Ordinary Pastors, part 3: Be Faithful to the Message
Source: C.J. Mahaney
By C.J. Mahaney
Part 3 in a 12-part series. For the series intro and index, click here.
Paul’s first charge is this: “Preach the word” (2 Timothy 4:2).
As pastors, we are called to be faithful to preach-and not to preach just anything; the content of our preaching is “the word.”
Timothy would recognize this as yet another reference to Scripture in general (3:16-17) and the gospel in particular (1 Timothy 1:15; 2 Timothy 2:8). Paul does not need to further specify or clarify for Timothy. The “deposit,” “sound teaching,” “the truth,” or “the faith”-these are all references to the gospel: “the trustworthy saying, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15).
The charge is be faithful to preach the gospel. The content of our teaching, of each sermon, should be informed by this specific charge.
- We must never assume that those in our churches have sufficient knowledge of the gospel, or have exhausted their need for the gospel.
- We must never address a topic isolated from the gospel.
- We must never exhort anyone to obedience apart from the gospel.
- We must never preach more passionately about any topic other than the gospel.
You and I have been entrusted with the old, old story. We must not alter, adjust, or add to that story. Instead, we must faithfully proclaim it.
You will be tempted to stray from this story.
If you haven’t been tempted already, you will before long. Straying from this story is sometimes an effective way to gain applause, or win personal approval, or satisfy those Paul describes in verses 3-4: “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”
But regardless of the temptations, you must be faithful to preach the Word!
The “Ordinary Pastors” blog series is adapted from C.J.’s unpublished chapter by the same title and is scheduled to appear in the Together for the Gospel compilation book, The Unadjusted Gospel (Crossway, 2012). C.J. has contributed chapters in two other similar compilation titles: Proclaiming a Cross-Centered Theology (Crossway, 2009) and Preaching the Cross (Crossway, 2007).