“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;”
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions — Paul prophesies declining receptivity: believers will refuse (anechō) hygiainontes didaskalia (sound teaching), instead seeking teachers accommodating their knēthomenoi (itching) ears and epithymiai (desires). Consumer religion replaces transformative truth.
Church Fathers on 2 Timothy 4:3
Before they grow stiffnecked, preoccupy them all. For this reason he says, “in season, out of season”; do everything, so as to have willing disciples. “But after their own lusts,” he says, “shall they heap to themselves teachers.” Nothing can be more expressive than these words. For by saying “they shall heap to themselves,” he shows the indiscriminate multitude of the teachers, as also by their being elected by their disciples. “They shall heap to themselves teachers,” he…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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