God reveals Lot's example in 2 Peter 2 that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds.
God knew the heart of Lot and God judged Lot as a righteous man dwelling among sinners, seeing, hearing ... vexed with their unlawful deeds. That's what we know about Lot's heart, notwithstanding the fact that he looked at the plain and saw how green it was (Gen 13:10 says garden of the Lord) and he dwelled in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent toward sodom.
In Gen 19:9, the men who came to Lot's house to do those awful things to the "men" Lot was protecting said This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge. They were tired of Lot "judging" them ... telling them they could not do what they wanted. There is no indication Lot sat in the gate and assented to the unlawful deeds. What if Lot was a dissenting voice in the gate of Sodom? Just like we find ourselves today. We speak out against what we know is not according to God's Will and we are called "haters". Responses to our warnings are "don't judge".
When the two men appeared at the gate of the city, Lot offered his protection to them. Lot knew what the men of the city were like and he was more than hospitable to the two men. When they told Lot they would not go with him but would spend the night in the street, Lot insisted they come home with him. He made them a feast and baked unleavened bread for them.
Lot having been taught by Abraham, welcomed strangers and cared for them, just as Abraham had done in the previous chapter ... maybe not with the flair Abraham had done (Sarah made bread, Abraham fetched a calf, dressed it, took butter, and milk), but Lot made them a feast and baked unleavened bread (Gen 19:3).
Does that sound like a carnal believer to you? Wouldn't the carnal believer be the one who joins in and does the same things, rationalizing the behavior? Lot may have lived in Sodom but it doesn't appear that he joined in with the wicked men.
I don't think we have any indication Lot was ever doing anything right at all.
We have no indication he was making right judgements in the gate or anywhere else.
And Ge.19:9 simply doesn't give any specific reference to ANYTHING prior to the event at hand.... so to speculate it's referring to earlier incidents is just a speculation.
I can't see ANYTHING in the text to show Lot is righteous in ANY way that we would normally use the word "righteous" to describe.
I ONLY believe Lot was righteous because God said so.
Lot seemed, overall, like a pretty messed up guy.
But as I said in a previous post, sometimes the word "righteous" refers not to our behavior, but to our standing with God.
Lot was considered righteous in his standing with God.
It was probably in a similar way to our righteous standing with God.
It is something God does.
Lot was righteous in his STANDING with God.
Everyone on this forum, who is saved, is righteous in a particular sense, and that sense is in their STANDING with God.
No one has righteous standing before God because of their own human good works, we only have that righteous standing because of God's good works.... his grace.
Maybe somewhere down deep, below all the sin, and failure, and obstinance, and imprudence... maybe somewhere down deep Lot had a really tender heart toward God.
Maybe.
I really don't know.
But I also don't need to know.
Lot was a fallen human, a sinner, who had favor with god.
And you know what?
That sounds like every Christian I know.
.