The Itching Ears of Contemporary Christianity

“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.” – 2 Timothy 4:3-4
 
Paul’s declaration here to young Timothy is bookended by two major points.  On the one side, Paul instructs Timothy to “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” (2 Timothy 2:2).  This is the duty of the preacher.  Our job is not to excite a congregation.  Our work is not to lead a congregation into some unique direction.  Our duty is the same calling that has been assigned to every preacher since Jesus established His church – “preach the word”.  Any pastor that doesn’t desire to preach the Word of God thoroughly and foundationally really needs to seek another occupation.  He is tarnishing the ministry and hurting his own church.  And yet, the people that have hired such a man bear a large part of the guilt associated with such a ministry. 
 
On the other side, Paul describes his own personal ministry as one that has faithfully carried out the instruction he has given to Timothy.  Paul wrote, “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 2:6-7).  Paul hadn’t wandered off into the “myths” spoken of in our text verse because he had faithfully preached the Word of God wherever he had the opportunity.  This was his life’s ambition and his instruction to those younger preachers that he taught.  Any pastor that isn’t preaching the Word of God as the foundational means by which God saves sinners and instructs His people has missed the main point of his ministry and of this passage.  You simply cannot grow a church without such preaching.  Your membership rolls may grow.  Excitement may grow.  But without the preaching of the Word of God, people are either deceived or lacking spiritual nourishment – or both, depending on the magnitude of the error. 
 
Between these two bookends, we find our text verse.  Understanding the context of Paul’s message to Timothy gives us quite a bit of insight into the error of those congregations that “accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions”.  This passage warned, in Paul’s day, of a time that was to come – a time that has come.  We see it before our eyes today.  No longer do men stand behind the podium and preach Scripture after Scripture after Scripture in it’s own context and in the larger context of the Bible.  This type of preaching doesn’t generally grow mega-churches, you know.  Congregations today generally get a verse or two read during a sermon with the remaining time devoted to stories and fables.  Oddly enough, our generation has come to label (or, more appropriately mislabel) such as preaching while that contextual teaching of the Word only belongs in a Sunday School classroom.  This is wrong.  The enemy has duped us. The preacher of the Word must be “able to teach” (2 Timothy 3:2).  And, this teaching is described for us in Paul’s instruction to Timothy – “preach the word”. 
 
Though the preacher is certainly accountable to God for his ministry (Hebrews 13:17), take note that the church is the causative factor in the text before us.  These assemblies hire these teachers to tell them what they want to believe.  They aren’t interested in “sound teaching”.  Different groups are attracted to various things – some an exciting experience, some a “feel good sermon” without any call to repentance, some a message that approves of their covetous lifestyle.  The list could go on for a while.  No matter the interest, their disdain for “sound teaching” is the root problem.  Because of this, they “accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions”.  That is, they hire preachers that merely tell them what they want to hear.  They have no desire to listen to a man stand in the pulpit and “preach the word”.  They don’t want a man to “reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”  They have the same goal as those described in our text verse – suiting “their own passions”.  They want a preacher to tell them they are approved in whatever they are steeped in.  So, they seek out such a man. 
 
Without the preaching of the Word of God, a congregation “will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”  These “myths” run in various directions.  But they all run away from the same thing – the Word of God.  God’s Word has a positive affect on a people.  The previous chapter tells us, “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.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).  Any congregation that has hired a teacher to suit their own sinful pleasures cannot grow into maturity.  Obviously, in many cases today, the vast majority of the congregation is unregenerate.  In such cases, this is the cause of the desire for such a teacher.  Such is the case of the “health and wealth” movement of today.  But oftentimes, it isn’t nearly as obvious.  Many times, a church merely desires a man in the pulpit to approve them so they feel superior to others.  This too falls under the category of tickling the ears of the congregation.  Or perhaps, a church just wants to hear the “feel good” parts of the Bible without the “convicting” parts.  Same thing wrapped with different paper.  Congregations need foundational, contextual preaching.  As pastors, there is no better way to be assured we do this than through sequential verse-by-verse expository preaching.  Any preacher that refuses to teach through books of the Bible is simply robbing his congregation of the food needed to grow them. 
 
What type of church do you attend?  Have you, as a group, heaped to yourself a leader to simply tell you what you have already decided the truth to be?  Is your desire to go to church, approve the sermon, leave feeling like you’re on cloud nine and move on into the week?  Do you want a preacher that is able to work on your emotions and excitement?  None of these is the duty of the elders of the church.  Our duty is to “preach the word”.  God will use it as He sees fit in the lives of His people.  The preaching of the Word will challenge a congregation’s lifestyles, errors, doctrinal deviations and traditions.  None of us have everything figured out.  The Word of God remains the standard and always will remain the standard.  As long as the pulpit neglects the teaching of the Word of God, congregations will feel confident they are more mature than they truly are.  The lost will feel saved and the saved will feel comfortable.  What our generation needs is men that are willing to preach the Word of God contextually.  This makes for a confident leader and a convicted congregation.  Our generation needs churches that are willing to seek out such men to stand before them week after week.  Without such a man filling the pulpit weekly, a church is simply out of order according to the New Testament pattern. 
 
Is your church merely full of itching ears?  Or do you desire all of the reproving, rebuking and exhorting that comes with faithful Biblical preaching?  Until you find a church with this desire, you cannot grow and you certainly cannot live a life pleasing to God.