What the minister is to do with the Word — the Word from God that brings salvation and prepares the Christian to do God’s work — is to preach it. And in his instructions to Timothy, the apostle Paul indicates what that preaching ought to include.
In the first place, preaching must be evangelical, which simply means that it takes as its central theme the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Greek word for preach (kerygma) is the word for proclamation. So when Paul told Timothy to preach, he was telling him to proclaim the good news of the gospel. A minister is a herald who makes the royal announcement of salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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Good preaching is always evangelistic, which perhaps is why Paul went on to remind Timothy to “do the work of an evangelist” (2 Tim. 4:5). Even though he was the pastor of an established church, Timothy still needed to reach the lost. Proclaiming the gospel was a necessary part of his ongoing work as a minister. A preacher is an evangelist who, in one way or another, is always saying to people, both in public and in private, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31 ).
This kind of proclamation requires boldness, a virtue that is sadly lacking in the contemporary church. One of the reasons evangelicalism is in decline is that Christians have lost their nerve. In these post-Christian times, we are all too content to live in our own private enclaves, reinforcing our own opinions by attending our own schools, forming our own clubs, and reading our own magazines. However, it is not the herald’s job to stay at home. His task is to go out and confront people with his message, which in this case is the most important message ever proclaimed: the free gift of eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ.
In addition to being evangelical, preaching must also be doctrinal. Preserving sound doctrine is a major emphasis in the pastoral epistles. According to Paul, anyone who wants to be a good minister must watch his doctrine closely (1 Tim. 4:16) and “correctly handle the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15). He must maintain “the truths of the faith” (1 Tim. 4:6), also described as “the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Tim. 6:3) and “the pattern of sound teaching” (2 Tim. 1:13).
Paul understood that the future of the church depends on the defense of its doctrine. When he charged Timothy to preach the Word, therefore, what he had in mind was the preaching of biblical doctrine. This is clear from the end of 2 Timothy 4:2, where Timothy is told to preach with “careful instruction,” which again means “doctrine.”
The reason he needed to preach this way is given in the following verse: “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine” (2 Tim. 4:3). If the problem is unsound doctrine, then obviously the solution is good, doctrinal teaching.