A Charge We've Been Given

Good Morning, (Hey! It's morning SOMEWHERE!)

2 Timothy 4:1-7 (NIV)
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. For 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. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
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.

I read these verses today as if they were written to me, and not to Timothy thousands of years ago. And I realized...sometimes I'm a bit slow...that these verses WERE, indeed, written to me, and to you, and to every Christian as an admonition to do the work that we have been given. What work? The work of preaching the Word; being prepared at all times; correcting and rebuking and encouraging as is necessary...with patience and careful instruction. THESE are the works that we've been assigned on the day we accepted the Lord as Savior.

Paul told Timothy, and also everyone who reads these words, that there would come a time 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. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths." It's as if Paul were right here, right now in 2010 and talking to us, doesn't it? So many "doctrines" abound. There are preachers who will tell us anything we would like to hear...as long as we write the checks that keep them in the lifestyle they've come to love. Myths? Oh, my! They abound at every turn, even to the bastardization of the Bible to make it say what it is they want it to say. The answer? Simply put, to follow what Paul writes nest, "But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry." If we're doing these things then we won't be persuaded to turn away to some false doctrine that just sounds good to our ears.

Yes, we must be careful and diligent in all we do and be obedient to what God would have us do. We must never stray from God's Holy Word, no matter how good something else sounds. Remember, please, the old saw, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably IS too good to be true!"

On a personal note: Verses 6 and 7 are words that I pray can be said of me when my time comes to meet the Lord. I pray that I am now fighting the good fight and that I'll be thought of in such a way. I pray that I will finish the race I've been given. And I pray that, in the end, I will have kept the faith. I pray the same for you...and for all who might read these words.

Love, peace, and blessings,

David