Preach

          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 people 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. (II Timothy 4:1-5)

            It doesn’t get more serious than this: “In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus….I charge…”

           First, Timothy was to preach the word, or publicly proclaim it. He was to correct, rebuke, and encourage. Two-thirds of that list, and a half of the four things Paul told him to do were what some would consider negative, dealing with the errors and mistakes that his people made.

            The reason he needed to focus so much on helping others get it right instead of just saying nice things is because the time will come when they won’t listen. Timothy was to make the most and the best of the current situation. But just as with the discussions of the last days, Last Days, and LAST DAYS, we need to keep in mind that people have been gathering around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear for millennia. Right now, people are saying that those on social media are in echo chambers, where they hear only what they want to hear. Anyone who disagrees with them gets told that they are either to shut up or be treated as a pariah. In the future, it will probably get worse.

        And as it gets worse, Paul tells us to keep our heads. It brings to mind a poem by Rudyard Kipling:

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;

If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!