2 Timothy 3:1-9 – Dealing with heretics and heresies

While Timothy was timid, diffident and reticent, the tasks Paul entrusted to him were Herculean. The false teachers and their teachings were marching on relentlessly. Timothy was probably at a point where he became passive and hoped that with the passing of time, the situation would get better. Here, Paul set out to paint the bleak situation to Timothy. He wanted him to know that the situation would not become better as he had hoped, but instead would go from bad to worse. He did it to stir Timothy into action. 

Although Timothy already knew that the false teachers and their erroneous teachings were gaining in momentum, Paul still felt the necessity to highlight to him. In verse 1 when Paul said, “But realize this …,” he did it to emphasize to Timothy that opposition to the truth was not a temporary situation, but a permanent feature. The phrase “… in the last days …” is not referring to some future days. Paul used it in the way that was predominantly understood in the days of the New Testament. This phrase is referring to the whole period between Christ’s ascension and His second coming. Hence, Paul was not talking about something that would happen in the future; he was talking about the existing conditions. And since he wanted Timothy to be able to identify the false teachers, he gave details about them. He described their characteristics (verses 2-4), their religious emptiness (verse 5) and their mistaken zeal in spreading their errors (verses 6-9).

Verses 2-4 show us 18 characteristics of these false teachers. Each of these characteristics is self-explanatory and does not require further elaboration. These false teachers display themselves as lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceitedness and lovers of pleasure.

The emptiness of the false teachers’ religion and confession are clearly defined in verse 5. Such people hold on “... to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power.” What does it mean? They are simply people who possess an outward form of religious piety, but devoid of inward reality and experience. They confess religion but have no morals; they claim to have faith but it does not result in action. Such men should be avoided, so said Paul.

Paul went on to describe their zeal in propagating their mistaken piety in verses 6-9. These false teachers had a network of people who would go around canvassing their brand of false religion. From the way Paul described their operation, one gets the impression that they were very covert and clandestine in mold. Some of them would stealthily worm themselves into unsuspecting households, seeking to captivate weak women. Their victims were weighed down with sins and led by various impulses. The ways these women were being described show that they were not only silly but also idle, and had questionable morals, unstable emotions and were easily swayed. These false teachers also had zeal to know more and were always learning, but never had any strong and firm conviction about the truth.

Paul brought up two names, Jannes and Jambres, who opposed Moses. Although the Old Testament text did not mention their names, the Jewish tradition indicates that they were the Egyptian magicians of Pharaoh mentioned in Exodus 7:11. The bogus teachers of Ephesus were like those two magicians. They were merely impostors and deceivers that opposed the truth, just as the magicians opposed the truth of Moses. Paul here also rejected these false teachers, whom he said had corrupt minds, although they claimed to have knowledge. Their faith had been proven to be spurious and they would not make further progress. Why? Like the obvious folly of Jannes and Jambres, so also would the folly of the false teachers be obvious to all.

The lessons we take from these verses underscore again the importance to hold fast to the truth. Elsewhere in the Bible, we are called to live it, teach it and spread it. We need to live in a culture of truth to demonstrate that we, the church, is truly a transformed community.