“For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine and accurate instruction [that challenges them with God’s truth]; but wanting to have their ears tickled [with something pleasing], they will accumulate for themselves [many] teachers [one after another, chosen] to satisfy their own desires and to support the errors they hold,” 2 Timothy 4:3 AMP
That time when people won’t much care for the simplicity and purity of the gospel is surely upon us. Of such there can be little doubt, like a man standing in a downpour is surely to get wet. But the thing is, Paul isn’t telling Timothy about the unbelieving world. He’s talking about the church. Indeed.
Paul has reminded his protege that he’s to preach in season and out of season. Preach what? The gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the righteousness of God through faith alone. Why must this be a constant refrain? We do well to think on this point because Paul and Timothy may very well be considered the high water mark of gospel preaching and yet the reminder of the basics are always needed, even for them. A man must never tire of the simplest things because sin’s hallmark is confusion and complexity. The beauty of Christ and the depth of the gospel are found at the cross and the empty tomb.
More still, we recall that Paul reminds Timothy of the Judgment Day…of the Lord’s sole ownership of the evaluation of men – our works and our motives. There is coming a Day, the Bible declares, when all will stand before the Judgment seat. And who will be the Judge? Christ alone. There will be, on that Day, no more juries and no more cross examinations. All will be known and be made known when, according to the gospel, Christ will judge the secrets of men’s hearts and actions in full righteousness.
Ah, but we see that, again, this context is the judgment of not the so-called outside world, but the professing church. This is no game, you know. We must resist the sad inertia of life in the fallen world where we’re trained by our times to judge everything according to our temporal fads. The knowledge of Judgment is exactly that which ought to level it all out. The presence of the fact of ultimate accountability is exactly that which is pushed from the mind of secular man. Not only that, but it’s ignored by the immature Christian mind so effectually that they might avoid the mortification of some sin or another. Too many of us have a pet sin and preach a gospel of judgment to the fellow in the next pew and cheap grace to ourselves.
It’s as though we’ve never read that Jesus told us to beware of the log in our own eye when squinting to see the speck in a brother’s. It’s clear that a brother will have a speck, after all. Only the clear and blazing eyes of the Savior are spotless and we should hardly care to notice the millions of specks we see in our brothers’ eyes for the sole reason that we’re warned: by the measure we use it will be applied back to us (Matthew 7:2). This is why Paul brings this up. Christ as Judge and Christ as Savior are the same thing because God is one. The Christian who recognizes Him as Judge will hurry to Him as Savior. The knowledge of sin, truly held, makes a man humble and able to endure.
There’s a story about a convicted felon who had spent many years in prison. After some time, the Governor of his state pardoned him and he was set free. Walking as a free man for the first time in many years, he was lost in the joy of liberty one day when he stepped into a crosswalk. He had the right of way but a speeding driver stopped hard and the horn blew angrily. The driver leaned his head out the window and screamed at the man. He shrugged and smiled and waved apologetically. It was the driver’s fault but the former prisoner could hardly be bothered with such trivia in light of his liberty. What’s a horn and an insult in light of life in prison?
Such it is with all who remember Christ as Judge and Savior too. It’s too easy to see grace as God’s obligation to us, which makes grace not grace. Such turns us into judges.
Sound doctrine and accurate instruction is the righteousness of God imputed by faith to sinners through faith. Sound doctrine is the bringing about the “obedience of faith” (Romans 1:5) for those who come to Christ in humility and repentance. The new life of the Spirit is freedom in Him who saves us. It isn’t the old life of slavery and bondage (Romans 8:15) but liberty in Christ. Do we abolish the law by this new life of faith? By no means! Romans 3:31 tells us precisely that we uphold the law. Sound doctrine is that God hears your prayers, cares about you and will give you the Kingdom because of faith, not works. He is personal and present. Sound doctrine is that He loves us and this inspires us to obey and follow Him; false doctrine is that He loves us because we obey Him.
Thus, sound doctrine is living in obedience to the principle of faith in Jesus (Romans 6:17; 16:26). Christ is the end of the law for righteousness for everyone who believes (Romans 10:4). We must not miss this because so much anemic Christian living, so much depression, so much conflict, internal and external, is caused by trying to assert our own righteousness rather than the righteousness of God received only through faith.
The thing about itching ears and all that is they seek to acquire teaching that doesn’t challenge their inner sense of self-sufficiency. The mark of all false believers and sinners alike is how little they think of their own sins and how much they think of those around them. This makes all things works-based by necessity. All utopian schemes, social and religious, deny the basic reality of God’s righteousness and man’s sin.
Itching ears won’t tolerate any challenge to the throne of self. They don’t want the true and sovereign God so they acquire for themselves teachings about a cosmic-bellhop (self-help and prosperity gospels). They’re legalistic and/or hedonistic; the itching ears are scratched by the lies of hidden gospels and secret messages (i.e., Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons). All cults have that in common. All cults and false philosophies start with the lie that man isn’t dead in sin and, therefore, don’t need a true Savior (Ephesians 2:1-10). This means that itching ears live as though God is a liar (1 John 1:10). It’s simple math really: if God is perfectly righteous, and He is, then man can only be saved through faith. Works are excluded (Romans 3:27). This is the simple line of demarcation between the religion of Jesus Christ and all else.
One cult today preaches that men must call God by a particular name or else. The so-called Sacred Name movement, and all the other false doctrines, will focus on some external work to please God. We may as well say that we must wear a bow-tie and black shoes too. Or that we must be able to remember the words of the hymnal without looking. Crazy and stupid stuff! God’s righteousness is so vast and unapproachable that we see the gift of righteousness by faith alone as the central thing in life when we see it correctly.
What shall our Judgment say of us? Will it be, “John or Mary believed God and it was counted to them as righteousness” (Romans 4:3; Genesis 15:6)? Think on this and follow it through and through and through. See how it changes everything. The life of faith is the true life of love and beauty and the mystery of God alive in our hearts.
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