Gr. apospaō, “to draw off,”“to tear away.” Those members of the Christian church who themselves had fallen away, would draw off others to share their apostasy.
Of your own selves.
The wolves of the previous verse, which were to attack the flock without, represent the Judaizing and paganizing influences that by A.D. 400 had radically changed popular Christianity. Now Paul warns of apostatizing influences coming from within, like Demas (2 Tim. 4:10), and Hymenaeus and Philetus (2 Tim. 2:17), whose words ate “as doth a canker,” and who overthrew “the faith of some.”