The epistle readings are currently from St Paul’s letters to Timothy.  We are getting toward the end of 2 Timothy – quite possibly the last thing St Paul wrote.  So the tone is urgent and has a sense of final warning about it – Paul knew he did not have long left in this world.  In today’s epistle Paul warns ‘young’ Pastor Timothy against those who have ‘itching ears’ (2 Tim 4:3). That is, those people who ‘accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths’ (2 Tim 4:3b-4a).  We’ve always had a tendency to drift toward only what we want to hear. It might well now be as bad as it’s ever been given you can pretty much find an opinion to agree with yours on almost any topic with only a few clicks through an online search.  God gave us his inspired word for ’teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work’ (2 Tim 3:16-17). There is a profound gift on offer here for the Christian life.  Seems we better take notice of it rather than the next thing that suits our ears just because that’s what we want to hear!  While it sounds dramatic, it is, because no less than salvation is at stake in these matters (see 2 Tim 3:15).  Something to be instructed in, thank God for, confess and pray about!