The Lifestyle of Preaching

2 Tim 4:2  "Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage — with great patience and careful instruction."  The world tells us to keep our religion to ourselves; to keep it to Sunday mornings, but when you have relationship with Christ it is not seasonal, it is our very life.

Paul commands Timothy to preach the Word.  In our western Christianity we have made that the job of the Pastor and the Evangelist.  The truth is that it is the job of the Church and we are the Church.

Now, I am not talking about getting up in a pulpit with a 3 point sermon with a clever opening and a gripping climax, although that is certainly one element of it.  I am talking about sharing our faith.  The word that is translated "preach" means to proclaim, herald, publish, make known the Truth.  St. Augustine is credited with saying "preach the Gospel at all times, if necessary use words".  We are, by our very lifestyle, to communicate our faith with those around us.

In the context of this passage it means to always be ready to apply God's Word to every situation. Correcting, rebuking and encouraging are a form of preaching when they are applied with great patience and careful instruction.  Let us not forget that the Great Commission is to make disciples.  A disciple is one in whom you invest yourself and share knowledge with.  If we follow Jesus' example we see that He discipled, first by modeling, by allowing His disciples to observe and then by spending some time debriefing what they had just observed and further instructing them.

The patience and careful instruction come in because people don't always grasp what you are trying to communicate. We have to remember that we come to the table with filters based on our life experiences, our paradigm.  It takes time for a paradigm shift to occur, especially when it stands in direct opposition to everything that you think you know and hold dear.

Let us remember that the Gospel sounds like foolishness in our ears without the help of the Holy Spirit.

1 Cor 1:18-19 "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

1 Cor 2:14 "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned."

To the natural mind it sounds like foolishness which is why we need to be transformed through the renewing of our mind.  Preaching and discipling means to constantly apply the word of God to every situation and every part of our lives.

We get good at compartmentalizing our lives.  We have a box for everything.  One is for our finances, another for our sex life and yet another for our personal lives. It is the job of preaching to bring the Truth of God's Word into all these boxes, break down the compartments and integrate them into a lifestyle that is surrendered to Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit and glorifies the Father.

Finally, Paul tells us to be prepared.  This goes back to 2 Timothy 2:15. We need to spend time with the Father.  We need to spend time in the Word.  The Holy Spirit can only illuminate and bring to mind that which we have already written on our hearts.  It is like a spiritual checking account.  We can only make withdrawals if we have been steadily and continuously making deposits.  Going back to the example of Jesus we find that before He modeled the way to His disciples and before He spent time debriefing them and instructing them, He first withdrew and spent time with the Father.  It also tells us that it was his custom to go to the synagogue on the Sabbath.  Gathering with other believers strengthens and encourages us.  Spending time with the Father in prayer and meditation (listening to God) give us vision and direction.  Spending time in the Word allows the Holy Spirit to illuminate it and reveal Christ to us.  All of these things are foundational and need to, with increasing urgency, become a regular part of our lives.