Being instant in all seasons

There is so much going on in the world that it would be easy to be distracted and drawn aside.

And we are not to be unaware of what is happening around us, because we are part of the community as well as members of Christ’s Body. However, it would be easy to be entangled with the things of the world and miss the point of why we are here.

For the Christian this is not the time to be moved away from our number one purpose, which is, as always, to preach the gospel, not only through our words, but also through our actions, and, as a starting point, through our attitude to life and all of its challenges and potential pitfalls.

We are in the world (John 17:11), but not of the world (John 17:14), so we remain here but with a purpose and we should never allow ourselves to lose focus in this regard. We are not of the world, but we have been sent into the world to reveal God’s truth, just as Jesus was sent to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10).

As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.

John 17:18

So we are not sent to be engrossed in the world but to bring a message of hope to the world.

As an example of our message, Paul gave direction to one of his converts as he sent him out to do the work of the ministry in a leadership capacity.

Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

2 Timothy 4:2 (KJV)

This is the sound advice Paul gave to his young team member, Timothy, who was sent to oversee the church at Ephesus. It also, by association, applies to all who are followers of Christ, especially those in leadership positions, who are called not only to make disciples, but to train disciples to make disciples.

It is essential, then, that Christians don’t become over reliant on their pastoral oversight to do all the work of the ministry, but to allow themselves to be trained in it. It is also crucial that church leaders train their members to do the work of the ministry. It is a shared responsibility.

The Church General will grow quicker, healthier, and with more direction as this is applied. This is not a recent issue for the Church. The writer to the Hebrews had to address complacency and immaturity in the early Church that could apply to today.

Growing up

The writer to the Hebrews rebuked believers at one stage because he said they should, by now, have been teachers, but he had to treat them, spiritually, as babes, not being mature enough to rightly divide the Word of God (Heb.5:12).

They had not allowed themselves to go to the next level of discipleship, which is making disciples.

The onus is on all believers to grow up in Christ and to be able to discern the truth from the false, and to warn others of the same, developing followers of Christ along the way. Jesus gave us the pattern.

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

Matthew 28:19-20

Paul gave us the same in a little more detail.

And He [Jesus] Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

Ephesians 4:11-16

A long passage, yes, but vital to our understanding of what it is we should be focusing on at this time, and not only this time, but for all time until Jesus comes again. It is one long sentence, in Paul’s amazing style, that says so much more than we could ever unpack in one sitting.

No longer tossed

But the essentials for this piece are, first of all, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.

We need to be on the ball, totally conscious of the wiles of the adversary in attempting to detour us from the very journey Jesus has planned put for us. If we allow ourselves to overly focused on the world’s issues, we will potentially lose sight of the message we have been given to preach in the name of of Jesus.

The best way to avoid this is to be completely conscious of the Word of God in our lives, and to allow ourselves to be fully led by the Spirit. We can only do this by being yielded wholeheartedly to the Word and Spirit.

Jesus gave gifts, that is, the spiritual leadership of the Body of Christ who are anointed, appointed and equipped to train the Body to build the Church. To edify is to build, to construct, to create an edifice. We are the edifice. We are the Body.

Then we are to ‘grow up in all things into Him who is the Head.’ Jesus is the Head. We are to do this by ‘speaking the truth in love.’ We cannot know the truth without the Word and Spirit.

If our focus is only on the media or the world’s issues we will not give enough attention to the Word. Mostly the media is concerned with the bad news. It sells. Yes, bad news sells product. This is sad but true.

Good news messengers

We are called to reveal the good news, God’s good news, the glad tidings that has the power to change a person’s life eternally. We have to be practicing the good news in our own lives to be able to successfully articulate it and present it to those who are still subject to the whims of the world.

They need us to be free from the shackles of the world, so that we can describe to them how to be released from the bondage of the world.

And it’s the Body, joined and fit together, supplying everything that each part has to the rest of the Body, that builds itself up in love. We are the building, but we are also the builders under Christ. He is the Chief Architect and Master Builder, we are His lieutenants making it happen in the earth.

God is the Vinedresser; the One who puts all the pieces into place; who tends to the branches; who helps us grow (John 15:1). We are the branches (John 15:2). We are joined to Christ and to the rest of the Body through Him. We build each other up through Him and by Him.

There is too much to do to be overly concerned with the things of the world. It’s fine to be aware of what is happening politically, socially, financially and even globally, but not to the extent that we avoid our God given tasks of winning souls and making disciples.

It’s essential to engage with the global community so that we have a voice into their lives, but we have to be seen to be uniquely different with a lifestyle that is attractive to those who seek God but have not yet discovered His ways.

We need to be instant in season and out. That means ready. Purposed. Aware. We are still good news messengers with the mandate to make disciples, baptising them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.