2 Timothy 3:6

Paul writes this from prison in Rome, in his last letter, near the end of his life. Timothy, his son in the faith, is leading the church at Ephesus. The letter so far has urged him to “endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (2 Timothy 2:3) and to “flee also youthful lusts” (2 Timothy 2:22). With chapter 3 Paul turns to warning, and he opens with “This know also”. The verb, ginṓskō, is the ordinary word for knowing, perceiving and understanding, and the small particle dé, “also”, joins this to all he has told Timothy already. Paul wants him to have this firmly in hand before the hard times arrive, and the warning prepares for the charge later in the chapter to hold fast to the Scriptures Timothy has known from a child (2 Timothy 3:14–17).

“The last days” joins éschatos, “farthest” or “final”, to hēméra, day. Scripture uses the phrase for the whole age that began with Christ’s first coming and runs to his return. At Pentecost Peter announced its arrival: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh” (Acts 2:17). Timothy was already living in the last days, which is why Paul tells him in verse 5 to turn away from such people now. The same age is in view when Paul warns that “in the latter times some shall depart from the faith” (1 Timothy 4:1), when Peter says scoffers will come in the last days (2 Peter 3:3), and when Jesus says, “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold” (Matthew 24:12). Paul writes elsewhere that “the mystery of iniquity doth already work” (2 Thessalonians 2:7).

“Perilous” is chalepós, a word for what is hard, grievous, fierce or dangerous. Matthew uses it for the two possessed men who met Jesus, “exceeding fierce” (Matthew 8:28), and that use shows how strong a word Paul chose. “Times” is kairós, a season or set time, so Paul is speaking of seasons marked by danger. “Shall come” is enístēmi, to be at hand or to impend. These seasons are certain, and they press close. The danger Paul goes on to describe comes chiefly from people, from what they love and how they live.

Verses 2 to 4 give one long list, its items set side by side with the joining “and” left out, so that each charge falls hard after the one before. Paul draws up a list much like it in Romans 1:29–31, and the works of the flesh in Galatians 5:19–21 are of the same kind.

The list opens with what these people love. The first word, phílautos, “lovers of their own selves”, means fond of self, and it stands at the root of much that follows. The next, philárgyros, “covetous”, means fond of silver, a love of money. Near its end the list comes back to love, setting philḗdonos, fond of pleasure, against philótheos, fond of God. Between them, a life turned in on itself spoils every relationship it has, with God, with family and with neighbour.

Verse 5 crowns the list, and it describes the most dangerous people in it, because they are religious. “A form” is mórphōsis, a shape, outline or semblance. “Godliness” is eusébeia, piety, reverence and devotion to God, the word Paul uses when he tells Timothy that “godliness is profitable unto all things” (1 Timothy 4:7–8). These people keep the outline. They may attend worship, use pious language and hold to certain moral standards. “Denying” is arnéomai, to disavow or reject, and “the power” is dýnamis, force or might, here the power God puts to work by his Spirit to make people new and holy. Their lives show that this power is absent, and so the form they keep is a shell.

The denial takes more than one shape. Some reject God’s work outright. Others deny it by the way they live, professing faith while their lives stay unchanged. Paul says of such people, “They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him” (Titus 1:15–16). Jesus warned that some who call him “Lord, Lord” will hear him say, “I never knew you” (Matthew 7:21–23), and Paul writes, “For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power” (1 Corinthians 4:20). The power these people deny is the power God showed when he raised Christ from the dead, which now works in those who believe (Ephesians 1:19–20), and the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus dwells in every believer (Romans 8:9–11).

With verse 6 Paul moves from what these people are to how they work. “Of this sort” ties them to the list. “Creep” is endýnō, to sink in or sneak, and it describes coming in quietly and winning trust under false pretences. “Houses” is oikía, a home or household. In the early church believers met in homes, like the church in the house of Priscilla and Aquila (Romans 16:5), so a household gave a false teacher a way into the church itself. Paul had taught the Ephesians openly, “publickly, and from house to house” (Acts 20:20), and he had warned their elders that “grievous wolves” would enter in among them (Acts 20:29–30). Peter warned in the same way of false teachers “who privily shall bring in damnable heresies” (2 Peter 2:1–3).

“Lead captive” is aichmalōteúō, to capture, the word for taking a prisoner of war. Once inside, these men bring people under their control. Their targets are described three ways. “Silly women” is gynaikárion, a diminutive of the word for woman, “little women”, used of the weak and foolish. “Laden with sins” joins sōreúō, to heap up or pile high, to hamartía, sin. These women carry a heavy load of sin, and teachers who offer relief from guilt without repentance find them ready listeners. “Led away with divers lusts” uses ágō, to lead or carry off, with poikílos, various or many-coloured, and epithymía, desire or longing, which the context shows to be desire for what is wrong. Their desires pull them many ways at once, toward novelty, comfort or spiritual shortcuts, and the false teachers feed those desires and leave them unchallenged. Paul wants believers grown up in the faith, no longer “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine” (Ephesians 4:14).

Verse 7 still describes the women of verse 6, and it fits the men who teach them just as well. “Ever” is pántote, at all times, and “learning” is manthánō, to learn. They are always listening, studying and taking in some new teaching. “Never” is mēdépote, and “able” is dýnamai, to be able. “The knowledge” is epígnōsis, recognition, full discernment and acknowledgement, and “the truth” is alḗtheia. The goal they miss is to recognise and acknowledge the truth God has revealed in the gospel, and all their learning leaves them where they began.

The cause lies in the heart. The self-love, sin and desire of the verses before have hardened them, and they seek knowledge for their own ends, to feed their curiosity or to excuse what they want. “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:14). Of those who knew God and refused to glorify him, Paul says they “became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened” (Romans 1:21–22). James warns against the same trap: “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22).

The truth they miss has a name. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), and “ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). In him “are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). To come to the knowledge of the truth is to come to Christ.

Jannes and Jambres were Pharaoh’s magicians, who opposed Moses and Aaron at the court of Egypt. Exodus tells of the magicians without giving their names, and their names come down in Jewish tradition, which Paul draws on here. When Aaron’s rod became a serpent, “the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments” (Exodus 7:11–12), and they copied the plague of frogs (Exodus 8:7). Then they failed to copy the plague of lice, gnats in some versions, and they told Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God” (Exodus 8:18–19). They could imitate God’s work for a while, and in the end their limits were plain to all.

“Withstood” and “resist” both render anthístēmi, to stand against or oppose, and so the verse draws a straight line from the magicians to the men of Timothy’s day. The magicians opposed God’s messenger with counterfeits of his works. These men oppose “the truth”, the same word alḗtheia as in verse 7, and their stand against it is deliberate.

“Men of corrupt minds” joins kataphtheírō, to spoil entirely, to deprave or corrupt, to noûs, the mind, which takes in thought, feeling and will. Their understanding is ruined, and so it judges falsely. “Reprobate concerning the faith” is adókimos, unapproved or rejected, and so worthless: what fails when it is put to the test. Tested by pístis, the faith, these men are found wanting. The KJV uses the same English word when Paul says that God “gave them over to a reprobate mind” (Romans 1:28), and when he says of those with defiled minds that they are “unto every good work reprobate” (Titus 1:15–16). The phrase describes what these men have shown themselves to be by resisting the truth, and the decision about anyone’s salvation remains God’s.

Jesus met this resistance from religious leaders who saw his works and rejected him, and he told them whose lie they followed: “Ye are of your father the devil” (John 8:44).

Verse 9 closes the passage with a promise. “Proceed” is prokóptō, to drive forward, to advance or make headway. These men may gain ground for a while, and God sets the point where their advance stops. That limit comes from the words “they shall proceed no further”. “Folly” is ánoia, folly or lack of understanding, and the word can also mean rage. Paul gives the reason they will be stopped: their folly “shall be manifest unto all men”. “Manifest” is ékdēlos, wholly evident. What they are will be clear to everyone.

“As theirs also was” points back to Jannes and Jambres. Their failure before Pharaoh was public, and they had to say themselves that the plague was God’s work. Error has its day and then it is exposed. God brings this about in history, and Scripture looks ahead to the day when the Lord “will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts” (1 Corinthians 4:5). Until then believers “try the spirits whether they are of God” (1 John 4:1), for false teachers are, in Jude’s words, “clouds they are without water, carried about of winds” (Jude 1:12–13).

God has already shown up the folly of all wisdom that sets itself against him: “hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” (1 Corinthians 1:20–25). At the cross Christ “spoiled principalities and powers” and “made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:15). “And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not” (John 1:5).

Every sin in Paul’s list finds its answer in Jesus. Where people love themselves, he laid down his life for his friends (John 15:13) and died for us while we were enemies (Romans 5:8–10). Where they are proud and highminded, he “made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant”, and was obedient unto death (Philippians 2:5–8). Where they are disobedient, “yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8), and he could say, “I do always those things that please him” (John 8:29). Where they are unholy, he is “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners” (Hebrews 7:26). Where they break their word, he is “the faithful and true witness” (Revelation 3:14), and “all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen” (2 Corinthians 1:20). Where they are false accusers, he was falsely accused himself (Matthew 26:59–60), and “when he was reviled, reviled not again” (1 Peter 2:23). Where they love pleasure more than God, he prayed in Gethsemane, “nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42).

The false teachers creep in and take people captive. Jesus came openly as “the light of the world” (John 8:12), sent “to preach deliverance to the captives” (Luke 4:18). He met a woman taken in sin with mercy and the word “go, and sin no more” (John 8:1–11), and “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36). He is the good shepherd who gives his life for the sheep when the wolf comes (John 10:11–12). The Word made flesh, “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14), has true godliness with all its power, and he gives his people a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26), so that they put off the old man and put on the new, “which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:22–24).

God knows the whole course of history, and in this passage he tells his people ahead of time what the last days will be like, so that we meet the sins of the age forewarned. He shows us what to look for, beginning with what people love, and he gives his servants a clear word about those who keep the form of godliness and deny its power. From verse 10 Paul sets his own life and teaching against these men (2 Timothy 3:10–17), and he will charge Timothy, “Preach the word” (2 Timothy 4:2).

The passage also shows that God rules over error itself. False teachers advance only as far as he allows, and their folly comes to light as surely as the magicians’ did. Christ has already won: “be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). He gives his people the whole armour of God to stand in the evil day (Ephesians 6:10–18), and he renews our minds so that we “may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2). Perilous times have an end, and beyond them lies a new heaven and a new earth, where “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” (Revelation 21:1–4).