2 Timothy 3.6b-Unrepentant Apostate Pastors Captivated Foolish Christian Women
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday July 9, 2015
Second Timothy: Second Timothy 3:6b-Unrepentant Apostate Pastors Captivated Foolish Christian Women
Lesson # 69
2 Timothy 3:1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. 6 For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses. (NASB95)
“And captivate weak women” is composed of the following: (1) conjunction kai (καί), “and” (2) nominative masculine plural present active participle form of the verb aichmalōtizō (αἰχμαλωτίζω), “captivate” (3) accusative neuter plural form of the noun gunaikarion (γυναικάριον), “weak women.”
The conjunction kai is emphatic meaning it is introducing a statement which advances upon and intensifies the previous causal clause.
The verb aichmalōtizō means “to captivate” since it pertains to influencing and dominating someone by deceit and some special charm, art, or trait and with an irresistible appeal.
This verb indicates that some of these unrepentant apostate Christians were “captivating” foolish Christian women in the sense that these individuals were influencing and dominating these women by deceit and charming them with their irresistible appeal.
The noun gunaikarion is in the plural and means “foolish women” since it pertains to an adult women who is of foolish character and speaks of a women who is lacking in sense and good judgment.
“Weighed down with sins” is composed of the following: (1) accusative neuter plural perfect passive participle form of the verb sōreuō (σωρεύω), “weighed down” (2) genitive feminine plural form of the noun hamartia (ἁμαρτία), “of sins.”
The verb sōreuō means “to be overwhelmed with something, to be burdened with something, weighed down with something” because of being engaged intensively and extensively in some activity.
Therefore, this verb sōreuō indicates that these foolish Christian women were “overwhelmed with guilt” or “burdened with guilt” or “weighed down with guilt” because of being actively, intensively and extensively engaged in committing these acts of sins.
The participle form of the verb sōreuō is a participle of cause which would indicate that the unrepentant apostate pastor-teachers captivated foolish Christian women “because” these women were overwhelmed with guilt because of committing acts of sins.
The noun hamartia is in the plural and means “sins” since it pertains to committing mental, verbal and overt acts of personal sin from the perspective that these acts miss the mark of the absolute perfection of God’s character, i.e. His holiness.
The word functions as a dative instrumental of cause which would indicate that these foolish Christian were weighed down with guilt “because of” sins.
“Weighed down with sins” is composed of the following: (1) accusative neuter plural present passive participle form of the verb agō (ἄγω), “led on” (2) dative feminine plural form of the noun epithumia (ἐπιθυμία), “by impulses” (3) dative feminine plural form of the adjective poikilos (ποικίλος), “various.”
The verb agō means “to be driven by something” since it pertains to being compelled or urged relentlessly to perform a particular activity and thus indicates that these foolish Christian women are “driven” by various kinds of sinful desires.
The participle form of the verb agō is a participle of cause which would indicate that these foolish Christian women were overwhelmed with guilt because of sins “because” they were driven by various lusts.
The noun epithumia means “lusts” since it pertains to the various lust patterns of the sin nature and the word is modified by the adjective poikilos which means “various kinds” since it pertaining to that which exists in a variety of kinds.
Therefore, these two words speak of various kinds of lust patterns of the sin nature in these foolish Christian women.
They refer to sexual lust, approbation lust, social lust, inordinate ambition resulting in inordinate competition, revenge lust, criminal lust, chemical lust, and pleasure lust.
The noun epithumia is functioning as a dative instrumental of means which would indicate that these foolish Christian were driven “by means of” various kinds of lusts.
Second Timothy 3:1 Indeed continue making it your habit of taking note of this, namely that dangerous circumstances interacting will exist during the last days. 2 For out of selfishness, people will be characterized as self-centered, lovers of money, braggarts, arrogant, slanderous, disobedient to the detriment of their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 devoid of natural affection, implacable, malicious gossips, self-indulgent, brutal, opposed to what is good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, hedonists rather than lovers of God. 5 They exhibit that which resembles godliness. However, they reject for themselves its power. Consequently, for your own benefit, continue making it your habit of disassociating yourself from these types of people 6 because out from these individuals are those who make it their habit of insinuating themselves into households. In fact, they make it their habit of captivating foolish women because these are overwhelmed with guilt because of sins because they are driven by means of various kinds of lusts. (My translation)
When Paul says that these unrepentant apostate pastor-teachers were captivating these foolish women, he means that they were influencing and dominating these women by deceit and charming them with their irresistible appeal.
These Christian women were foolish in the sense that they were lacking in sense and good judgment.
They were lacking in sense and good judgment because they themselves were in apostasy as a result of habitually disobeying the gospel which would have given them discernment if they exercised faith in it.
The apostle Paul then describes for Timothy the reason why these foolish Christian women were habitually captivated by these unrepentant apostate pastor-teachers.
They were captivated by these men because they were overwhelmed with guilt because of their sinful lifestyle of living in disobedience to the gospel.
They actively, intensively and extensively engaged in committing acts of sins.
Paul describes these foolish Christian women further by identifying for him the reason why they were overwhelmed with guilt because of sins, namely it was because they were driven by various lusts.
This would indicate that these Christian women were either not confessing their sins (cf. 1 Corinthians 11:29; 1 John 1:9) or they were confessing their sins to be restored to fellowship with God but then were not obeying the gospel after confession of sin.
This would result in a guilty conscience and it would also of course result in a lack of judgment and discernment with regards to these unrepentant apostate Christian teachers and it would also of course result in an ungodly lifestyle.
Therefore, these Christian women were susceptible to these unrepentant apostate pastor-teachers because they themselves were habitually out of fellowship with God and thus in apostasy as well.
They were not exercising faith in the gospel in the sense that they were not appropriating by faith their identification with Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection to deal with the temptations of the devil’s world and the sin nature.
Thus they were habitually not considering themselves dead to the sin nature and alive to God (cf. Romans 6:1-14) and consequently, they were not experiencing victory over their sin nature and were overwhelmed with the guilt of past sins.
Now, a conscience of a Christian which is weighed down with the guilt of a sinful lifestyle is easily tempted to embrace false doctrine since false doctrine communicates a lie and appeals to one’s sin nature.
False doctrine never convicts of sin but only the Word of God, the gospel can do so because the gospel is inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Notice carefully that in Second Timothy 3:6, Paul does not say that these unrepentant apostate pastor-teachers were captivating and deceiving foolish Christian men but rather foolish Christian women.
Satan was working through these men as they communicated false doctrine to these women and just like Satan creeped stealthily into the life of Eve, so these false teachers creeped stealthily into the lives of these foolish Christian women.
This has been the devil’s modus operandi from the beginning since Genesis 3 records that Eve and not Adam was deceived by the false doctrine Satan was communicating.
From the very beginning, the devil communicated false doctrine to Eve and not Adam and this is one of the reasons why Paul prohibited women from being ordained as pastors (cf. 1 Tim. 2:11-15).
Paul’s comments here in Second Timothy 3:6 are with reference specifically to the situation in the Christian community in Ephesus.
Both Timothy and Paul would have first-hand knowledge of this apostasy among pastor-teachers and women in the Christian community in that great seaport city in the Roman province of Asia.
One must not be surprised by this since Paul reminded Timothy in Second Timothy 1:15 that the majority of Christians in Asia abandoned Paul upon his arrest and imprisonment by the Roman civil authorities.
Interestingly, the apostle Paul addresses the conduct of Christian women in the Ephesian Christian community many times in his first epistle to Timothy (cf. 1 Timothy 2:9-16; 3:11; 5:3-16).
Furthermore, in First Timothy 5:6, Paul mentions his concern for some Christian widows possessing a self-indulgent lifestyle and experiencing temporal spiritual death even though they are alive physically.
This situation that Paul is describing in Ephesus in the first century here in Second Timothy 3:6 is found throughout the church age and especially here in the twenty-first century.