How to Prevent Ear Tickling

There is a thread in 2 Timothy that I saw for the first time this morning.  Look at 2 Timothy 3:2 and 2 Timothy 4:3 – 4.  The theme seems to be the self contentedness of those who are in the Church but who are not truly following Christ.

Paul warns Timothy that they are:

• Lovers of self
• Do not endure sound doctrine
• Want their ears tickled
• They want their spiritual experience to be for themselves rather than for Christ
• They want teachers who tell them what they want to hear
• They turn away from truth to myth

This is an indictment worthy of close scrutiny.  I see vestiges of some of those points in my attitude.  I want to hear message with which I agree.  It seems that as believers that we have to be careful not to mistake our preconceived ideas about truth with what the Bible really says.  We have to be careful not to base who we choose to follow as a teacher based on whether or not we agree with him, rather we should be like the Bereans in Acts 17:11.  We should see if what is being said agrees with what scripture says, even if we like what we hear.  If the Body were to do that, the market for ear ticklers would shrink substantially.