by Edwin Crozier<\/p>\n
Timothy’s job is to preach the word. However, he needs to be prepared for folks not to listen. No doubt, there will always be the faithful. But Paul has already told him the difficult times are coming. Clearly, if there will be people who have the appearance of godliness but deny its power, there will be people who do not listen to the word when it is preached. There will be preachers willing to tickle the ears, and there will be audiences willing to have their ears tickled.<\/p>\n
This may be the most difficult thing for Timothy to face. Not out-and-out persecution. Not the worldly beating down the door and dragging the evangelist to prison, torture, and death. Rather, the friends, the Christians, the churchgoers who push back against the word. The supposed believers who subtly, and sometimes not so subtly, encourage the preacher to modify the teaching to fit the times.<\/p>\n
And this is where preachers have to be really careful. After all, we very often are products of our own times. We may be filtering our preaching through our own upbringing without even realizing it. We may be tickling our own ears unawares. That is why we must be diligent in the word, allowing the word to shape us instead of the other way around.<\/p>\n
Paul tells Timothy that, no matter what changes come and go among the audience, he must always do the work of an evangelist. That is, he must always do the work of proclaiming the good news, proclaiming the victory of our King over death, over sin, over all things. He must always do the work of proclaiming the King’s edicts and instructions.<\/p>\nInstead of wandering off into myths, Timothy must always be sober-minded. He is to be sober-minded even in the face of suffering. He is to do the work Paul has outlined in his letters and fulfill the ministry. Don’t cave. Don’t wander. Don’t compromise. Don’t quit.
\nThe work of the evangelist is to announce the message of Christ. He is to announce it to people who have never heard it before. He is to announce it to people who have. He is to announce it to people who have not yet heeded it. He is to announce it to people who have been in the Lord’s army for years.\n
We all need to hear the message. We all need to hear the message again and again. Someone needs to proclaim it again and again. Thank you to those who take up that mantle and promote the gospel in every way.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Edwin Crozier Timothy’s job is to preach the word. However, he needs to be prepared for folks not to listen. No doubt, there will always be the faithful. But Paul has already told him the difficult times are coming. Clearly, if there will be people who have the appearance of godliness but deny its…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[1681,536],"class_list":["post-97669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-preacher","tag-preaching"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":70823,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-a-christians-job-to-make-people-mad\/","url_meta":{"origin":97669,"position":0},"title":"Is it a Christian’s job to make people mad?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 2, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was told that it is \"our job as Christians to make people mad.\" Is that true?\u00a0 Is it the job of a preacher to \"make people mad\"? Answer: \"This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger;\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24683,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-preacher-and-a-teacher\/","url_meta":{"origin":97669,"position":1},"title":"What is the difference between a preacher and a teacher?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I've been wondering about this one for some time now, but still can't quite figure it. For all the similarities that one can see between \"preaching\" and \"teaching\" (and besides things like audience involvement), what is the real difference between the two? Focus? Delivery? Approach? I'm always thankful to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18421,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-christian-serve-as-a-military-chaplain\/","url_meta":{"origin":97669,"position":2},"title":"Can a Christian serve as a military chaplain?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 16, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am really curious about your thoughts on one being a military chaplain.\u00a0Can one morally make that decision? There is a lot of pluralism in the military. I'm wondering if you are aware of the conflicts of people in the past. Answer: I don't know of the conflicts in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55998,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-the-work-of-an-evangelist\/","url_meta":{"origin":97669,"position":3},"title":"Do the Work of an Evangelist","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 21, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Keith Storment via\u00a0The Preceptor, September 1983 In II Timothy 4:5 Paul\u00a0 admonishes\u00a0 his young prot\u00e9g\u00e9, Timothy, to \"be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.\" We can see in the context of this verse several reasons why we need faithful men,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":92048,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/preaching-is-a-different-kind-of-work\/","url_meta":{"origin":97669,"position":4},"title":"Preaching Is a Different Kind of Work","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 11, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Zeke Flores There are both good and bad, positive and negative aspects to it. But I can say that the positive far outweighs the negative. Because of the nature of the work, you get opportunities to serve the best people in the world - Christians - all the time.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":54626,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-appoints-men-to-be-preachers\/","url_meta":{"origin":97669,"position":5},"title":"Who appoints men to be preachers?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 17, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Thank you very much for helping not just me but also the churches where there is a slight misunderstanding on this Evangelist subject. Please bear with me in coming to you again, for I want to understand clearly. You said in\u00a0Preachers: Ordination The idea of ordination is to choose\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97669"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97672,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97669\/revisions\/97672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}