Itching Ears

There's a subtle, yet pervasive, epidemic of “itching ears” among evangelicals that many won't acknowledge exists.

Photo by Mark Paton on Unsplash

I read through 2 Timothy during one of my quiet times last week, and a passage jumped out at me.

In it is one of those verses that we apply to other people, but never to ourselves.

In this passage the Apostle Paul exhorted Timothy to be focused on preaching the word, because a time is coming that people will not want to listen.

“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 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 4:1-4, ESV).

In some of the last words the Apostle Paul wrote before his martyrdom, he charged Timothy to preach the word. This certainly applies to future pastors, and all Christians as we share the gospel with our family, friends, coworkers and neighbors.

The stakes are high.

Jesus will return as judge.

It’s a matter of life or death.

And there is a time coming “when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,” (v. 3).

Who among us are the ones with itching ears?

“Certainly not I,” we may say.

These are people who want to behave the way they want to behave or believe the way they want to believe and instead of listening to sound teaching, they’ll find people who will tell them what they want to hear.