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. (2 Timothy 4:2-4)

Paul’s main concerns are for the honor of God and the progress of the gospel. Since he has reached the end of his life and ministry, he now commands Timothy before God and Jesus Christ to continue the work.

The prophets, the apostles, and the Lord himself have established the presence of the Christian faith in the world. The Lord Jesus said that this is a permanent presence, and that the forces of hell will not prevail against the church. The Christian religion will never be wiped out, and its doctrines can never be refuted or destroyed. However, in accordance with God’s plan, Christianity will continue to have its enemies. There will be those who resist it and attempt to annihilate it. There will be those who refuse to embrace the only person and message that can save men’s wretched souls, and even strive to prevent others from entering into everlasting life. Although they will never succeed in their evil schemes, their efforts will remain more than an annoyance to the followers of Jesus Christ.

Paul tells Timothy something about what the church will face, including the depths of depravity that non-Christians will sink into. There will be terrible times. People will be lovers of themselves, of money, and of pleasure rather than lovers of God. They will be ungrateful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderous, and so on. They will have a form of religion but deny its power. Some will claim to be religious, or even claim to be Christians, but will in fact oppose the truth. Evil men and impostors, he writes, will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

What is Paul’s instruction for a church that faces opposition from every side, and confronts trouble of every kind? Terrible times are here and more are ahead, and the apostle’s ministry is about to come to an end. If there is one potent weapon, one special strategy, one spectacular insight, now is the time to talk about it. With an almost threatening solemnity that is unsurpassed elsewhere, he charges Timothy: “Preach the Word.” We must have this fixed in our minds: when it comes to the ministry, this is one apostolic prescription that applies at all times and in all situations.

In order to reduce offense, to show respect, to display humility, and to incite interest, preaching has often been reconceived in non-authoritarian terms. So instead of to “preach,” the minister is often said to “share” God’s word or to “discuss” with the congregation what ought to be believed and practiced. Although it is entirely appropriate to share and to discuss the teachings of the Bible, here Paul does not say to share or to discuss, but to preach. There is a difference. To preach is to assert, declare, and to proclaim with knowledge, conviction, and authority. It is to deliver a word from God about something of considerable importance.

Paul says that the content of preaching is “the Word.” Here it is synonymous with that which some people will refuse to hear, that is, “sound doctrine.” Although our preaching should be totally consistent with Scripture, it is not identical to Scripture. To preach is not simply to read the Bible aloud, for if that were the case, there would really be no such thing as preaching, and preaching would not be good or bad, accurate or inaccurate. And there would be no difference between a good preacher and a bad preacher. All would be readers. Neither should a preacher sound like a commentary. Rather, the preacher assimilates the Scripture and then declares its message.

Again, preaching must always be biblical in the sense that it must follow “the pattern of sound doctrine” (2 Timothy 1:13). But it is a pattern, not a script. It is a model, not a prepared outline. Homileticians often prescribe methods by which the preacher may best accomplish his task. The expository method, by which both the headings and the contents of the sermon are derived from a passage, is regarded by many as the preferred approach. However, since the Bible itself does not mandate any particular method, and homileticians have failed to prove that it does, or even to prove that any one is to be preferred, no one has the authority to assert that a preacher is faithful, or more faithful, to his commission only if he uses the expository method.

Paul preached sound doctrine just as faithfully to the Athenians in Acts 17, where he cited no biblical passage, as when Peter used a “proof-text” approach in Acts 2. But to preach without citing Scripture, and to cite passages merely as proof-texts, are regarded as inferior or even unacceptable methods by many homiletic theorists. The truth is that although the preacher must always be true to the Bible, the Bible permits much freedom and variety in sermon construction and presentation. He must preach sound doctrine, but he does not have to let the homileticians tell him how he must do it.

In fact, if we insist that the method itself must come from Scripture, it would seem that the expository method (where both the headings and the contents are derived from a passage) would have the least scriptural support. No sermon in the Bible follows this method as defined by homileticians. This does not make it wrong or inferior. In fact, it is arguable that the expository method is the one that I use the most often, albeit sometimes loosely. The point is that some people have claimed too much for it, and have imposed it on others, whereas the Bible seems to permit some freedom in this area. Thus although there is no rigid method, the content of preaching is definite and decided, so that the essential thrust of the message is nonnegotiable. And since the message is based on the revelation and the authority of God, it legitimately obligates men’s conscience.

The preacher applies biblical doctrines in a number of beneficial ways – he is to instruct, to rebuke, and to encourage. To instruct, or to announce and explain the truth, is the foundation for the other uses of the word of God. The preacher then corrects and rebukes those who deviate from the biblical standard set forth. It is also on the same basis of sound doctrine that meaningful encouragement is possible. There is to be a right proportion of these uses of God’s word. Encouragement without a biblical basis, without the foundation of teaching, is empty or even misleading. Correction is only meaningful when the right standard is defined, so that it can be shown that one has deviated from it, and so that it can be known what one must return to. Then, if a preacher only instructs and encourages, but never rebukes, the one who strays from the truth is never confronted with his error, and the preacher has not fulfilled his duty.

Paul says that there will be a time when people will not put up with sound doctrine. They will reject preaching as a method of hearing from God. And they will reject the message that preaching is intended to communicate. Instead, they wish to hear things that will entertain them, fascinate them, and justify their wrongdoing and their evil desires. And they demand a certain carnal and sensory stimulation in the method of presentation. Some Christians claim that we must go with the times and adapt our approach according to cultural trends. In other words, we should follow the non-Christians and submit to their wishes. But the apostle prescribes preaching already with the above resistance in mind. He is the one who mentions those who will not put up with sound doctrine. He is the one who says to preach the word “in season and out of season,” whether or not the time is favorable to this method or to our doctrine, and whether or not it is the popular thing to do.

Therefore, those who propose alternatives to preaching, and those who propose alternatives to sound doctrine, are in fact proposing surrender to sin and unbelief. Now, if the people are inattentive and rebellious, a king does not order his herald to stop declaring his message, and to dance and juggle like a clown so that he can draw a crowd. No, if the people will not listen to the herald, and if they will not agree with the king, the next thing that the king does, if he so pleases, is to send his soldiers to slaughter them. The herald does not change his approach or his message. If a preacher changes his approach or his message to accommodate distraction and resistance, he is no longer a preacher. He has abandoned his ministry. But let the heralds of the King insist on performing their duty, endure hardship, and keep the faith.