2 Timothy 3:6-7

‘For of these are they who creep into houses, and take captive silly women laden with sins, led away by divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.’

Paul now gives an example by describing in the present tense those who are already doing such things. The description no doubt includes the idea of sexual misbehaviour, but must not be limited to that. The men in question ‘creep into their houses’ (they are entering under false pretences) and seduce and deceive these women by false teaching, capturing their very souls, and making them prisoners to false teaching. The women may even think that what they are being taught is Christianity, but it is a perverted form that leads them away from true righteousness and rather than bringing relief, simply adds to their already heavy load of sin. Uneducated women whose hearts were not fixed on Christ were wide open to such manipulation. As mentioned it probably includes sexual misbehaviour which was a common feature of religion in those days (compare Revelation 2:14; Rev 2:20 ; 2 Peter 2:2; 2 Peter 2:7-8; 2 Peter 2:14).

‘Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.’ In 1 Timothy 2:11 the women were to learn in quietness and in subjection to the elders of the church and to their Christian husbands. That is how they would come to a knowledge (epignosis) of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4). But these women, although they are ever learning, and indulge fully in what they learn, fail to learn the truth because they go to false sources, and thus never come to that knowledge of the truth which is essential to salvation (1 Timothy 2:4).