Doctrine and Itching Ears

          It doesn't take too long for crooks and thieves to figure out how to make money from gullible people. If you say the right words that people want to hear, you can probably be sure of getting some financial support from them. A true story was told of a missionary who had the gift of writing a convincing letter and how he needed to acquire a machine to make nails, so he could make a boat in order to reach an island of people who needed to hear the gospel message. He was convincing enough to raise the necessary funds but later investigation revealed that there was a ferry boat to that same island twice a day, seven days a week, while the missionary spent his time supposedly making nails in order to build a boat. I have most recently become aware of one of the missionaries that we supported for over ten years and who was not doing the ministry that we believed he was doing. He had, however, said the right words in order to invoke a desire to give to his ministry. What should our missionaries be doing? What should our church leaders be doing? What should you and I be doing in order to be involved in a ministry to spread the gospel? Second Timothy 4:2-4 says, “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. 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; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”

         Paul gave instruction to Timothy that were important for him in his ministry and that are certainly important for us in any ministry in which we are involved. We are to preach the Word in season and out of season, in other words, we are to preach it all the time. If it is not in the Word, then we should not be doing it nor advocating it in the lives of others. Paul went on to remind us that people in general will not want to hear sound doctrine but would rather hear something that satisfies their “itching ears” and to be more ready to accept fables than sound teaching. Satan has used three avenues for temptation from the Garden of Eden, the temptation of Christ in the wilderness and even today in the lives of believers. They are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. It works for him and it still works today. Your sins can be traced back to these three avenues. It was true in the life Achan. He saw it, he desired it and the took it. Remember always the attitude of the people at the church in Berea where they searched the Scriptures daily as to what Paul told them. They compared his teachings to the Word of God. We should be doing the same and we are never too old to keep on doing that very thing. We used to have a lot of vinyl records many years ago and when they got a scratch on them, they would often get stuck and then keep playing the same two or three bars of music over and over again. Sometimes, the preaching of the Gospel may seem to some as a broken record. We keep saying the same thing over and over and over again. The truth however is in the Word of God and only in the Word of God. When we try to replace it with things to satisfy itching ears, we deviate from the truth of the Bible. Don't depend on a display of emotions, but depend on what God has said in His Word. Praise God for His Word today.