3:4 Traitors. This word was used of Judas (Luke 6:16), who betrayed Christ, suggesting that the latter-day church harbors many Christ-betrayers.

3:4 highminded. The word means “puffed up.”

3:4 lovers of God. One need only compare the number of pleasure-seekers on the Lord’s Day to the number of people in church!

3:5 denying the power. These last-day humanists will have a pseudo-religion, but will deny its power—that is, its supernatural aspects (creation, miracles, second coming, heaven, hell, regeneration). This description would apply specifically to religious humanists, to the liberal theologians who dominate the mainline denominations, to modernists, and to most New Age cultists. See also notes on II Peter 3:3-6.