“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11)
“For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men” (2 Tim. 3:6-9).
These false teachers prey upon a certain kind of person, characterized here by Paul as weak women, burdened down by guilt and led by their passions (v. 6). Just as the serpent in the Garden crept into the first family, through Adam’s negligence, so also false ones creep into households in order to lead off the weak members of that household. The two things mentioned here that make a person vulnerable and easily led this way are the characteristics of being sin-laden, and passion-driven. The person involved is “always learning,” but never coming to closure (v. 7). She pushes the seat buckle and clip together over and over and over again, but she never hears the click. Paul then mentions two of the men (by name) who had opposed Moses at the court of Pharaoh, which perhaps gives us some insight into the kind of control that they had over Pharaoh. Moses comes as the one who will liberate, and so they oppose him — enemies of freedom as they are. In the same way, false teachers in the “last days” that Timothy will have to live through will oppose what he says, since his gospel would be the liberation of those enslaved by lies and deceptions. Such teachers have a corrupt mind, and are rejected as far as the faith is concerned (v. 8). At the same time, this kind of folly is a sprinter, not a marathon runner. Their folly will be manifest to all soon enough (v. 9).
And so we see that flitting from one intellectual fad to another is not an intellectual problem. It is a moral problem. Men of corrupt mind encourage it, and people who are guilt-laden and passion-driven fall for it. And after many years of this, they still have to say, with U2, that they still “haven’t found what they’re looking for.”