Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. 2 Timothy 4:2
The admonition to be ready is worth special note. The Greek word ephistemi is translated in various ways, be present, be at hand. The idea is simply to be there, doing what needs to be done at the time it is needed. In this particular context it is stressing the believer’s responsibility to be there with the right words from the Word of God—words of exhortation, of doctrine, of reproof if needed, yet words given patiently, even when rebuffed by the hearer.
Apparently, the charge applies not only to those times when we are officially on duty. Be ready out of season, too! The believer must be “on call” when God calls.
But why?
2 Timothy 4:3-5 reads, For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.
If believers focus on the job He asks us to perform (from the spiritual gifts He provides), and we obey His will for us and for others, through our servanthood, He protects us from the non-believers’ desires—from their inability to see the truth, and mostly from the myths to which they adhere.
Those myths are LIES—and the great deceiver is wandering around looking for people to devour. He will gain control of the non-believers emotions first. This shuts down their God-given mental capacity—the act of critical thinking—the ability to see and know the truth. All types of truth, but mainly God As Truth and as Life. Satan drives a non-thinking person back to emotions—anxiety, fear, depression, worry…
The cycle is devastating and these people look to myths to sustain them. Satan’s got them locked in a vicious cycle.
God protects His obedient believers from this as He sends us out as His servants—in hopes these people will ‘see’ and step out of the horrible controls these ‘myths’ have on their lives.
As the current world situation unfolds before our eyes, the last verse, Paul’s warning to his fellow believers, is highly relevant…
“But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”
Amen.