SEPTEMBER Deflecting Deceivers (2 Timothy 3:6–9)

In our last lesson, Paul listed the characteristics of unbelievers in the last days, which will be a difficult time for those who hold fast to the teachings of the Bible.

The list begins with lovers of self, which leads to all the other vices listed in verses 2–5.

Another sign of the last days—the time between Christ’s resurrection and His return—will be an increase in deception through false teachers.

We now live in the deception of the last of the last days. In this passage, Paul graphically describes actions needed for detecting and deflecting deceivers.

Recognize their procedures (3:6–7)

False teachers creep into households(3:6a).

The word translated creepmeans to sneak in.

In this passage, the word creep refers to false teachers who conduct home Bible studies and lead discussions with the intent of gaining spiritual control of households.

Jude describes these as people who have crept in unnoticed.

He calls them ungodly people (Jude 4a–b).

If you profess to be a Christian, yet find full satisfaction in worldly pleasures and pursuits, your profession is false.

Nobody can do as much damage to the church of God as the man who is within its walls, but not within its life.

Then, how does he describe them in Jude 4c?

The word sensuality, or “lasciviousness” (aselgeia, uh-sel’-gay-ah), means “promiscuity” or “absence of restraint.”

It is the idea of indulging in fleshly lust. Today, false teachers (even entire denominations) have almost perfected the art of deception.

Their deceit includes what they teach about marriage, homosexuality, and the deity of Christ.

(3:6–9) Ministers—Last Days: the fourth mark of the last days will be a corrupted ministry. Three things are said about corrupt ministers.

1. Corrupt ministers lead gullible followers astray. Note the phrase silly women (gunaikaria).

The Greek word means little women, little in the sense of being spiritually dead, weak, immature, and unstable.

However, it should always be remembered that men are just as gullible as women, just as spiritually dead, weak, immature, and unstable.

The present passage zeros in on women because of the local situation in Ephesus; some of the women in the Ephesian church were following the corrupt ministers.

But the warning is applicable to us all: both men and women must guard against corrupt ministers.

Note what the corrupt minister does. He seeks after people …

• who are laden or burdened down with sins and guilt

• who are easily swayed and led away by all kinds of desires and lusts

• who are seeking after truth

—who are listening and learning all they can from anybody who claims to have the truth

This is the person the false minister goes after and eventually captivates.

When a person begins to seek the truth because he senses a need in his life, senses that he has been living only for his own selfish desires and lusts—that person is wide open for a corrupt minister to step in and lead him astray.

Unfortunately, this is exactly what happens ever too often.

And note the great tragedy: the person never comes to the knowledge of the truth.

Why?

Because they never seek the truth in Christ.

They only seek a “form of godliness,” not true godliness. True godliness is found in Christ alone and nowhere else.

“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:

God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory” (1 Ti. 3:16).

VERSES 6–9 CONTINUE the warning against the evil people so graphically described in verses 2–4.

Since these evil hypocrites have a “form of godliness,” they are able to seduce some people into believing their heresies.

Public prayer is no evidence of piety. It is practised by an abundance of hypocrites. But private prayer is a thing for which the hypocrite has no heart.

Hypocrites love a cheap religion.

Hypocrites cannot sail in stormy weather.

Those described in verse 6 are women, specifically described as gynaikaria—a diminutive, demeaning form of the word for woman.

Since “little” may fail to convey the disparaging pathos of the word, translators have tended to expand its connotation with words such as “weak-willed” (NIV), “silly” (NRSV), “gullible” (NKJV), and “vulnerable” (NLT).

It is important exegetically to understand this word as a particular class of women and not as a description of women in general, any more than the words in verses 2–4 describe men in general.

These women may have been recent converts, possibly from lives of religious perversion or prostitution.

ILLUSTRATION:

Do you think for a moment that a wolf will attack the strongest sheep in the herd? Of course not.

He will shadow the herd and seek out the sheep that is sick or that has gone astray.

And it is not just the four-legged wolves that we need to be aware of.

Their two-legged cousins are just as cunning.

Coming home from work, a woman stopped at the corner deli to buy a chicken for supper.

The butcher reached into a barrel, grabbed the last chicken he had, flung it on the scales behind the counter, and told the woman its weight.

She thought for a moment. “I really need a bit more chicken than that,” she said.

“Do you have any larger ones?”

Without a word, the butcher put the chicken back into the barrel, groped around as though finding another, pulled the same chicken out, and placed it on the scales.

“This chicken weighs one pound more,” he announced.

The woman pondered her options and then said, “Okay.

I’ll take them both.”

This woman foiled the butcher, but how many others had he tricked before her?

The marketplace of life is full of imposters who scan the crowd for the gullible.

In every area of life, make sure the individual you are following is not leading you astray!

Take the time to ponder your options.

The typical large Greek home had a clear demarcation between the public areas of the house and the women’s quarters (often on a second story).

It was possible in a large household for a man to insinuate himself as a permanent guest under the patronage of the mistress of the house as a teacher or as a tutor for the children.

Paul does not condemn the practice per se, but the morally corrupt hidden motives and practices that could result.

Spiritually weak people are always willing to listen to any captivating teacher who comes along.

They are not able to understand the truth because they are continually learningfalse teaching.

They only want to hear the sensational, the “feel good,” or the liberal—not the spiritual.

They want to feel they are more spiritually enlightened than the rest of us, while in fact they are ignorant of the truth.

You will never be able to love your neighbour as yourself until you know the truth about yourself; and you will never know the truth about yourself until you have seen yourself in the sight of God.

He who is his own guide is guided by a fool. He that trusts to his own understanding proves that he has no understanding.

It is truth that changes our behaviour; a sober, clear understanding of God’s truth is what changes lives.

Being able to recollect a verse with precision does not mean you understand it.

The truth refers to the written Word of God.