I believe we all have seen this passage in 2nd Timothy. I also suspect that we think that everything happening today is the fulfillment of this prophecy. What we don't realize is that it happened at the end of the first Century. It has progressively gotten worse since then.
Consider what Jesus and His apostles believed, taught, and wrote. Then, compare all that with what you have been taught that "the truth" is. Those two things are disconnected in several areas. Note the last phrase in these 2 Tim 4 verses. If Paul kept the faith, if so, why do people disregard what he wrote?
When people are led to faith in Jesus, they are babes who should start growing. They need someone to give them a foundation. Depending on where they get it, it may not be very accurate. We have had nearly 2000 years for those itchy ears to be scratched. But, Christians should desire to grow, should be examining themselves, and searching the scriptures, and praying that God will validate their discoveries so that they live according to the truth.
Like it or not, there is a big gap between the things Jesus and the Apostles taught and what is believed today. If you have never searched the scriptures, you will probably not be aware.
2 Tim 4:1–7
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom:
>preach the word;
>be ready in season and out of season;
>reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
Note that this passage is in the "past tense." It had already begun when the Apostle Paul wrote this:
1 John 4:1. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
And, for those of us who take seriously the Message that Jesus gave the church of Ephesus, this should be a motivator to reassess what you have accepted as truth.
Rev 2:2–7 I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
Consider what Jesus and His apostles believed, taught, and wrote. Then, compare all that with what you have been taught that "the truth" is. Those two things are disconnected in several areas. Note the last phrase in these 2 Tim 4 verses. If Paul kept the faith, if so, why do people disregard what he wrote?
When people are led to faith in Jesus, they are babes who should start growing. They need someone to give them a foundation. Depending on where they get it, it may not be very accurate. We have had nearly 2000 years for those itchy ears to be scratched. But, Christians should desire to grow, should be examining themselves, and searching the scriptures, and praying that God will validate their discoveries so that they live according to the truth.
Like it or not, there is a big gap between the things Jesus and the Apostles taught and what is believed today. If you have never searched the scriptures, you will probably not be aware.
2 Tim 4:1–7
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom:
>preach the word;
>be ready in season and out of season;
>reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
Note that this passage is in the "past tense." It had already begun when the Apostle Paul wrote this:
1 John 4:1. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
And, for those of us who take seriously the Message that Jesus gave the church of Ephesus, this should be a motivator to reassess what you have accepted as truth.
Rev 2:2–7 I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
