Daily Bread
2 Timothy 4
1In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3For 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. 4They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
Observation: Again we get a “bird’s eye” view of the personal mentoring Paul gives young Timothy. In the verses following verse 5, we see that Paul is not asking Timothy to do anything he himself was not prepared to do. Anytime we want to lead/mentor someone we can never take them beyond where we would be willing to go.
In this final statement to his young “mentee”, Paul urges Timothy to “Preach the Word”. So often the word “preach” also has negative connotations. Do you see that so many Important words in the Christian faith have taken on so many negative connotations from the world’s perspective (ie. repent, discipleship, born again, obedience, salvation). It is probably no accident that these words are scoffed at by the world as religious dogma, when in fact they are thing that bible repeatedly uplifts as the key walking with Jesus.
We often hear it said today, “Don’t preach at me”. Unfortunately preaching has become synonymous with condemning others. But in fact preaching is the proclamation of the Good News. The primary message in our preaching is that God loves sinners, of which I am the biggest. Our message far from being condemning should be the most liberating message of all, because it frees us up to be the people we were created to be.
And yes, repentance, obedience, discipleship, and being born again are all a part of that process. But it is a beautiful process of reclaiming what was once lost but is now found! Preaching is proclaiming the Word, which is Jesus. Jesus is the Word made flesh. So it could just be said preach Jesus!
Application: Do you surround yourself with people who tell you what you want to hear or are there people in your life who will speak the truth in love no matter what. It is easy to surround yourself with “yes” people, while fooling yourself. The bottom line is that man looks at the outside, but God looks at the heart. The ultimate judgment will not be what others think of us, but how we have handled God’s truth.
This is a personal challenge for those of us who are sensitive and don’t want to offend others. But as Paul talks about preaching through correcting, rebuking and encouraging he also says to do it with great patience and careful instruction. It would be easy for some to take this as a license for being critical and condemning of others, that is the other pit to avoid.
That is why it is important to preach the Word, meaning Jesus. As we preach Jesus He will convict others of their sin and help them to turn to Him for the grace and mercy they need. God’s Word has the power to turn people from being turned inward to a place of repentance and acceptance of God’s forgiveness.
This passage has great relevance for our church today in North America. Sometimes we are more interested in the ABC’s (Attendance, Buildings and Cash) than making disciples, who make disciples who make disciples. The ABC’s are not necessarily indications of faithfulness to God’s Word, though we do know God’s Word will always accomplish what it is set to do and cause the church to grow qualitatively and quantitatively.
Prayer: Gracious God we thank you for Your Word which draws us into Your presence, and changes us from the inside out! Help us to be people of Your Word who long to hear it and obey it and pass it on to others. We pray for pastors and leaders of the church that we would worry less about what others think about us and more about what you think of us. In a world that has jettisoned truth in favor cultural relativism, help us to cling to the sound doctrine you have passed down to us through the faith in Jesus Christ the author and perfector of our faith, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
1In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3For 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. 4They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
Observation: Again we get a “bird’s eye” view of the personal mentoring Paul gives young Timothy. In the verses following verse 5, we see that Paul is not asking Timothy to do anything he himself was not prepared to do. Anytime we want to lead/mentor someone we can never take them beyond where we would be willing to go.
In this final statement to his young “mentee”, Paul urges Timothy to “Preach the Word”. So often the word “preach” also has negative connotations. Do you see that so many Important words in the Christian faith have taken on so many negative connotations from the world’s perspective (ie. repent, discipleship, born again, obedience, salvation). It is probably no accident that these words are scoffed at by the world as religious dogma, when in fact they are thing that bible repeatedly uplifts as the key walking with Jesus.
We often hear it said today, “Don’t preach at me”. Unfortunately preaching has become synonymous with condemning others. But in fact preaching is the proclamation of the Good News. The primary message in our preaching is that God loves sinners, of which I am the biggest. Our message far from being condemning should be the most liberating message of all, because it frees us up to be the people we were created to be.
And yes, repentance, obedience, discipleship, and being born again are all a part of that process. But it is a beautiful process of reclaiming what was once lost but is now found! Preaching is proclaiming the Word, which is Jesus. Jesus is the Word made flesh. So it could just be said preach Jesus!
Application: Do you surround yourself with people who tell you what you want to hear or are there people in your life who will speak the truth in love no matter what. It is easy to surround yourself with “yes” people, while fooling yourself. The bottom line is that man looks at the outside, but God looks at the heart. The ultimate judgment will not be what others think of us, but how we have handled God’s truth.
This is a personal challenge for those of us who are sensitive and don’t want to offend others. But as Paul talks about preaching through correcting, rebuking and encouraging he also says to do it with great patience and careful instruction. It would be easy for some to take this as a license for being critical and condemning of others, that is the other pit to avoid.
That is why it is important to preach the Word, meaning Jesus. As we preach Jesus He will convict others of their sin and help them to turn to Him for the grace and mercy they need. God’s Word has the power to turn people from being turned inward to a place of repentance and acceptance of God’s forgiveness.
This passage has great relevance for our church today in North America. Sometimes we are more interested in the ABC’s (Attendance, Buildings and Cash) than making disciples, who make disciples who make disciples. The ABC’s are not necessarily indications of faithfulness to God’s Word, though we do know God’s Word will always accomplish what it is set to do and cause the church to grow qualitatively and quantitatively.
Prayer: Gracious God we thank you for Your Word which draws us into Your presence, and changes us from the inside out! Help us to be people of Your Word who long to hear it and obey it and pass it on to others. We pray for pastors and leaders of the church that we would worry less about what others think about us and more about what you think of us. In a world that has jettisoned truth in favor cultural relativism, help us to cling to the sound doctrine you have passed down to us through the faith in Jesus Christ the author and perfector of our faith, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
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