How many times have you heard someone tell you that they love God's Word? I can tell you that I haven't heard it much. Yet, we're told that true followers WILL love it.. "My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes" (Psalms 119:48). "O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day" (Psalms 119:97). "I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love" (Psalms 119:113). A love of God's Word is an important part of being a follower of Jesus. But rarely today do we hear anyone proclaiming their love for it. In fact, we hear more people complaining about God's Word instead of praising it, especially when it comes to it being preached.
People of today are perfect examples of II Timothy 4:3-4 - "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; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." Instead of insisting that preachers stick to God's Word and proclaim His message, people are demanding that preachers entertain them and make them feel good. People today no longer love hearing God's Word taught; they only want to hear that what they're doing is okay.
Likewise, in II Timothy 3:1-5, we read, "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away." Many people today, who hate hearing God's Word, fit perfectly into these categories. They reject God's Word, choosing to love pleasure more than God, and have, what Paul says in verse 5, "a form of godliness". They don't have true Godliness, just a form of it. They don't have the truth, because they don't want the truth. They only want what they think is the truth. They want someone to tell them exactly what they want to hear, not what they need to hear.
Paul, in Romans 10:15, tells us how we should view people who are willing to boldly proclaim God's Word: "And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!" Being a preacher is something to aspire to, like an elder. Those who preach God's Word should be respected, honored, and loved for what they're doing. But, sadly, people won't respect those that preach God's Word. They'll call them names, they'll make fun of them, they'll even go so far as to threaten them in order to silence them. But true Christians will love hearing God's Word preached.
So, now, I ask you, the reader, where do you stand? Do you love hearing God's Word preached or do you despise it? Are you one who hungers and thirsts after God's Word or do you hunger and thirst for another message? The choice is clear: the true follower will desire hearing God's Word, even though it may be difficult at times, over any man-made message, no matter how pleasing to the ears. My friend, I hope you make the correct choice in your life.
