instructing.

"In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of His appearing and His Kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage--with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry." 2 Timothy 4:1-5

Wow. There's so much in this passage, I'm not quite sure where to start.

One thing that really stands out to me is the charge Paul gives. "Correct, rebuke, and encourage." adding to that, "with great patience and careful instruction." I believe that when we're faced with a ministering opprotunity we can do these three things with it. Either correct it, rebuke it, or encourage it.

Take a diet for example, say that ho-ho cupcake is calling your name in the pantry. It's tempting you and you have three choices. (1) You can go grab a banana instead as you stare sadly at the box of heaven, (2) you can grab the box of heaven and, reluctantly, throw it in the trash in such a way that it's not eatable ever again, or (3) you can grab that heavenly box and shove two or three down in 5 seconds(your new world record). When faced with a troubling situation (maybe a little more notable than ho-ho cupcakes) most of the time, one of these three things takes place. Let's take a look at what exactly these words mean.

Correct and rebuke.

The original Greek for both of these words are the same. Elegchō, meaning "to reprehend severely, chide, admonish, to expose, to bring to light." When God says to correct something or someone in our lives, He wants us to have courage and bring the problem out so that it will be demolished. This can be so tough when it involves others. Showing that you care about them by rebuking them is not the greatest way to make lots of friends.

Encourage.

Parakaleō, greek for exhort, is used in the original King James Version. The word literally means, "to call to one's side, to encourage, to strengthen." From my experience, one of the most amazing examples of encouragement I've ever had always takes me back to long talks with my Mom. She literally called me to her side and gave me strength. I'm sure she doesn't remember what she said to me, but I know everytime she sees me do something that takes strength, she knows she once gave that to me. God does the same thing in (sorry Mom) even more amazing ways. He draws His kids to His side and tells them to be strong.

"Do not be terrified, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9

Don't let those times pass by when you know someone needs you to come to their side and make them strong. God designed us to be eachother's encouragers. God's word says, from the very beginning that,

"It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." Genesis 2:18

So, quick overview. Correcting is only good if you're not a wuss about it, encouraging can change someone's life, and those ho-ho's are definitely something to be rebuked.

Let's take a look at how these things are to be done. With great patience and careful instruction. Wait, how can you be carefully strong? Rebukingly patient? Woah. This changes things, doesn't it? "Great," I say, "how does that work?" Check out the previous verses in Timothy where we find our threesome of confusing words again, with a couple new friends.

"All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. So that the man of God my be thoroughly equipped for every good work." 3:16-17

Ah, I love how all the answers are there. Scripture is the answer. From this verse, we learn that from His Word, not only can we rebuke and correct, but also teach and train! His word is the secret to being prepared for any situation that we meet. When we re-read our main verse we notice it says in the first part "be prepared in and out of season." For what? To correct, rebuke, encourage, teach, train others to pursue righteousness, and pursue righteousness for ourselves, in every way possible. Skip down after all the depressing things that people will become "for a time" and it says to, "keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry." Basically, sell yourself out to Christ and His calling on your life, by keeping your head about you and drowning yourself in His God-breathing Words.

One trap I can so easily fall into is the "oh, sure, when I'm older and more mature I can deal with all that." Well, let's look at who this letter was written to. Who was Timothy to the Apostle Paul? In the beginning of 1 Timothy, he calls him, "my true son of faith." I couldn't find a reliable source to say the age of Timothy at the time of the letters (if anyone knows, please post so.) but because he calls him his son, he implies young age. In both of the letters, Paul mentions his youth a couple times (see 1 Tim 4:12 and 2 Tim 3:22). So I wish to plead with our generation, a generation so entranced with youthfulness and fun, to step up and take on the life and challenges graciously given to the youth of the nation. Get out there and do what you know God has called you to.

"Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity." 1 Timothy 4:12