Ear tickling words from undisciplined men
Most people love to hear,
But Holy disciplines they usually resent
And greatly fear.

"Inspire us with only pleasant things,
Or we'll find others to be our underlings.
Reprove! Reprimand! and exhort!
Did Paul say all that?"

"Yes, and Christ's apostle on his hands he never sat."
The art of healthful teaching his apostles taught,
Within Christ's subjecting we are willingly brought.
His teachers are sometimes reproved, but only sigh;

They do not hate his disciplines, or against it lie.
Like a drop to a wave are those he will save.⁽¹⁾
So let's consider the following poems,
And how true servants should behave.

"Preach the word, be at it urgently in favourable season, in troublesome season, reprove, reprimand, exhort, with all long-suffering and [art of] teaching. For there will be a period of time when they will not put up with the healthful teaching, but, in accord with their own desires, they will accumulate teachers for themselves to have their ears tickled; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, whereas they will be turned aside to false stories."
(2 Timothy 4:2-4 NWT).

(1) "The lost out number the saved as a wave exceeds a drop of water". (2 Esdras 9:14,15 The Apocrypha NEB).