CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
2 Timothy 3:6. Silly women.—The diminutive term (“little women”) is not found again in New Testament. The contemptuous epithet indicates their weakness and proneness to temptation.
2 Timothy 3:7. Never able.—In the nature of things whilst such conditions lasted. To come to the knowledge.—I.e. the complete knowledge.
2 Timothy 3:8. Jannes and Jambres.—According to Jewish tradition, sons of Balaam, at first teachers, then opponents, of Moses. They perished with the Egyptians in the Red Sea.
2 Timothy 3:9. Shall be manifest.—“Thoroughly exposed.” As theirs also was.—R.V. “came to be.” The pronoun points to these men far removed as monitory specimens of those who oppose truth.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— 2 Timothy 3:6-9
Characteristics of False Teachers.
I. They furtively insinuate themselves into the midst of domestic life.—“For of this sort are they which creep into houses” (2 Timothy 3:6). As a serpent crawls towards its prey, or as a wolf stealthily attacks the sheepfold. The peace of many a home has been destroyed by the cunning of unprincipled men.
II. They practise their wiles on weak women.—
1. Women whose sinful lives make them a prey to conflicting passions. “And lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts” (2 Timothy 3:6). The most abandoned woman has her moments of remorse, when her conscience is roused and her soul bowed down under the load of conscious sin. It is then that the false teacher, who promises ease of conscience, is eagerly listened to, especially if too much restriction is not placed on the indulgence of unholy desire.
2. Women who crave for novelty rather than the knowledge of the truth. “Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7). They quickly disparage what they already know by the restless desire and curiosity to gain something new. It is not a paradox but a truth to say that their constant craving for knowledge leaves them utterly ignorant, for nothing can be known that is forgotten as soon as it is learned. The Gnostic teachers, like more recent heretics, laid hold of the female sex and encouraged them to use all their seductive arts in popularising their theories.
III. They have their prototypes in past ages.—
1. In men who audaciously opposed the truth. “Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth” (2 Timothy 3:8). These were the traditional names of the Egyptian magicians who sought by their conjuring tricks to discredit the authority of Moses. It is the ambition of false teachers to-day to imitate and if possible outrival the preacher of the gospel.
2. In men whose degraded minds rendered them incapable of appreciating the truth. “Men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith” (2 Timothy 3:8). Their own vitiated tastes and misused powers incapacitated them from testing the truth. They were bewitched and misled by their own foolish errors, and infatuated by their own sins.
IV. The inevitable exposure of their wicked and insensate folly limits their power for mischief.—“But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest” (2 Timothy 3:9). Wise as they may seem, their folly shall be exposed. In all wickedness there is an element of weakness which limits its power to do evil. They who seek to deceive others end in being most deceived themselves.
Lessons.—
1. False teachers are not particular as to the instruments they employ.
2. Error hopelessly degrades its victims.
3. False teachers expose themselves.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
2 Timothy 3:8-9. Opposition to the Truth—
I. Is the offspring of ignorance and obstinate wickedness.
II. Is limited in its power.
III. The folly of such an attitude will be exposed and the opponents signally punished.