κηρύσσω - to herald, proclaim, publish

Preach the word; be instant; in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. 2Timothy 4:2

Let's take a look at a few of the words used in this scripture recorded in St. Timothy's challenge to the believers of his day.

Upon first impression in the King James version it would appear that Timothy was addressing preachers, but a quick look into the Greek will indicate that everyone can acheive his call to action. The first word in verse two is the word "Preach". Let's take a look at this in the Strongs Hebrew and Greek Dictionary.

κηρύσσω
The English spelling is kērussō
It is pronounced  kay-roos'-so
Of uncertain affinity; to herald (as a public crier), especially divine truth (the gospel): - preach (-er), proclaim, publish.

Overall in the definition from Strong's Dictionary we can see the preacher's position in the heralding of the truth, but when it comes to proclaiming or publishing, do you think that could mean that any believer who decides to take a stand for the divine truth would be included? When most people take a stand for something that they believe in they typically make it known in some form or another. Wouldn't you agree?

That takes me to the next word that caught my attention. This word in the KJV is "instant".  If I told you to go and be instant, would you know what I meant by this statement? I thought about this and realized that I needed to look into this a little further and learn what the Greek word actually implied. As I searched the Greek dictionary I was surprised at what I found. Here's the definition from Strong's Greek and Hebrew Dictionary.

ἐφίστημι
The English spelling is ephistēmi
It is pronounced  ef-is'-tay-mee
To stand upon, that is, be present (in various applications, friendly or otherwise, usually literally): - assault, come (in, to, unto, upon), be at hand (instant), present, stand (before, by, over).

First Timothy tells us to proclaim the divine truth and then he says to be present or stand. Of course this is still refering to the previous challenge that he gives us to proclaim. Timothy wasn't going to leave any doubt in the mind of those believers that were reading his letter to their congregations. He says to stand in season and out of season. Someone may ask, if they weren't familiar with farming or hunting, "What's a season anyways?". In this case the words "in season" which comes from the Greek word "eukairōs"  actually  would be defined as "opportunity" or "convenient".  Then the words "out of season" which comes from the Greek word "akairōs" actually would be defined as "inopportunity".

What is Timothy telling the believers then?

Literally, he said,"Proclaim the truth, stand up and be present when it is a good time and even when it's not."

I was visiting out of state one Christmas with some friends and relatives and one of them suggested we go fishing at a near by creek, so I joined him in hopes that we could get back just in time to eat the turkey that was cooking in the oven. We went down the road a few miles and pulled over into a parking lot. I was not very familiar with this area or it's laws when it came to fishing, but I assumed that this guy I was with, who lived there, would be informed as to what we could and couldn't do. We grabbed our stuff and headed over a hill down to a big creek to do some fishing. About a half hour into our fishing, a man in a military uniform appears at the top of the hill and in not so nice a manner orders us to bring our things and make our presence at the top of the hill in the parking lot. I looked at the guy and he just shrugged his shoulders.

The man in uniform informed us that not only were we fishing in a designated trout stream on federal property without a license, but it was also out of season for trout fishing. Then he informed us that we would be going straight to jail if we had any trout in our cooler. That was a very big IF!  He ordered us to open the cooler and after confirmation of our catch, he let us go with only a warning. What he didn't know was, that the guy I was with had caught, and then let squirm out of his hands, one of the biggest trout I have ever seen just about ten minutes after we had arrived at the creek. I have never felt so disappointed that we lost a record trout, yet blessed as I did on that day when we got back just in time to eat some Christmas turkey.

I was present that day, it was out of season and I certainly hadn't researched the facts about fishing in the state of Georgia. When that officer declared us guilty of our offences, he certainly did a good job of teaching me the laws. It has been many years since and I still vividly remember most of what that man had to say to us as if it were yesterday.

I guess, you could say that he was proclaiming the truth and he was certainly present to back up the laws in season and out of season.

How could we apply this to our spiritual life today? Is it our responsibility to declare the truth to the future generations who, like myself on that day, may be ignorant of the spiritual truths?