Some jobs are hard. Second timothy 4 tells us (via instructions addressed to Timothy) to stand firmly and to contend for the faith. We are to reprove, rebuke, an exhort using patience, persistence, and teaching. We are warned that there will be those who will resist and pull away.
Using the new American Standard Bible consider some of the action words found there:
PREACH: to talk or, and correctly interpret, the word of God. Just to be clear, I take the “word of God” to mean the Bible. This does not mean someone’s dream, feeling, hearsay, or what they read in a commentary.
Be PREPARED (be ready): to have read the Bible to have considered what it says, and to have considered how best to explain it either to a believer or someone who does not (yet) believe.
CORRECT: to help another more perfectly understand the meaning of some biblical passages.
REBUKE: to correct a person who, for whatever reason, seems to purposely be misrepresenting what the Bible says.
EXHORT: to encourage others to read the Bible and understand it the best they can; and tell them to tell others and encourage them.
Using PATIENCE: we should realize all are not at the state of development we have achieved, and; some others have developed more than we have.
Even when we do this, we must be aware some, perhaps many, will, “not tolerate sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”
Sound like today? Sound like some public posting sites?
