I recently saw another quote from my favorite educator, Dr. Thomas Sowell that I found interesting and true. “If you want to help someone, you tell them the truth. If you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.” It reminded me of what the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy. “For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear.” (2 Timothy 4:3)
Looking around us today, we might easily think that the time Paul wrote about is here and now. I told someone the truth about something that happened years ago that I personally witnessed and he preferred to believe a lie about it someone else told him. It bothers me when people rewrite history while I’m still living it and people would rather believe the lie than the truth. I have friends who attend a church regularly and believe they are worshipping God but what they are being taught is not God’s word or His truth. They concentrate on God’s love, but ignore His righteous judgement. It leaves them free to also follow political or social ideals that directly conflict with God’s full word. They love the story of Jesus saving the woman caught in adultery by saying, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone,” but they stop there and ignore what He told that woman when she told Jesus there was no one left to accuse her. “Then neither do I. Go and sin no more.” (See John 8:1-11) The enemy loves to cherry pick scripture and present only what itching ears want to hear.
But is today any different than the past? I’m sure Timothy eventually saw teachers in his day that told people half-truths and lies that they wanted to hear in order to build a large following.. I remember seeing a cartoon years ago that showed two desks with a man sitting behind each of them. A sign over one read, “Comforting Lies” and there was a long line in front of that one. The sign over the other one read, “Unvarnished Truth” and no one was in front of that one. Even more than six hundred years before Paul wrote to Timothy, Jeremiah wrote these words, “To whom can I give warning? Who will listen when I speak? Their ears are closed, and they cannot hear. They scorn the word of the Lord. They don’t want to listen at all.” (Jeremiah 6:10)
As Christians, we follow Jesus, who is the way, truth and life. We have God’s Spirit of truth within us and it is our duty to share God’s truth; not only with our lips, but also with our lives. As Dr. Sowell put it, if you want to help someone tell them the truth. Sadly, not everyone will be able to recognize or handle the full truth. Not everyone who heard Jesus followed Him. But we are called to cast His light into this dark world.