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13 What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. 14 Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. ~ 2 Timothy 1:13-14
In our last passage of study, the Apostle Paul wrote about how his life was entrusted to God. In today's text Paul writes about how God has entrusted the word of God to Timothy. Can you imagine a world without truth? How chaotic it would be. There would be no trust for without the truth trust dies. Trust is quite difficult when we do not know who or what we are trusting.
In v.13 we read, "What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus."
The Apostle begins with, "What you heard from me." The "What" spoken of here in this verse is the truth from God, given to the Apostle Paul. The word "heard" reminds me of Romans 10:17 which reads, "Faith comes by hearing by the word of God." The word used here for "word" is rhema which is the spoken word of God. We do not hear God with our ears, we hear Him with our hearts and minds. It is the experiential word of God that gives birth to faith in our hearts. This is why we must be in the word daily, expecting God to speak to our hearts through His word.
The word “keep,” in our text, means to hold tightly or firmly, to grasp. The idea behind this word is to hold onto in such a way that we interact with it. In this way, it holds on to us. The truth is meant to be interactive. It was given to us by God in order to impact our lives in a qualitative way. We struggle with it and that is good. We must be careful to remain honest with it or we will trump it by what we think is right. Of course, our way is not the way.
We struggle with doubting the veracity of truth and this is normal. The Lord Jesus consistently made a distinction between doubt and unbelief, not doubt and faith. Doubt is the shadow cast by faith. Doubt is can’t believe, whereas unbelief is won’t believe. Doubt is honestly wrestling with the truth, but unbelief is being obstinate with the truth. Doubt is looking for light whereas unbelief is content with the darkness.
The word “pattern," means "an architect’s sketch.” In v,13 Paul writes, "keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus." This means the pattern came from the architect, God Himself. He is the architect of the truth and we are not making it, it is making us.
The word "sound" means "healthful and whole," words that will lead us to wholesome living. In Proverbs 14:12 we read, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but the ends thereof are the ways of death." There is our way that leads to destruction or there is God's way which leads us to a life filled with "faith and love which are in Christ Jesus."
It was the Holy Spirit who committed the truth to Paul, and then, Paul committed God's truth to Timothy. Apart from the ministry of the Holy Spirit, we are in the dark when it comes to having the truth and understanding it. God's word is so important because in it, God has shown us the way, the truth, and the life. And, from the beginning of human history, Satan has opposed God’s Word because "it is the power of God unto salvation for all who choose to believe it."
In v.14 we read, "Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us."
This word "guard" means to retain the standard of sound, wholesome, life-giving words. Be committed to it, to the proper theological structure, the proper interpretation of Scripture, the proper outline of the truth that produces spiritual growth, spiritual maturity. This will result in sound theology.
We live in a world where people get squeamish when we have biblically based convictions, but those with strong convictions must be bold. The "good deposit" is the Scriptures. Though the word truth does not actually appear in this verse, we are to "guard the truth with the help of the Spirit." The glory of Christianity is that it is knowledge that can free us from the lies that the world in its blindness is following to its own destruction.
It is not merely the words of the Bible that make it powerful, rather it is the presence of the Holy Spirit enlightening the words of God contained in the Bible. The Spirit illuminates the Bible so that we can take it to heart. He makes the words of the Bible living words that enlighten our minds, pierce our hearts, words that produce profound changes in attitude and behavior in us that we can't produce ourselves. This is the reason we must keep and guard it because it keeps and guards us.
