Doublethink

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:15–17, NIV 1984).

The time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. (2 Timothy 4:3–4, NIV 1984).

“Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously and accepting both of them.” (George Orwell).

My Musings – Believing that “all Scripture is God-breathed,” while simultaneously “[turning] aside to myths” that “our itching ears want to hear” may not be what Orwell had in mind, but it is “doublethink,” nonetheless. Just like double-minded people and the love of God’s law are incompatible. “I hate double-minded men, but I love your law. You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in your word.” (Psalm 119:113-114), NIV 1984).

My Advice – We must love God’s love, even when it is not “what [our] itching ears want to hear.” Otherwise, it would not be “useful for…rebuking [and] correcting…[or] righteousness.” We cannot pick and choose which commands are deemed worthy of obeying and which are acceptable to simply hear what our itching ears want to hear.