Daily Bread 2010 - 2 Timothy 4
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.
6For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. 7I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
Paul realizes that in the end the ultimate judge in any person’s ministry will be God and Christ Jesus. But nonetheless Paul charges Timothy with several key criteria as he continues the work he (Paul) was entrusted to as an apostle of our Lord. Notice the first thing he says is “Preach the Word”. We know this Word is Jesus, the logos of God, who came to lead us back to God.
As we preach Jesus, Paul also mentions correcting, rebuking, and encouraging three other aspects of this same charge. Interestingly, the correcting and rebuking come before the encouraging. Of course part of this was that right away false teachers had crept their way into the Church and were already preaching another gospel. Therefore some of the correcting and rebuking had to do with keeping and protecting sound or pure doctrine.
Part of the heresy was also teachers who led people astray through myths. Part of this had to do with speculations and myths about Old Testament genealogies that later developed into Gnosticism, the earliest major heresy in the church. Paul points out something that every preacher has to deal with. People don’t like be confronted with the truth. It is easy to water down the gospel, even under the guise of the argument, “we need to be relevant so people will listen”. This is a tension that every minister of the Word must pray about and make sure they are faithfully proclaiming the Word, not a substitute, which is designed to get approval ratings.
As Paul finishes off his charge to young Timothy, he recognizes that his journey is coming to its end. In his 30 years of being an apostle, he had completely poured himself out for the sake of the Gospel. He sensed the end was near, so he was laying it all on the line as he finished the race. He knew too there would be a “crown of righteousness” that would never fade way for those who finished well.
Jesus help us to be bold in our proclamation of the truth of Your salvation. Help us to be more concerned with what you think about us the approval of others. Give us courage to rebuke and correct and also encourage those who are discouraged as they run the race of faith. Most of all help us to finish well and keep our eye on the prize, the crown of righteousness that will never fade away. 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.
6For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. 7I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
Paul realizes that in the end the ultimate judge in any person’s ministry will be God and Christ Jesus. But nonetheless Paul charges Timothy with several key criteria as he continues the work he (Paul) was entrusted to as an apostle of our Lord. Notice the first thing he says is “Preach the Word”. We know this Word is Jesus, the logos of God, who came to lead us back to God.
As we preach Jesus, Paul also mentions correcting, rebuking, and encouraging three other aspects of this same charge. Interestingly, the correcting and rebuking come before the encouraging. Of course part of this was that right away false teachers had crept their way into the Church and were already preaching another gospel. Therefore some of the correcting and rebuking had to do with keeping and protecting sound or pure doctrine.
Part of the heresy was also teachers who led people astray through myths. Part of this had to do with speculations and myths about Old Testament genealogies that later developed into Gnosticism, the earliest major heresy in the church. Paul points out something that every preacher has to deal with. People don’t like be confronted with the truth. It is easy to water down the gospel, even under the guise of the argument, “we need to be relevant so people will listen”. This is a tension that every minister of the Word must pray about and make sure they are faithfully proclaiming the Word, not a substitute, which is designed to get approval ratings.
As Paul finishes off his charge to young Timothy, he recognizes that his journey is coming to its end. In his 30 years of being an apostle, he had completely poured himself out for the sake of the Gospel. He sensed the end was near, so he was laying it all on the line as he finished the race. He knew too there would be a “crown of righteousness” that would never fade way for those who finished well.
Jesus help us to be bold in our proclamation of the truth of Your salvation. Help us to be more concerned with what you think about us the approval of others. Give us courage to rebuke and correct and also encourage those who are discouraged as they run the race of faith. Most of all help us to finish well and keep our eye on the prize, the crown of righteousness that will never fade away. Amen.
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