8Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith. 9But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all, just as Jannes’s and Jambres’s folly was also.
Opposition to the Lord’s work will not abate this side of the Lord’s return. Certainly if Moses, arguably one of the greatest human leaders of Israel, had his detractors, then no generation of God’s people will escape resistance to the truth. Interestingly, the names Jannes and Jambres do not occur anywhere in the OT. Paul’s comment may reflect an assumed familiarity with a Jewish tradition (eventually written down) that these two were Egyptian magicians who tried to duplicate the miracles of Moses (Ex. 7:11). Of course, the Holy Spirit may have revealed the names directly to Paul.
Paul compares the detractors in Ephesus to those of Moses’ day. First, they opposed the truth. This resistance is the core of all false teaching. Right doctrine is truth, and therefore we must counter wrong doctrine and those who strive to lead weak believers away from the truth. Today when people oppose the correct teaching of the Word of God, they show it by their resistance to those who teach the truth. They may hide it by ad hominem attacks, personal insults, and false accusations, but in the end, the opposition is to the truth of God.
Second, they were men of depraved mind; their thinking was just not right. The word “depraved” starkly refers to perversion, corruption, destruction—all things that reflect the worst in a non-redeemed mind. Those false teachers in Ephesus have been saturated with their fallen nature, and their reasoning does not reflect a redeemed intellect. Therefore, they readily resort to incomprehensible behavior, causing strife and conflict, and justifying all sorts of wrong or even immoral behavior.
Third, they were rejected in regard to the faith. The Egyptian magicians held no sway in deterring the movement of the Lord. In the movement of God in Paul’s time, false teachers would ultimately not prevail—the people of God would reject them, just as they did the Egyptian magicians’ miracles. Even more so, God rejects them in the movement of the gospel.
Fourth, while the false teachers give the illusion of success, in the end their progress will ultimately be seen for what it is: folly. Wrong doctrinal movements litter Christian history, having come and gone, but the truth continues on. Therefore Paul’s emphasis to Timothy extends to all of us, to be especially careful to hold on to the truth and not be swayed by false teaching.
Lord, I commit to being diligent in studying Your Word so that I would not be ashamed either now or at Your coming (2 Tim. 2:15).
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