I Give You This Charge

Council Fire · Oct 26, 2026 · 3m

“In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge:” 2 Timothy 4:1 (NIV) The punctuation (the colon) that appears after “this charge” informs us that something is to follow. What follows is verse two: “Preach the word!” “Charge” means to affirm solemnly, and to do it motivated by strong personal interest. Paul was saying to “thoroughly witness,” or “thoroughly testify” the Word of God. He definitely was not saying, “You can be sloppy with the Word,” or “People are busy, so you can skip that…