2 Timothy 4:2

preach the word The unconnectedaorist is emphatic; so is the aorist, to indicate the -verb thought" standing out with prominence; -I adjure thee, remember preaching, persisting, reproving, rebuking, rousing, to it, in God's name!" If the tenses had been present, the stress would have been different; -Go on with each, keep on at it, form the habit of it."

be instant The other uses of the word in N.T. are either in the sense (of person) -coming and standing by" or (of time) -being present," cf. Acts 17:5; as below 2 Timothy 4:6. Here the sense is the classical one of giving attention," -applying oneself to a thing. Compare Dem. De Cor., 305. 7, -what means and resources our country possessed when I entered on the administration, what when I applied myself to itI collected for her."

in season, out of season An oxymoron, not to be pressed literally any more than the familiar nolens volens, but implying, as we should say, - constantapplication." Vulg. -opportune," -importune."

reprove The same word as in 2 Timothy 3:16, -reproof"; less strong than the following -rebuke," which St Paul has nowhere else; it is frequent in the Gospels, and occurs Judges 9.

exhort Or here perhaps -rouse"; see note on 1 Timothy 5:1. The order of the verbs in some mss. is -reprove, rouse, rebuke"; so Vulg. -argue obsecra increpa in omni patientia et doctrina," which the English Prayer-Book follows in the last prayer for the consecration of a Bishop -that he may be earnest to reprove, beseech and rebuke with all patience and doctrine."

longsuffering See 1 Timothy 1:16; 2 Timothy 3:10.

doctrine Rather teaching; this word only occurs in Titus 1:9 besides, of the Pastoral Epistles, though it is used by all the Evangelists and by St Paul four times in his other Epistles. The distinction, drawn Titus 1:9, holds equally here between this word and the word translated -doctrine" in 2 Timothy 4:3.