“As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” (2 Timothy 4:5, ESV)
These words of Paul are his final words of exhortation to Timothy and to all Christians. He was about to give his life in the service of our Lord Jesus and he wanted to warn us of the tough times ahead. We live in the world that he warned Timothy about, surrounded by false teachers and teachings. Many of our new immigrant neighbors as well as our friends and coworkers follow and promote teachings such as Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, reincarnation, materialism, and every form of superstition. People will follow after every false teacher who will tell them something new, spicy, exciting, extraordinary and deep. This includes many professing Christians. There are plenty of false teachers who have perverted the truth of the gospel with lies from their own hearts or from the devil.
We must be ever vigilant and sober. We, like Timothy, must uphold the truth of God’s Word against the onslaught of false teachings. We must always be prepared to preach the gospel wherever we go, in our neighborhoods, on our jobs, when we shop, and when we play, every place we go we will be challenged to respond to lies and false teachings. To do this, we must know the Word. We must be certain of the truth of the gospel as it stands apart from the biases of our own cultural predispositions, or our ignorance and rebellion. We must preach with compassion and zeal realizing that we have been so greatly delivered from our sin. We now must proclaim to all nations the glory of the Lord and what He has done in the person and work of Jesus, in His atoning sacrifice on the cross for our sins.