2 Timothy 4.3b-Apostate Christianity Will Accumulate Teachers For Themselves Because of Their Sinful Desires Because They Want Their Ears Tickled
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday August 25, 2015
Second Timothy: Second Timothy 4:3b-Apostate Christianity Will Accumulate Teachers For Themselves Because of Their Sinful Desires Because They Want Their Ears Tickled
Lesson # 88
2 Timothy 4:1 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom, 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires. (NASB95)
“But wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires” presents an emphatic contrast with the apostle Paul’s previous statement in Second Timothy 4:3 in which he presents the reason for the five commands he issues Timothy in Second Timothy 4:2.
“They will accumulate for themselves teachers” is composed of the following: (1) dative masculine plural form of the reflexive pronoun heautou (ἑαυτοῦ) “for themselves” (2) third person plural future active indicative form of the verb episōreuō (ἐπισωρεύω), “they will accumulate” (3) accusative masculine plural form of the noun didaskalos (διδάσκαλος), “teachers.”
The verb episōreuō means “to accumulate” in the sense of increasing the number of something indicating that unfaithful Christians living during the church age will “accumulate” teachers.
The reflexive pronoun heautou is in the plural and refers to an unidentified number of Christians living during the church age and emphasizes the action of unfaithful Christians accumulating teachers in accordance with their own sinful desires.
The noun didaskalos is in the plural and means “teachers” referring to those who give instruction.
“In accordance to their own desires” is composed of the following: (1) preposition kata (κατά), “in accordance to” (2) accusative feminine plural form of the adjective idios (ἴδιος), “His own” (3) articular accusative feminine plural form of the noun epithumia (ἐπιθυμία), “desires.”
The noun epithumia is in the plural and refers to the various lust patterns of the sin nature and is the object of the preposition kata which is a marker of cause indicating that these unfaithful Christians will accumulate for themselves teachers “because of” their own sinful desires or sinful lusts.
“Wanting to have their ears tickled” is composed of the following: (1) nominative masculine plural present passive participle form of the verb knēthō (κνήθω), “to have tickled” (2) articular accusative feminine singular form of the noun akoē (ἀκοή), “their ears.”
The verb knēthō means “to have one’s ears tickled or scratched by what is heard” and here in Second Timothy 4:3, the word speaks of a curiosity that looks for interesting and juicy bits of information.
The participle form of this verb knēthō is a participle of cause which expresses the reason why these unfaithful Christians accumulate teachers for themselves because of their own sinful desires.
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 publically 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 exist in the state of having an insatiable curiosity to hear new and sensational things. (Author’s translation)
Now, in Second Timothy 4:3, Paul presents an emphatic contrast between Christians tolerating sound doctrine and their accumulating teachers for themselves because of their own desires because they want to have their ears tickled.
In other words, the emphatic contrast is between the church being faithful to sound doctrine and the apostolic teaching and their not being faithful to this teaching.
Those who want their ears tickled and accumulate for themselves teachers because of their own sinful desires is a reference to unfaithful Christians living during the church age since in context Paul is presenting an emphatic contrast between Christians remaining faithful to sound doctrine and those who don’t.
Paul asserts in this adversative clause that these unfaithful Christians living during the church age will as a certainty accumulate teachers for themselves because of their own sinful desires because they have an insatiable desire or curiosity for new and sensational teaching.
At first glance, this assertion like the first one in Second Timothy 4:3 would 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.
The “teachers” who are being accumulated by these unfaithful Christians living during the church age are of course a reference to those who teach false doctrine since Paul is presenting an emphatic contrast between Christians remaining faithful to sound doctrine and those who don’t.
Paul emphasizes in this adversative clause that these unfaithful Christians will accumulate for themselves these false teachers because of their own sinful desires.
These sinful desires is a reference to the various lust patterns of the sin nature and would include such sins as sexual lust, approbation lust, social lust, inordinate ambition resulting in inordinate competition, revenge lust, criminal lust, chemical lust, and pleasure lust.
At the heart of such lusts is the desire to live independently of the will of God, which is the essence of evil.
Paul is emphasizing with Timothy in this adversative clause in Second Timothy 4:3 that these unfaithful Christians will accumulate for themselves false teachers because of their own sinful lusts or desires.
In other words, they will turn to these teachers because their false doctrine will give these unfaithful Christians justification to continue committing sin in certain areas of their lives.
In contrast to this the Spirit through the gospel or the apostolic teaching would convict these Christians of sin in various areas of their lives but they refuse to respond to this conviction.
Having one’s ears tickled is a metaphor which was common in ancient philosophy and debate.
This metaphor of “itching ears” speaks of a curiosity that looks for interesting and juicy or sensational bits of information.
It is relieved by the message of new teachers.
Paul is using the metaphor to describe unfaithful Christians who accumulate teachers for themselves because of their sinful desires.
They do so because they want their ears tickled in the sense that they have an insatiable desire or curiosity to hear new and sensational teachings of the unrepentant apostate pastor-teachers who followed the teaching of the Judaizers.
In other words the metaphor expresses the idea that these unfaithful Christians will turn to the false teachers in Christianity because they only want to hear what they enjoy or will give them gratification.
They don’t want to hear something that would convict them of sin in their lives.
With the advent of television, radio and now the internet, we are seeing like never before in the church’s history, Christians accumulating teachers for themselves because of their own sinful desires because they have an insatiable desires for new and sensational teaching.
One of the manifestations of great apostasy in the church in America is that of many Christians hopping from website to website to listen to some new and sensational subject a pastor might be teaching.
They don’t want to hear the doctrines of justification, sanctification and the Trinity taught or the hypostatic union of Jesus Christ or the Bema Seat or even expositional teaching because they want to hear something that is sensational and entertains them.
They don’t want to sound doctrine and expositional teaching of the Word of God meaning they don’t want to go verse by verse, chapter by chapter and book by book through the Bible since this will convict them of sin in their lives and confront them with regards to their unbiblical priorities in life.
Thus, they turn to sensational subjects which are not sound doctrine but an attempt by apostate pastor-teachers to promote themselves and attract more of an audience.
They don’t care about the spiritual well-being of church but only that they keep up their offerings and attract a large audience to assuage their egos.
Those ministries devoted to expositional teaching are not attracting large crowds because they are not appealing to the narcissism of the people and are not entertaining them with novelty and sensational subjects.
They are not attracting Christians because through their teaching the Spirit is convicting Christians of sin and their unbiblical priorities in life.
The Spirit is confronting them and challenging them.
Those churches who emphasize entertainment in the form of music are attracting large numbers whereas those churches who have music but emphasize expositional teaching are not attracting great numbers. Why?
Christians don’t want sound doctrine they want entertainment instead and thus they fulfill Paul’s prophecy here in Second Timothy 4:3.