A sermon preached at Covenant Presbyterian Church of Fort Smith, Arkansas on August 16, 2026.
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
I 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: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 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, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. But as for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry (2 Timothy 3:14–4:5).[1]
There are certain words that take on greater weight because we know they are among someone’s last. 2 Timothy is the final letter of the apostle Paul preserved for us in Scripture. He writes from prison, not expecting release but death. In fact, immediately after our passage, Paul will say, “I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come” (4:6). He knows his earthly ministry is nearly finished. The gospel has taken him across the Roman world, but now his race is nearly run. Timothy’s is not.
And so, the older apostle writes to this younger minister with the urgency of a man who knows he will soon be gone. But Paul’s concern is not merely for Timothy, but the church and the gospel entrusted to it. False teachers have arisen. Some have abandoned the faith; others have distorted the truth. Earlier in chapter three, Paul describes those who have “the appearance of godliness” while denying its power (3:5), and he warns that “evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived” (3:13).
Such were the challenges of first-century ministry (which sound remarkably modern). And so, Paul encourages Timothy: “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed” (3:14). Others may abandon the truth, others may distort the faith, but as for you, continue: Be faithful to the gospel entrusted to you. Paul does not tell Timothy that changing times require a changing message. He does not tell him to find something more relevant, more attractive, or more acceptable to the spirit of the age. On the contrary, precisely because the times are difficult, Timothy must remain faithful to what he has already received.
And this makes this passage especially appropriate as we remember our Presbyterian heritage today. Our Scottish Presbyterian forebears lived in a very different time and place from ours. Yet the conviction at the heart of the Scottish Reformation was the same conviction Paul gives Timothy here: The church does not create the Word of God; the church receives the Word of God, submits to the Word of God, and is called to proclaim the Word of God. This is our heritage, not merely something to preserve but something in which to continue.
The Word We Have Received (3:14-17)
Paul begins, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it” (3:14). Timothy is not being told to discover something new but to remain in something old. It is the truth he has known since childhood.In fact, earlier in this letter, Paul recounts the “sincere faith” that first lived in Timothy’s grandmother and mother and now lives in Timothy (1:5). And this, I think, is worthy of reflection. Before Timothy traveled with Paul, before he became a minister of the gospel, before he faced false teachers in Ephesus, a mother and grandmother faithfully taught a little boy the Scriptures. God was preparing a minister of the gospel through a faithful mother and grandmother opening the Word of God to a covenant child.
Parents, grandparents, do not underestimate this. Reading and teaching the Scriptures to your children is a worthy investment of your time that yields far greater benefits than you may ever know. Bringing them Lord’s Day after Lord’s Day to worship, where they hear the Word read and preached, teaches your child how to listen and hear God’s Word. Let us not underestimate the importance of teaching our children the Scriptures, for God works mightily through the ordinary means of his Word.
Timothy had known since childhood the Scriptures that “are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (3:15).Of course, biblical knowledge by itself is not saving faith. You can know the Scriptures and not know the Lord, but God uses the Scriptures to make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. The Scriptures reveal the holiness of God, expose our sin, unfold God’s covenant promises, and so lead us to Christ. Timothy was taught, from Genesis to Malachi, through promise and prophecy, sacrifice and priesthood, covenant and kingdom, the Scriptures were preparing God’s people for him.
And why can Scripture do this? Paul answers: “All Scripture is breathed out by God” (3:16). Human authors wrote according to their vocabulary, personality, historical setting, and circumstances, but by the superintending work of the Holy Spirit, what they wrote is the Word of God. Therefore, the authority of Scripture does not rest upon the wisdom of Moses, the poetry of David, the intellect of Paul, the testimony of the church, or the approval of any council. All Scripture possesses authority because God has spoken; and because it is God-breathed, all Scripture is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (3:16).
Scripture teaches us what is true, reproves us when we believe or live contrary to the truth, corrects us when sin has led us astray, and trains us in righteousness that we may live lives of faithful obedience. There is a completeness to this, isn’t there? The Word teaches the ignorant, rebukes the wandering, restores the fallen, and trains the believer. This is why Paul concludes, “that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (3:17). God has not left his church unequipped but has given us what we need.
We see a beautiful Old Testament picture of this in Nehemiah. After the exile and the return of a remnant to Jerusalem, Ezra stood before the assembled congregation and read the Book of the Law. The Levites then explained what had been read so that the people understood. And what happened? As the Scriptures were read and explained, the people were convicted and wept; then they were encouraged and rejoiced. The Word addressed their minds, convicted their consciences, redirected their lives, and finally produced joy. This is what the Word of God does.
When the Scottish Reformers confessed their faith in 1560, they identified as the first mark of the true church “the true preaching of the word of God.” They understood that the church cannot be healthier than its relationship to the Word of God. And neither can we.
The Word We Must Preach (4:1-2)
Paul now intensifies his language: “I 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: preach the word . . .” (4:1-2a). Paul understands preaching as something done before the face of God. Timothy will stand before a congregation when he preaches, but more importantly, he stands before God. Timothy will be heard by men, but he is accountable to Christ. And Paul reminds him exactly who Christ is: the One “who is to judge the living and the dead,” whose appearing and kingdom are surely coming (4:1b). The approval of the congregation is temporary; the approval of Christ is eternal. Therefore, the preacher cannot finally measure faithfulness by applause, attendance, popularity, influence, or cultural acceptance. He serves before the judgment seat of Christ.
And what does Christ require?Three simple words: “Preach the word.” The verb translated “preach” means to herald or proclaim. In days of kings, a herald did not invent the king’s message; he received it and announced it. His authority lay not in himself but in the message entrusted to him. So it is with the Christian preacher. He stands in the pulpit because God has spoken and has entrusted his Word to the church. Matthew Henry puts it plainly: “It is not their own notions and fancies that they are to preach, but the pure plain word of God.”[2]
To his imperative to “preach,” Paul then adds, “be ready in season and out of season” (4:2). In other words, preach when it is welcomed and when it is resisted. Preach when biblical Christianity seems culturally respectable and when it seems hopelessly out of date. Preach when the congregation is eager and when the congregation is restless. Preach when the truth comforts and when the truth confronts. The season does not determine the message; God does.
But notice also the manner in which Timothy must preach: “reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (4:2b). Preaching reproves by exposing error; it rebukes by confronting sin; and it exhorts by encouraging, comforting, and strengthening. All of which must be done “with complete patience and teaching.” Reproof without patience can become harshness. Exhortation without teaching can become sentimentality. Teaching without application can become mere lecture. But biblical preaching brings truth patiently and pastorally to the whole person.
This reminds us of Paul’s words to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20, when he looked back over his ministry among them and confessed, “I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.” Paul did not select only those portions that were comforting, controversial, or congenial to him. He preached the whole counsel of God, because ‘all Scripture is breathed out by God’ and therefore all of it is worthy to be preached and profitable for us to hear.
We typically think of faithfulness in preaching as entirely the preacher’s responsibility. Certainly, the preacher bears a great responsibility before God, but congregations also bear responsibility for how they hear. Do we willingly hear the Word of God, even when it exposes us? Do we willingly hear the Word of God when it tells us something we would rather not believe? Do we willingly hear the Word when it corrects our politics, our parenting, our sexuality, our use of money, our bitterness, our pride, our ambitions, our habits, our assumptions? Or do we willingly hear God’s Word only insofar as God agrees with us?
As Presbyterians, we have historically understood the Word, and especially its preaching, as one of God’s ordinary means of grace. Our Shorter Catechism says that the Spirit of God makes “the reading, but especially the preaching, of the word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort, through faith, unto salvation.”[3] In other words, God is pleased to use something as ordinary as a man standing in a pulpit with an open Bible to accomplish extraordinary spiritual work. The power is not in the man; it belongs to God, who works by his Spirit through his Word. And because it is the very Word of God, we must remain faithful to hear and heed it.
The Word to Which We Must Remain Faithful (4:3-5)
Paul explains why such faithfulness is necessary: “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching” (4:3a). Notice the problem is not that they cannot understand sound teaching. They will not endure it. The word translated “sound” means healthy or wholesome. Biblical doctrine gives life and health to the church. Yet Paul says a time will come when people will find healthy doctrine intolerable. Why? Because sound doctrine collides with sinful desire.
Paul says, “having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions” (4:3b). The metaphor of ‘itching ears’ suggests a craving to hear what gratifies our sinful passions. Our passions determine our teachers. They do not first ask, “What is true?” They ask, perhaps without realizing it, “What do I want to hear?” And then they find someone willing to say it.
There have always been teachers willing to tell people what they want to hear, but perhaps never has it been easier to “accumulate” them than it is today. If one preacher confronts me, I can find another who will affirm me. If one church insists upon a doctrine I dislike, I can listen to ten voices telling me why I need not believe it. We can curate our teachers according to our preferences until the only voice we hear is our own voice echoed back to us. This is the danger of “itching ears.”
But let us be careful not merely to identify this tendency in other people. Our ears can itch too. There are truths in Scripture we gladly receive and others we would rather soften. There are sins we are eager to hear condemned and others we would prefer the preacher not mention. We can delight when the Bible exposes the idols of our culture while becoming defensive when it exposes the idols of our own hearts. But the mark of a faithful hearer is not that he likes everything God says, but that he wants God to tell him the truth, saying from the heart, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”
Paul says those who listen to suit their own sinful desires will eventually “turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (4:4). Once the truth is rejected, the mind does not remain empty; Paul says it wanders off into myths. But Timothy must not wander with them. And so Paul returns to the contrast with which our passage began: “But as for you . . .” (4:5a). Do you hear the echo?At the beginning of our passage: “But as for you, continue . . .”Now at the end: “But as for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” (4:5).Paul brackets this entire charge by telling Timothy: Do not be governed by what everyone else is doing. Others may wander, “But as for you…”Others may seek teachers who flatter them, “ But as for you…”Others may abandon sound doctrine, “But as for you…” Be sober-minded; keep your head when others are losing theirs. Endure suffering, because faithfulness will sometimes cost something. Do the work of an evangelist; never allow controversy to replace the proclamation of Christ. And fulfill your ministry; finish what Christ has called you to do.
Paul can say this because this is what he has done. In the very next verses, he will say, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (4:7). Now Timothy must keep the faith too.
As your pastor, I cannot read this passage impersonally. The command “preach the word” comes with particular weight to every minister of the gospel. So, please pray for me that I would do this faithfully. Pray that I would preach the whole counsel of God, not shrinking from difficult truths, not chasing novelty, not fearing men, not saying merely what people want to hear, but opening the Scriptures, preaching the Word, and pointing you to Christ.
And I will pray for you too: that you would not develop itching ears; that you would desire sound doctrine even when it corrects you; that you would receive the Word with humility, examine it carefully, believe it sincerely, and obey it faithfully. Our great need is not a new word for a new age. God has spoken; the Word we have received is God-breathed. The Word we must preach is sufficient. And the Word to which we must remain faithful is the Word of grace that makes sinners wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Therefore, Church, receive the Word. Preacher, preach the Word. And until Christ appears and his kingdom is revealed in glory, let us remain faithful to the Word. Amen.
[1] Unless referenced otherwise, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version
(Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2001).
[2] Matthew Henry, Commentary on 2 Timothy 4:1–2, https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/matthew-henry/2Tim.4.1-2Tim.4.22.
[3] The Westminster Shorter Catechism Q. 89, https://opc.org/sc.html
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