Luke 8:14, Titus 3:3, James 4:1-3). These place a high premium on the pleasurable or delightful effects of somethingto the damnation of their own souls! How many Christian people have gone back to the ways of the world because of the pleasures of sin for a season (Hebrews 11:25).

And what did these men regard with such delight? To revel in the day-time. The word truphe (revel), a noun, is from the root thrupto, to break small, enfeeble, enervate, The noun came to refer to a way of living that enervatesdelicate, soft, luxurious living, which included many evilsparties, drinking bouts, dancing, and festivities of various sorts. Many people wait until evening to carry on in such sin, but not thesethey reveled in the day-time.

spots and blemishes

These are picture words which show defects of character. The first (spilos, a spot or stain) would picture a moral blemish. Instead of wearing clean and pure garments, his are splattered with sin. The second word (momos, a blemish or blot) was used by the classical Greek poets and later prose writers in the sense of blame, insult, or disgrace. These men, because of their licentious behavior, were disgraces to society, and certainly to true religion.

reveling

This verb is an emphatic form of the noun revel already discussed, It means to live luxuriously or delicately, to revel in, riot.

in their deceivings while they feast with you

Describing at least in part how these wicked men were able to live luxuriously; in (or through) their deceit (apote). With deception, they could somehow horn their way into the Christian's agapae (love feasts) and eat (like gluttons, no doubt) with the Christians for whom the feast was originally designed.

Thayer says that the word deceivings as it occurs here (apatai) was by a paragram [or verbal play] applied to the agapae or love-feasts. because these were transformed by base men into seducive revels. But in some manuscripts the reference to the love-feasts is more direct (as in Jude 1:12), actually including the word agapais in the text instead of apatais.[69] These were feasts expressing and fostering mutual love which used to be held by Christians before [or after] the celebration of the Lord's supper, and at which the poorer Christians mingled with the wealthier and partook in common with the rest of food provided at the expense of the wealthy (Thayer). Reference is apparently made to these social-religious gatherings in Acts 20:11, 1 Corinthians 11:20-22; 1 Corinthians 11:33-34, and some think Acts 2:46.

[69] Though the reference here does seem to be to the love-feasts, the text of the American Standard Version is considered more accurate. The International Bible Encyclopedia calls the insertion of agapais a very doubtful reading. The only actual use of agape in the New Testament with reference to these common meals is in Jude 1:12.