1In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. 6For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. 7I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
It is amazing that Paul could write this in the condition that he found himself. When he was writing this he found himself imprisoned in Rome and not like the first time he was imprisoned, he was chained up like a prisoner. Not only that but most if not all the people that were with him had deserted him. Some even spoke against him. To top it all of Paul new his death was near! Yet through all this he still found the confidence in Jesus to exhort his pupil Timothy and pass his ministry and mantel to him. His faith could not be shaken, even in the face of adversity he was fulfilling his call. He knew that he had run the race, he knew his efforts did not go wasted, most importantly he knew he had served Jesus with all of his heart and with all of his strength and with all of his mind. Verse 6 says: “for I am already being poured out like a drink offering and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” How was he able to fight the good fight? How was he able to finish the race? By keeping the “FAITH!” He was so sure of his salvation that he didn’t even think about it twice, he did not worry, he did not fret, in fact he used his surety as inspiration; “Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that day and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” That fills me with expectation, comfort and peace! That final verse makes me want to finish the race, it mikes me want to fight the good fight, it gives me courage to keep the faith!” The love of Christ for others also shows in this statement when he doesn’t just say that he will be rewarded but he makes sure he says you will also be rewarded if you love Jesus with all your heart.
Through all this Paul speaking prophecy to Timothy and preparing him for what is to come. From verse 3 to verse 5 he speaks of this very time that we are living. We are seeing the rise of people who call themselves Christians and religious and spiritual and are twisting and turning the scriptures and teaching to fit the life styles they want to live. Certain pastors are preaching sermons of motivation and prosperity just to please the congregation. The same congregation who when they leave church on Sunday go right back to their evil living and fornication and adultery and gambling and all of the other things that our world has brain washed society to think is normal and excepted. Pastors and leaders who should be helping the body to walk the right path by correction, rebuking and encouraging, are just letting souls fall by the hundreds of thousands because they feel they are doing the right thing by not “breaking tradition” or not “shaking things up” more importantly not telling the “TRUTH!” Don’t get me wrong, the body of Christ should be prospered and motivated but when leaders start compromising the focus and salvation of the church for speeches about how “important” you are and about thinking “positive” or about the (fill in the blank) _____ steps to financial prosperity or _____ steps to becoming a millionaire; it not only changes what the gospel is truly about but creates situations where people get confused and loose sight of what is truly important in your life.
That’s why we have so many people who are confused and angry about the fact that their “faith” or “belief” is not working for them. They complain about how they are tithing regularly and how they go to church on everyday of the week and twice on Sunday. They are members of the clean up crew and serve in the greeting ministry at church and they still aren’t seeing any spiritual or financial or any kind of growth. They are being fed word about how to tithe and how to serve others and how congregating is biblical and we should be members and support our local church but where is the Love for Christ? Where is the relationship between you and your creator? Where is the intimacy? It sounds like “wow Juan you are attacking these people.” If I’m attacking then Paul was attacking them thousands of years before they even existed. This is precisely what he meant in these verses. These people, like Paul said, turn their ears away from the truth. Who is the truth? Jesus! If you turn from Jesus you are turning away from the only way to the father, the only way to salvation and the only way to attain real prosperity and real blessings and real favor. You can attain fortune in the world and according to the eyes of the world be prosperous but at what cost? Jesus says in Matthew 6:25-34:
“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear? For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
Do I really need to say anything else after that? It cannot be any clearer. The problem is reading it but not putting it into practice in our lives. Jesus also says;
“But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say? Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great. (Luke 6:46-49)”
I’m sitting here and I just cant type anything else. It’s just too clear. You might be saying “I don’t have the faith to think of it that literally!” The closer you are to God, the more you further your relationship with Jesus through prayer and the word; the more your faith will grow. The bible covers this too, Romans 10:17
“Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”
In the verse 1 through 2 Paul says: “In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.” Be prepared in season and out of season, what does that mean? All the time! Not just in season but out of it, so there is no time when you should not be prepared. The second we cut off the connection between us and Jesus, the second we stop dwelling in the word, the second we lose focus on the goal, we become unprepared. Our connection to the Lord through Jesus and his word is what keeps us alive and what makes us prepared. In chapter 3 verse 16 Paul says this about the scriptures;
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
“THOROUGHLY” equipped for “EVERY” good work. Lets be a generation that says “YES” to Jesus. Lets be a generation that puts God first and has faith the he will give us everything else that we desire. Lets be a church the truly, honestly, deeply recognizes that Jesus is in fact the “ONLY” way, the he “IS” the truth and that he “IS” the life! Lets be a people who acknowledge that “HE” is the root and we are the branches and that without “HIM” we cannot do “ANYTHING.” Lets let out a cry out for Jesus that will shake the very walls of hell. Lets exclaim to the world and the prince of this world that “we are more than conquerors through him who loved us,(Romans 8:37)” that “nothing is impossible with God (Luke 1:37).” Lets scream at the top of our voice that “If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:37)” Lets lift up a banner that proclaims;
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38)”
We are the watchmen, we must sound the trumpet, sound the alarm and prepare the way for the Lords return. I leave you with this,
“No weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and this is their vindication from me,” declares the LORD!
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