Pastor, preacher, teacher, here is the question: What is the last sermon you preached that took Spirit-supplied courage? Christian man, what is the last conversation, small group, or family devotion that required a word from God that you knew beforehand could cost you? Who has bad-mouthed you, slandered you, gossiped about you, despised you because of your allegiance to the Bible?

A serious issue persisted in the days of Jeremiah: The people were walking according to their own ways, not the ways of the Lord. They were stubborn idolaters, child-sacrificers, a people called by the name of God but filled with the works of Satan. Yet another serious issue persisted in the days of Jeremiah: The prophets prophesied lies in response to the people’s sin. These false men of God spoke “visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord” (Jeremiah 23:16).

Those visions were dipped in flattery. They tickled ears and massaged flesh, forecasting sunshine when a tornado formed over the heads of the wicked. Jeremiah saves a pew for us to hear their preaching:

They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, “It shall be well with you”; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, “No disaster shall come upon you.” (Jeremiah 23:17)

The people despised God’s word and followed their own hearts, but the seeming men of God met them with blessing. After all, these were sons of Abraham, God’s people. The Almighty wouldn’t really tear Israel down by the hands of Babylon — would he?

Positivity Prophets

That was then. But it is also today. Evils persist in our day. Lawlessness increases; love grows cold. It was foretold to Timothy that in the last days, people would be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, disobedient to parents, unholy, unappeasable. Babies are slaughtered in the womb; celebrities dress like prostitutes; perversion parades through the streets; God’s name is used as a piñata; we as a society have forgotten how to blush. Even many who claim religion are “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:4–5). So it is.

But the other issue persists as well. In pulpits across America and beyond, some men know only how to say, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace. They speak lies and half-truths. They heal the wound of religious people lightly, blessing those actively ignoring God’s word and following their own hearts. These are men who rarely mention sin. And never warn of hell. They preach as if all within earshot are already safe and sound in the kingdom. Do we who know better preach better? The market for this kind of teaching was foretold long ago:

The time is coming [and is now here] 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. (2 Timothy 4:3–4)

To combat their buttery pulpitry, Timothy is told to do a rather risky thing: “Preach the word.”

That sounds exciting, we may think. But Paul continues: “Reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.…As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” (2 Timothy 4:2, 5). The preacher is to deal honestly with sinners (inside and outside of the church), telling them of sin, testing their convictions, offering God’s one way of escape, and risking their indignation. Courage is required. The preacher is called to care for people’s eternities, preparing them to die and stand before Christ.

Timothy, in the line of persecuted Jeremiah, will proclaim truths that will make some of his believing and unbelieving hearers angry, uneasy, frustrated — maybe even threatening. He is told to stir up his gifts by a father in the faith who is sitting in prison, ready to die for declaring the whole counsel of God. Paul calls him to faithfully preach and thus “share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:3).

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