Preach the Word!

286 - Today's Prime Time Devo comes from 2Ti 4:1 I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: 2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. Bible interpretation 101 says, whenever you see the word “therefore,” you need to go back a verse or two to see what the therefore is there for. In this case, we can say that Paul is telling Timothy that BECAUSE all Scripture is God-breathed, and BECAUSE there will be a plethora of false teachers rising up in the church, and BECAUSE Jesus is coming again to judge every individual soul on how they respond to this Word, (as it says in Joh 12:48 "He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him--the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.) Timothy and all that follow in his footsteps must preach the Word! This is life and death stuff people! Souls hang in the balance of eternal life and bliss with Jesus or eternal life in the pit of hell where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth! Remember, these are Paul's last words to Timothy and they are strong! Very strong! He “charges” Timothy to do this “before God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” To put it another way, Paul is saying “as God and the Lord Jesus Christ are my witnesses I command you to preach the Word! Plain and simple, this is an oath! And oaths are very rare in the New Testament because Jesus told us in Mt 5:34 "But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God's throne;” But this charge from Paul is so solemn and so certain a command that He received from God and the Lord Jesus Christ, that he is able to do it! Preach the Word! Paul could only adjure (swear to) Timothy on the strength of a direct revelation from both God and Jesus! By the way, the fact that Paul adjures in the name of God the Father AND the Lord Jesus Christ should settle the matter of the deity of Christ that so many false teachers attempt to bring into play! Pastor! Preach the Word!