II Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.
It is absolutely incredible what the human body can endure. It seems that there is more the human body can endure than we would have thought fifty years ago. For instance, I remember visiting a church in the Rocky Mountains in Leadville, Colorado several years ago. The town had just finished a race that day called the Leadville 100. This is a race that is 100 miles in length and all at altitude. That is to say 100 miles of running in the mountains at high altitude and low oxygen. It is incredible how many people actually finish these races and how much they can endure.
I am tempted to say that the human body is more apt to endure than the human spirit sometimes. In II Timothy we read much about endurance. Most of it is a matter of the heart, although some of it includes the body as well.
For instance, in II Timothy 2:3 Paul say to Timothy, “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” Later he says, “Therefore I endure all things.” In II Timothy 3:11 he says, “What persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me.” He says that those who “live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” “But,” he says, “Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned.” Just keep at it and continue in those things.
Then he talks about the tendency of people not to endure the truth. Verse 3 says, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.” There is coming a time when people are just not going to put up with and endure the truth. Verse 5 says, “But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.” He draws a contrast between a servant of God who should endure opposition when he gives the truth and those who will not endure the truth.
A truth that we come to, then, is that the more we are willing to endure hardship, the more we are able to understand the truth. Most of us know more than we want to acknowledge that we know because knowing something obligates us to do it.
So many times we have a conscience that comes from belonging to Christ, but we have an ethic that comes from living in the world. When these two things come into conflict we say, “Well, I’m not so sure that the Bible really teaches thus and so.”
Now the Bible should be our guide and judge, yet so many people have watered down their conscience. They are so eager to be accepted and so weary of enduring opposition that they no longer endure the truth. In order to live the life God intends there will be times when we need to endure the opposition that comes from maintaining an open heart to the truth. That which you endure and that to which you surrender say much about who is in control of your life today.