“Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.”
preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. — Timothy's core mandate: kēryssō (preach) the logos (word) with temporal flexibility (eukairos akairō). His methodology includes three corrective acts (elegchō, epitimaō, parakaleoō) undergirded by makrothumia (patience) and didaskalia (instruction).
Church Fathers on 2 Timothy 4:2
What means “in season, out of season”? That is, have not any limited season: let it always be your season, not only in peace and security, and when sitting in the Church. Whether thou be in danger, in prison, in chains, or going to your death, at that very time reprove. Withhold not rebuke, for reproof is then most seasonable, when your rebuke will be most successful, when the reality is proved. “Exhort,” he says. After the manner of physicians, having shown the wound, he…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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