2 Timothy 4:5

Devotional Thoughts

By Gary Wilkerson

Here is the definition of the gospel ministry, according to the apostle Paul: “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” (2 Timothy 4:1-5).

Paul is very clear with Timothy: “I charge you as a minister of God: reprove, rebuke, exhort. That is fulfilling your ministry!”

I ask you in complete honesty: Is the whole ministry of Christ’s church being fulfilled today? Or have we settled for a church of comfort and pleasure? I can promise you, if pastors are allowed to be pastors — if worship leaders are allowed to spend as much time in prayer as at rehearsal and sound check — if people come seeking biblical truth instead of just fleshly comfort — then our joy will return. Our purpose will return. And our mission will be clear.

When that happens, we will testify with the prophet Jeremiah, “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart” (Jeremiah 15:16). Then, when a stranger enters the door of our church, he will fall on his face in holy awe. He will realize he has found the answer he has hungered for his entire life. And he will cry, “Surely God is in this place!” Amen! May it be so, Lord Jesus.