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 around 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.
For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store 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 longed for his appearing.
My thoughts -
How often do people turn away because they don't like the message? How often have we killed the prophets, either literally or metaphorically? Paul is giving Timothy what he seems convinced will be the last bit of advice that he will be able to give him in this life. And what does he leave Timothy with? He tells him that people will not put up with "sound doctrine" but he should give it to them anyway.
We don't want to be challenged. We don't want to be corrected. We don't want to be convicted. We don't want to feel bad. We don't want to hear what we do wrong. We don't want to hear about our failings. We want to believe that we are infallible. We want to be the only people who are getting it right. But this is not the case.
Now, you can't just beat everyone down all the time. And that's not what Paul is telling Timothy to do. He says to "correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction". We do need to be encouraged. As much as we need to hear what's wrong we also need to hear what's right. As a parent I sometimes find that I focus too much on what my kids screw up. When I do this they start to tune me out. They just shut down and don't respond well. I can't ignore what they do wrong. Doing so would do them a disservice in that they would not be able to learn and to grow. But if I do not also offer encouragement then I beat them down to the point that they cannot make the behavioural corrections that need to be made. They can't respond.
Life is hard. Parenting is hard. Living as a Christian is hard. Doing ministry is hard. These are not easy tasks that we are called to do. Sometimes things go well and we don't mind the work. Sometimes it seems that everything goes horribly wrong and there's just no point in trying anymore. Paul tells Timothy that he should "keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry". Likewise, in whatever we have been called to do, no matter how we feel at the time or what good it seems to be doing, we should persevere. We should trust God that the work is worth doing and will be rewarded.
We may have a message that people don't want to hear. That doesn't mean that they don't need it. We may have work that doesn't seem to be worth doing, that doesn't mean that it's worthless. We are called to, like Paul, endure whatever hardships come our way and finish the race. I'll leave you with his words:
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store 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 longed for his appearing.
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