2 Timothy 4:1-4-Paul Predicts Apostasy During the Church Age

Second Timothy 4:3-4 is another prophecy regarding apostasy during the church age among Christians.

Second Timothy 4:1 I solemnly charge in the presence of God (the Father) as well as the Christ who is Jesus, who is inevitably going to judge the living as well as the dead and in addition by His appearing as well as by His kingdom: 2 to make it your top priority of publicly proclaiming with authority as a herald the message. I solemnly charge you to make it your top priority of always being prepared to perform this task whether the circumstance is favorable or unfavorable. I solemnly charge you to make it your top priority to convict. I solemnly charge you to make it your top priority to rebuke. I solemnly charge you to make it your top priority to exhort with a patience which is absolute as well as by means of instruction. 3 The reason is that the time will come when they will no longer tolerate sound doctrine. But rather, they will, as a certainty accumulate for themselves teachers because of their own sinful desires because they will as a certainty want to have their ears tickled. (My translation)

In Second Timothy 4:1-2, Paul issues Timothy five commands.

The first was that Timothy was to make it his top priority to publicly proclaim with authority as a herald of Jesus Christ the gospel of Jesus Christ as well as the Old Testament which the gospel fulfills.

The second command required that Timothy make it his top priority to always be prepared to carry out this task whether the circumstance was favorable or not while the third, fourth and fifth commands demanded that Timothy convict, rebuke and exhort respectively the Christian community.

Now, here in Second Timothy 4:3, Paul presents the reason for these commands.

Second Timothy 4:3-4 is a prophecy regarding apostasy during the church age among Christians.

The apostle asserts that the time will come when Christians will no longer tolerate sound doctrine.

Therefore, Timothy was to obey the five commands in verse 2 because the time will come when Christians will not tolerate sound doctrine.

“The time” is a reference to the church age which is indicated by Paul’s statements in Second Timothy 4:1-4.

Here in Second Timothy 4:3, Paul is emphasizing with Timothy the certainty that there will come a time when the majority of Christians will no longer tolerate sound doctrine.

Paul’s statement here in Second Timothy 4:3-4 would at first glance appear to indicate that this apostasy among Christians was still yet future to the time of writing this epistle to Timothy or had not taken place when Paul wrote to Timothy.

However, Paul is simply emphasizing with Timothy that the situation of apostasy in the church will continue to occur in the future during the church age.

Also, the context indicates that this rejection of sound doctrine was already present in the days of Paul and Timothy.

Paul in Second Timothy 4:5 commands Timothy to be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist and fulfill his ministry in contrast to those who he describes as no longer tolerating sound doctrine.

Thus, these individuals he describes in Second Timothy 4:3-4 were living in Timothy’s day.

Secondly, the same group of people Paul describes in Second Timothy 4:3-4 are described by him in Second Timothy 3:1-9 who were living in Timothy and Paul’s day.

So there is the same implication of time.

In fact, Paul orders Timothy in Second Timothy 3:5 to continue to make it his habit of disassociating himself from the people he describes in Second Timothy 3:2-5.

He would never say this in relation to a non-Christian but only a Christian according to his teaching in First Corinthians 5:9-13 where he orders the Corinthians to disassociate themselves from a fellow Christian living an ungodly immoral lifestyle.

Though this apostasy was prevalent in Paul’s day, it is possible that Paul might be speaking of a time during the church age which will be future to the time in which he lived when the apostasy in the church will be more distinct than at any time during the church age.

He could be referencing the great apostasy he mentions in Second Thessalonians 2:3 which will occur prior the day of the Lord and the appearance of Antichrist during the seventieth week of Daniel.

The apostasy in this passage is distinguishable from the apostasy that has always been prevalent during the church age among Christians.

In Second Timothy 4:3, “they” is a reference to Christians and not the non-Christian community which is indicated by the immediate context.

First of all, Paul states that these unidentified individuals will not tolerate sound doctrine, which is only applicable to the Christian and not the non-Christian.

Sound doctrine is the teaching of the church regarding the Christian way of life and only a Christian has the capacity to understand because they have the indwelling of the Spirit and the non-Christian again does not.

Secondly, in Second Timothy 4:4, Paul says that these individuals will turn away from the truth.

“Turn away” is the verb apostrephō which refers to the act of committing apostasy meaning to stop believing something that you used to believe and the word’s object is the noun alētheia, “the truth” which refers to the gospel or Paul’s apostolic teaching.

Therefore, Paul in Second Timothy 4:4 speaks of Christians committing apostasy.

The word expresses the fact that they once believed certain truths in the Word of God but no longer do so.

The non-Christian can’t fulfill this because they never accepted the truth who is Jesus Christ in the first place.

Paul statements in Second Timothy 4:3-4 regarding unrepentant apostate Christianity are actually amplifying his statements about unrepentant apostate Christianity in Second Timothy 3:1-9.

Second Timothy 4:1 I solemnly charge in the presence of God (the Father) as well as the Christ who is Jesus, who is inevitably going to judge the living as well as the dead and in addition by His appearing as well as by His kingdom: 2 to make it your top priority of publicly proclaiming with authority as a herald the message. I solemnly charge you to make it your top priority of always being prepared to perform this task whether the circumstance is favorable or unfavorable. I solemnly charge you to make it your top priority to convict. I solemnly charge you to make it your top priority to rebuke. I solemnly charge you to make it your top priority to exhort with a patience which is absolute as well as by means of instruction. 3 The reason for this is that the time will come when they will no longer tolerate sound doctrine. But rather, they will, as a certainty accumulate for themselves teachers because of their own sinful desires because they will as a certainty want to have their ears tickled. 4 Consequently, on the one hand, they will, as a certainty turn their ears away from the truth while on the other hand, they will, as a certainty be turned away from the truth because of myths. (My translation)

Second Timothy 4:4 presents the result of Paul’s previous statement in verse 3 which asserts that apostate Christians will accumulate for themselves teachers because of their own sinful desires because they will want to have their ears tickled.

Therefore, this indicates that apostate Christians will accumulate for themselves teachers because of their own sinful desires because they will want to have their ears tickled with the result that they will turn away their ears from the truth.

The second assertion in this verse specifies the reason for this defection from the truth and predicts that these apostate Christians will as a certainty be turned away from the truth because of myths.

So this correlative clause expresses a contrast between rejecting the truth and embracing myths.

A comparison of First Timothy, Second Timothy and Titus would indicate that these myths originate with the Judaizers who were influencing pastors in the Roman province of Asia in Timothy and Paul’s day.

It has nothing to do with Gnosticism since the phrase “teachers of the Law” in First Timothy 1:17 and Titus 1:14 describes these myths as Jewish.

This word is modified by the dative masculine plural form of the adjective Ioudaikos, “Jewish” indicating that the apostate pastors were influenced by the Judaizers or in other words, these myths were “Jewish” in nature.

In Second Timothy 4:4, the noun muthos describes the teaching of the false teachers from the perspective that it is unhistorical and not based upon truth or fact.

The false teachers are unrepentant apostate pastor-teachers who adhered to the false doctrine of the Judaizers.

That these myths originated with the Judaizers is indicated by the fact that the nature of the heresy in Ephesus where Timothy was stationed when Paul wrote Second Timothy was Jewish.

It is also indicated by the fact that the word in Titus 1:14 is modified by the adjective Ioudaikos, “Jewish” and is also indicated by Paul’s statements in First and Second Timothy (cf. 1 Timothy 1:3-11; 4:1-5; 6:3-5, 20; cf. 2 Timothy 2:16-17, 23).

The gospel is absolute truth since it is inspired by the Holy Spirit as well as rooted in historical events (crucifixion, death and resurrection of Christ) and an historical individual (Jesus of Nazareth) and stands in contrast to the myths propagated by the Judaizers.

Therefore, in Second Timothy 4:4, the apostle Paul asserts that apostate Christians living during the church age will be turned away from the truth, the gospel because of these Jewish myths.

Paul’s statements in First Timothy, Second Timothy and Titus all make clear that this was taking place when Paul wrote Second Timothy.