I Charge You: Preach the Word (2 Timothy 4:1–4)

2 Tim. 4:1. I solemnly charge you before God and our Lord Jesus Christ, who is ready to judge the living and the dead, at His appearing and His kingdom.

“I solemnly charge you”—this is as it were an adjuration by the living God, to arouse the most vivid awareness of the duty to act as enjoined, and to inspire zeal for it. Even in ordinary speech we often say: God will be your judge if you do not do such and such. In view here is both a note of fear—to awaken the conscience more forcibly so that it may take up the proposed matter more responsively—and at the same time a representation of how necessary and saving this work is. “Three thoughts are conveyed by this solemn charge or adjuration: that the commandment to preach the word is accompanied by fearful consequences for those who do not fulfill it; that its fulfillment is binding on those upon whom it is laid; and that the word which is commanded to be preached is the uniquely saving word. For if it were not so, it would not be commanded to be preached with such urgency. Moreover, this conveys the point that one who preaches it is doing nothing extraordinary but is fulfilling his duty, if he preaches with all diligence, not yielding to the ordinary slackness in this regard” (a paraphrase of Oecumenius).

“Before God and our Lord.” That is, before God the Father and the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation. Reading this, admit not even the slightest thought about inequality to any degree, nor the thought that these two Persons are ever, in any matter, without the third—the Holy Spirit. They are ever inseparable.

“Who is ready to judge. — Ready”—who is about to. “In the First Epistle also he impressed fear upon Timothy with the words: ‘I charge you before God, who gives life to all things’ (1 Tim. 6:13); but here he says something more fearful: who is ready to judge—that is, who is about to require an account” (St. Chrysostom). “Fearing for the reckoning to come, the Divine Apostle often presses his disciple with such a solemn charge or adjuration. But he does so also out of love, wishing to make him glorious and circumspect, and to dispose him to zealous and bold preaching” (blessed Theodoret).

“The living and the dead. — The living”—that is, those whom the judgment will find alive, “since many will remain alive (until the last judgment)” (St. Chrysostom); and: “the dead”—those who will have died before that time. “The Apostle called the Lord the Judge of the living and the dead, because He will both raise the dead and bring them to judgment, and will require an account of those whom the end of the world finds still alive, having clothed them beforehand in incorruption. For it is written: ‘we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed’ (1 Cor. 15:51)” (blessed Theodoret).

“At His appearing and His kingdom.” At the time when He will come a second time to reveal His glorious Kingdom. Or thus: “to judge”—when? “At the time of His coming in glory, with royal majesty—that is, not as now” (St. Chrysostom). “For the second time He will come not as the first—that is, not in humiliation” (blessed Theophylact).

2 Tim. 4:2. Preach the word; be persistent in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching.

Here is the chief work of the pastor, which, if fulfilled, will justify him, and if not fulfilled, will condemn him at the terrible judgment. And no other virtues will save him if he proves delinquent in this regard. This is why the holy Apostle urges it so forcefully. The content of what is proposed here corresponds to what was said about Scripture. Scripture is profitable “for teaching”—and here: “preach, be persistent”; Scripture is profitable “for reproof”—and here: “reprove”; Scripture is profitable “for correction”—and here: “rebuke”; Scripture is profitable “for instruction in righteousness”—and here: “exhort with all longsuffering and teaching.” As if to say: all that you gather from Scripture, like a wise bee, bring it into the souls of those entrusted to your care.

“What then does the Apostle adjure? What is this? ‘Preach the word’—do not hide it, or bury in the ground the gift that is in you. Oh, may we who are slothful in preaching be afraid of this!” (blessed Theophylact).

“Be persistent in season and out of season. Be persistent”—stand always ready to preach—“preach without ceasing, speak tirelessly. Not just once to say something and be done, but always speak and teach” (blessed Theophylact). “What does ‘in season and out of season’ mean? Do not set a fixed time—let every moment be a time for this, and not only in time of peace, quiet, or when you are in church; even if you are in danger, even in prison, even in chains, even preparing to go to your death—even then reprove, and do not cease from exhorting. That is the right time for reproof when it can have effect or when a fitting opportunity presents itself” (St. Chrysostom). “The holy Apostle commands Timothy not simply and casually to preach, but to regard every moment as fit for this. This he himself did, teaching in prison, on a ship, at the table set before him; of this the events at Philippi, in Troas, and at sea bear witness” (blessed Theodoret). “‘In season and out of season’—the Apostle said this in the same sense in which it is said in ordinary speech. So some think, counting the time of peace and quiet as the fitting season for preaching, and the time of calamity (when there is no room for preaching) as an unfitting season. Others again count preaching in church as the fitting time, and preaching outside of church as the unfitting time. Or again differently: do not wait for the moment of someone’s fall, but teach before anyone has fallen” (blessed Theophylact). Do not wait for the moment, but as soon as you see that preaching is needed and can bring benefit, preach—whatever circumstances you may be in.

“Reprove.” “When you see that this ought to be done—that is, when you find someone sinning or intending to sin—do not let the moment pass without purpose.” Reproof applies both to one who deviates into heterodoxy and to one who violates the commandments. Reproof aims at revealing to the one his erroneous thinking and to the other the wrongness of his conduct—and to bring each to an awareness of his fault and to arouse in them a desire to amend. It requires a firm heart, so as not to be ashamed before anyone’s face.

“Rebuke.” “After you have reproved and demonstrated to the offender his offense, rebuke him” (blessed Theophylact). Επιτιμησον — means: also with the sternness of pastoral authority compel him to amend—impose a penance upon him, employ the corrective penalties of the Church, laying them upon him like plasters on wounds. By this it is required to bring him to a resolution to amend and to set him on the path of correction.

“Exhort,” παρακαλεσον — which means: both persuade and entreat, and comfort. Both are needful for the one being corrected, so that he may willingly and gladly pursue self-amendment. Here there is also a place for encouragement with the hope of success and the ease of achieving it, and especially with the brightness of the state of one who lives in good order. “The rebuke and penalty are like cutting, while the consolation is like a soothing plaster. Therefore apply the plaster of consolation, lest the cutting alone, producing extreme pain, cast one into despair” (blessed Theophylact). “Like physicians who, having identified the abscess and made an incision, now apply the plaster as well” (St. Chrysostom). “When the disease is hidden, physicians first make an incision and use harsh medicines, and afterward apply softening remedies” (blessed Theodoret).

To what was said—“reprove, rebuke, exhort”—St. Chrysostom appends this corollary: “If any of all these is omitted, the rest become useless. If you rebuke without first reproving, you will appear presumptuous and no one will listen; but if you first reprove, the listener will accept the rebuke, without which he will remain shameless. On the other hand, if you reprove and rebuke, even forcefully, but offer no consolation, you will again ruin everything. For reproof by itself is unbearable if it is not tempered with consolation. Just as when a wound is cut—though the procedure is beneficial—the patient cannot endure the pain of the cutting and the incision unless many pain-relieving means are applied; so it is here.”

“With all longsuffering and teaching.” Since the matter concerns the correction of infirmities, which do not yield quickly to remedies, the healing pastor above all needs patience—and not a little, but prolonged. Since all healing is accomplished by the free change of thoughts, feelings, and dispositions, and this can be achieved most of all only through a change in convictions, the pastor above all ought to direct his care and effort toward this. For this purpose let him combine longsuffering with teaching, or let him teach with longsuffering—not becoming vexed at failure, but with meekness and love. St. Chrysostom says: “The one who admonishes must have longsuffering (in teaching), so that the listener may not believe without foundation. And what does the word added to longsuffering—‘and teaching’—mean? Reprove not with anger, not with hatred, not with malice, not with hostility as toward an enemy—all this must be set aside—but how? With love, with compassion, grieving more than the one being reproved, sorrowing in heart over his condition.”

2 Tim. 4:3–4. For there will come a time when they will not endure sound teaching, but according to their own desires they will heap up teachers for themselves, having itching ears; and they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to fables.

By these words the Apostle exhorts to hasten in teaching the truth, so that they may come to love it and be attached to it, and by the force of this love and attachment remain faithful to it forever, turning their ears away from all heterodox teaching. “Before they cast the yoke of obedience to the truth from their necks, take hold of all of them. While there are still among your flock those who need to be taught, persuaded, and won over to the truth, make every effort to achieve this. With this aim the foregoing words were also said: ‘be persistent in season and out of season’” (St. Chrysostom, blessed Theodoret). “Accustom them to submission to the truth before they depart from it” (Oecumenius).

“For there will come a time when they will not endure sound teaching.” For now they will still listen and willingly receive both teaching and exhortation; but afterward they will no longer be found capable of it. “The holy Apostle prophesies and, foreseeing this in the future, commands that with every effort the flock be tirelessly taught truth and virtue, so that, having been established in the faith and trained in good works, they may in the subsequent time—when others begin to turn from truth into error—remain unchanged” (Ambrosiaster).

The Apostle does not indicate the causes of why this will come to pass; but, by inference from what was said before, one may suppose that the cause will be the non-fulfillment of the proposed commandment—to teach persistently—the silence of pastors and the neglect of preaching the truth and teaching the flock. When pastors do not teach, the flock remains in ignorance of sound doctrine; when they do not exhort those who sin, the sinners become hardened in vice. Remaining in ignorance of the truth, they fill themselves with empty thoughts and every kind of foolishness, by which they grow dull to the reception of truth. Growing hardened in vice, they become incapable of receiving admonition and reproof. Therefore one must make haste—to enlighten them with sound teaching and accustom them to virtues, before they become too dull to receive the former and too hardened to submit to the latter. For when they have reached that point, it will be too late to try—they will not listen.

But as they cannot remain without knowledge and rules, what will they do? “According to their own desires they will heap up teachers for themselves.” That is, teachers who will both leave them to think as they please and to live as they want. It is remarkable that “they will heap up”—in Greek επισωρευσουσιν — they will gather a whole mass or crowd of teachers, and moreover will gather them themselves—in which case, of course, those who please them will be accepted while those who do not will be rejected. And it turns out that these teachers will be dependent on the taught and will teach not according to their own program but according to that of their students. “Nothing could be more expressive than this word επισωρευσουσιν; it denotes a disorderly crowd of teachers who moreover will be ordained (chosen and confirmed in their rank) by the disciples” (St. Chrysostom). “And these, in making their selection, will act not according to sound reason, but will choose those who will indulge their desires and speak and do only what is pleasing to them” (blessed Theophylact).

“Having itching ears.” They will act so because they have become accustomed always to hear only what pleasantly tickles the ear. This points also to eloquence, but more to flattery—or the accommodation to the tastes of the listeners. They will choose only those fitted for this—“seeking for themselves people who would speak for their pleasure and flatter their hearing” (St. Chrysostom).

“And they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to fables.” Being such, they can no longer have any desire to hear the truth, which even without reproof reproves them; therefore they will turn away from it and turn aside to fables—to fanciful teachings that, occupying the imagination with attractive fantasies, leave the conscience in peace, neither awakening nor troubling it with the demand for the correction of what is amiss in their views and life. “Do you see? They will err not from ignorance but willfully and knowingly. They themselves will turn their ears from the truth; they themselves will turn aside to fables” (blessed Theophylact). “Will turn aside,” εκτραπησονται — they will stray from the right path themselves, deliberately.

Ambrosiaster writes on this: “Such will be those who desire to be taught according to their own desires. From teachers who are faithful to the truth and strict, they will turn to those who would teach them what it is pleasant for them to hear. The truth will become bitter to them, and, forsaking its sound teaching, they will occupy themselves with fables. They will not wish their evil deeds to be reproved; therefore they will desire such teachers as would pander to their customs and habits. Their ears itch, seeking to hear—under the name of proper teaching—empty but pleasant fables.”

St. Chrysostom observes here: “The holy Apostle predicts this not so that his disciple might be given over to despondency, but so that he might endure manfully when this comes to pass. In a similar way Christ also said: ‘they will deliver you up, and will scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be brought before governors and kings for My sake’ (Mt. 10:17). So also in another place the blessed Apostle says: ‘for I know this: that after my departure grievous wolves will enter in among you, not sparing the flock’ (Acts 20:29). He said this so that they might be watchful, so that they might make fitting use of the present time.”