"Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us." 2 Timothy. 1:13, I4

There is no hint of a generation gap in the relationship between old Paul and young Timothy. Out of deep affection and in terms of their common loyalty to the Saviour Paul speaks freely and frankly to his younger colleague; his topics including the deep mysteries of the faith, the supervision of the churches and the qualities of church leaders, and practical everyday things like money, sex and idle chatter.

Inevitably, Paul's fondness for Timothy expresses itself in terms of gratitude for the graces evident in the young man and a yearning that he will not be daunted by the discouraging circumstances of Paul the prisoner. He recalls with thankfulness the faith that perpetuates a godly line from grandmother Lois through Eunice his mother, to Timothy. This faith in Christ makes a man appreciative of every gift bestowed by God and Paul refers particularly to a gift (charisma) transmitted by the laying on of his hands which he wishes Timothy to exercise diligently. For the possession of the gift is one thing: the courage and discretion to use it properly, is another. Paul is certain that the God who bestows gifts accompanies them with the moral and spiritual qualities for their exercise, "for God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power and of love, and of a sound mind". So, far from being put off by Paul's hardships Timothy should welcome the opportunity to participate in the affliction of the gospel as being, at the same time, an opportunity of a new experience of the power of the Gospel--specifically its death-denuding and life-giving 46 power. The apostle indicates that his own experience runs parallel to this. He suffers: but he is not ashamed, for the God who has put him in a position of trust will sustain him in the discharge of that trust in view of the day of reckoning. Once again, therefore, Paul invites Timothy to partner him in apostolic service, bidding him "keep the pattern of sound words, which you heard from me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit through the Holy Spirit who abides in us".

Before attempting to elucidate some of the doctrines of the text it is worthwhile glancing at two key phrases which Paul employs, our interpretation of which will determine the exegesis of the passage as a whole.

1. "The form of sound words."

The expression raises the question whether Paul refers to a stylized and more or less stereotyped form of words in which the truth was summarized or whether he refers to a more general pattern exhibiting the essentials of the truth without hardening its expression in conformity with a specific idiom. Elsewhere (I Tim. 1:16) Paul uses the same word to describe how the extension of mercy to him as the chief of sinners constituted a pattern or form of the long-suffering of Christ to subsequent believers. All rely on the same Saviour: all are succoured by the same mercy. All give evidence of the same pattern of long-suffering on the part of Christ: but there is nothing formalized in the application of truth in each Christian's experience. We infer therefore that there is nothing in Paul's use of this expression to justify inertia or "laissez-faire" in theological thinking or practical evangelism. In the presentation of the truth we are not under obligation to retain the idiom of any age or the thought forms of any school. On the contrary, if we recognise the living quality of the truth and its essential concern with "faith and love in Jesus Christ", we lie under the necessity of giving it contemporary expression in the actual situation which confronts us. This may expose us to risk for the truth's sake. For we must be alive to the temptation to blunt the edge of truth by sheathing it in conventional forms of expression. There can be an avoidance of the relevance of truth, a shirking of the scandal of the Cross which camouflages itself as concern for retention of "the form of sound words", solidifying the pattern instead of recognizing it as Calvin does as "a living expression of things". Our forms must not constitute an esoteric science like Egyptian hieroglyphics which are meaningful only to a few scholars. They must be the living expression of the truth which is life "in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus".

2. "That good thing committed to thee guard."

Nowadays one often hears this rendered "guard the good deposit". The expression is the same as Paul uses two verses earlier where he declares confidence that God is able "to guard my deposit against that day". Whether by "my deposit" Paul means "what I have entrusted to God", or "what God has entrusted to me" will no doubt keep commentators arguing. What concerns us in the particular text before us is that the deposit entrusted to Timothy includes more than a written or oral embodiment of the gospel: includes also the gifts and graces needful to the man who is put in trust with the Gospel. As priests and levites were together responsible not only for the observance of the ritual but for the maintenance of the whole fabric of tabernacle and temple, so the Christian and especially the office-bearers of the Church have a stewardship in regard to all that affects the Church as "the pillar and ground of the truth". We have the pattern of doctrine; we have the gifts of grace. They healthily react upon one another, the appreciation of the truth stirring up the gifts of grace and grace exciting us ever more eagerly to study the pattern of sound words and this living development of grace and truth is always energized by the Spirit of God who alone can make us sufficient for the things committed to our charge.

We propose to summarize the teaching of our text in four simple propositions.

(I) Christian activity must have the Word as its constant point of reference

Paul recognizes that Timothy is and ought to be a busy man--a student and a workman. But he insists that what busies mind and hand must be consistent with, and calculated to advance, the spread and understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Word will provide him with his syllabus of studies and his work-sheet for life. This is a principle more easy to proclaim than to practise. For we are all disposed to develop interests and activities-legitimate in themselves but which distort the Christian order of priorities. Who of us at the end of each day can lay our hand on our heart and say "I was busy this day about my Father's business?" To be busy about the right things, to be most in the greatest matters we have to consult continually the Word of God-to consult and to obey.

Whilst we pay lip service to the supremacy of the Word in faith and life we are always under pressure to accord practical precedence to something else. Unawares, we may lay chief emphasis on a theology of experience or a theology of expedience and think that we have not deviated from the pattern of sound words. To be sure, experience colours our understanding of the Word, and expedience dictates priorities in certain limited areas; but neither of these should ever become ultimates. It is just possible that our experience is perverse or that our expedience is a cover for cowardice, avarice or vain ambition. They are themselves subject to scrutiny in the light of the Word, to correction and even to overthrow if the Word so directs.

When men take the Word of God seriously they become bold, adventurous and confident. For it is in terms of the Divine mandate that they not only covet but claim the world for Christ. Lack of physical resources, of popular acclaim, of visible evidences of success have never deterred those whose programme of activity is dictated by a conscience fully alive to the demands of the truth as it is in Christ. We are not to be like political parties having our confidence inflated or deflated by the results of opinion polls. Our task is delineated in the Word: we must examine our programmes in the light of the Word. This is our constant point of reference.

(2) The Living Christ vivifies the pattern of oral and written testimony

In advancing this proposition we have no part with those who polarize the authority of Christ and of the Scriptures.

In an attempt to dissipate the embarrassment which acknowledgment of the authority of Scripture involves, these people deal with the Word as though it was the product of impressionist artists. Through the mists of myth and legend they seek the figure of a real person who can speak to them with authority. We are conscious of no such disjunction between Christ and the Word His Spirit inspires. The authority of the Word is His authority.

But when we hear Paul speak "in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus" we reflect not only upon the spirit in which the apostle ministers the truth to Timothy but look to "the Author and Finisher of our faith" in whom all Christian grace has its definitive exposition and its constant inspiration. In Him, faith and love are not abstract graces or distant ideals but of the very essence of the life that is in perfect accord and fellowship with the Father. There can be no confusion in the thinking, no hesitancy or indecision in face of complex moral issues when faith and love are in perfect exercise. This is not the major part of the explanation of our Lord's knowing always the things that pleased His Father--but it is not insignificant and belongs in the area where the Christian is to be conformed to His likeness. As one who has so learned of the Lord that he reproduces his accents Paul speaks to Timothy; "In faith and love which is in Christ Jesus". He would deem himself to have failed in his ministry unless he had pointed his young friend directly to Christ himself. This is our perennial task and privilege. "We preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord." If we fail it may well be because people see too much of us and not enough of Christ in us and in our proclamation of His grace. Our graces are not on display for admiration. If our light shines and our good works are seen it is in order that men may glorify our Father who is in Heaven. We need to become more and more absorbed in the glory of our Redeemer. This is the only sure cure for' undue self-consciousness; the only certain disperser of that embarrassment and shame that lurks ever in the corners of the mind. "I am not ashamed for I know whom I believed." Awareness of the living person; experience of the fellowship of Christ is what makes Paul's testimony not an official dictum but the natural and irrepressible expression of the life that is in him.

This is a first principle. There is no understanding of the Scriptures; there is no reception of testimony until the reader and the hearer become aware of the living Person of the Saviour whom it all concerns. At whatever Scripture we begin we must preach to our people Christ. He is the meaning of it all.

The worthy proclaiming of the Saviour involves us in the faith and love of which He is Author and Finisher. We cannot genuinely invite men to trust in a Saviour in whom we do not ourselves confide. We cannot hold up to admiration love which in our own hearts goes unrequited. The elucidation of Biblical doctrine is never an exclusively intellectual exercise aimed at formal correctness of notions-but always a stimulation of the heart's affections. What the systematizing of doctrine does is to assemble the information we have about our Lord and His work, so that our devotion to His Person will be more intense and intelligent. "Whom having not seen we love." We do not love the unknown; we need to know more about Him that we may love Him better. This is our involvement "in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus". It is not a matter of mere formal correctness of concept and practice but of personal enthusiasm for Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. We move in the same area of thought where the apostle speaks of "faith and a good conscience". They go together--the proclamation and practice of godliness. Would God that we all could say without blushing that our testimony is "in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus''.

(3) What God gives the Christian must guard

"Guard the good deposit," said Paul, as one who had himself a lively sense of stewardship in regard to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But here we have the paradox of Christian experience so well expressed in the proverb. "There is that scattereth and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet but it tendeth to poverty" (Prov. 2:24)· For the guarding of the gospel and its graces is not by incarceration. He who hides his talent in the earth and says to His master "Lo there thou hast that is thine" has opted out of his stewardship and invites the description "thou wicked and slothful servant .. ." The guarding of the gospel necessitates the proclamation of the Gospel in its fullness and purity by word and life. It is not by accident but as one carried on by the essential logic of the truth, that Paul, warning against "the sleight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive)', sets over against this "speaking the truth in love". The truth is not guarded by silence but by proclamation in love. In the constant human debate we must therefore be in the thick of things, making known the Gospel of salvation. By all means let us test every formulation of doctrine by reference to the Word. Let us try every spirit whether it be of God. Let us not yield one jot or tittle of God's revealed truth. But let us remember that we are holders not of a treasure which is to be hidden in the dark vaults of theological banks, but of the minted currency of the kingdom of God which is for use, for the enrichment of all who receive it. "Stir up the gift that is in thee ... and so guard the good deposit.''

(4) Christian guardianship can be discharged only in the power of the Holy Spirit

"Guard through the Holy Spirit" is Paul's counsel and it confirms what we have said of the implicate of applying the truth to the existent situation. For the Spirit of God is not the spirit of inertia but of power. His living energy is the life of the Christian and the Church. He it is who leads us into the truth, who teaches us the things of Christ. If in our hearts there is the glow of love to Christ; if zeal for His glory burns in us, be sure it is by the working in us of the Spirit promised by the Saviour--the Holy Paraclete of whom He declared--"He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear that shall he speak. ... He shall glorify me for he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you." Not to one unwilling and aloof do we cry "Come, Holy Spirit, our souls inspire .. ." but to one who was given to the Church at Pentecost to be in her for ever. So Peter proclaimed, "This Jesus hath God raised up. ... Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear." This was the power for which the apostles were bidden tarry at Jerusalem. This is the power which is the continuing gift to the Church. "He dwells in us," says Paul. Elsewhere he reminds us that our bodies are the temple of the Spirit of God. This is what assures us that the Christian gospel is not the proclamation of an unattainable ideal. There is a communication of power: and in the guarding of the truth we do not go it alone. He who makes the truth "spirit and life" is with us and in us. Let us seek an intensifying awareness of His presence and power. So let us "guard the good deposit". May His blessing abide upon us.

 

Rev Principal - Emeritus Clement Graham has retired but was formerly minister of of Tain & Edderton and was Principal of Free Church College and Professor of Apologetics.