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 . . .
2 Timothy 4:1–2a
In 2 Timothy 4:1, Paul charges Timothy to commit himself to preaching. In this final epistle of his life, Paul labors to impress on Timothy the seriousness of this charge. We can see how seriously Paul considers the preaching task by noticing five qualifying phrases.
First, I solemnly charge you. I imagine that Timothy would have been startled by Paul’s use of “solemn” in this verse. After all, it’s not like Paul was only discussing light and trivial matters in the previous chapter. Paul had just encouraged Timothy to affirm Scripture as God’s Word, to follow him in suffering, and to protect the sheep from false teaching. For Paul, faithful preaching is a matter of utmost solemnity.
Second, I solemnly charge you in the presence of God. Timothy must give an account of his ministry to the judge of all creation—the maker of heaven and earth. Paul is essentially saying, “The audience for this solemn oath-taking ceremony is the Lord Himself.” Paul wants Timothy to be aware that
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