Click here for the 2 Timothy 4:3-4
3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. ~ 2 Timothy 4:3-4
In todays' text the Apostle Paul describes conditions that very well may be descriptive of today. The word “time” in v.3 is the Greek word kairos and it is the same word used in 2 Timothy 3:1 where we read, “Terrible times.” Paul is saying, "There will come in the future, terrible times when men will not listen to the truth." It will be that during these times biblical teaching will become less and less tolerated.
We read further into v.3, "For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine." The words “put up with,” means to hear, to support, to hold to or to tolerate. They will not tolerate sound teaching. They will not want any part of sound teaching. That word “sound” is the word from which we get the English word hygienic. They will not want to hear clean, healthy teaching. They will turn a deaf ear to that which is healthy to their souls.
The American culture has largely rejected truth. And there is a number of reasons for this. One of the reasons is: journalism has become sensationalized. Everything has a spin on it. Information isn't just pure information anymore. Many today says, "Journalism is dead." And, since journalism is highly politicized and editorialized, people do not trust easily. Yet, without the moorings of the Scriptures, we fall prey to the deceit of the devil.
Another reason that truth is rejected in our culture is that over time, truth has become less objective and more subjective. That is, it is personal truth. We are told that it is individual truth, it is variable truth. People say, "well, that's your truth. My truth is different than your truth."
And one of the reasons for this is because objective truth speaks against us. It speaks against our lifestyle. It speaks against human preference. And so we say, there's no such thing as absolute truth. Years ago, many years ago, there used to be in this country what we call a moral consensus. Well, it is no longer because man has rejected absolute truth. Dostoevsky said it well when he said, "Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love."
The remainder of v.3 reads, "Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear."
"To suit their own desires" means they are the captains of their ship. There was a time in America when people honored God’s Word, when they listened to sound teaching, when they listened to the truth of God. It is not true anymore, for today, people do not want to be defined by God. Truth is that which corresponds with reality. Or to put it in the words of C. S. Lewis, "Truth is always about something, but reality is that about which truth is."
As a result, "They will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear." Due to their rejection of the truth, the false must define them. Therefore, they will depend on others to say what they want to hear. And, ultimately, they will not have this man, the Lord Jesus, to rule over them.
In v.4 we read, "They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths."
They themselves actively turn away their ears from the truth and then they will be turned, as victims toward myths. If we turn away from the truth, we become the victim of Satan who will make us think truth is error and error is truth.
The verb “turn aside” is also translated twist or dislocate a limb. Their minds are dislocated or out of joint. They have a dislocated mind and as a result they will believe delusions and untruths. They do not want to be convicted of sin, they just want to be entertained. They just want to feel good. They only want what lightly scratches their ears.
But, the gospel of the Lord Jesus requires the admission of human weakness. The gospel also requires submission to the authority of God. This gets at the root of the issue. Man does not want God to define him. We will never understand life until we surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Belief can only come from evidence and the preponderance of evidence proves the Lord Jesus is the truth. Truth is the nature of things as they really are. Truth is seeing through all the illusions, all the facades and the unreal images, and getting down to the heart, the core, the reality. And, in the end we will be left with Him who is the way, the truth and the life.
