Itching ears

2 Timothy 4:3-4:  For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, 4and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.


  I can't help but be amazed by the term 'itching ears'.  How appropriate it probably is for modern society--it seems like such a common thing for people to gravitate towards those who will tell us what we want to hear.  The sharp corners of discipleship and rebuke are spurned for the easy, sweet honeyed words of the prosperity gospel, the lie God wants us all to be rich, fat and happy.  It's easy to hear such words.

  But it isn't the truth I read about in the Gospels.

  I don't think Jesus came to make life easier and more comfortable for us.  I believe Jesus came to offer us the abundant life, but he calls us to find it through a walk of discipleship that demands effort, that demands sacrifice, that demands tough choices.  He calls us to listen to tough words and examine ourselves honestly, humbly.  We're not always going to like the tough message of the Gospels, but the words are there to help us grow, to give us life, to point us to Christ.  Being faithful isn't always going to be easy or fun or entertaining, but it's what is right, and it leads to life.

  But discipleship may not scratch one's ears like a simpler message will.

  So what's your choice going to be?