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I Charge Thee
Contributed by Chris Swanson on Dec 17, 2022 (message contributor)
Summary: These are difficult times for Christian service, full of sinfulness. So how can Christians live and work in such a volatile society?
I Charge Thee:
What does it mean to be charged? I am not referring to a person using their credit card to make a purchase, nor am I referring to an assertion of blame or guilt. Paul made a charge to Timothy to do something. What Paul is referring to here is that Timothy was charged (entrusted) with a task, as a duty, as a responsibility.
• Acts 10:42, And he command us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the judge of the quick and dead.
“Preach the word”
• We are to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all who will listen.
“Be instant in season, out of season”
• Be prepared.
• We are to be consistently prepared to preach, teach, and present the message of Christ regardless of whether it is advantageous to us or not.
“Reprove, rebuke”
• Reprimand, Express Disapproval.
• It can be hard to acknowledge and admit our wrongdoing, to be advised we need to change. Regardless of how much the truth harms, we should hear it so that the Holy Spirit can touch our hearts and we can even more completely submit to God.
“Exhort”
• Strongly Encourage.
• This refers to encouragement, which involves providing comfort, aid, and support.
“With all longsuffering”
• Patience
• For church leaders, and particularly when confronted with resistance, this can be incredibly troublesome. But Paul specifies this as a component of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). Patience, notwithstanding disappointments, is intended to be a sign of the Christian faith.
“Doctrine”
• Beliefs
• Preaching of the Word ought to incorporate educating, a term alluding to guidance. He is to incorporate both feeling and insight, preparing Christians to follow God's truth.
For the Time Will Come of Itching Ears.
Rather than following godly instructors, people would decide to follow those who told to them what they liked to hear, as opposed to what was true and valid. A multitude do that today, and many of them are Christians or profess to be a Christian.
• 2 Timothy 3:1, This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
“Itching ears”
• Not a medical issue of the aural appendage.
• This might be that of jerking or moving ears that looked for something other than what is expected from the conventional, genuine gospel message.
• These are people who seek out preachers that proclaim a message or doctrine that condones their lifestyle.
• These are those who turn or fall away, explicitly by keeping away from the truth.
• They do not listen to sound doctrine.
• They discover people that they like. Faithless individuals with the ability to divert others to another direction than the truth. If the truth (Jesus/Holy Spirit) says to go right, these individuals go left. They will not live by the truth or even hear it out. Rather than reacting to reason and conviction, they deny it.
• 1 Timothy 1:4. Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith, so do.
W.E.D.M.:
Watch
• “Watch thou in all things”
• To be engaged and alert, taking his life and job seriously.
Endure
• “Endure afflictions”
• Which is suffering. Endurance is a significant topic in this letter, referenced a few times (2 Timothy 2:10, 12; 3:1l; 4:3). The thought is not simply in “enduring” circumstances but keeping up his Christian point of view during those difficult situations.
Do The Work
• “Do the work of an evangelist”
• An evangelist is in a real sense an individual who introduced the uplifting news of Christ, the Good News. Timothy is being told to impart the gospel as a feature of his service as a leader of the church.
Make Full Proof
• “Make full proof of thy ministry”
• Timothy is to achieve the reasons for his calling into the ministry. Ministry work is difficult work and there is frequently an impulse to stop. There is a characteristic draw to make do with not exactly our best. Paul orders Timothy to proceed even during troublesome occasions, to finish the calling God had given him.
• 2 Timothy 1:8, Be not thou therefore ashamed of the ministry of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God.