Passage Read: 2 Timothy 3-4
Meditation Verses: 4:2-4
Thought
We have such a tendency, such a drive to drift into myths and fables--anything but the truth! It is vital that leaders and teachers hold to the truth, preach it regularly and "reprove, rebuke and exhort with great patience and instruction." As much as Paul teaches that love "believes the best," yet here he warns Timothy that unless he preaches the Word faithfully with reproof, rebuke and exhortation, the believers will drift into nonsense--and not just drift, they will gather to themselves teachers who will tell them what they want to hear! This is a frightening truth! Especially considering that the church is supposed to be made up of those who love Jesus! For this to be true, any particular church has to have many--more!--who are not in fact redeemed, who don't want to be redeemed, who just want to feel good about themselves by standards they can influence rather than know God in truth! If this was true in Paul's day, how much more so is it today! Preachers need great patience, because they have to correct, reprove, rebuke and exhort their congregations again and again and again. The drift, the drive to myth is powerful! A preacher can't grow tired, can't lose patience and give in to the demands of his congregation to only speak pleasant words, encouraging words, gentle words. As soon as he relaxes, those forces that hate truth will exercise their influence and the congregation will drift into godless imaginations.
Application
It has been almost two thousand years since Paul wrote these words. How far has the Church at large drifted from the truth today? How many myths and fables have we embraced and enshrined today? The Reformation was desperately needed, and another reformation is needed yet again. Indeed, reformations are needed on a regular basis. But I can't entrust my salvation to a reformation! If preachers and teachers will not rebuke the heresies and nonsense of our day, I need to know the Word of God and trust it for myself. I can't leave my salvation to preachers! And as a teacher, I too need to reprove and rebuke and exhort whomever I teach. I need to know the Truth for myself and for my hearers, to protect us all. No matter how despised a teaching of Scripture may be today, no matter how out of vogue it may be, if it is truly the teaching of God's Word, I need to hold to it and rebuke those who oppose it or who have drifted from it. These things are not matters of opinion, whether popular or personal; they are matters of Truth--and of eternal life and death. I can't treat them lightly.