Be ready in season and out of
season. —2 Timothy 4:2
{CHAMBERS} “Many of us suffer from the unbalanced tendency to “be
ready” only “out of season.” The season does not refer to time; it refers to
us. This verse says, “Preach the Word! Be ready in season and out of season.”
In other words, we should “be ready” whether we feel like it or not. If we do
only what we feel inclined to do, some of us would never do anything. There are
some people who are totally unemployable in the spiritual realm. They are
spiritually feeble and weak, and they refuse to do anything unless they are
supernaturally inspired. The proof that our relationship is right with God is
that we do our best whether we feel inspired or not.”
{ELGIN} So you don’t think that you are a preacher? The fact is your life is a sermon. You preach
it every day. What message are you
preaching? Does your life reflect Jesus
or the world? Does your life shout – “I
love the world, yes I do. I just say I
love Jesus … how about you?” In Mark 10:7-9 when speaking of a man and
a woman in marriage it says “‘For this reason a man will leave his father and
mother and be united to his wife, and
the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore
what God has joined together, let no one separate.” If their relationship is a healthy one, it grows
.. their love for each other deepens .. they become more like each other … it
is a marvelous thing .. what God intended … but I don’t believe it is an end to
itself. That relationship is a
reflection of the relationship between us and the Lord. Jesus prayed to the Father that we – the Redeemed
– would become one even as Jesus and the Father are one. One with the Father.
One with the Spirit. One with the
Son. One with the Body of Christ – other
believers.
(John
17:9-19) ESV “I [Jesus] am praying
for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me
[the disciples and all who believe after], for they are yours. All mine are
yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in
the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep
them in your name, which you have given me,
that they may be one, even as we are one. […] I have given them your word,
and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am
not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that
you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of
the world. Sanctify them in the truth;
your word is truth. As you sent me into
the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I
consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.”
What hinders one-ness? In short – sin and the world. What hinders your life from preaching as
intended? Yep, sin and the world. (1 Peter 5:8) “Be sober-minded; be
watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking
someone to devour.” I have been writing
about the source and content of your message … making disciples is your
mission. If a Christian does not keep their focus on Jesus but rather shifts
their focus to the things of this world, what their life shouts to those around
them will reflect the world they were saved from. That is the inescapable truth .. whether you
want it to be or not. Since you have
read this far, I assume you are not that person … if not .. make it a point to encourage
another Christian you may know who is struggling.
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