2 Timothy 4:3–4

It is worth noting that the word translated "sound" comes up again and again. It is the word from which we get "hygienic," which is so often on people's lips today. It means healthful. Sound doctrine is in every sense doctrine that makes for spiritual health.

Notice, though, that this corruption begins with the hearers. It is they who "will not endure sound doctrine" (teaching). It is they who "after their own lusts … heap to themselves teachers" to satisfy a diseased and itching ear… Plain scriptural teaching only explains and applies the mind of God as contained in the Scriptures. That is not enough for such hearers. Neither are the teachers whom the Lord sends, since they prefer to "heap" up, to choose, their own.

Whether teachers fail or not, the time will come. The people, "having itching ears", will not endure sound doctrine. Following their own lusts, they will heap up teachers for themselves. This does not describe those who have never heard the truth. It describes Christendom, where people have heard the gospel but will no longer endure it. Even so, they do not give up the Christian profession, for they still heap up teachers for themselves. But those teachers must be ones who will not get in the way of their worldly desires by preaching the truth.

New, sensational things deceive even Christians — things that leave out the sound doctrine of the Word. But notice that this happens because "their own lusts" are involved: it is what the flesh desires. They become like people in love with a diet of wine and pastry, and they turn away from the healthy, solid food of the Word.

One danger for Christians at the present moment is the desire for stimulants in teaching… But stimulants are not food. Worse, in the end they create a distaste for it. They only stir the imagination, the intellect, or the nature. They never reach the conscience or the heart. The evidence of this desire is the itching ear (2 Tim. 4:3). Christ, and Christ alone, is the food of His people.

Here the time had not yet come for such widespread evil, but the Spirit of God speaks of it as close at hand: "For the time will be when they will not endure the sound teaching." It assumes people who were used to hearing the truth. But now the truth is hard to swallow, and its sound teaching cannot be endured — a frightful time for men who bear the name of the Lord. Sound teaching is always welcome to those whose desire is to grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

And the result? Timothy would never be a popular preacher… There is no shortage of preachers now, but there is a shortage of those who preach the Word. It is one thing to preach about the Word, and another to preach the Word itself. There is a great danger in trying to please the popular ear. The people's ear is about as false as its voice is uncertain. Happy is the man of God who keeps preaching the Word to the end, when the crowd has turned away and listened to fables.

This is not about people who have never heard the truth. It is about Christendom, where men have heard the gospel but will no longer put up with it. Even so, they do not give up the Christian name. They still pile up teachers for themselves. But those teachers must not preach the truth and get in the way of their worldly desires.

Notice that this kind of corruption starts with the hearers. They are the ones who will not put up with sound teaching. They pile up teachers for themselves to suit their own desires and to satisfy a diseased, itching ear... Such hearers are not satisfied with plain teaching from Scripture — teaching that only explains and applies the mind of God as found in the Scriptures. Nor will they have the teachers the Lord sends. They prefer to heap up, to choose, their own... There could be only one outcome. They turn away from the truth and turn to fables, because only fables can feed their unhealthy appetites.

In the New Testament the word does not carry the meaning it often has today: a made-up incident that teaches some moral truth. It means myths, false stories — one passage calls them godless old wives' tales.

Imagination is never faith. Faith delights in knowing God and His will, and so trusts nothing but His word... Imagination is where people turn when they do not know the truth. The truth in Christ is the only perfect guard against it.

Satan's usual way is to stop the ear from hearing sound teaching first, and then to open it to take in corrupt teaching.

From the structure of the phrase, one writer of fine judgment draws this. They have already turned aside to fables, and that is what leads them to turn their ear away from the truth.

Here is the fatal result. Who can measure the dishonour done to God and His word? Who can tell what they lose in their own souls? They are not only cut off from the truth; they now have a real appetite for imaginative falsehood... The conscience is no longer governed by the sense of God's presence. Grace is unfelt, and so the constraining power of Christ's love no longer works. The holy fear of displeasing God disappears.

But the greatest fable that ever existed, or ever could exist, is still to come. That lawless one will bring it in. Christendom is preparing itself today to receive it, and it will fall under its power. The Lord will consume him with the breath of His mouth and destroy him with the brightness of His coming (2 Thess. 2:8).

Truth may look as if it has fallen in the street. The crowd may "turn away from listening to the truth" and "wander off into myths." Still he preaches the Word all the more earnestly and insistently.