A Dangerous Itch to Scratch

(A posting note: The following article has nothing to do with the The Shack, a movie, and book both Jan and I enjoyed immensely for its ability to communicate the heart of God.)

In every period of Church history, there will be seasons in which people move away from sound doctrine. We are in such a season.

Paul wrote about this to Timothy, “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.” II Timothy 4:3

I have always been curious about the words, “itching ears“. My Greek lexicon defines this itching as, “a desire to hear something pleasant.” An unhealthy “itching” is produced when our ears get tickled with a pleasant sounding error that is not the product of sound doctrine.

There is nothing wrong with looking at truth from a different angle. I have been greatly blessed to see truth from another person’s perspective. In all the looking, the truth remained and was not defined away by the tickle of human reasoning. What I believe Paul was saying to Timothy and what is taking place in certain segments of the Church today is the abandonment of doctrines held true throughout the millennia, but are now being abandoned for the pleasant sounds of delusion.

A nervous church is never a healthy church. I write this not to produce insecurity or fear, but as a gentle warning to not discard foundational and historical truth for the latest version of someone’s personal interpretation. A lot of Scripture is unpleasant but true. Be careful about allowing your ears to be tickled to such a degree that you begin to scratch pleasant sounding error thinking it is truth. The itch you feel the need to scratch may be an indicator that you have allowed someone to tickle your ears with something far more dangerous than just a personal opinion or a “fresh new way” of looking at Scripture.