The book of Second Timothy chapter 3 begins with an important admonition from Apostle Paul to his spiritual son Timothy. Apostle Paul knew that a time would come when Timothy would likely experience what he was about to teach him, so he took his time to give details that would make Timothy, and in extension, ourselves identify such times and the principal players of such times.
Because this isn’t a study into the entire chapter, we’ll briefly highlight a few things and then centre our point.
The chapter begins with the Apostle Paul telling us that perilous, difficult, hard, and grievous times will come in the last days. It would be a perilous time not necessarily because of the killings and stiff opposition from the rulers of the time and the religious people of the day, but because of the people that would become a nuisance from within. God through the Apostle wanted to warn us of the dangerous times that we would face and to be prepared for them. And that these dangers would be masterminded in the first place by the enemies of the cross from within.
So, Timothy was to be on guard when he observes certain signs that depict such times and the executors of such events.
So, in verses 2 through 4, Apostle Paul shows Timothy and in extension to us, the features that such men possess. He details the characteristics of these men who would constitute a danger to the house of God. These are the features that identify apostates who creep into the Church not to join in spreading the gospel but to tear down what God is building from within.
Satan delights in sending his emissaries into the house of God to accomplish what outsiders can’t accomplish. When there is an external enemy to the Church, we come together to fast and pray and encourage ourselves. But when there is an enemy within, he slowly injects his venom into feeble hearts and eats the building from within. The devil always employs this method to destroy congregations because a house that is divided against itself can’t stand in the long run.
From verses 5 through 9 we then see the actions of these satanic human cohorts, how they operate to destabilise God’s house. Apostle Paul gave instances of their mode of operation and used the opposition of Jannes and Jambres against Moses to illustrate a part of their modus operandi. But our focus is on verses 6 and 7.
6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
These apostates secretly creep into houses, avoiding being noticed. They evangelise, not to bring others to Christ but to draw them away from the righteous path.
In the Church, there are several groups of people. Some people are born again and serving God, others haven’t found Christ yet. Some are backslidden while remaining in the Church, while others are still retaining all the sinful lusts and ungodly desires they had when they first came into the Church.
This last group of people haven’t allowed the light of the glorious gospel to bring illumination into their hearts and change their lifestyles. They may profess to love what the Bible teaches, how great Christian songs sound, how powerful the Pastor preaches, but none of those activities makes any impact in their lives. They love what they hear on their lips but are deeply rooted in their sins. So, they are spiritually porous and can be easily manipulated. And these apostates know this and so find them easy preys to convert. The result is that these new converts will be everywhere but nowhere. They listen to everything from everywhere but retain nothing of significance.
Certainly, Satan doesn’t want them to retain God in their knowledge. However, his aim isn’t really for them to retain his ungodly counsels either. His major aim is to leave them in their confused spiritually dwarfed stage so that even the true gospel of Christ remains fuzzy and incomprehensible to them.
So, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth was referring to these women laden with sin, who are morally weak and spiritually dwarfed. These women are willing to listen to anyone who professes to have anything to teach, without discerning whether it’s a message from God or Satan.
They’re unable to come to the knowledge of the truth because everyone is their teacher and they have not taken the time to go search out the truth of God’s Word by themselves.
You can’t tell what a lie is if you don’t know what truth is. You can’t tell what is wrong if you don’t know the right thing. You can’t tell a fake if you don’t know how the original feels and looks. So, you can’t tell an apostate and backslider from a genuine Christian when you haven’t tasted the truth of God’s word nor had a genuine walk with God.
Proverbs 27:7 says that one that is full loathes honey from the comb but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.
Thanks for reading. God bless you.
