Itching Ears Scripture: Bible Verse Meaning & CommentaryLord's Library

Lord’s Library contributor Jared Helms offers views from a branch on the itching ears Scripture with meaning and commentary. Check out Jared’s YouTube channel and two blogs: A Light in the Darkness and Blind Faith Examples, or send him a reader response email. Lord’s Library’s Ministry Leaders Series is a collection of contributed articles written by ministry leaders on key Christian topics.

2 Timothy 4:3: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;”

As you read the verse above, you likely conjured a mental image of an ear tickler. Perhaps a famous televangelist or an infamous cult leader. You might not have pictured the legalistic Bible thumper from the tiny church down the way, or the pulpiteer whose sermons read like doctoral dissertations. The truth is, ear ticklers come in as many shapes as the itching ears they serve. Let’s look at a few examples:

Prosperity Promiser: This one is easy to pick out; they look good and promise you the whole world. As classic rockers Queen said, we want it all. It is appealing when someone offers it all to us.
The Law Giver: The appeal of legalism is in feeling smugly superior. The laws can be practical or academic. You can pull this off by forbidding the dancing, or by holding a third-tier doctrine as essential to salvation. Whatever the law is, there is always a judgmental focus on the lawbreakers.
Entertainer: People like a good show. Entertainment has no strings attached; you come, you take it all in, and you leave. It is all about feelings, the highs of a grand spectacle.
Intellectual Stimulator: We like to feel smart, and it is a very subtle trick to play on that desire while preaching. References, quotes, facts and figures, even anecdotes, give opportunity to drop names, display credentials, and let everyone know this is an academically rigorous exercise. Citation from Ivy League schools and respected secular institutions is a definite red flag.
Self-help Guru: Who doesn’t want to help themselves? Five biblical keys to a better work-life balance, the bible’s way to get in better shape. This is all about what you can do for yourself.
Nostradamus: Knowing the future is cool.
Social Worker: This is all about stroking our sense of altruism while engaging our personal opinions towards a socio-political campaign. It feels like we are really doing some good, and perhaps we are, but that feeling of doing good is the real focus.
Caretaker: This one is as blatant as any. The gentle hand pets, and the soft voice affirms. The caretaker is a professional comforter.

Views From a Branch: What Has Athens to Do with Jerusalem?

…

Itching Ears Scripture

Ear ticklers are not outright heretics. You can tickle all the ears you like and remain Orthodox. Of course, when you are chasing the approval of man, drifting into heresy is a real possibility. What cannot be done is teaching the full counsel of God’s Word. All the things we would want to hear are in the Good Book, but they are accompanied by many things we do not want to hear. The people pleaser either skips the difficult passages entirely, glosses over them, or mangles them.

It doesn’t matter how you do it; the issue is always the same: focusing on our ears, hearing what we want to hear. The focus should be on God’s Word in its fullness, reaching our ears week after week. We are there for what God wants. He wants us to grow up into the fullness of Christ.

It is easy enough to fire off a shot at the man-focused pulpiteers of the world. We can all pick our favorite target out of the lineup and have a grand time taking potshots at them from the comfort of our armchairs. Easy.

Yet, this is not the shot Paul is firing off in this verse. The inspired apostle knows that these men (and women) are only a symptom of the disease.

The trouble with this passage is that it points the finger of blame not at the ear ticklers, but those whose ears are itching. It is our innate desires that raise these false shepherds. Some are very simply shrewd businessmen who see a relatively easy way to earn a living. Others are pressed out of Gospel ministry and into ear-tickling by the fear of man.

Some truly do not know what they are doing, having never seen anything else done. The First kind needs to be rebuked and removed, the second kind needs to be corrected and restored, and the third kind needs to be instructed. The disease is in us. Our desire to have our desires catered to joins with our pride to keep the market for ear ticklers and people pleasers alive and well in the churches.

The cure is to know God; God is there, and He is not silent. He is our Father, as any good father would have prescribed a program of learning and growth for our development. Father knows best. He really does. Like children, we know what we want, what feels good to us, but we are not yet able to fully calculate the outcomes when we have the presence of mind to consider them. I do not mean to be down on us, only to be realistic. God the Father is not someone we ever catch up to; in comparison to Him, it is generous to think of ourselves as children.

As unflattering as the image might be, it is very helpful in silencing our pride and raising our appreciation. It gets us out of our own way so that we can receive what we need through the channels God has established. We still get the promises, the comfort, the intellectual stimulation, and moral guidance, along with future assurance and divine help for life; we even get a bit of entertainment with it all. Now, here is the real crux of the matter: along with all this, we get something else that no ear tickling can deliver:

We get Christ and Him crucified filled with grace and truth. In Christ’s promises are sure, care is meaningful and complete, prophecy is grounded, scholarship is profitable, the law is lovely, and we are rested.

How can you know if you are sitting under an ear tickler? Are you receiving Christ crucified in each message? Is the Lord coming into view through the text of Scripture? Is the full counsel being taught over time? If you answer no, something is off.

What do you do about it? Follow the example of Priscilla and Aquilla when they corrected Apollos. Be careful, make sure you are hearing what you think you are hearing. Give the soul a chance to repent. A consistent lack of faithful preaching and teaching is a valid reason to leave a church. Only we do not want to take church membership lightly, and we do not want to give ourselves excuses to go looking for those particular voices that tickle our fancies.

Lord's Library participates in affiliate programs. We may make a small commission from products purchased through this resource.

Author
Recent Posts

Jared Helms

Jared received his Bachelor of Arts from Bryan College in 2012, and his Masters of Divinity from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2017. He has pastored churches in Kentucky and Tennessee. Most importantly, Jared has walked with Christ most of his life. His interests extend from theology to church history, but he is particularly passionate about ecclesiology and homiletics.