Albert Barnes Commentary 2 Timothy 4:3

"For the time will come when they will not endure the sound doctrine; but, having itching ears, will heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts;" — 2 Timothy 4:3 (ASV)

For the time will come, and so on. This probably refers to the time mentioned in 2 Timothy 3:1 and following.

When they will not endure sound doctrine. In Greek, healthful doctrine; that is, doctrine contributing to the health of the soul, or to salvation. At that time they would seek a kind of instruction more agreeable to their wishes and feelings.

But after their own lusts. They will seek such preaching as will accord with their carnal desires, or such as will palliate their evil propensities and deal gently with their vices. Compare to Isaiah 30:10: Speak unto us smooth things; prophesy deceits.

Shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears. The word translated heap—episwreuw—does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament. It means to heap up upon, to accumulate, and here to multiply.

The word translated itching—knhyw—also occurs only in this place in the New Testament. It means to rub, to scratch, and then to tickle, and here, to feel an itching for something pleasing or gratifying.

The image is derived from the desire we have, when there is an itching sensation, to have it rubbed or scratched. Such an uneasiness would these persons have: a desire for some kind of instruction that would allay their restless and uneasy desires, or would gratify them. In explanation of this passage, we may observe the following:

1. That there will always be religious teachers of some kind, and that, in proportion as error and sin abound, they will be multiplied. The apostle here says that by turning away from Timothy and from sound instruction, they would not abandon all religious teachers but would rather increase and multiply them.

   Men often declaim strongly against a regular ministry and call it priestcraft; and yet, if they were to get rid of such a ministry, they would by no means escape from all kinds of religious teachers. The deeper the darkness, the grosser the errors, and the more prevalent people's wickedness, the more a certain kind of religious teachers will abound, and the more it will cost to support them.

   Italy and Spain swarm with priests, and in every non-Christian nation, they constitute a very numerous class of the population. The cheapest ministry on earth is a well-educated Protestant clergy, and if society wishes to free itself from swarms of preachers, prophets, and exhorters, it should secure the regular services of an educated and pious ministry.

2. In such classes of persons as the apostle here refers to, there is a restless, uneasy desire to have some kind of preachers. They have itching ears. They will be ready to run after all kinds of public instructors.

   They will be little pleased with any, and this will be one reason why they will have so many. They are fickle, unsettled, and never satisfied.

   A desire to hear the truth and to learn the way of salvation is a good desire. But this can be better gratified by far under the patient and intelligent labor of a single religious teacher than by running after many teachers or by frequent changes. How much would a child learn if he were constantly running from one school to another?

3. Such persons would have teachers according to their own lusts; that is, their own tastes or wishes. They would have those who would coincide with their whims, who would foster every vagary that might enter their imagination, who would countenance every wild project for doing good, who would be the advocates of the errors they held, and who would be afraid to rebuke their faults.

   These are the principles on which many persons choose their religious teachers.

   The true principle should be to select those who will faithfully declare the truth and who will not shrink from exposing and denouncing sin, wherever it may be found.

{*} "Lusts" can be understood as "desires."