Charles Spurgeon Commentary 2 Timothy 4:2

"preach the word; be urgent in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching." — 2 Timothy 4:2 (ASV)

Be instant in season, out of season;

The Greek word means, "Stand up to it," as when a man is determined to finish his work, he stands right up to it. Stand over your work, putting your whole strength into it, standing right over it.

"In season, out of season," because the Gospel is a fruit which is in season all the year round. Sometimes these "out of season" sermons, preached at night or at some unusual time, have been of more service than the regular services of God's house. Mr. Grimshaw used to ride on horseback from village to village throughout the more desolate parts of Yorkshire, and wherever he met ten or a dozen people, he would preach on horseback to them, preaching sometimes as many as twenty-four sermons in a week. That was being instant "out of season" as well as "in season." So should God's Timothys be, and indeed, all of us.

Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

That is, do not exhort with mere declamation, but put some argument into your exhortation. Some men think it quite enough to appear to be in earnest, though they have nothing to say. Let such exhorters remember that they are to exhort with doctrine, with solid teaching.