This verse refers back to the last one that says,
For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power.
Think about it, that last phrase says that they have a form of godliness but deny its power. All the ugly descriptive terms prior to that sound pretty blatant, but this one is very covert, deceptive. This one may include many or all of the ones above it in some form or another.
The verse for today says that this is the sort that will creep into households and make captives of gullible women who are loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts and who are always learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
What does it mean to "creep"? It means to be stealthy about it. Does it actually mean they physically sneak around and enter houses and take women captive? No. It means they covertly teach their deceptive doctrines, promise things that these women want and lust after, feed their appetite for learning, but carefully avoid the truth. That's creeping into households and that's creepy.
Many of the cults do this very thing. They send their people out door to door with great promises of teaching people the truth, feed their egos and thirst for knowledge and suck them in. When you study these cults, at the root of them are almost all of the things listed in the verse above.
But I digress. How does this apply to ME?
1. Am I gullible in any area?
For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power.
Think about it, that last phrase says that they have a form of godliness but deny its power. All the ugly descriptive terms prior to that sound pretty blatant, but this one is very covert, deceptive. This one may include many or all of the ones above it in some form or another.
The verse for today says that this is the sort that will creep into households and make captives of gullible women who are loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts and who are always learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
What does it mean to "creep"? It means to be stealthy about it. Does it actually mean they physically sneak around and enter houses and take women captive? No. It means they covertly teach their deceptive doctrines, promise things that these women want and lust after, feed their appetite for learning, but carefully avoid the truth. That's creeping into households and that's creepy.
Many of the cults do this very thing. They send their people out door to door with great promises of teaching people the truth, feed their egos and thirst for knowledge and suck them in. When you study these cults, at the root of them are almost all of the things listed in the verse above.
But I digress. How does this apply to ME?
1. Am I gullible in any area?
- To avoid being gullible, I need to bring everything to the bar of Scripture and evaluate it against that.
- This would be the area where Satan would accuse me & try to control me through guilt
- This would be the chink in my armour that Satan would target.
- Does my learning bring me back to the truth? Do I have a conscience toward God and acknowledge Him in all my learning, knowing that if it were not for Him I ultimately would not have these resources or even the ability to learn?
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