For some have already strayed after Satan.
Paul closes his instructions about younger widows with a reason, and it is not a warning about what might happen — it had already happened. A rule about church order becomes a warning about drift — out of Christ's service, into the enemy's.
A small drift with a real destination
The word "already" points back to people who had ignored the counsel just given. Older translations read "turned aside after Satan" where the ESV reads "strayed", and the writers below use that older wording. One writer ties this failure to the instructions just given. The people involved may not have seen where they were heading.
Hamilton SmithBy neglecting these instructions, some had indeed already turned aside after Satan. They might not admit or realise how serious their course was. But growing careless or self-willed toward Christ clearly leads to this: Satan deceives the soul, and it turns aside to the devil's temptations.
Idleness is the open door
The problem was not one dramatic sin. It was having nothing to do, and the appetite for comfort that grows in that empty space.
Leslie M. GrantFor some had already turned aside after Satan. They gave in to the temptations of idleness and self-indulgence, and Satan will use those to the full.
Another writer traces where that empty time leads, and notes that nothing has changed since:
F. B. HoleTheir idleness would certainly produce a habit of gossip and general interference in other people's affairs, and that does great damage to the testimony of God. Idleness in the twenty-first century produces the same crop of evil fruit as it did in the first century.
Turning aside means changing sides
"After Satan" is strong language. One writer reads the whole letter as a battle report, and he gives these people a soldier's name: deserters.
W. H. WestcottThe idlers, gossips, and busybodies — the people who misuse private letters and betray every confidence — are like deserters. They do not merely fail in Christian duty and faithfulness. They are busy and eager soldiers in the devil's ranks.
The same writer describes the enemy's method. Satan does not attack the whole church at once:
W. H. WestcottSatan's tactics at first leave the main body untouched. Then, by clever moves, he isolates no fewer than seven small groups and cuts them off from faithful Christian testimony.
The root: a heart that has let go of Christ
Before the outward wandering came an inward shift. Paul weighs these women by one thing: their relationship to Christ.
William KellyIt is of deep value to see that Christ, and not moral, practical, or personal considerations, is what weighs with the apostle. So it should be with us. He judges the young widows by their relationship to Christ… But they lose sight of Christ and His dealings with them, and they look out for themselves.
The slide starts with something small, and it does not stop where it starts. It also runs deeper in people who once stood in the right place.
William KellyBut professing Christians who take a true position and then swerve from it fall lower than others. None fall further than those who pride themselves on their faithfulness. Faith alone keeps up lowly dependence on the Lord. The people the apostle is describing have cast off their freshness of faith, and they slip lower and lower… How often does great evil follow from what seems a little departure? To believe the word of God is to be warned by it and kept by grace.
The staircase the chapter describes
Verse 15 is the last step in a series the chapter has been tracing, one stage at a time.
Hamilton SmithThe warnings in this chapter make it clear how far a believer can fall. He can sink into habits of self-indulgence (verse 6). He can act in a way that is worse than an unbeliever and so deny the faith (verse 8). He can grow self-willed against Christ and so cast off his first faith (verse 11). He can become an idle wanderer from house to house, gossiping and meddling in the affairs of others (verse 13). And he can turn aside after Satan (verse 15).
Summary
- Already. Paul is not warning about a possibility. Some had already gone, and that is what makes the instruction urgent.
- Idleness. The road did not begin with scandal. Having nothing to do bred self-indulgence, gossip and meddling, and the enemy used it to the full.
- Christ. The inward cause was losing sight of Christ and looking out for self. Faith alone keeps up lowly dependence on the Lord.
- Desertion. To turn aside after Satan is more than failing in Christian duty. It means serving in the enemy's ranks.
- Descent. The chapter maps the stages: self-indulgence, denying the faith, casting off first faith, idle wandering, turning aside. Catch the small departure, and it never becomes a long one.