The Minister’s Responsibility
“I charge thee therefore,” Paul wrote to Timothy, “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.” [
2 Timothy 4:1, 2
.]
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 achievement. 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
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it. We must guard against undue severity toward the wrong-doer; but
we must also be careful not to lose sight of 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.
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