Walking Brave
2 Timothy 4:1-4 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. (ESV)
Thank God that we’re not all preachers. Can you just imagine? Everybody speaking, nobody listening … absolutely horrendous. And yet, in one way or another, everybody who believes in Jesus is a preacher.
As we saw yesterday, the truth of God’s Word, of His love, of His rights and wrongs, of His grace and mercy, is under attack today as perhaps never before.
Christian ideas are being shut down because they don’t fit with the secular narrative. Everybody, it seems, has a barrow to push, a dogma to peddle, an agenda to drive. And amidst that reality, it’s all too easy for someone who believes with all their heart in Jesus, to allow the Gospel of Christ to be silenced.
But you know and I know that truth leads to people flourishing. God’s truth leads people into freedom. So what’s the answer? Again today, here’s the Apostle Paul on this very subject, writing to Timothy his young ministry protégé:
2 Timothy 4:1-4 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. (ESV)
Sounds all too familiar, doesn’t it? So, what is the answer? The answer is to walk bravely. The answer is through our lives – through how we choose to live … to preach the word, in season and out of season.
Stick to the truth. Preach it. Walk bravely.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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