Utmost Patience

"...with the utmost patience in teaching."

 - 2 Timothy 4

Paul urges his young disciple, Timothy to convince people, to preach, to exhort, without ceasing. Yes, "urges." And do we stop to think that, when you "urge" someone, there is a sense of "urgency"? 

The message is urgent. Not because Christ was fooling people by promising He'd return soon, and then taking at least two thousand years to do so, but because the day of salvation is today. The time for salvation is now.

The Kingdom of God is eternal. It's neverending now. It's this very moment, continuing.

And so we have to preach now. We need them to receive Christ now. We can't put it off, because now is always right now. You cannot put off this present moment. And that's the point. 

And Paul says to proceed in any manner that is practical, and practicable. 

But this part here was very impactful to me this afternoon: "with the utmost patience."

That's where we blow it. We take an urgent message, and then ruin it by sharing it in a way that is too pushy. If it's urgent, you need to take time to do it right. And so Paul says to be patient. We all know what "patient" is. We know what it looks like. We know when we're around a patient person, versus someone who is impatient. And we know which is more appealing.

So remember that we do have an urgent message to spread. But also remember that it will not spread if we are not patient.