Devotional for Thursday Feb 23, 2006: Itching Ears
Greg Laurie Senior Pastor Harvest Christian Fellowship Riverside, Ca
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
When the apostle Paul says a time will come in which people will have "itching ears," it is an interesting phrase. It means "an itch for novelty." Or as another translation puts it, they will be "looking for spicy bits of information."
This is a perfect description of our culture today. So many people are on what seems like a spirituality binge right now, buying into some of the most bizarre, crazy things you have ever heard. Stop by your local bookstore, and you will see books dealing with all sorts of topics, none of them coming from a Christian worldview. People have an itch for novelty. They love spicy and new bits of information today.
But here is the problem. It is happening in the church too. We are being pulled into this as well. We have people in the church today who will believe just about anything that someone says. But we should always be seeking to know what the Bible says.
When the Holy Spirit was poured out on the disciples at Pentecost, the people wondered, "Whatever could this mean?" So Peter told them the scriptural basis for what they were doing. If we cannot say, like Peter, "This is that which was spoken of in Scripture" (see Acts 2:16), then we should not be looking for it.
There must be a scriptural basis for what happens in our lives. If it is not in the Word, then it is not of the Lord.
