Preach the Word

Day 298: 2 Timothy 4:1-22

“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” - 2 Timothy 4:1-2 ESV

Have you watched any videos or listened to any podcasts from The Bible Project? If not, you might find their content helpful. Something they have been saying lately that I thought was profound is that "God will give us what we want." If we want to be close to Him, doing things His way, He will give us abundant life. If we want to go the way of the crowd, refusing to do things His way, He will let us do that.

Paul is encouraging Timothy to be ready, at all times, to share the word of God. The reason? Some need to be saved from eternal death, and some need to grow into a more mature faith in Jesus.

We can do this by 1) Patiently Correcting, 2) Rebuking, and 3) Encouraging.

Telling people the truth is the best gift we could ever give them. Yet the majority will not appreciate this, though they need it.

Polycarp, one of our early Church Fathers (AD 65 to AD 155), encouraged himself and those in Philippi to "let us leave behind the worthless speculation of the crowd."

May we make the intentional move from speculation to concrete truth from Jesus.

One last thing to note is that I don't think we have to divorce kindness from the delivery of truth. It is so important for those we are sharing the truth with to know how much we love them. Mutual respect and care go such a long way.