“Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;”
through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared — the false teachers operate with cauterized conscience (syneidēsis kauriazō), their moral sensitivity burned away. Their pseudologia (insincerity/lying) flows from spiritually deadened interiority.
Church Fathers on 1 Timothy 4:2
As those who adhere to the faith are fixed on a safe anchor, so those who fall from the faith can nowhere rest; but after many wanderings to and fro, they are borne at last into the very gulf of perdition. And this he had shown before, saying, that some had “already made shipwreck concerning the faith,” and now he says, “Now the Spirit speaks expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits.” This is said of the Manichæans,…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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