May 28, 2015

“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 likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths.”
2 Timothy 4:3-4

“In all the mess of modern thoughtlessness, that still calls itself modern thought, there is perhaps nothing so stupendously stupid as the common saying “Religion can never depend on minute disputes about doctrine.” It is like saying that life can never depend on minute disputes about medicine.” It is a fact that many a man would be dead today, if his doctors had not debated fine shades about doctoring.”
G. K. Chesterton (1874 – 1936) “For All The Saints” volume II (p. 27-28)

Clarke’s Commentary on 2 Timothy 4:3

“For the time will come – There is a time coming to the Church when men will not hear the practical truths of the Gospel, when they will prefer speculative opinions, which either do no good to the soul, or corrupt and destroy it, to that wholesome doctrine of “deny thyself, take up thy cross and follow me,” which Jesus Christ has left in his Church. But after their own lusts – For these they will follow, and hate those preachers and that doctrine by which they are opposed.”

In the times that we face now in the church, we are inundated with different opinions and different translations of scripture and what it might mean for us as we try to live in this world. The “…time to come” is now – and I think there is more confusion within the believers and followers of Jesus than ever. l sit and listen to my colleagues argue interpretation of scripture, and I see the anguish on the faces of lay people wanting to find some sense of understanding, and my heart sinks on a regular basis — because I am just as confused on some days. It is no wonder then that people “…heap to themselves teachers to suit their likings”. Clarke goes on to say – “They will add one teacher to another, run and gad about after all, to find out those who insist not on the necessity of bearing the cross, of being crucified to the world, and of having the mind that was in Jesus. In this disposition interested men often find their account; they set up for teachers, “and widen and strew with flowers the way, down to eternal ruin,” taking care to soothe the passions and flatter the vices of a trifling, superficial people.”

The inclination of the human mind is “…to have itching ears”. I don’t know what the answer is for the terrible case of “itching ears” except this – that we continue to pray upon and discern the way that the Holy Spirit may guide us in community – rather than dividing ourselves off or going our own way. It will be together that we find the “truth of the gospel” – through the Word of Scripture and guided by the Holy Spirit.

Pastor Dave