Preaching to itchy ears

“For the time will come when men 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 (NIV)

A man was once complaining to me about preachers he called “ear-ticklers.” He specified a couple of popular radio preachers whom he believed were afraid to offend their listeners. He was oblivious to the irony of the fact that they offended him.

There were certain sins that were particularly offensive to him and he liked to hear preachers let those people have it. He did not consider that he was having his own ears tickled.

He was like the Sunday school teacher who, after teaching a lesson about the Pharisee and the tax collector, prayed, “Lord, we thank you that we are not like the Pharisee.”

As sermon listeners we can become blinded to our own self righteous. If we are not challenged by the preacher, maybe our ears are being tickled. Or, maybe, we’re not listening.

There was a preacher who targeted all his sermons at one very self-righteous man. Each Sunday the man would shake the preachers hand and say, “You sure let them have it today.”

The preacher was at a loss as to how to get through to the man. He had done everything but call him by name. One Sunday, a terrible storm kept everyone away, except this man who had never missed church a day in his life. The preacher had him!

He rebuked and admonished working up a sweat as the thunder punctuated his sentences and the gloom added to the drama. The man sat there in rapt attention nodding in agreement. At the end he shook the preachers hand and said, “Best sermon ever. I wished they would have been here to hear it.”

Pray for your preacher to bring the Word of God and sound doctrine. Listen, God may be speaking to you. Act when the Spirit stirs you.

Sucker punches disguised as questions

Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself.
Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes
Proverbs 26:4-5

I have been told that there are no stupid questions but I have learned that there are trick questions. Jesus was asked trick questions by people who wanted to trap him into making a controversial statement about such things as taxes (Matthew 22:15-22). Some questions were silly arguments about wives in heaven (Matthew 22:25) or what kind of divorce is permitted (Matthew 19:1-10).

Jesus refused to be pulled into a trap. He declined to answer the questions directly and instead elevated the conversation to matters of greater importance or exposed the petitioner’s hidden motives.

Wise Christ-followers need to use discernment when answering unexpected questions. A sincere question seeks knowledge. If your answer leads to an argument, you stepped into a trap. Such questions are unkind and rude to say the least. Their purpose is to make the other person look silly, stupid or wrong.

I have learned to step away from such traps and let the trickster have the last word. It is of no value to me nor will it advance the Kingdom to enter into foolish controversies (Titus 3:9).

So, do you answer a fool or not?

Like Jesus, we can ask questions of our own to clarify or steer the conversation to higher ground. There are no stupid questions from a sincere speaker but the argumentative, self-satisfied fool with all the answers ought not to be answered “or you will be like him yourself.”