Counterfeits of the Truth
For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth; men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further, for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was. A.Y.
For of this sort are the persons who are stealing into the houses, and taking captive weak women! with a heap of sins upon them, led away by every variety of desire, always learning, and yet so as never to be able to come to full knowledge of the truth. But just as Iannes and Iambres withstood Moses so these teachers too withstand the truth; men corrupted in mind, reprobate as to their faith. But they shall not proceed too far, for their folly shall be conspicuous to all men, just as that of Moses’ opponents was.
‘ RETAINING indeed a theory of godliness, but having 2 Tim. iii. negatived its power.’ Such, as we saw in our last 6-9.
reading, was to be one ‘feature of the last degenerate ba cern 5 A ss ristianity.
times,’ seen in these exponents of degeneracy. It is
a remarkable phrase, and reminds us that the gloomy
picture of ver. 1-5 was not so much meant to present
a world raging against the Church as the Church
awfully wounded by evil from within. ‘What are
the great non-Christian religions?’ said a friend of
mine in my hearing long ago. And he answered his
own question : — ‘ Judaism, Mahometanism, Brahmanism, Buddhism and — wnspritual Christvanity.’
1The word ‘womanlings’ has been suggested to represent the Greek yuvarkdpia.,
2 Tim. iii, There lay a keen point of truth beneath the serious 6-9. epigram.
The ‘theory’ of godliness, of Christianity, was, in the cases here in view, superficially retained. Apparently the main lines of belief were still nominally respected. But it was a body without breath, a programme without life — ‘wnsporitual Christianity.’
AsubtlePro- Here the account of this final element in the evils
paganda. Of the ‘formidable seasons’ is carried into some detail. The Apostle has in his view a definite type of propagandists. They are not loud and obtrusive; there is a certain secretiveness about them. They ‘steal into the houses’ where there is a possibility of conquests to their cause. Their action is largely directed towards an influence over women. Where they find a restless conscience in woman, a soul whose feminine sensibilities have been invaded by sin, and are now harassed by the miseries of fear, so that the unhappy being, unable to close wholly with the mighty remedy of Christ, afraid to yield itself entirely to Him, casts wearily about for other anodynes — there is the opportunity. There (so we seem to gather) the visitor plies his religious arts. He suggests his occult solutions of the riddles of sin and sorrow; he promises, possibly at the other end of some path of ascetic ceremonial, an emancipation from the bondage of matter, and a commerce with the world of spirits, and he offers himself as the means and agent — at first on trial, then by degrees as a necessity, till the spiritual despotism is complete.
Ambiguous The opposition to apostolic Christianity is never
Language. avowed. The terms of the faith are freely employed;
Counterfeits of the Truth
God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, Redemption, Liberty. 2 Tim. iii. The rod of the magician of old, of the Jannes or 6-9. Iambres — traditional names, perhaps preserved in documents now long lost; they are said by Egyptian experts to represent true Egyptian designations — looked just like the rod of Aaron, and seemed to live and to move under the sorcerer’s spell in the same way, and in the same form. Just so the whispered message of these their successors in St. Paul’s time sounded strangely like the Gospel, and therefore it beguiled a host of restless and anchorless souls, called Christian, and, using for its ends woman’s deep emotional influence, it moved and attracted a whole section of the Church. But all the while it was in diametrical antagonism to the cause of the Redeemer and the truth. Its ‘sin’ was not what the Lord meant by sin, nor was its ‘salvation’ His holy deliverance from the slavery of self-will into the blissful liberty of a full surrender to a Crucified and Risen King. At best all was of the earth, earthly, the creature of man’s dreams, not the gift of God. And through this avenue it gave access to the very forces of hell, for it led the soul, along a subtle curve, to reach even the antipodes of repentance, grace, and glory.
The Apostle, in his Master’s name, assures us that the evil was to have its limits, and to be put to shame. But the hour has not yet come for the final defeat of such subtle counterfeits of Christ. So let us watch, and pray, and keep ourselves always in the eternal open air and holy morning light of the ‘truth as it is — in JESUS.’