SPREAD THE WORD

B. Mills

This letter was probably the last letter written by Paul. He is doing what I did when I knew that it was out of my hands, it was time to retire. He was thinking of the church and its future leadership. Various of the others had forsaken him. Timothy needed encouragement, not teaching further. In a sense, we are in the same position of this young, probably in his thirties preacher of the gospel.

Time is running out for us, and perhaps for the whole church as we know it. Paul “charges” us, a military command term, before both God and His Son Jesus Christ, to spread the word. A picture comes to mind, my being of a farm origin, a great pile of fertilizer is stacked in one corner of the barnyard, fresh from the stalls. It is too strong to just dump on the garden and truck patch, but it needs to be spread over them and allowed to leach until time to plow the field and prepare them for planting. Paul says to Timothy, I command you before God and Christ who will reward you accordingly, along with the living and the deceased, when He returns, Preach the word. This particular message is to Timothy, but it applies equally to all Believers. We are all under the command of Jesus Christ in whom rests all power, both in heaven and on earth, and who commands, “As you go, teach.”

2 Timothy 4:1-5 (King James Version)

1 I charge ( 1 Timothy 1:18, 1 Timothy 5:21) thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, (2 Corinthians 2:17) who shall judge (John 5:22) the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; ( 1Timothy 5:21, 2 Timothy 2:14, Acts 10:42, 2 Thessalonians 2:8, 2 Timothy 1:10, 2 Timothy 4:8)

2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. ( Galatians 6:6, Colossians 4:3, 1 Timothy 1:6, 1 Timothy 5:20, Titus 1:13, Titus 2:15, 2 Timothy 3:10)

3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; (2 Timothy 3:1, 1 Timothy 1:10, 2 Timothy 1:13)

4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. (2 Thessalonians 2:11, Titus 1:14, 1 Timothy 1:4)

5 But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. (1 Peter 1:13, 2 Timothy 1:8, Acts 21:8, Ephesians 4:12, Colossians 4:17)

Verse two calls to our attention that there are no good and bad times; we are always on duty, depending on the case at hand we are to be ready to share the word. What is the word? John calls Christ, ’the Word,” (John 1:1-) And Phillip was ready to start where he was and teach the Ethiopian, Christ. (Acts 8:35) Without question, he took that prophecy he had been puzzling over, and show by the prophets and the Lord that this Jesus Christ was the Messiah. There is undeniable evidence in the Bible that God sent His Son to redeem lost souls, and that we who believe that, repent of our sins, and are obedient to His command to be baptized for the forgiveness of our sins, are saved and He adds us to His church. (Acts 2:38)

That is not be end; it is the beginning. In the likeness of His death, burial and resurrection, we too have died to sin, been buried in baptism, and arise, a new person, born of water and the Spirit. (John 3:5-6)