Cactus and Kelp

II Timothy 3:6-9

A cactus and kelp are two very different things. A cactus needs very little water to survive. It has a thick waxy exterior that protects it from the extreme hot dry climate of the desert in which it thrives. Kelp on the other hand lives in the ocean where it is immersed in water. Both provide shelter and protection for animals that share the same environment. A cactus has needles to protect it from being food to those animals that would love not only the nutrients, but the water that it could provide. Kelp grows very fast so that it can continue to provide while being a food source for many animals. Both are edible to humans. One is not better or worse than the other, but rather they are designed to function in a specific role in a specific environment. If they try to switch roles, both will die.

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“For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.“

II Timothy 3:6-7

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God made men and women. God made us different. Contrary to popular culture, you do not need to be a biologist to distinguish these differences. Men and women are different physically, mentally/psychologically, and spiritually. This does not make one better or worse, nor does it make one superior or inferior to the other.

To understand our scripture today, we must understand how God intended for men and women to function in the marital relationship. God made the man the head of the home. Head does not mean dictator or tyrant. It means that he leads the home as God leads him. The man is to love his wife as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it (Ephesians 5:25). Christ loves the church, leads the church, and protects the church; so husbands should do the same for their wives.

Too many men are like a cactus that has been thrown into the ocean. They are not living where God planted them. They have abdicated their position as Spiritual head of the home and are not flourishing as God intended them to. Their life is pointless and they suck in the salt water of videogames, sports, other hobbies, and work that distracts them from the fact that they are dying a senseless death.

Because men have relinquished their title as spiritual leader of the home, many women are like kelp in the desert. Their exterior has grown dry and hard (figuratively speaking) from the lack of nourishment they are designed to receive from a Godly environment. They grasp at things to meet their needs and can fall prey to false teachers who promise them help of the water they so desperately need. That is what Paul is talking about here. These "gullible women" are women who are trying to have a need met, but they simply cannot find the right source of provision. If her husband was doing his job, he would protect her from those who come in trying to lead her astray.

It also bears saying that this scripture is not calling ALL women gullible. Paul is addressing a specific category of women. Frankly, there are gullible men as well. Paul addresses them in other texts and Solomon called them fools. In the next devotion we will consider two unGodly men and consider their guilt in leading people astray. Ultimately it comes down to this, if men and women would live where God created them to thrive, they would find their needs being met. Remember Jesus said:

”...Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?...But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.“

Matthew 6:28-30, 33

Father help me to be the man You have created me to be. May I lead my wife in love, to stand between her and evil. I pray that You give me wisdom to lead her, and I pray that You give her wisdom to be the woman You have called her to be. Teach me to love like You, to lead like You, and to protect like You!