Of course members in transit may have legitimate reasons for a short stay. This congregation is no halfway-house to me.” However in many circumstances we might need a strong commitment to duration and tenure, in the home, the Christian congregation, the workplace, in government, and so forth.Ī congregation of Christians especially needs members who can say, “I'm not going to leave you any time soon. Of course we do not expect a “till death do us part” commitment in every relationship (but in marriage it is required). May the L ORD do to me his very worst, if anything but death parts you and me.” (Ruth 1:16-17). 17Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. Your people shall be my people, and your God shall be my God. ¶“ 16Please don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from following you, for where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. And listen to Ruth’s lovely commitment to Naomi. What a contrast that attitude is to God’s lovely words to us, "I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5). Any time I could get a whim and flit off. I'm staying here only so long as it suits me. This has a negative effect on those around them, because a drifter says in effect, “You can't rely on me. They never seem to know why, or where to go, but they feel unsettled. We use the term “itchy feet” for people who are never satisfied where they are and have a constant nagging desire to go off elsewhere to greener pastures. Now there's one more spiritual itch to consider. Remember that "godliness with contentment is great gain" (1Timothy 6:6). Money is not evil in itself, but longing for it, having a nagging itch for it, can distract you from godliness and lead to the ruin of your life. Some people, eager for money, have strayed from the faith and stabbed themselves with many sorrows” (1Timothy 6:9-10). 10The love of money is the root of all sorts of evil. They fall into many silly and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and distruction. ¶“ 9People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap. Paul gave Timothy a strong warning about this. In our language, when we say, as a figure of speech, that someone has an “itching palm”, we mean that the person hankers for money, is avaricious and even dishonest. Now let's move on to another common spiritual itch. The teachers are happy to be popular, but the itch, the movement away from the truth, is primarily with the people. It is the people who are gathering the teachers. God’s truth is being preached by faithful teachers, but people’s “ears” itch for someone else who will tell them the myths they want to hear.īy the way, notice in this passage it is not the teachers who are gathering people to teach them error. People become uneasy hearing the truth and want to hear something soothing or distracting. 4People will turn their ears away from the truth and will listen to myths” (2Timothy 4:3-4). ¶“ 3The time will come when people will not bear with wholesome teaching, but will gather teachers to themselves to tell them what their itching ears like to hear. In similar figures of speech we will talk about maladies of the soul using the metaphors of itching ears, hands, and feet. Paul even says in a double metaphor, "May the eyes of your heart be enlightened" (Ephesians 1:8). Since the soul does not have physical form, we use parts of the body as metaphors when talking about our spiritual inward person. You may feel an itch right now just from reading this paragraph! Itching besets us very easily.īut I am concerned about the itches that afflict the soul rather than the skin. There are many causes of itching: sunburn, fungus, chickenpox, allergies, insect bites, and what not. However these are metaphors for itchings of the soul. They are described metaphorically as itching ears, itching palms, and itching feet. But the itches I want to talk about are spiritual itches. Some people have an itch that is severe and very distressing. It may be an itch that goes away with a scratch.