2 Timothy 4:2-5: “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.”

 

Near the end of his days, Paul exhorted Timothy to stay strong and steady though the world around him seemed to be going mad. And those times for which Paul was trying to prepare his protégé don’t seem terribly different from the times we live in today. Sound doctrine has already been evicted from much of the developed world, the Internet makes finding only the teaching we want to find a cinch, and turning from truth to myths has become a way of life for many “enlightened” persons. So the wisdom of Paul’s words, inspired by the Holy Spirit, are likely as useful for Christians in post-modern days as they were for a late-First Century Christian leader.

 

Indeed, as the post-modern world around us becomes increasingly foreign to the Truth that lives within us, we are called to be missionaries right where we live. If you feel like an emissary for Christ in your own country, community, workplace, or even household, take heart for being in the company of God’s people doing a work that has been ongoing since history began.

 

“Correct, rebuke, and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.” This is what Timothy needed to do. Even before Timothy, this is what Abel, Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Daniel, and many other faithful men and women did. This is what missionaries to countless people groups do and have always done. And this is how we must live in a society that is increasingly dominated by non- (or even anti-) Christian forces.

 

So as the days of earth’s history wind toward their eventual close according to the Father’s faultless timing, we—like so many before us—must humbly exhibit the love of Christ. Jesus sent the Spirit to enable this work of God’s gracious harvest of souls. For what is “the work of an evangelist” but to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I [Jesus] have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20a)?

 

It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it. How blessed are you to have been called for this purpose.

 

As the day of Christ draws nearer, may the Lord of the harvest find you strong and faithful and may you see many in your mission field come to know salvation through Jesus Christ.

 

 

Thought Starters

 

Imagine if you found out you had just one more week on earth. How would you spend your time? And with whom?

 

 

If you knew that the end of your time on earth was near, would that knowledge remove any of the constraints that you currently feel in your ministry to those God has placed in your life?

 

 

Thankfully, God doesn’t use guilt to compel us to His good work. Rather He has freely given His love to us, well beyond arranging for our salvation. Isn’t that a story worth sharing with those who haven’t known such wondrous love?

 

 

The passage from one year to another often gets littered with relatively meaningless resolutions. How might you resolve to allow God to work through you more effectively in the coming year?

 

 

Whose salvation can you begin praying for right now?

 

 

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