ACC ~ 2 Timothy 4 v2b

A RIGHT TIME. ATHANASIUS: It is our duty and obligation to remember and heed the special day of Easter Sunday every year. St. Paul taught his disciple Timothy to be aware of dates, saying, “Stand ready in season and out of season.” Paul wrote that, of course, so that Timothy would do things when they were supposed to be done and avoid the blame for doing things at the wrong time. FESTAL LETTERS 1.1.

BE TIMELY! CHRYSOSTOM: Let it always be your season, not merely in peace and security and when sitting in the church. HOMILIES ON 2 TIMOTHY 9.

LET INSTRUCTION BE ALWAYS AVAILABLE. CHRYSOSTOM: Therefore, let food, and bathing, and banqueting, and the other necessities of life have a definite time. But let instruction about the love of truth from above have no set hour—let all the time belong to it. “In season, out of season, reprove, entreat, rebuke,” Scripture says. And the prophet, “On his law he will meditate day and night.” And Moses too asked the Jews to do this continually. HOMILIES ON JOHN 18.4.

EVERY TIME OPPORTUNE. THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: Every occasion constitutes an opportune time for preaching. COMMENTARY ON 2 TIMOTHY.

HELPED AT THE RIGHT MOMENT. SEVERIAN OF GABALA: The opportune time for preaching and teaching is when the sinner needs the prophylaxis that will lead him to repentance. The sinner will be helped at exactly the right moment between the intention to sin and the commission of sin and will turn to penitence instead. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

TEACH BOLDLY. THEODORET OF CYR: Every occasion is appropriate for teaching, so long as this is done boldly and with forethought. INTERPRETATION OF THE SECOND LETTER TO TIMOTHY.

PREACHING ALWAYS FITTING. PELAGIUS: Preaching is always appropriate, whether to those who hear willingly or not. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND LETTER TO TIMOTHY.

NECESSARY AND TIMELY SPEECH. AUGUSTINE: I know that it is written, “In the multitude of words you shall not avoid sin.” But would that I were to speak only by preaching your word and by praising you, Lord! Not only would I avoid sin, but I would obtain a good reward, no matter how many words I spoke in this way. For the blessed Paul would not command a sin to his own true son in the faith, to whom he wrote, “Preach the word, be urgent in season, out of season.” For are we to say that a man did not speak many words, who not only in season but also out of season did not keep silent, O Lord, respecting your word? But they were not many, therefore, because they were only what was necessary. ON THE TRINITY 15.28.51.

THE GOLDEN MEAN. GREGORY THE GREAT: Pastoral guides must also see to it with careful concern that not only should nothing evil proceed from their lips but that not even what is proper be said in excess or in a slovenly manner. Often the force of what is said is wasted when it is enfeebled in the hearts of the hearers by a careless and offensive torrent of words. Indeed, this sort of loquacity defiles the speaker himself, inasmuch as it takes no notice of the practical needs of the hearer. … Thus Paul also, admonishing his disciple to be constant in preaching, said: I charge you before God and Jesus Christ, who shall judge the living and the dead, by his coming and his kingdom: preach the word, be instant in season, out of season. When he was about to say “out of season,” he premised it with “in season,” for if being in season is not combined with being out of season, the preaching destroys itself in the mind of the hearer by its worthlessness. PASTORAL CARE 2.4.

2 Tim