Paul’s Last Letter
333
Spirit, which is the word of God, we are to cut our way through the
obstructions and entanglements of sin.
Paul knew that there was before the church a time of great peril.
He knew that faithful, earnest work would have to be done by those
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left in charge of the churches; and he wrote to Timothy, “I charge
thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge
the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom; Preach the
word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with
all long-suffering and doctrine.”
This solemn charge to one so zealous and faithful as was Timothy
is a strong testimony to the importance and responsibility of the work
of the gospel minister. Summoning Timothy before the bar of God,
Paul bids him preach the word, not the sayings and customs of men;
to be ready to witness for God whenever opportunity should present
itself—before large congregations and private circles, by the way and
at the fireside, to friends and to enemies, whether in safety or exposed
to hardship and peril, reproach and loss.
Fearing that Timothy’s mild, yielding disposition might lead him
to shun an essential part of his work, Paul exhorted him to be faithful
in reproving sin and even to rebuke with sharpness those who were
guilty of gross evils. Yet he was to do this “with all long-suffering and
doctrine.” He was to reveal the patience and love of Christ, explaining
and enforcing his reproofs by the truths of the word.
To hate and reprove sin, and at the same time to show pity and
tenderness for the sinner, is a difficult attainment. The more earnest
our own efforts to attain to holiness of heart and life, the more acute
will be our perception of sin and the more decided our disapproval of
any deviation from the right. We must guard against undue severity
toward the wrongdoer, but we must also be careful not to lose sight of
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the exceeding sinfulness of sin. There is need of showing Christlike
patience and love for the erring one, but there is also danger of showing
so great toleration for his error that he will look upon himself as
undeserving of reproof, and will reject it as uncalled for and unjust.
Ministers of the gospel sometimes do great harm by allowing their
forbearance toward the erring to degenerate into toleration of sins and
even participation in them. Thus they are led to excuse and palliate
that which God condemns, and after a time they become so blinded
as to commend the very ones whom God commands them to reprove.