Guard the Good Deposit

Guard the Good Deposit. The Apostle Paul and Timothy shared a special bond which Paul described as a spiritual father/son relationship. Paul likely shared the same bond with Silas, Titus, Epaphroditus, Luke, and the others mentioned in his epistles, but more of what he wrote to Timothy has been preserved than to the other protégés. He wrote of Timothy to Timothy: “my beloved and faithful son in the Lord” (1 Cor. 4:17), “my true child in the faith” (1 Tim. 1:2), and “my beloved child” (2 Tim. 1:2).

A native of Lystra, the notorious place where Paul was stoned and left for dead (Acts 14:19), Timothy’s mother (Eunice) and grandmother (Lois) were likely converted during or shortly after Paul’s first missionary journey through southern Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). When Paul returned to Lystra on his second missionary journey a few years later, he recruited young Timothy to join his company of itinerant missionaries (Acts 16:1-5). In a relatively short span of time, Timothy was ordained and installed as the bishop of Ephesus (1 Tim. 1:3, 18).

In the two letters written to Timothy in the New Testament, Paul spoke of the gospel in terms of a treasure that had been entrusted to him. “In accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted” (1 Tim. 1:11). As the word entrusted conveys, God placed into Paul’s stewardship “the pearl of great value” (Matt. 13:46). But Paul did not, as Jesus had described, “light a lamp and put it under a basket” (Matt. 5:15). Instead, Paul guarded the gospel by entrusting it again to the next generation of disciple-makers. “This charge I entrust to you, Timothy” (1 Tim. 1:18). “O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you” (1 Tim. 6:20). Deposit and entrust are forms of the same word.

Although the gospel proceeds from human to human, it is God alone who is the guarantor of the gospel. “I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me” (2 Tim. 1:12). “By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you” (2 Tim. 1:14). Finally, Paul encouraged Timothy to do what he had done with the gospel, to entrust it again further and wider. “What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (2 Tim. 2:2). Thus, the best strategy for guarding the good deposit is giving the gospel away.