Friday, May 13

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 men 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. – 2 Timothy 4:2-5

Paul warns Timothy that the time will come when people (in the church is the implication) will not endure sound doctrine, but rather, wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate (literally “heap up”) teachers in accordance with their own desires. They will find teachers who tell them what they want to hear, not what they need to hear.

“Sound doctrine” is one of Paul’s frequent themes in the pastoral letters (1 Timothy 1:10, 6:3, 2 Timothy 1:13, 4:3). “Sound” means healthy (we derive our word “hygienic” from it). Sound teaching results in healthy Christian living. Note that such healthy teaching is set in contrast to what people like and this is why Paul says it must be “endured”! This implies that, like health food, it doesn’t always feel good or taste good at the moment, because it confronts our selfish desires, but in the long run it leads to healthy Christianity. (Sometimes I wonder why didn’t God make spinach bad for us and ice cream good for us, but that is beside the point.) This also implies that we do not always know what is good for us and we need someone (God) outside of ourselves to tell us what is true and right.

In 2 Timothy 4:4 Paul says that people will turn aside from the truth to myths - the religious ideas and opinions of men that are opposed to the truth of God’s Word. You don’t have to look very hard to see that Paul’s prediction has come true in our culture (actually it has been true of just about every time and culture in human history).

During the late 1930’s, the German pastor and theologian Karl Barth was preaching in his native country on John 3:16. Even though many in his German audience professed to be Christians, they were going along with the Nazi party and the persecution of Jews. Barth made the point that Jesus was a Jew, that He had died for all the world, and that the Jews were part of that world. Thus anyone who loves Christ would not participate in the widespread ill treatment of the Jews. It sounds ridiculous to us now, but in Germany at that time, Barth was preaching boldly against the cultural currents of his day. Many in his own congregation walked out in disgust before he finished the sermon. One elder in his church wrote a scathing letter denouncing him. Barth’s reply was a single sentence: “It was in the text.” That kind of preaching takes courage!

I have to admit that as a preacher, it is often tempting to want to be liked over wanting to be faithful to the Word of God. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that this text only applies to those who preach publicly. We are all called to be faithful to the truth of Scripture, and Paul tells Timothy, me, and you that faithfulness to the truth of Scripture is pretty much a guarantee that at some point we will be unpopular, un-liked, or at the very least considered foolish or out of touch.

This is why Paul finishes by urging Timothy to…

Keep your head in all situations – In other words - Think! Don’t get swept away by popular opinion or cultural trends, but evaluate everything by the Word of God.

Endure hardship – It will not always be easy or comfortable to follow Christ. Prepare yourself for opposition now, so that you won’t be discouraged when it comes.

Do the work of an evangelist – This doesn’t mean we all have to be Billy Graham, but it does mean that we all have opportunity to communicate God’s truth to others.

Discharge the duties of your ministry – This might sound like official instructions for some special servant of God, but the truth is that we all have a job to do and a role to play in God’s kingdom. Some of us preach the Word on a stage in front of crowds, some of us teach a third grade boys Sunday School class, some of us serve behind the scenes, but all of us are called to live in faithfulness to the Word of God!
 
Jeff Frazier