All Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible 1995 Ed. (NASB95)

When it comes to sharing the gospel, there are generally two viewpoints toward using opportunities to do so. One is that people think anytime will do, and you can go ahead and preach at your leisure. People are always as open as they’ll ever be. Another is that there are only certain situations in which you can get the Word in, and you must know exactly what those circumstances are in order to make any progress with people.

Paul shows us in his second letter to Timothy that both perspectives have truth to them. He warns that preaching is urgent because people who are exposed to the gospel tend to become hardened toward it. He writes this in one of the most misapplied passages in the whole Bible. It’s his famous charge to Timothy to “preach the word”. Let’s look at it at length:

“I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus . . . preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn their ears away from the truth, and will turn aside to myths.” – 2 Tim. 4:1a-4

In spite of what most Christians, commentators, Bible scholars, and theologians think, this passage isn’t about “preaching” in the Sunday gathering of believers. Rather, he’s speaking of preaching to non-Christians. There are a few proofs of this in his words. First, is the very word he uses for “preach”. The Greek word is kerousso, which literally means “to announce” or “to cry out”. In Greek literature of the time, it was used to refer to announcers sent by the kings and emperors of kingdoms to deliver royal messages. This is what we often call a “herald,” or royal announcer. Luke uses some form of this word extensively in his writings, and in all cases, he uses it to refer to “heralding” the gospel of God’s kingdom to unbelievers. Thus, we read,

“Soon afterwards, He began going around from one city and village to another, proclaiming and preaching the kingdom of God.” – Lk. 8:1

The word translated “proclaiming” here is the Greek word kerusso, showing that Jesus was serving as the royal announcer of the coming of God’s kingdom through Him. There are many similar instances, including in the Book of Acts.

Why would this word only be applied to announcing God’s Word to unbelievers, rather than to believers? Because believers already believe that God’s kingdom has been established through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. It’s only those who are outside of God’s kingdom that need to be warned that the King has come with terms of peace, and is yet coming with punishment for His enemies. Thus, thinking back to 2 Timothy 4, we can see that when Paul writes, “preach the word,” he has in mind the word of the Gospel, and not God’s verbal Message in general. He’s calling Timothy to announce the good news of King Jesus’s coming and reign, and to call rebels to surrender to Him.

A second indication that Timothy is being charged to the preaching of the gospel to the unsaved is that Paul urges him to “be ready in season and out of season”. He shouldn’t have needed to tell this to Timothy if he was referring to preaching to believers. The declaration of God’s Word is always in season in the assembly of the saints, but not among the ranks of the unbelieving.

The third and crucial reason Paul has to be calling for evangelistic preaching is the reason why Timothy must always be ready and eager to proclaim the gospel with “reproof,” “rebuke,” “exhortation,” and “great patience.” It’s that there’s a time coming when Timothy’s audience “will not endure sound doctrine” (v. 3). Why would Paul possibly be saying that there’s an inevitable time coming when believers won’t endure the sound teaching of Scripture? Believers naturally love and long for the apostles’ divine teaching. No, Paul has to be foretelling the gradual obstinacy of non-Christians. And the background to Timothy’s situation at the time can give us some clue why this makes sense.

In Paul’s first letter to Timothy, he notes that he left Timothy in the city of Ephesus to “instruct certain men not to teach strange teachings . . .” Paul had been in this city for three years, and Luke writes in Acts that everyone in the Roman of Asia “heard the word of Lord” as a result of Paul’s preaching and teaching in public places, and specifically at a philosopher’s lecture hall called “the Hall of Tyrannus”. When he revisited the elders of Ephesus in Acts 20, it was clear that the Christian community there had an extensive leadership team, and that the assembly was strong. We also know that the Gospel had such an impact on Ephesus, that many of the magicians or sorcerers were “burning their books” of magic in public, and people were refraining from the purchase of idolatrous statues of the goddess Artemis, which was the patron goddess of the city. The body of Christ was strong there, and likely had numbers in the hundreds, if not the thousands.

Now, by the time of Paul’s second letter to Timothy, there are a few reasons to believe that he was still overseeing the believers in Ephesus. One hint of this is that Paul assures him that he’s sent Tychicus to Ephesus, showing that this fellow apostolic associate and missionary is going to relieve Timothy when he makes “every effort to come” to Paul (2 Tim. 4:12, 21). At the very least, Timothy was almost certainly in the province of Asia, near the city. Given the former situation at Ephesus and this province, then, we can get an idea of why Paul warned Timothy of a coming time of intolerance to the truth.

As heaps of Scriptures, as well as Romans 1, teach, unbelievers naturally reject the revelation they receive from God, and replace it with the foolish imaginations of their hearts. This seems likely to be compounded when they learn of the full revelation of the apostles’ teaching, as it was taught by Paul, Timothy, and scores of other Christians in Ephesus. Those who continue to listen to the truth, and continue to refuse to believe, gradually become hardened in their hearts, and even more unreceptive to the Gospel. Although they often are convinced intellectually of the condemning and historical truths of the message, they still reject it, and must come up with a different way to appease their guilty consciences.

This is precisely what Paul describes in 2 Timothy 4:3, where he follows their rejection of sound doctrine with them seeking to “have their ears tickled,” and multiplying “teachers in accordance to their own desires”. A prime example of this societal and cultural tragedy is the history of the United States. The early U.S. was filled with the preaching of the Gospel, and droves of Americans at least understood the biblical message of salvation. Virtually every established town, village, and city had a gospel-preaching church, and at least half of population confessed to believe the gospel. Yet, over time, unbelievers everywhere continued to reject the Gospel, and gradually established systematized and organized religious systems of their own. You see this in the pseudo-Christian cults of Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Church of Christ, and Unitarianism. The people who had for so long heard the biblical Gospel had raised up deceitful teachers spouting false religions to suit their sinful desires. And so verse 4 of 2 Timothy 4 was fulfilled – they turned “away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths”.

Hence, this is the reason Paul gives Timothy for why he must be eager, diligent, and zealous to preach the gospel with “patience and instruction”. It’s because the opportunity to share the message of the cross is so very small and fleeting. People who have had exposure to biblical teaching, but have not embraced the saving promises of God in Christ, are in a perilous position. They stand near a precipice, or a cliff edge, and may soon fall to the point of no return, as they harden their hearts.

So, we see here yet another motivation for preaching the gospel whenever we have the opportunity, especially in places with knowledge of general Christian truth. Not only do they walk under the wrath of God, in a world that kills people without warning. Not only has the Lord promised to return at any moment, as soon as the last unreached people group is converted. But people are in danger of hardening their hearts even further to the Gospel, and distracting and deceiving themselves with false teachers and myths.

So, what is Paul’s prescribed response to this problem? It’s for the evangelist, the preacher, and the average Christian to always be ready and eager to proclaim the gospel to unbelievers. And also to do this by correcting (reprove), indicting (rebuke), and urging (exhort) sinners with great patience and teaching. And this is no more important to anyone than to those whom the Lord has called to regularly preach the gospel to perishing, deceived, and needy sinners. Therefore, brethren, herald the Word of the Gospel! Do it whenever, however, and to whomever you can!

For the time can always come when people refuse to endure sound teaching, but turn away from the truth, and become ensnared by false myths of the devil. Rescue the perishing; pray for the dying; Jesus is merciful! Jesus will save! For the glory of His great name!