⁶For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, ⁷always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Present-day gender sensitivity would mandate an explanation that Paul is not dismissive or condescending toward women. Scripture offers no such “apology” or defense. On the contrary, the apostle was inspired by God in his writings (see 2 Peter 3:15–16). In this passage, Paul deals with a situation as it was. Some women fit that bill of being “weak women weighed down with sins.” Of course, this could describe many men, but the apostle was particularly concerned about the women who were the target of unscrupulous false teachers. They were deceived by a form of teaching that did not lead to actual spiritual truth. Paul describes them as “creep[ing] in” (ESV), “worm[ing] their way into” these women’s homes.

We must insert here that Scripture takes reality into account, rather than adapting to the altered philosophies of changing cultural naysayers. “Political correctness” is the terminology usually assigned to the conformity pressed on people by the majority of the cultural elite. Such narrow-minded thinkers arrogantly proclaim to have arrived at educated, well-cultured thought, while asserting that those who believe the Bible have not yet matured to such sophistication. But the modern culture does not adequately account for the observable reality that has left women continually on the short end of equality.

Rather than write about so-called equality of the sexes, Peter calls Christians to a much, much higher standard. Speaking to husbands, yet setting the standard of male behavior toward females, he writes, “You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered” (1 Peter 3:7). This is not demeaning but heroic. Men are not to treat women as they treat other men, but to protect and honor them. This begins in the home with the way husbands treat their wives. Any study of history will show that the strength of men dominates women. To assert anything different would be absurd. In Christianity, God seeks to correct this by demanding that men rightly use their strength for women’s benefit.

In our passage today, some were taking advantage of weak women, and Paul calls this out. We need more men who will rise to this kind of spiritual leadership.

Lord, help me rise up to defend the spiritually weak from false teachers.