1 Timothy 4:2

The human agents who spread such errors

1 Timothy 4:2 “By means of the hypocrisy of liars”: “Pretense, outward show, by the hypocritical preaching of liars” (Arndt p. 845). “Certainly these false teachers must make themselves appear different from what they really are. Some have gone so far that lying becomes second nature to them, because the standard of truth in God's Word has been abandoned. They feel no qualms because their conscience has been seared” (Kent p. 150). Note that hypocrisy lays one open to temptation and evil. “These men pretended to spiritually inspired lives but were dominated by. false spiritualism” (Hiebert p. 77).

1 Timothy 4:2 “Seared in their own conscience as with. branding iron”: Paul pointed out that the conscience would become callous or past feeling from constant violation (Ephesians 4:19). “Such. burn (see the old west when bullet wounds were cauterized with. hot poker) would leave the person with no feeling in the burned spot” (Reese p. 163). “These men's consciences are become as insensible to the touch as the skin that has been cauterized” (P.P. Comm. p. 69). The statement “their own conscience” also implies that they were not merely deceiving others, rather they were also deceiving themselves.