4:1 I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 4:2 Preach the message, 1 be ready 2 whether it is convenient or not, 3 reprove, rebuke, exhort 4 with complete patience and instruction. 4:3 For there will be a time when people 5 will not tolerate sound teaching. Instead, following their own desires, 6 they will accumulate teachers for themselves, because they have an insatiable curiosity to hear new things. 7 4:4 And they will turn away from hearing the truth, but on the other hand they will turn aside to myths. 8
1 tn Or “the word.”
2 tn Or “be persistent.”
3 tn Grk “in season, out of season.”
4 tn Or “encourage.”
5 tn Grk “they”; the referent (the people in that future time) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
6 tn Grk “in accord with.”
7 tn Grk “having an itching in regard to hearing,” “having itching ears.”
8 sn These myths were legendary tales characteristic of the false teachers in Ephesus and Crete. See parallels in 1 Tim 1:4; 4:7; and Titus 1:14.