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.1
Reality check! There will be a day of judgment and there is no escaping the wrath of God for those who rejected his salvation by grace through Jesus Christ.2 To Paul what is most loving than to speak the truth of the gospel. Thus, he compels Christians to preach the word!
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.3
Jesus had described this scenario in his Parable of the Sower—seeds were sown and some seed fell on the path, other seed fell on rocky ground, other seed fell among thorns, and other seeds fell into good soil. And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word and it proves unfruitful. But those that were sown on good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.4
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you and evil unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” . . . . And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.5
In his old age Paul wrote, For I am being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up 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 loved his appearing.6
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”7
Notes:
1. 2 Timothy 4:1-2
2. Ephesians 5:6, 2:8-9
3. 2 Timothy 4:3-5
4. Mark 4:1-9, 13-20
5. Hebrews 3:12-19
6. 2 Timothy 4:6-8
7. Romans 1:16-17
