Free Bible Commentary
“2 Timothy 4:1-5”
Categories: 2 Timothy“I solemnly 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, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”
---End of Scripture verses---
“Be ready in season and out of season” (verse 2). Teach people the truth whether they want to hear it or not. They desperately need it whether they realize it or not. Sometimes people will get fed up with what they consider to be continual “nagging”. But sometimes persistence pays off! You never know when the truth that you speak will hit the target and catch a person at the right time, with the right message and the right spiritual need.
“Reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction” (verse 2). Paul had just told Timothy that “all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness” (3:16). Now he is telling his young protégé to use the word for what God gave it to us for. Just in case you may not have noticed, reproof, rebuke and correction are “negative” commandments.
To reprove is to “reprehend severely.” To rebuke is to “admonish or charge sharply.” To correct is to take corrective action against the behavior that needs reproving and rebuking. There most certainly is a prominent place for positive and uplifting messages in pulpits of the Lord’s church. But if all you hear are cute stories, quaint anecdotes, feel-good messages and personal improvement pitches, that preacher does not “preach the word.”
The main reason that God gave us the Bible is to address our greatest problem: SIN! “Sound doctrine” (verse 3) always addresses mankind’s greatest needs and concerns. We do not need to feel better about ourselves and have our self-esteem built up. The truth is that we are all sinners and we need to change our erring ways! We do not need our “ears tickled.” We need our backsides spanked and our toes crunched!
Please do not misunderstand. Neither I nor Paul is advocating being mean to people with God’s word about their sins. We can and MUST reprove, rebuke and correct “with great patience and instruction” (verse 2). We can tell people hard truths without being hard-nosed. When all is said and done, we need to get out of the way of God’s word and let it do the toe crunching. It is more than capable of convicting people of their sins. We just have to make sure that people get the chance to hear it!
Please read 2 Timothy 4:6-8 for tomorrow.
Blessings!
- Louie Taylor
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