The first section of Chapter 4 consists of five
verses:
2 Timothy 4:1-5
1 I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord
Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead
at his appearing and his kingdom;
2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of
season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all
longsuffering and doctrine.
3 For the time will come when they will not endure
sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they
heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4 And they shall turn away their ears from the
truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
5 But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions,
do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy
ministry.
Let us begin with the Barclay:
FOOLISH LISTENERS
|
2 Timothy 4:1–5
…paraphrased
I charge you before God and Christ Jesus,
who is going to judge the living and the
dead – I charge you by his appearing and by
his kingdom – herald forth the word; be
urgent in season and out of season; convict,
rebuke, exhort, and do it all with a
patience and a teaching which never fail.
For there will come a time when men will
refuse to listen to sound teaching, but,
because they have ears which have to be
continually titillated with novelties, they
will bury themselves under a mound of
teachers, whose teaching suits their own
lusts after forbidden things. They will
avert their ears from the truth, and they
will turn to extravagant tales. As for you,
be steady in all things; accept the
suffering which will come upon you; do the
work of an evangelist; leave no act of your
service unfulfilled. |
PAUL goes on to describe the foolish
listeners. He warns Timothy that the day is coming
when people will refuse to listen to sound teaching
and will surround themselves with teachers who will
satisfy their desire with precisely the easygoing,
comfortable things they want to hear.
In Timothy’s day, it was tragically easy to
find such teachers. They were called sophists and
wandered from city to city, offering to teach
anything in return for money. Isocrates, the
Athenian orator, said of them: ‘They try to attract
pupils by low fees and big promises.’ They were
prepared to teach the whole of virtue for a modest
fee. They would teach people to argue subtly and to
use words cleverly until they could make ‘the worse
appear the better reason’. Plato described them
savagely: ‘Hunters after young men of wealth and
position, with sham education as their bait, and a
fee for their object, making money by a scientific
use of quibbles in private conversation, while quite
aware that what they are teaching is wrong.’
They competed for customers. Dio Chrysostom
wrote of them: ‘You might hear many poor wretches of
sophists shouting and abusing each other, and their
disciples, as they call them, squabbling, and many
writers of books reading their stupid compositions,
and many poets singing their poems, and many
jugglers exhibiting their marvels, and many
soothsayers giving the meaning of prodigies, and
10,000 rhetoricians twisting lawsuits, and no small
number of traders driving their several trades.’
In the days of Timothy, people were
surrounded by false teachers offering their sham
knowledge. Their deliberate policy was to find
arguments whereby people could justify anything they
wanted to. Any teacher, even today, whose teaching
tends to make people think less of sin is a menace
to Christianity and to society as a whole. In
complete contrast to that, certain duties are to be
laid on Timothy.
He is to be steady in all things. The word (ne¯phein)
means that he is to be sober and self-disciplined,
like an athlete who has all passions, appetites and
nerves well under control. The biblical scholar F.
J. A. Hort says that the word describes ‘a mental
state free from all perturbations or stupefactions .
. . every faculty at full command, to look all facts
and all considerations deliberately in the face’.
Christians are not to be the victims of crazes; in
an unbalanced and often insane world, they are to
stand out for their stability.
~Barclay Commentary
Now to the other commentaries.
We will begin with the general commentaries and
proceed to the specific. First the Matthew Henry
Main.
Just as verses 1 and 2 make up one sentence, so do
verses 3 and 4. Before we read the Matthew Henry,
let us hear these two verses:
2 Timothy 4:3-4
3 For the time will come when they will not endure
sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they
heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4 And they shall turn away their ears from the
truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
Because errors and heresies were likely to creep
into the church, by which the minds of many
professing Christians would be corrupted (2 Timothy
4:3-4): “For the time will come when they will not
endure sound doctrine. Therefore improve the present
time, when they will endure it. Be busy now, for it
is seedtime; when the fields are white unto the
harvest, put in the sickle, for the present gale of
opportunity will be soon over. They will not endure
sound doctrine. There will be those who will heap to
themselves corrupt teachers, and will turn away
their ears from the truth; and therefore [you
firstfruits] secure as many [true teachers] as thou
canst, that, when these storms and tempests do
arise, they may be well fixed, and their apostasy
may be prevented.” People must hear, and ministers
must preach, for the time to come, and guard against
the mischiefs that are likely to arise hereafter,
though they do not yet arise. They will turn away
their ears from the truth; they will grow weary of
the old plain gospel of Christ, and then they will
be greedy of fables, and take pleasure in them, and
God will give them up to those strong delusions,
because they received not the truth in the love of
it, 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12.
Quoted verse:
2 Thessalonians 2:11-12
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong
delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not
the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Observe,
(1.) These teachers were of their own heaping up,
and not of God's sending; but they chose them, to
gratify their lusts, and to please their itching
ears.
(2.) People do so when they will not endure sound
doctrine, that preaching which is searching, plain,
and to the purpose; then they will have teachers of
their own.
(3.) There is a wide difference between the word of
God and the word of such teachers; the one is sound
doctrine, the word of truth, the other is only
fables.
(4.) Those that are turned unto fables first turn
away their ears from the truth, for they cannot hear
and mind both, any more than they can serve two
masters. Nay, further, it is said, They shall be
turned unto fables. God justly suffers those to turn
to fables who grow weary of the truth, and gives
them up to be led aside from the truth by fables.
~Matthew Henry Main
Note: In the
commentary before I read 2 Thessalonians 2, it says,
"they [firstfruits]
will grow weary of the old plain gospel of Christ.
Part of me acknowledges this as true but I have also
witnessed a maturity in the Work and specifically in
the sermons and Bible studies that are being
produced. We are going deeper into the scriptures
than ever before. We are sure seeing it here in our
immersion into 1st and 2nd Timothy. I take no credit
for this at all. God is inspiring a depth of
learning and a strong dynamic in the presentation
that I could not call what we are getting as "the
old plain gospel."
Let us go to the Matthew Henry Concise.
People will turn away from the truth, they will grow
weary of the plain gospel of Christ, they will be
greedy of fables, and take pleasure in them. People
do so when they will not endure that preaching which
is searching, plain, and to the purpose. Those who
love souls must be ever watchful, must venture and
bear all the painful effects of their faithfulness,
and take all opportunities of making known the pure
gospel. ~Matthew Henry
Concise
Now something from the Biblical Illustrator:
Sound doctrine forsaken
1. The grounds of their apostasy—viz., their hatred
of the truth; they will not endure sound doctrine;
they will reject it and cast it behind their backs;
they hate and abhor it. They look upon it as a
grievous burden, as Israel did upon the doctrine and
visions of the prophets (Jeremiah 23:34; Jeremiah
23:36). It is not so much they cannot, but they will
not endure sound doctrine; they love their lusts
above the law, and therefore they hate him that
reproves in the gates. Errors they can tolerate, and
superstition they can tolerate, but the truth they
cannot hear.
Quoted verses:
Jeremiah 23:34
And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the
people, that shall say, The burden of the LORD, I
will even punish that man and his house.
Jeremiah 23:36
And the burden of the LORD shall ye mention no more:
for every man's word shall be his burden; for ye
have perverted the words of the living God, of the
LORD of hosts our God.
2. A second ground of their apostasy is their
delight in false teachers; they so dote on them,
that one or two will not content them, they must
have heaps of them. They love their lusts, and
therefore they seek out for such teachers as may not
disquiet them. They wittingly and willingly suffer
themselves to be deluded by them. The word
signifies—
(1) An earnest desire of getting such teachers.
(2) It notes an indiscreet and confused gathering
together of such a multitude of teachers without wit
or reason, without any respect either to their life
or learning, head nor tail. The disciples create
their doctors, the lusts of their followers are
their call.
3. A third cause of their apostasy is that innate
malice and inbred concupiscence [kon-kyoo-pi-suh
ns, kong-] [sexual
desire] which is in the hearts of men.
But the word in the original is “lusts,” which
implies, not a simple desire or sudden motion, but a
vehement, ardent, earnest desire and pursuit of a
thing.
4. They have itching ears; this is another reason
why they seek out for false teachers; they love not
such as deal plainly and faithfully with them, they
must have such as please their humors, tickle their
fancies with novelties and curiosities, but they
must in no wise touch their vices.
5. Here is the issue and consequences of their
contempt of the truth—viz., the loss of truth, and
following fables.
This is the devil’s method. First he stops the ear
against sound doctrine, and then he opens it to
error. Like a cruel thief, he draws the soul out of
the right road into some wood, by-lane or corner,
and there binds, robs, and rifles it.
1. God not only knoweth what men do at present, and
what they have done, but what they will do in time
to come. He tells Timothy here what will be done
many years after he is dead and gone.
2. The more perfidious [per-fid-ee-uh
s] [deliberately
faithless; deceitful] the world is, and
the more false teachers abound, the more careful
must Christ’s ministers be to oppose them by
preaching sound doctrine. The badness of the times
approaching must make us to redeem the present
season. The sun will not always shine; tempests will
arise, and the night will come when no man can work.
Those that reverence Moses to-day, to-morrow are
murmuring against him (Exodus 14:1-31, ult., and
15:14).
3. Saving doctrine is sound doctrine.
4. Unsound persons cannot endure sound doctrine. It
is salt which searcheth men’s sores and puts them to
pain. It is light which these sore eyes cannot
endure, nor these thieves abide. They do evil, and
therefore they hate the light (John 3:20). They do
not only fear, but hate the light. They cannot
endure to have the law preached, their consciences
searched, nor their sins discovered. But as for
sound men, they love sound doctrine; they desire it
(Psalm 43:3). They come to it (John 3:21), and bless
God for it (1 Samuel 25:32-33).
Quoted verses:
John 3:20
For every one that doeth evil hateth the
light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds
should be reproved.
Psalm 43:3
O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead
me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy
tabernacles.
John 3:21
But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that
his deeds may be made manifest, that they are
wrought in God.
1 Samuel 25:32-33
32 And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the LORD
God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me:
33 And blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou,
which hast kept me this day from coming to shed
blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand.
5. In the last days there will be many false
teachers. There will not be one or two, but there
will be heaps of them, the world will swarm with
them. Men will have variety of lusts, and those call
for variety of teachers to uphold them. Good men,
and especially good ministers, are rare, they are
one of a thousand (Job 33:23), but wicked ones
abound; there is much dross, but little gold; much
chaff, but little wheat; many weeds, few good
flowers. If the devil have any work to do, he wants
no agents to effect it. If men once set open their
doors, they shall not want deceivers. When men
slight truth they shall have teachers which shall be
God’s executioners to bind them and blind them, and
lead them into error.
Quoted verse:
Job 33:23
...right ministers one in a
thousand
If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter,
one among a thousand, to shew unto man his
uprightness:
6. Observe, as all other parts of man, so amongst
the rest the ear hath its diseases. Salt is fitter
for such than oil: though it be more searching, yet
it is more sovereign. This itching disease was never
so common as in our days. There is a sinful
spiritual itch upon the soul which is
sevenfold—viz., an itch of—
(1) Novelty.
(2) Curiosity.
(3) Singularity.
(4) Popularity.
(5) Flattery.
(6) Disputing.
(7) Quarrelling.
~Biblical Illustrator
Now to the specific commentaries. The commentaries
break up this verse in various ways. We will use the
Adam Clarke breakdown.
1] For the time will come when they will not
endure sound doctrine.
2] But after their own lusts.
3] Shall they heap to themselves teachers.
4] Having itching ears.
1] For the time will come when
they will not endure sound doctrine.
For the time will come
- Probably referring to the time mentioned in 2
Timothy 3:1. ~Barnes Notes
Quoted verse:
2 Timothy 3:1 [See
Lesson]
This know also, that in the last days perilous times
shall come.
When they will not endure
sound doctrine - Greek, “healthful doctrine;”
i. e., doctrine contributing to the health of the
soul, or to salvation. At that time they would seek
a kind of instruction more conformable to their
wishes and feelings.
~Barnes Notes
For the time will come when
they will not endure sound doctrine - There
is a time coming to the Church when men will not
hear the practical truths of the Gospel, when they
will prefer speculative opinions, which either do no
good to the soul, or corrupt and destroy it, to that
wholesome doctrine of “deny thyself, take up thy
cross and follow me,” which Jesus Christ has left in
his Church. ~Adam Clarke
For the time will come
- This is a reason of the solemn charge above given:
the time referred to was future, when the apostle
wrote, but quickly came on; and the characters of it
have appeared more or less in all ages since; and in
none more than in ours: ~
John Gill
When they will not endure
sound doctrine - the Gospel which
contains the wholesome words of Christ, and is sound
itself, having no corruption in it, and salutary in
its effects to the souls of men; and yet such is the
depravity of some men, both in principles and
practice, that they cannot receive it, nor bear to
hear it, turn their backs on it, express their
indignation at it, and treat it not only with
neglect, but with ridicule and contempt:
~John Gill
2] But after their own lusts.
But after their own lusts
- They will seek such kind of preaching as
will accord with their carnal desires; or such as
will palliate their evil propensities, and deal
gently with their vices; compare Isaiah 30:10.
“Speak unto us smooth things; prophesy deceits.”
~Barnes Notes
But after their own lusts
- For these they will follow, and hate those
preachers and that doctrine by which they are
opposed. ~Adam Clarke
But after their own lusts
shall they heap to themselves teachers - not
being content with the ministry of one man only, or
of a few, though of their own sort; but must follow
many, and have heaps of them; which seems to express
not only the number of false teachers which they
accumulate to themselves, but the confused and
indiscreet choice they make of them; and that after
their own lusts; choosing to hear such as either
indulge them in their sinful lusts and pleasures; or
are agreeable to their private corrupt sentiments,
in opposition to the generally received doctrine of
faith. It is a blessing to have pastors and teachers
after God's heart, and who preach according to the
word of God; these feed men with knowledge and
understanding, Jeremiah 3:15 but it is a curse upon
a people, when they are left to choose teachers
after their hearts' lusts:
~John Gill
Quoted verse:
Jeremiah 3:15
And I will give you pastors according to mine heart,
which shall feed you with knowledge and
understanding.
3] Shall they heap to themselves
teachers.
Shall they heap to themselves
teachers - They will add one teacher to
another, run and gad [move
restlessly or aimlessly] about after all,
to find out those who insist
not on
the necessity of bearing the cross [stake],
of being crucified to the world, and of having the
mind that was in Jesus. In this disposition
interested men often find their account; they set up
for teachers, “and widen and strew with flowers the
way, down to eternal ruin,” taking care to soothe
the passions and flatter the vices of a trifling,
superficial people. ~Adam
Clarke
4] Having itching ears.
Having itching ears -
Endless curiosity, an insatiable desire of variety;
and they get their ears tickled with the language
and accent of the person, abandoning the good and
faithful preacher for the fine speaker.
~Adam Clarke
Having itching ears -
always desirous of new things, as the Athenians of
old; or loving to have their ears scratched and
tickled with smooth things; that are pleasing and
agreeable to natural men, and carnal minds; as the
purity of human nature, the power of man's free
will, the excellency of his righteousness, and the
merit of his works, and the like; see Isaiah 30:9.
Now, this being the case, should not discourage, but
rather animate the ministers of the Gospel to preach
it; for should they desist, in all likelihood the
Gospel would soon be gone.
~John Gill
Quoted verse:
Isaiah 30:9
That this is a rebellious people, lying children,
children that will not hear the law of the LORD:
The primary message of verse 3 is a warning to every
true and loyal firstfruit in at least two ways:
1] Understand that rather large numbers of
individuals in and around the Body of Christ will
refuse sound doctrine and with gather false teachers
to them. Be mentally, emotionally and
spiritually ready for this. This will all
unfold slowly, subtilely and almost without
perception on your part.
2] Keep to sound doctrine. Stay immersed in
the Word of God.
This is the lesson of verse 3. |