through the hypocrisy of men who speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron;
The premier example of such hypocritical lie-speaking occurs in Genesis 3:1-6 where the record reveals Satan’s deception of Eve (1 Timothy 2:13). In such a way, these seducing spirits or demons "make use of men who speak lies and who talk piously and learnedly in order to conceal their own arrogance or immorality" (Hendriksen 146). MacKnight connects this passage with 2 Timothy 3:5.