Consider this chart:
| 2 Timothy 2:24 - 25 | 2 Timothy 3:16 | 2 Timothy 4:2 |
| Teach | Teaching | Proclaim |
| Correct | Reproof | Reprove |
| Repentance | Correction | Rebuke |
| Knowledge of the Truth | Training in Righteousness | Exhort |
As you can see the four actions are similar if not identical.
In 2 Timothy 2:24 – 25 (here @ Bible Gateway), Paul is challenging Timothy to confront false teachers, or in other words, those who do not have a relationship with the Lord, non-Christians.
In 2 Timothy 4:2 (here @ Bible Gateway), Paul is challenging Timothy to share truth with believers, Christians, those in his ministry in Ephesus.
However, in 2 Timothy 3:16 – 17 (here @ Bible Gateway), Paul is challenging Timothy to be in the Word for himself, to follow Paul’s example, allowing the Word to teach him, reprove him, correct him, and train him. This is also the ministry of the Word of God in our lives.
Further, note that 2 Timothy 2:24 – 25 (here @ Bible Gateway) and 2 Timothy 4:2 (here @ Bible Gateway) mirror 2 Timothy 3:16 – 17 (here @ Bible Gateway), the ministry of the Word of God in our lives. The implication seems to be that our effectiveness in sharing with both non-believers and believers is dependent on our being in the Word first.
In Deuteronomy 6:6 – 7, 20 (here @ Bible Gateway), we are told that we are to always share the Word with our children. In a sense we are helping them learn to process life through the grid of the Scripture. In Ephesians 6:25 – 31 (here @ Bible Gateway), Paul outlines a husband’s responsibility for his wife. It is a ministry to build her up and present her to the Lord with out spot or wrinkle, holy and blameless.
If what we read in 2 Timothy is true, then is seems that the prerequisite for our being successful in serving our wives and our children is for us as husbands and fathers to be consistently in the Word.
What do you think?
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