2 Peter 2:20

For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the last state has become worse with them than the first.

Here again, the subsequent clause makes it perfectly clear what Peter said, and fully justifies the KJV rendition in 2 Peter 2:18.

The thing in view in this verse is a spiritual condition described as worse than being lost; and the only thing that answers to such a condition is that of being lost without the possibility of being saved. Therefore, this verse is to be understood in connection with Hebrews 6:6, "quenching the Spirit" (1 Thessalonians 5:19), "the sin unto death" (1 John 5:16), being "dead while alive" (1 Timothy 5:6), etc., that is, the state of having committed "an eternal sin" (Mark 3:29). The apostate teachers in view in this chapter are in a state of total rejection of Christ, having thereby committed the sin against the Holy Spirit, called by Mark, "an eternal sin." For full discussion of this, see in my Commentary on Matthew, pp. 173-175, and also in my Commentary on Mark, pp. 65-67.