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they will veer off to myths

2 Timothy 4:1-5 (JDV)

2 Timothy 4:1 I seriously warn you before God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge the living and the dead, and because of his appearing and his kingdom:
2 Timothy 4:2 Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; rebuke, correct, and encourage with great patience and teaching
2 Timothy 4:3 because the season will come when people will not tolerate healthy teaching, but according to their own desires, will accumulate teachers for themselves because they are itching to hear what they want to hear.
2 Timothy 4:4 They will turn away from hearing the truth but will veer off to myths.
2 Timothy 4:5 But you, exercise self-control in everything, endure hardship, doing an evangelist’s achievement, accomplish your assistance {διακονία}.

they will veer off to myths

Paul’s warnings to Timothy form a steady drumbeat: difficult seasons are not an anomaly but a certainty. Earlier he described these as hard seasons—moments in history when the moral climate shifts, when the spiritual atmosphere thickens, and when the church finds itself swimming against a cultural current that grows stronger by the year. Now he sharpens the warning. A season is coming when people will no longer tolerate healthy, life‑giving teaching. Instead, driven by their own desires, they will gather teachers who tell them exactly what they want to hear. The problem is not a lack of information but a rejection of truth.

Paul calls these preferred teachings “myths.” A myth is not simply a false story; it is an explanation built on appearances rather than reality. It offers a narrative that feels satisfying, comforting, or empowering, but it does not correspond to what is actually true. Science, by contrast, deals with what can be observed, measured, and verified. Myths deal with what people wish were true.

The danger intensifies when myths are elevated to the status of unquestionable truth. When an unobservable explanation is labeled “science,” when every book and classroom must repeat it, and when dissenting voices must be silenced, the myth becomes a cultural orthodoxy. It no longer functions as an idea to be examined but as a dogma to be enforced. Paul foresaw this dynamic: people will prefer explanations that align with their desires, and they will surround themselves with teachers who reinforce those desires. The result is a society allergic to truth and hostile to correction.

This is not theoretical. It is recognizable. The present age bears the marks of the very season Paul described—an age in which truth is often replaced by narratives shaped by desire, and in which those narratives are defended with remarkable zeal. The pressure to conform is real. The cost of dissent can be high.

Paul’s instruction, however, is not despair but endurance. Timothy is not told to retreat, panic, or compromise. He is told to remain steady: keep a clear mind, endure hardship, and continue the work he was called to do. The presence of myths does not cancel the mission. The hostility toward truth does not negate the truth. The hard season does not change the calling.

The task remains the same: proclaim what is true, live what is true, and trust that God’s Word will outlast every myth.

Lord, give us the courage to continue in spite of the superstition that surrounds us.