Weekly devotional: Preach the word (13 in Paul’s letters to Timothy series)

12 Nov 2018

Raphael Study for St Paul Preaching in Athens

In 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: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather round them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry (2 Timothy 4:1–5).

As we come to the end of Paul’s letter, he lays out his final commands to Timothy, underlining their importance as he calls upon the Father and Son as his witnesses. His exhortations reflect his understanding that Timothy in his ministry will again encounter false teaching – he is to preach, be prepared, correct, rebuke, encourage. As we saw earlier, Timothy should do this with love – with great patience.

“Keep your head,” Paul says. A simple charge, but one we all should heed, for when we lose our cool, we can descend into words we shouldn’t speak and actions we should avoid. Anger can turn into bitterness and rage as we lose our self-control, which can quickly negate our good work of sharing the gospel. I think with shame of the times when I have lost my cool.

Instead, taking Paul’s advice, we can be prepared “in season and out,” training ourselves with the help of the Holy Spirit to exercise self-control in times of ease and abundance, so that later in moments or seasons of stress and hardship, our character reflects Christ.

My prayer is that we would be given great patience, and great love.