2 Timothy 4:2

The Text: preach the word; be urgent in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.

The Meaning Given To It: We need to be careful that we don't create subjective standards and, like the Pharisees, use them to determine who is "faithful" and who is not. It isn't unusual to hear some one say that preaching is to be "one-third positive and two-thirds negative" because in the phrase "reprove, rebuke, exhort" two of the terms are negative and only one is positive. That negative preaching is sometimes needed I do not argue with. And there might even be times when, due to circumstances, there needs to be more negative preaching than positive. But for several reasons, I take strong exception to the idea that Paul was telling Timothy that as a general rule two thirds of his preaching was to be negative. Must a preacher, as he nears the end of a year and is looking back over his sermons, try and make sure that two-thirds of his sermons are negative and only one-third positive? Every time there are a number of verbs used in an admonition am I to read into that some sort of "one-third/two thirds ratio? I hardly think so. Two examples will suffice:

Eph. 6:4. Fathers are told to nurture, chasten and admonish. Am I to conclude from those statements that some one-third negative, two-thirds positive approach to raising children is what Paul had in mind? Does anyone seriously contend this was Paul's point? But if that reasoning is valid in 2 Tim. 4:2, why not here also?

Titus 2:15. As in 2 Tim. 4:2, Paul is addressing a preacher and, again, three terms are used---"speak and exhort and reprove"---but only one of them is negative and the other two are positive. Am I not as much at liberty to cite this verse to prove that two-thirds of a preacher's sermons should be positive and only one-third negative as those are who use 2 Tim. 4:2 to get the opposite ratio? Yes I am---and I'd be just as wrong.

The Context is one in which Paul is giving Timothy a "charge" to do a certain kind of preaching in a certain set of circumstances. Verse 3 begins with "for" and is an explanation of why Paul said what he did in vs. 2. An apostasy was coming in which sound doctrine would not be appreciated and people would turn their ears away from truth. Notice also that there are five imperatives in this verse. There is no reason to isolate---and then subdivide arbitrarily into a "one-third/two-thirds" ratio---"reprove, rebuke, exhort", from "preach the word" and "be urgent..."

The Meaning: Timothy is to always be ready to preach the kind of message that is needed---when people wanted to hear Truth and when they didn't. "Reproving, rebuking and exhorting" are simply three aspects of that work, not an attempt by Paul to tell Timothy about a ratio of negative and positive sermons. What's needed in preaching is that which is directed toward the needs of those being addressed. It might just be that much, if not most, of one's lessons need to be negative occasionally. But it also might be the case that much positive work needs to be done. We need to be careful not to sit in judgment---with an arbitrary standard at that---and conclude that those men who do more positive preaching than negative are shirking their duty.

David Smitherman