Initially the gospel is very attractive, offering forgiveness and eternal life.  But soon people understand that if they follow Jesus, they have hard choices to make as they take up their cross each day (Luke 9:23) (that means: dying to their personal desires) so that they can serve their Saviour.  Paul had seen many back-slide away from the gospel into a pattern of religion or philosophy which suited them (1 Timothy 5:15).  There was no shortage of false teachers.  Those travelling philosophers made their money saying what people wanted to hear … but it was not truth from God.
 
The challenge to Timothy was to keep the church in Ephesus from being swamped by the waves of self-centred ideas and false religion which threatened to sweep away new converts.  His job would be hard, and many people would be tempted away from Jesus by false promises of a better life.  Despite all the other religious voices, Timothy must keep on preaching the true gospel, explaining who Jesus is and urging people to repent and be born again.  Without evangelism focussed on the cross of Christ, the church cannot grow, and new converts cannot take up their own crosses to please the Lord and share the good news with others.
 
Today, a million voices on the media and in the public square are entertaining people who are spiritually inquisitive and gullible. If they are not recommending Jesus as Saviour and Lord, they have already abandoned the truth. They enjoy popularity and the money which often follows.  An attractive self-pleasing message will always get a good hearing, but it will not save any souls, because the gospel is all about being forgiven through the blood of Jesus.  He took up His cross and so must we.  

But believers in Jesus must not be shaken.  God’s truth does not disappear when people refuse to obey Him … it remains to disturb their consciences in the hope that they will repent.  If they do not, His truth will accuse them before Jesus on the Final Day.  The church does not fail when it is not popular; it fails the Lord when it seeks the easy way and fails to say ‘no’ to ungodliness (Titus 2:11-14).   Let us encourage our spiritual leaders, and each other, to keep our heads amid so much spiritual confusion; and let us reassess our responsibility for handing on the authentic apostolic gospel, so that we do not fail the Lord.