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Timothy, September 28
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 longsuffering 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 are guilty of gross evils.
Yet he was to do this “with all longsuffering 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 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.—
The Acts of the Apostles, 503, 504
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