2 Timothy 4:2

2 Timothy 4:2. Preach the word. Better, ‘ proclaim,' do a herald's work. The entreaty or command connects itself with what had just been said as to the right use of Scripture. Not that ‘the word of God' is identified with Scripture, but that the one gives the right training and the best appliances for the due utterance of the other.

Be instant. In the old English sense, ‘ press on ' ‘be urgent,' with special reference to the work of proclaiming the word of God.

In season, out of season. The sharply - expressed contrast has sometimes proved misleading, and men have thought themselves bound to drag in sacred counsels in the strict sense of the word ‘unseasonably,' even when they were casting pearls before swine. What is meant is ‘with or without what seems to men a special opportunity.' We may, perhaps, trace a recollection of what had once happened in St. Paul's experience, in the case of one who waited ‘for a more convenient season' (Acts 24:25).

Reprove, rebuke, exhort. The words, strictly speaking, are in a descending scale of severity, and each act is to be not only ‘with,' but in the temper of long-suffering. The unusual connexion of that ‘temper' with the ‘doctrine' or ‘ teaching ' seems to imply a fear lest the long-suffering should lead to toning down the teaching and so to a sacrifice of the truth.