Albert Barnes Commentary 2 Peter 2:14

"having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; enticing unstedfast souls; having a heart exercised in covetousness; children of cursing;" — 2 Peter 2:14 (ASV)

Having eyes full of adultery. The marginal reading, as in the Greek, is an adulteress; that is, gazing with desire after such persons. The word full is designed to denote that the corrupt passion referred to had wholly seized and occupied their minds. The eye was, as it were, full of this passion; it saw nothing else but some occasion for its indulgence; it expressed nothing else but the desire. The reference here is to the sacred festival mentioned in the previous verse, and the meaning is that they celebrated that festival with licentious feelings, giving free indulgence to their corrupt desires by gazing on the females who were assembled with them. In the passion here referred to, the eye is usually the first offender, the inlet to corrupt desires, and the medium by which they are expressed. (see Barnes).

The wanton glance is a principal occasion of exciting the sin; and there is often much in dress, demeanor, and gesture to charm the eye and to deepen the debasing passion.

And that cannot cease from sin. They cannot look on the females who may be present without sinning. . There are many men in whom the presence of the most virtuous woman only excites impure and corrupt desires. The expression here does not mean that they have no natural ability to cease from sin, or that they are impelled to it by any physical necessity, but only that they are so corrupt and unprincipled that they certainly will sin always.

Beguiling unstable souls. These are those who are not strong in Christian principle, or who are naturally fluctuating and irresolute. The word rendered beguiling means to bait or entrap, and would be applicable to the methods practised in hunting. Here it means that it was one of their arts to place specious allurements before those who were known not to have settled principles or firmness, in order to allure them to sin. (Compare to 2 Timothy 3:6).

A heart they have exercised with covetous practices. They are skilled in the arts that covetous men adopt in order to cheat others out of their property. A leading purpose that influenced these men was to obtain money. One of the most certain ways for dishonest men to do this is to make use of the religious principle: to corrupt and control the conscience, to make others believe that they are eminently holy or that they are the special favourites of heaven; and when they can do this, they have the purses of others at command.

For the religious principle is the most powerful of all principles; and whoever can control that, can control all that a person possesses.

We should always be on our guard when professedly religious teachers propose to have much to do with money matters. While we should always be ready to aid every good cause, we should yet remember that unprincipled and indolent men often assume the mask of religion so that they may practise their arts on the credulity of others, and that their real aim is to obtain their property, not to save their souls.

Cursed children. This is a Hebraism, meaning literally, ‘children of the curse;’ that is, persons devoted to the curse, or who will certainly be destroyed.