Reprove, Rebuke, Exhort

INTRODUCTION

2 Timothy 4:1–2 LEB

1 I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom, 2 preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all patience and instruction.

2 Timothy 4:1–2 AMP

1 I CHARGE [you] in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, Who is to judge the living and the dead, and by (in the light of) His coming and His kingdom: 2 Herald and preach the Word! Keep your sense of urgency [stand by, be at hand and ready], whether the opportunity seems to be favorable or unfavorable. [Whether it is convenient or inconvenient, whether it is welcome or unwelcome, you as preacher of the Word are to show people in what way their lives are wrong.] And convince them, rebuking and correcting, warning and urging and encouraging them, being unflagging and inexhaustible in patience and teaching.

The word of God is treasure, and must be mined like gold and diamonds. So

WHAT, WHY, HOW?

WHY?

2 Timothy 4:3–4 AMP

3 For the time is coming when [people] will not tolerate (endure) sound and wholesome instruction, but, having ears itching [for something pleasing and gratifying], they will gather to themselves one teacher after another to a considerable number, chosen to satisfy their own liking and to foster the errors they hold, 4 And will turn aside from hearing the truth and wander off into myths and man-made fictions.

2 Timothy 4:3–4 The Message

3 You’re going to find that there will be times when people will have no stomach for solid teaching, but will fill up on spiritual junk food—catchy opinions that tickle their fancy. 4 They’ll turn their backs on truth and chase mirages.

Romans 1:16–2:13 The Message

16 It’s news I’m most proud to proclaim, this extraordinary Message of God’s powerful plan to rescue everyone who trusts him, starting with Jews and then right on to everyone else! 17 God’s way of putting people right shows up in the acts of faith, confirming what Scripture has said all along: “The person in right standing before God by trusting him really lives.” 18 But God’s angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth. 19 But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! 20 By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. 21 What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. 22 They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. 23 They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand. 24 So God said, in effect, “If that’s what you want, that’s what you get.” It wasn’t long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and out. 25 And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them—the God we bless, the God who blesses us. Oh, yes! 26 Worse followed. Refusing to know God, they soon didn’t know how to be human either—women didn’t know how to be women, men didn’t know how to be men. 27 Sexually confused, they abused and defiled one another, women with women, men with men—all lust, no love. And then they paid for it, oh, how they paid for it—emptied of God and love, godless and loveless wretches. 28 Since they didn’t bother to acknowledge God, God quit bothering them and let them run loose. 29 And then all hell broke loose: rampant evil, grabbing and grasping, vicious backstabbing. They made life hell on earth with their envy, wanton killing, bickering, and cheating. Look at them: mean-spirited, venomous, 30 fork-tongued God-bashers. Bullies, swaggerers, insufferable windbags! They keep inventing new ways of wrecking lives. They ditch their parents when they get in the way. 31 Stupid, slimy, cruel, cold-blooded. 32 And it’s not as if they don’t know better. They know perfectly well they’re spitting in God’s face. And they don’t care—worse, they hand out prizes to those who do the worst things best! 1 Those people are on a dark spiral downward. But if you think that leaves you on the high ground where you can point your finger at others, think again. Every time you criticize someone, you condemn yourself. It takes one to know one. Judgmental criticism of others is a well-known way of escaping detection in your own crimes and misdemeanors. 2 But God isn’t so easily diverted. He sees right through all such smoke screens and holds you to what you’ve done. 3 You didn’t think, did you, that just by pointing your finger at others you would distract God from seeing all your misdoings and from coming down on you hard? 4 Or did you think that because he’s such a nice God, he’d let you off the hook? Better think this one through from the beginning. God is kind, but he’s not soft. In kindness he takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life-change. 5 You’re not getting by with anything. Every refusal and avoidance of God adds fuel to the fire. The day is coming when it’s going to blaze hot and high, God’s fiery and righteous judgment. 6 Make no mistake: In the end you get what’s coming to you— 7 Real Life for those who work on God’s side, 8 but to those who insist on getting their own way and take the path of least resistance, Fire! 9 If you go against the grain, you get splinters, regardless of which neighborhood you’re from, what your parents taught you, what schools you attended. 10 But if you embrace the way God does things, there are wonderful payoffs, again without regard to where you are from or how you were brought up. 11 Being a Jew won’t give you an automatic stamp of approval. God pays no attention to what others say (or what you think) about you. He makes up his own mind. 12 If you sin without knowing what you’re doing, God takes that into account. But if you sin knowing full well what you’re doing, that’s a different story entirely. 13 Merely hearing God’s law is a waste of your time if you don’t do what he commands. Doing, not hearing, is what makes the difference with God.

HOW?

2 Timothy 4:2 LEB

2 preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all patience and instruction.

Preach the word...

REPROVE

A Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament and The Hebrew Bible 1651. ἐλέγχω

1651. ἐλέγχω ĕlĕgchō, el-eng´-kho; of uncert. affin.; to confute, admonish:—convict, convince, tell a fault, rebuke, reprove.

All teaching eventually involves reproof; teachable people are reprovable.

2 Timothy 3:16–17 AMP

16 Every Scripture is God-breathed (given by His inspiration) and profitable for instruction, for reproof and conviction of sin, for correction of error and discipline in obedience, [and] for training in righteousness (in holy living, in conformity to God’s will in thought, purpose, and action), 17 So that the man of God may be complete and proficient, well fitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work.

“Reprove, rebuke . . . ” This is the only place Paul uses this word, but it appears almost thirty times in the New Testament, all but two in the Gospels — and in every instance but one, Jesus is the one doing the rebuking.

“He rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.” (Matthew 8:26)“Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly.” (Matthew 17:18)“He stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her.” (Luke 4:39)

When Jesus rebuked someone or something, he demanded, in effect, on God’s authority, that it cease and desist. Winds quieted. Demons exorcised. Fevers dismissed.

And sin forsaken. Jesus says, “Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him” (Luke 17:3). Timothy, after you have exposed sin for what it is — deceitful, empty, fatal, evil — summon your brother to stop, on the basis of God’s word and authority. Open the Bible, point to or quote a particular text, and call for repentance. And if he repents, extend forgiveness from that same Book and with that same authority.

If we are going to rebuke well, we must ask God to show us in his word what sin is, and what it is not. And having seen sin in one another, we must consistently and boldly — and graciously — speak up and charge one another to change, to turn, to cease from sin.

~Marshas Seagal - Desiring God website.

REBUKE

A Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament and The Hebrew Bible 2008. ἐπιτιμάω

2008. ἐπιτιμάω ĕpitimaō, ep-ee-tee-mah´-o; from 1909 and 5091; to tax upon, i.e. censure or admonish; by impl. forbid:—(straitly) charge, rebuke.

Words mean things; freedom of speech has limits; it is the free expression of ideas. It is not the exhortation to do do evil.

Titus 1:9–11 NLT

9 He must have a strong belief in the trustworthy message he was taught; then he will be able to encourage others with wholesome teaching and show those who oppose it where they are wrong. 10 For there are many rebellious people who engage in useless talk and deceive others. This is especially true of those who insist on circumcision for salvation. 11 They must be silenced, because they are turning whole families away from the truth by their false teaching. And they do it only for money.

Titus 3:9–11 AMP

9 But avoid stupid and foolish controversies and genealogies and dissensions and wrangling about the Law, for they are unprofitable and futile. 10 [As for] a man who is factious [a heretical sectarian and cause of divisions], after admonishing him a first and second time, reject [him from your fellowship and have nothing more to do with him], 11 Well aware that such a person has utterly changed (is perverted and corrupted); he goes on sinning [though he] is convicted of guilt and self-condemned.

1 Timothy 5:20 NLT

20 Those who sin should be reprimanded in front of the whole church; this will serve as a strong warning to others.

Titus 1:13 NLT

13 This is true. So reprimand them sternly to make them strong in the faith.

EXHORT

Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Greek (New Testament) 4151 παρακαλέω

4151 παρακαλέω (parakaleō): vb.; ≡ DBLHebr 5714; Str 3870; TDNT 5.773—1. LN 33.168 ask for earnestly, beg, plead (Ac 28:20), for another interp, see below; 2. LN 33.315 invite (Lk 8:41); 3. LN 33.310 call together to (Ac 28:20), for another interp, see above; 4. LN 25.150 encourage, console, urge (Eph 6:22)

“I appeal to you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.” (Romans 12:1)

“I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions.” (Romans 16:17)

“I urge you, be imitators of me.” (1 Corinthians 4:16)

“I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” (Ephesians 4:1).

“We pleaded with you, encouraged you, and urged you to live your lives in a way that God would consider worthy. For he called you to share in his Kingdom and glory.” (1 Thessalonians 2:12)