I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: 2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. 5 But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
2 Timothy 4:1–5
Paul charged Timothy with quite a task. “Preach the word!” He also included some challenges that would accompany that charge. Be ready to preach all times. More than that the people that are being preached to will increasingly not tolerate or listen to a biblical, truthful message. They will seek out people who will tell them what they want to hear and the message will be a lie. Nevertheless, Paul instructs Timothy to do the work and fulfill his ministry.
Our charge is the same. We must preach and teach the gospel in it’s entirety, the scary parts as well as the grace. It cannot be the true gospel without the whole story. And just as Paul warns Timothy we must realize that we are faced with the same challenges. The people grow increasingly hostile to a message that points out that mankind has a sinful nature and we are therefore sinners. It’s a tough message but the truth has no friends or enemies, only those who seek and embrace it and those who avoid and reject it.
It is more important now than ever before that we prepare ourselves for this charge to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. We must understand that it will increasingly become more difficult so we must do all that we can to fulfill our ministry (2 Corinthians 5:11-21).