What does 2 Timothy 4:3 mean by itching ears?

The reason given for unwearied assiduity in his work is most striking: "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; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." vv. 3, 4. It was not therefore in the prospect of large results that Timothy was to proclaim the Word so earnestly and zealously; but he was to use the present moment as knowing that the opportunity was brief for such a ministry, that teachers would speedily arise who would adapt themselves to the desires of the natural heart, men who would please the fancy and flatter the imagination of their hearers, under the pretext too of having discovered new and striking things in the Scriptures.

It should be observed, however, that this species of corruption commences with the hearers. It is they who "will not endure sound doctrine" (teaching), and who "after their own lusts … heap to themselves teachers" to satisfy a diseased and itching ear. This class can be traced all down the path of church history, and the reader will have no difficulty in identifying it at the present moment. Plain scriptural teaching — that teaching which merely explains and applies the mind of God as contained in the Scriptures — does not suffice for such hearers, nor the teachers whom the Lord sends, as they prefer to "heap" up, to choose, their own; and, when listening, their heart and conscience are never exposed to the action of that Word which is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, for they only bring with them "itching ears." The issue could but be one; they turn away from the truth, and they turn to fables; for these alone could minister to their unhealthy appetites.

Whatever form the service may take, it is to be carried out with all long-suffering and according to the truth or “doctrine”. The word will assuredly raise the opposition of the flesh and this will call for long-suffering on the part of the servant, and the only effectual answer to opposition is in the doctrine or truth of Scripture.

(Vv. 3, 4). In the first verse God's servant has looked beyond the present period and, in the light of what is coming, presses the urgency of service. Now again he looks on, but to the end of the Christian period, and uses the appalling conditions that will be found among the professors of Christianity as a fresh incentive for activity in service. Already he has spoken of false teachers that creep into houses; now he speaks of the people themselves. Whether teachers fail or not, the time will come when the people, “having itching ears”, will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts will they heap to themselves teachers. This is not a description of heathen who have never heard the truth, but of Christendom wherein men have heard the gospel but will no longer endure it. Even so, they do not give up all profession of Christianity for they still heap to themselves teachers, but they must be teachers who do not interfere with the gratification of their worldly lusts by preaching the truth.

That companies of professing Christians should choose a teacher is entirely foreign to Scripture and shows how far Christendom has departed from the order of God for His assembly. The result of this disorder is that too often the chosen teacher is but a blind leader of the blind, and “if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch” (Matthew 15:14). Thus it comes to pass, that in turning from the truth, men “shall be turned to fables.”

"For the time will be when they will not endure sound teaching; but according to their own lusts they will heap up to themselves teachers, having an itching ear; and from the truth they will turn away their ear, and will be turned aside unto fables" (vers. 3, 4).

It is not here the leaders whose fault is in the foreground, but the people. Elsewhere we see false teachers, and self-willed chiefs, misleading such as put their trust in them. Here, though the time was not yet come for so widespread evil, the Spirit of God speaks of it as imminent: "For the time will be when they will not endure the sound teaching." This is clearly descriptive of the prevalent state to overspread Christendom, not among Jews nor heathens. It supposes those who were used to hear the truth. But now the truth becomes unpalatable, and "the sound teaching" of it cannot be endured: a truly frightful time for men bearing the name of the Lord. For it is evident that out of an impure heart they must call on Him. Sound teaching is ever welcome to those whose desire is to grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; and this that all may issue in a life of increasing obedience and devotedness.

But there is also positive evil, as well as the dislike of what is divine. And whilst both evils have long verified the solemn warning of the apostle, it is easy to understand that the dark sketch of a time then at hand becomes more and more dismal as the Lord tarries and lawlessness acquires audacity and force. The prevalence of education in modern times leads to a great deal of reading even in the humblest class; so that the desire to hear what pleases the mind, the taste, and the natural aspirations of man, modified as all is by the governing spirit of the age, becomes even more active and pretentious. "According to their own lusts they will heap up to themselves teachers, having an itching ear." Can there be a more graphic anticipation of what is found everywhere in our day, at least where the Bible is universally circulated? Even this is sometimes openly left out by men calling themselves Christians. But Satan can, and does, sadly neutralize it where it is nominally in use as a mere suggester of themes for the adventuresome and profane wit of man. Indeed no other book is so fertile in raising and satisfying the most profound enquiries as to God and man and all things. And the intellect can readily cast aside its authority while it enters on its flight of universal discussion, being as doubtful of the divine as it is credulous of the human. Christ, the centre and expression of grace and truth, is practically lost, and the more guiltily because it is in the sphere where once He was all.

What becomes of those who, having once known, turn their back on His glory? First, as we have seen, according to their own lusts they heap up to themselves teachers, having an itching ear. The full revelation of God, though no longer held in faith, leaves a craving to hear something new; and for this end heaps of teachers are resorted to in profound unbelief of the word of God and of the power of the Spirit to guide into all the truth. The efficacy of neither can be enjoyed, where redemption does not purge the conscience and where Christ Himself is not the object and rest of the heart. God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap; because he that soweth unto his own flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth unto the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life eternal (Gal. 6:8). If openly unrighteous man give himself up to pleasure, religiously unrighteous man occupies himself zealously with teachers, both in default of having Christ. In Him alone can God or man find life, objects, and satisfaction; in Him faith finds all fully. Without this all is a waste for one's own lusts to heap up what can never satisfy; and the less if there be departure in heart from Him known ever so slightly: an itching ear can aggravate but can never remedy.

In this way Timothy was to act to protect souls in view of dangers threatening, which the apostle knew would develop in apostasy. Today the time has come when "they will not endure sound doctrine," but with itching ears heap to themselves teachers of any kind except those sober and solid. Even Christians are deceived by new, sensational things that leave out the sound doctrine of the Word. But let us notice that it is really because "their own lusts" are involved: it is what the flesh desires. And they become as those infatuated with a diet of wine and pastry, so that the healthy, solid food of the Word is turned from. "Fables," mere empty fascinations of the imagination, take the place of truth. How great the need for an epistle of this kind today!

One danger for Christians, at the present moment, is the desire for stimulants in teaching. This also characterized Israel. (Amos 2:11.) But stimulants are not only not food, but, in the end, they create a distaste for it. They serve only to excite the imagination, intellect, or nature, and 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.

"They shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned to fables" (2 Tim. 4:3-4). Satan commonly stops the ear from hearing sound doctrine, before he opens it to embrace corrupt.

The "fables" here are not qualified as "Jewish", as in Titus 1:14, nor are they connected with "genealogies" as in 1 Tim. 1:4 which points in the same direction. It seems a sound deduction therefore to regard them as of a larger character, and open to the workings of Gentile fancy no less than Jewish. But it is vain to speculate on what was then impending. Suffice it for us to know that they are here unlimited and are the sure accompaniment of turning away from the truth. One of admirable judgment infers from the structure of the phrase that their being already turned aside to fables leads them to turn away their ear from the truth. [See note in J. N. D.'s New Translation.]

But there is more still. "And from the truth they will turn away their ear, and will be turned aside unto fables" (ver. 4). Here is the fatal result. Who can measure the dishonour thus done to God and His word? Who can tell the loss to their own souls, not only by their alienation from the truth, but by their actual appetite for imaginative falsehood? So Satan would have it, who likes no one thing so much as a direct affront put on Christ, which all this implies. Thereby evil ensues in every way. The conscience is no longer governed by the sense of God's presence. Grace is unfelt, and thus the constraining power of Christ's love no longer operates. The holy fear of displeasing God vanishes. There is no consciousness of being set apart by the Spirit to the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. As He is altogether a nullity to such, so the god of this world blinds their thoughts that the radiancy of the gospel of Christ should not shine forth. There is no treasure consequently in the earthen vessels, any more than ever bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus that the life also of Jesus might be manifested in the body; still less is there exposure to death on account of Jesus, that His life also might be manifested in their mortal flesh, so that death should work in them but life in the objects of divine love (1 Cor. 4:4-12).

If it be a question of the careless multitude that will be embraced within the capacious circle of a corrupted and worldly Christianity, they "turn away their ears from the TRUTH." They are glad enough to have teachers, but wish them to pander to their own lusts.