John Calvin 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 there will be a time. From the very depravity of men, he shows how careful pastors ought to be; for the gospel will soon be extinguished and perish from the remembrance of men if godly teachers do not labor with all their might to defend it. But he means that we must avail ourselves of the opportunity while there is any reverence for Christ; as if one should say that, when a storm is at hand, we must not work carelessly but must hasten with all diligence, because there will not be an equally suitable time afterwards.

When they will not endure sound doctrine. This means that they will not only dislike and despise, but will even hate, sound doctrine; and he calls it “sound (or healthful) doctrine,” with reference to the effect produced, because it actually instructs to godliness. In the next verse, he pronounces the same doctrine to be truth and contrasts it with fables, that is, useless imaginations by which the simplicity of the gospel is corrupted.

1. Let us learn from this that the more extraordinary the eagerness of wicked men to despise the doctrine of Christ, the more zealous godly ministers should be to defend it, and the more strenuous their efforts should be to preserve it intact. Not only so, but they must also, by their diligence, ward off the attacks of Satan.

   If ever this ought to have been done, the great ingratitude of men has now rendered it more than necessary. For those who at first receive the gospel warmly and make a show of some kind of uncommon zeal, afterwards contract dislike, which is soon followed by loathing. Others, from the very outset, either reject it furiously or, contemptuously lending an ear, treat it with mockery. Still others, not enduring the yoke to be laid on their neck, kick at it and, through hatred of holy discipline, become altogether estranged from Christ. What is worse, from being friends, they become open enemies.

   This is far from a good reason for us to be discouraged and give way. Instead, we ought to fight against such monstrous ingratitude and even strive with greater earnestness than if all were gladly embracing Christ offered to them.

2. Having been told that men will so despise and even reject the word of God, we should not be amazed as if it were a new spectacle when we see actually accomplished what the Holy Spirit tells us will happen.

   Indeed, being by nature prone to vanity, it is no new or uncommon thing if we lend an ear more willingly to fables than to truth.

3. The doctrine of the gospel, being plain and humble in its aspect, is unsatisfactory partly to our pride and partly to our curiosity. How few there are who are endowed with spiritual taste, so as to relish newness of life and all that relates to it! Yet Paul foretells some greater impiety of one particular age, against which he urges Timothy to be on his guard early.

Shall heap up to themselves teachers. It is proper to observe the expression heap up, by which he means that the madness of men will be so great that they will not be satisfied with a few deceivers but will desire to have a vast multitude. For, as there is an insatiable longing for those things which are unprofitable and destructive, so the world seeks, on all sides and without end, all the methods that it can contrive and imagine for destroying itself.

The devil always has at hand a sufficiently large number of such teachers as the world desires to have. There has always been a plentiful harvest of wicked men, as there is in the present day; and therefore, Satan never has any lack of ministers to deceive men, just as he never has any lack of the means of deceiving.

Indeed, this monstrous depravity, which almost constantly prevails among men, means they deserve for God and His healthful doctrine to be either rejected or despised by them, and for them to more gladly embrace falsehood. Accordingly, the fact that false teachers frequently abound, and that they sometimes multiply like a nest of hornets, should be ascribed by us to the righteous vengeance of God.

We deserve to be covered and choked by that kind of filth, since the truth of God finds no place in us, or, if it has found entrance, is immediately driven from its possession. And since we are so addicted to fabulous notions, we never think that we have too great a multitude of deceivers. Thus, what an utter abomination of Monks there is in Popery! If one godly pastor were to be supported, instead of ten Monks and as many priests, we would immediately hear nothing else than complaints about the great expense.

The disposition of the world is therefore such that, by “heaping up” with insatiable desire innumerable deceivers, it desires to banish all that belongs to God. Nor is there any other cause of so many errors than that men, of their own accord, choose to be deceived rather than to be properly instructed.

That is the reason why Paul adds the expression itching ears. When he wishes to assign a cause for so great an evil, he makes use of an elegant metaphor. By this, he means that the world will have ears so refined and so excessively desirous of novelty that it will collect for itself various instructors and will be incessantly carried away by new inventions. The only remedy for this vice is for believers to be instructed to adhere closely to the pure doctrine of the gospel.