The Insidiously Proselytizing Habits of These Apostates
T. Croskery 2 Timothy 3:6, 7 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, I. THE ARTS OF THE SEDUCERS. "For of this sort are they who creep into houses, and lead captive silly women." 1. They were of a most proselytizing spirit. Like the Pharisees, they would compass sea and land to make one proselyte. 2. They practised unworthy arts. They wormed their way insidiously into the confidence of families. There was a deceitful and tricky method of gaining access to their victims. 3. They used their stratagems to snare women rather than men. They knew that women, as the weaker vessels, were more accessible to soft blandishments and specious pretences of piety. They counted upon an accession of female converts as, above all things, most contributing to the success of their propaganda. II. THE CHARACTER OF THEIR VICTIMS. "Silly women laden with sins, led away by divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." These victims of their specious arts were morally and intellectually prepared for them. 1. They were, morally, under the sway of evil passions and desires, full, no doubt, of "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life." Such women would welcome a short cut to peace, or any reconciliation between religion and worldliness that could be devised by the arts of apostasy. The words seem to point to the weight of former sins burdening the conscience, from which they hoped to be released under easier conditions than those prescribed by the gospel. 2. They were incapable, through their sinful life, of attaining a true knowledge of the truth. They were" silly women," with light, frivolous, unbalanced judgments; "ever learning" - with a morbid love of novelties in religion, an insatiable curiosity for the mysteries promised by their false guides, and a constant craving for an adaptation of doctrinal views to their evil desires - "and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." Because their hearts had become indurated through an evil life, and so made inaccessible to the truth. - T.C. Parallel Verses KJV: For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, WEB: For some of these are people who creep into houses, and take captive gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts,