Preaching the Word is not just for pastors

So what has me on this kick again? Something I read this morning from John MacArthur in his commentary on 2 Timothy 4: 1-5, a section every preacher is familiar with. Here is the passage in question:

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 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. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. (2 Timothy 4: 1-5)

Amen to that!

Unfortunately, this is one of the most misapplied passages of Scripture in the Bible. Misapplied in the sense of being seen as applying primarily or even exclusively to pastors. At this time, Timothy was not a “pastor” in the sense we assume. He was not hired after an extensive search by a pastor search committee. He didn’t go to seminary. As best I can tell, he didn’t serve in one local church in a given town at the exclusion of any other local gathering of Christians. He was travelling all the time and was more of an itinerant preacher, an evangelist (2 Tim 4:5). If anything he was an assistant to Paul, a noble task but he was constantly coming and going.

I have no problems at applying Paul’s exhortations to Timothy to modern believers. The words of Paul are specific to Timothy but his exhortations are universally sound for all believers. The problem comes when we take directives applied to Timothy and apply them selectively to certain men today. If we are going to take Paul’s exhortations to Timothy and apply them in a contemporary setting (which is OK) we cannot apply them selectively based on a cultural assumption of what Paul was writing about and who Timothy was. That is apparently what MacArthur (and many, many other commentators) is doing.

Although directed first of all to Timothy, Paul’s commission in 2 Timothy 4:1–5 applies to every minister of the gospel in every age, every place, and every circumstance. In a broader way it can be applied to every faithful believer, because it is essential for every congregation to know and understand this charge. Churches are responsible, under God and with God, to hold their pastors accountable to these divine precepts.

The role of the preacher in Christ’s church is vital, and God has ordained that His people be taught and shepherded by Spirit-gifted, Spirit-led, and Spirit-empowered men. The spiritual life and faithfulness of a congregation always is closely related to the spiritual life and faithfulness of its pastor.

This is where things get a little dicey. As near as I can tell, Timothy was not a pastor in the traditional sense anywhere. Wikipedia (always a reliable source!) says: According to later tradition, Paul ordained Timothy as bishop of Ephesus in the year 65, where he served for 15 years. That may or may not be true but there doesn’t appear to be any Scriptural basis to place Timothy as a pastor or even permanent elder in any local churches from what we read in Acts, Paul’s letters to Timothy or anywhere else Timothy is mentioned. In Paul’s first letter to Timothy, he urges Timothy to stay in Ephesus to counter the false teachers, something that would not have been necessary if he was the elder there (unless you think Timothy was considering a “call” to move to a bigger church that would pay him more and Paul was urging him to stay put).

In taking Paul’s letters to Timothy as applying primarily to pastors, we find a serious problem. As MacArthur tries to explain it, these passages are exhortations for “ministers”, i.e. specially ordained people in the church. The only way this is applied to “regular” church members is to make sure that their pastor is properly preaching each week.

This is why it is dangerous to assume stuff. We assume Timothy was a pastor and we assume that Paul was giving him advice in that role that should apply to pastors (and only pastors). All of this in spite of any evidence that these exhortations were limited to a certain class of Christians (pastors) and if they were aimed at pastors, we see nothing to indicate that Timothy was in that role! I won’t even get into the point that “preaching the Word” does not equal “delivering a sermon each week”.

One final point that sticks in my craw is this statement:

The spiritual life and faithfulness of a congregation always is closely related to the spiritual life and faithfulness of its pastor.

I will make a blunt and blanket statement here (now THAT is unusual). If a gathering of the church is dependent on the spiritual life and faithfulness of one man, then that congregation is inherently going to have a weak spiritual life and faithfulness. You don’t get to shirk your calling as a Christian by relying on a preacher. You don’t grow in the faith by watching someone else tell you about growing in the faith. You can’t blame someone else for “not feeding you”.

Being prepared to preach the Word, in season and out of season, is the responsibility and privilege of all Christians. It is antithetical to the witness of Scripture to restrict something so basic as proclaiming the Good News of Christ to a tiny minority in the church. As a believer in Jesus Christ, bought by His blood and regenerated by the Holy Spirit, I have the same responsibility to declare Christ to the world as Timothy or Paul. If you are His disciples, you have that same responsibility as well. Don’t let anyone tell you that your responsibility is restricted to sitting in your pew and listening to someone else.