Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 2 Timothy · About this commentary
Preach the Word
2 Timothy 4:1-2
1 I command you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom: · WEB
The charge is given under oath before a judge, and its content is two words followed by five demands.
I command you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ. The formula is a solemn charge, and the witnesses named are the ones who will preside — who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom. Paul, weeks from a Roman verdict, invokes a different court.
The charge itself is two words: preach the word. The verb belongs to a herald, who does not compose the message or debate it but announces what he was given. Everything in the letter about guarding a deposit arrives here — the thing guarded is now to be proclaimed.
Then five demands. Be urgent in season and out of season, which grants that there is an unfavorable season and does not release him from it. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort — the first two corrective, the third encouraging, so the balance is built into the charge.
And the manner: with all patience and teaching. Both nouns restrain the three verbs before them. Rebuke without patience becomes temper, and rebuke without teaching leaves a person corrected but no better informed than before.
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