2 Peter 2:20 - We Must Keep Focused On Jesus Or Sin Will Certainly Ensnare Us.

If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are
worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.
2 Pet 2:20 (NIV)

Some point to this passage as clear proof that a genuinely saved person may
lose his salvation. He knows the Lord; he escapes the world's corruption; he
knows the way of righteousness. Then he turns away from the message and goes
back to his old way of life. His knowledge is said to have been genuine; his
change of life was real; and his return to his old way of life was not
superficial. Others insist that the knowledge of the Lord and of the way of
righteousness could not have been genuine. If the person had been truly
regenerated, he would have persevered in his faith. It is argued that the
teaching of Jn 10:27-30 (especially v. 28) and Ro 8:28-39 makes it clear
that no genuinely saved person can be lost. Thus, according to this view,
the persons described here could not have been genuinely saved. [NIV SB]

The next verse, 21, implies that knowledge of the way increases one's
responsibility and his hardness of heart if he then rejects it. [NIV SB]

The next verse after that, 22, implies that true convertion had not taken
place as the old nature was still in control like the sow returns to the mud
because by nature it is still a sow. [NIV SB]

A similar situation is found in Mat.12:43-45 were the garnished house
represents the self-righteous soul. Satan is driven out by Christ. But he
returned, in the hope of finding entrance. He finds the house empty, swept,
and garnished. Only self-righteousness is abiding there.
Self-righteousness is a curse, a human embellishment, which Satan uses for
his glory. Those who garnish the soul with self-praise and flattery prepare
the way for the seven other spirits more wicked than the first. In their
very reception of the truth these souls deceive themselves. They are
building upon a foundation of self-righteousness. 5BC1093

It is not enough to be emptied of evil; we must then be filled with the
power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish God's new purpose in our lives. [Life
Application SB]

Like a person sinking in quicksand who refuses to grab the rope thrown to
him or her, the one who turns away from Christ casts aside his or her only
means of escape.  [Life Application SB]

How dreadful is the state here described! Yet though such a case is
deplorable, it is not utterly hopeless; the leper may be made clean, and
even the dead may be raised. Is thy backsliding a grief to thee? Believe in
the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved. [Matthew Henry]