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| “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.” |
| —2 Timothy 4:3 |
Most people do not want to hear bad or unpleasant news. That’s why so many of our news outlets, particularly on network broadcast television, have shunned hard news stories in favor of fluffy, feel-good tales that will make the viewing audience smile in a self-satisfied way. “See,” the viewers say to themselves, “things aren’t so bad, after all. We’re really nice people doing good things to make everyone happy.”
Of late, of course, someone has come onto the political stage who so many people fear that they have steeped the news in hostile hyperbole. Please understand, I’m not a fan of politicians. I think it takes a particularly self-aggrandizing personality to seek political office. Oh, I’m sure there may be an occasional exception to the rule. Generally, politicians have to be willing to do whatever it takes to get elected and stay elected. That often does not put the interest of his or her constituents first. Nevertheless, I suspect that the current target of so much negative news is not nearly as bad as many believe, nor as good as others believe.
Even in the pulpit, many pastors today have turned their backs on a whole host of attributes that the Bible uses to help us understand who God is. Instead, they have emphasized God’s love to the near exclusion of all of His other many admirable qualities. While our understanding of God will always be like seeing through a dirt-darkened window, the Bible does give us the picture of Him that He wants us to have. As He has revealed Himself to us, sometimes who He is makes us feel the sheer terror at His holiness. And, at other times, we literally bask in the warmth of His amazingly deep love.
On those rare occasions when a particular pastor does preach a sermon that talks about God’s holiness, His hatred of sin, His willingness to punish those who will not repent, and other such less than happy subjects, congregation members grumble and complain. They did not get their “happy jolt” from the service that they expected. They did not feel better about themselves. They may have even sensed the Holy Spirit convicting them of something in their lives that needs correction. And, they don’t want to do what they know they must do.
So, woe to the pastor who presents the full counsel of God on the matter of who He is and how He wants us to live. There is increasingly little room for a broad spectrum of understanding that God is a perfect balance between holiness, judgment, and wrath on the one side, and His great mercy, grace, and love on the other side.
The Apostle Paul gave a warning to his “son in the faith” Timothy about this very matter, as recorded in 2 Timothy 4:3:
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.
As we begin a new day, we need to ask ourselves: “Do we have itching ears?” Yes, do we want to know God for who He is in all of His complexity? Or, do we want to fashion for ourselves an image of God based on our desire to shut out any of His scary qualities and focus only on those qualities that make us feel good? Those are questions worth asking. The answers give a good picture of where we are in our walk with the One who loves us the most.
God is to be both feared and loved. And, that takes a faith that surpasses a mere feel-good version. True faith recognizes that God is beyond our comprehension. True faith also embraces the reality that, in the Bible, we find plenty of evidence for who God is in all of His complexity. And that, dear ones, is a very good thing. As Richard of Chichester wrote:
Day by day, day by day,
O, dear Lord, three things I pray:
to see thee more clearly,
love thee more dearly,
follow thee more nearly, day by day.
