Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Timothy 3:4

"traitors, headstrong, puffed up, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God;" — 2 Timothy 3:4 (ASV)

Traitors.—Or, betrayers, probably, as it has been suggested, of their Christian brothers. (Compare to Luke 6:16, where this epithet is used of Judas Iscariot, which also was the traitor; and also Acts 7:52, where Stephen, in his Sanhedrin speech, uses this term “betrayers” of the Jews, of whom—the Just One—you have been now the betrayers. In these days of Timothy, and for many a long year, to inform against the believers in Jesus of Nazareth, to give information of their places of meeting in times of persecution, was often a profitable though a despicable work.

Heady.—Better rendered, headstrong in words, or thoughts, or actions.

Highminded.—Better translated, blinded by pride. (See 1 Timothy 3:6.)

Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.—Men who would make any sacrifice to procure a fleeting pleasure, and who would give nothing up in order to honor the eternal but invisible God. Need the ministers of the Lord wait for the last period preceding the return of Messiah for judgment—when a still more awful iniquity shall reign—for examples of these short-sighted mortals? The sorrowful catalogue began with “love of self,” that unhappy vice which excludes all love for others; it closes with that “love of pleasure” which shuts out all love of God.