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. (2 Tim 4:1-2)Now, of course, if the Bible is not a book about God's will for our lives, then this has nothing to say. I, of course, operate from the premise that it is. And here Paul is instructing Timothy to show more grace in his speech. No ... wait ... that's not what he says at all. With God as his witness, he charges Timothy to "preach the word." What word? Well, the unfortunate chapter break between 2 Timothy 3 and 4 might obscure that. What word?
In the previous chapter Paul was warning that difficult times were coming (2 Tim 3:1). Rampant sin (2 Tim 3:2-4), false teachers (2 Tim 3:5-6), those who are "always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." (2 Tim 3:7) Sounds a lot like our day. In contrast, then, Paul tells Timothy, "You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them." (2 Tim 3:14) What word? "the things you have learned and become convinced of." But wait! There's more. It is right here that Paul tells Timothy, "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." (2 Tim 3:16-17) That word. The Word of God, Scripture, as he learned it, not like those who are always learning and never coming to the knowledge of truth.
And how is he to "preach the word"? He is to "be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction." Now, I have to tell you, that does not sound like a command for Timothy to be more gracious. Reprove, rebuke, exhort, and do it with great patience (keep it up).
Why? Why is Paul telling Timothy this? He says why in the next verses. "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 myths1." (2 Tim 4:3-4) Why preach the word ... that word learned from Paul and from his grandmother? Why reprove, rebuke, exhort, and all with great patience? What's the big deal? Because they're not going to like it. Isn't it interesting that Paul does not say they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own line of thinking? No, it's not about reason, Scripture, logic, unity ... any of those things you might think. It's desires. "Tell me what I want to hear so I can do what I want to do." Well, now, that's a little odd, isn't it? Because that sounds like "gracious speech". And Paul considers that a bad thing.
We are the keepers of the good news. This is true. But good news is not good until it is contrasted with the bad news. No one wants bad news. So in order to express the grace of God in sending His Son to save us, we need to tell people the bad news. We need to preach the word -- the word as it has always been understood and taught, the Scriptures as God-breathed -- in season and out of season, with much patience as we reprove, rebuke, and exhort. Not because they'll like it; because they won't. But we still need to do it. Because we're commanded to. Because they need it. Because God can use it.
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1 Isn't it interesting that Paul says they'll "turn aside to myths"? Sure, that means that they buy into lies and myths (like Secular Humanism and ...). But it's interesting because a lot of them have decided that the Bible is littered with myths. That is, they are self-consciously turning in their Bibles to myths.
13 comments:
you have to be careful of what you say, because Doctrine separates. but common experience unites. Duh..
Stan what does it mean " in season and out of season"?
I think it means when it's advantageous or unpleasant, expected or not, appreciated or hated, popular or unpopular. There are times that preaching the word has been a happy experience, when even "fire and brimstone" preaching was expected and wanted, when people wanted to hear it and received it well. In season. Today they don't, and there could even be negative consequences for doing so, even death in places. Out of season.
keep up the good work, for this season is looking to be a little stormy.
i have noted that Doctrine is now considered a bad thing in many mega churches. and i can see how it does cause separation, but isn't that the point. sound doctrine is supposed to separate that the truth from falsehood. and what about common experience? how does that work? i am not even sure what that means. what if a preacher decided to teach sound doctrine at the expense of loosing most of his flock, would that be a problem?
Losing the "flock" to sound teaching would be "out of season" ... which would be the right thing to do, wouldn't it?
And I only wish that ignoring doctrine was the mistake of mega churches. Smaller churches, thinking that "larger flocks" was the thing to do, have adopted the same tactic. "Don't cause division." Which, as you indicate, is the division between truth and falsehood.
So we are not to show more grace? What does it mean to "preach the Word"? What about the portions of the word that tell us to be gracious, gentle, loving...etc? Your point seems to be we should be doing a great deal more rebuking, exhorting, reproving than being gracious. Unfortunately that seems to go against Biblical teaching, so I am confused as to what your point is.
Essentially, the "grace" we're being told to show is "be nice to people and don't say things that make them feel bad." The grace we are supposed to show is tell them the truth and tell them the solution to the problem of sin.
But ... it would appear that you do not believe we should be rebuking, exhorting, reproving, but solely gentle. (I am disputing your definitions of "gracious" and "loving" since I believe it is cruel and unkind, not "gracious" and "loving", to kindly ignore people's sin.) You believe it goes against biblical teaching to preach "repent", to warn against sin and its consequences?
The grace most people seek is that we treat our sin as though it is the worst. We must be careful not to call the specks out of others eyes, ignoring the log in ours. When we do this we do not bring light to people's sin, we bring up their defenses and usually harden them from the truth. The matter of sin and the manner in which we approach it are both important. Rebuking and correcting is not a simple matter of speaking the truth, unless of course you don't care about the person you are speaking to.
So, tell me, Josh. I've never once suggested I'm more spiritual than any other. I've never said I've arrived. If I've ever commented on my own condition, it has been an admission of guilt. Much of what I write I write out of conviction of my own shortcomings rather than others. That is, "I've got this problem and the Bible seems to say I've got to change. How about you?" Beyond that, I have repeatedly said that the reason to speak the truth on these matters is love. Without it, it's pointless. So, is there something in all that in which I'm falling short when I urge believers to "preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction."? On the other hand, is there something in that exhortation from Paul that prevents believers from addressing their own log, from loving, from kindness or grace? You said it's not biblical. I'm wondering in what sense?
When you tell people Paul wasn't telling Timothy to carry grace in his speech, I believe you are wrong. He is telling Timothy to preach the word, and part of the word it to live mercifully and full of grace. The patience that Paul speaks of also is a form of grace. Not grace as you have defined it in the comment section, but grace as properly defined.
I didn't tell people not to include grace in their speech. I'm telling people that what they're being told is "grace" is not grace. "Grace" is not mushy language aimed at making everyone feel nice. It isn't "nice", avoiding saying things that might upset people. It isn't ... but, wait. You say it is not as I've defined it. Clearly you have a different definition. I say it is speaking the truth in love. I say it includes rebuke and reproof. My illustration is that of a parent who takes their baby in for inoculations, knowing it will be painful. Is that loving? Yes. Love and grace do not -- indeed, must not -- exclude pain when pain is necessary. You say it means something else. You don't define "omniscient" as I do and other terms. If my definition of grace is wrong, what is yours?
Would you say that love and grace would minimize pain if possible?
Love and grace would seek only for the best for the one being loved or shown grace.
The question leads me to believe that you understand me to be saying, "Grace beats people over the head."
Grace is a wonderful word. to show unmerited favor. yes i love it. but i believe that word is diluted to 'mean any nice thing we can do.' Grace is just a general expression. when we say that grace means unmerited favor, it only begs the question, in what way? God has shown favor for some by sending his son to die in their sted. yes we may be gracious to others, but now that begs the question 'how can we be gracious to others?" by telling the truth in love. the truth without love is like a doctor with bad bedside manners. love with out truth is like caring for the children in the burning building saying everything is gonna be alright. but if we become confused as to how we should extend our Grace, remember Truth always comes first. once we know the truth the question of how to love comes naturally. consider this; all children come to God by knowing the truth first about God's love. so yes we must be ready in season and out of season to reprove, rebuke and exhort with great patience and instruction.
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