13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Timothy 4:13 (translated from the NA28 Greek text)
One of those things all Christians, and especially Christian leaders, should be about is obeying Paul’s command in 1 Timothy 4:13. Let us look within that command at what Paul means by “exhortation.” As is the case with so many other words, our English word, “exhortation” does not quite carry the same depth of meaning as does its Koine Greek equivalent….
In this post we will look at both the Greek noun is translated as Exhortation, παράκλησις (paraklēsis) as well as παρακαλέω (parakaleō), which is often translated as “beseech.” Why do this? Much of what passes for preaching and teaching in the visible church these days in neither of these things, as we shall see. Consider this a call to repent to those Christian leaders who have compromised their ministries in order to become less controversial or to be more man pleasing as well as a time for you to learn how to discern that what you are hearing from your Church leaders is from God or not.