Handling Truth (6:20-21)
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O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge”—which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith. Grace be with you. (6:20-21)
In 1 Timothy 3:15, Paul describes the church as “the pillar and support of the truth.” Throughout history the true church has clung to the truth amid the swirling storms of persecution from without, and the insidious attacks of false teaching from within. Countless thousands of martyrs have paid the ultimate price rather than abandon or compromise the precious truth of God’s Word. The church today has received that legacy of truth from those who have gone before. It is our responsibility to guard the truth, proclaim it, and hand it down unadulterated to those who will come after us.
That is a formidable challenge in our day. The cynical despair of Pilate, who demanded, “What is truth?” (John 18:38) permeates our culture. Dr. Mark M. Hanna notes that
we are facing the following pernicious but widely held assumptions today:
(1) It is doubtful that there is such a thing as truth; but if there is, it cannot be known.
(2) If there is such a thing as truth, it is very unlikely that there is any religious truth. (Crucial Questions in Apologetics [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1981], 21; italics in original)
Unfortunately, it is a challenge the church today is often ill-prepared to meet. Called to be salt and light in the world, the church instead readily compromises with it. Secular psychology, based on pagan views of man, and an atheistic view of origins (evolution) are warmly embraced by many calling themselves evangelical Christians. They then proceed to reinterpret Scripture to accommodate those antibiblical views. Pragmatism is in; commitment to biblical truth is denigrated as poor marketing strategy. (For a further discussion of those points, see my book Ashamed of the Gospel [Wheaton, III.: Crossway, 1993].)
The most important yardstick by which a church can be measured is not how large it is, how good its fellowship is, or how interesting the pastor is. It is not how good the music is, how well the grounds are kept up, or how respected it is in the community. The most important measure of any church is how it handles the Word of God. Whether or not they teach and live out divine truth is the key issue, because the church’s responsibility before God is to guard and proclaim the truths of Scripture. Consequently, the most severe crime against God is to mishandle His revelation, thus portraying a false, idolatrous image of Him to the world.
Scripture must be treated with reverence and care because it is the self-revelation of God. The psalmist writes, “Thou hast magnified Thy word according to all Thy name” (Ps. 138:2). Psalm 119:161 adds, “My heart stands in awe of Thy words,” while in Isaiah 66:2 God declares, “To this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.” To fail to take God’s Word seriously, whether by careless interpretation or by careless living, is to fail to take God Himself seriously. And if the church fails to take God seriously, why should the world?
Scripture is replete with warnings against perverting God’s Word, as well as exhortations to guard it. Deuteronomy 4:2 cautions, “You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you”—a warning echoed by the apostle John in Revelation 22:18-19:
I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God shall add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.
Paul, defending his ministry to the Corinthians, wrote, “We are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God” (2 Cor. 2:17). The apostle distanced himself from those hucksters who twisted Scripture to their own evil ends. Jude appealed to his readers to “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3), while Paul exhorted his beloved son in the faith Timothy to “retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you” (2 Tim. 1:13-14).
Like today’s church, the believers in first-century Ephesus also faced the temptation to compromise the truth of God’s Word. Ephesus was a fervently pagan city, site of the temple of the goddess Diana (Artemis), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Having ministered there himself for three years (Acts 20:31), Paul was well aware of the pressures and temptations to compromise or abandon the truth facing the Ephesian church. Not surprisingly, then, his two letters to their pastor (Timothy) are filled with exhortations to live, proclaim, and guard the truth. Indeed, those exhortations form a fitting summary of the two epistles:
As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus, in order that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith. But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. For some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion, wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions. (1 Tim. 1:3-7)
This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. (1:18-19)
An overseer, then, must be … able to teach. (3:2)
But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods, which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with gratitude; for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer. In pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following. But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. (4:1-7)
Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching. (4:13)
Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things; for as you do this you will insure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you. (4:16)
Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. (5:17)
Teach and preach these principles. If anyone advocates a different doctrine, and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. (6:2b-5)
Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. (6:12-14)
Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you. (2 Tim. 1:13-14)
The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. (2:2)
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth. But avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness. (2:15-16) Evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them; and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. (3:13-17)
I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. (4:1-7)
The noble apostle’s triumphant epitaph (2 Tim. 4:7) expresses the very heart of the ministry. Despite all the opposition and persecution he endured, Paul successfully guarded the truth entrusted him until the end of his life. And by his teaching and example he bids all Christians to do likewise.
As in his charge to the rich (1 Tim. 6:17-19), Paul gives Timothy three principles about handling truth: a duty to fulfill, a danger to avoid, and a development to consider.
THE DUTY TO FULFILL
O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you,(6:20a)
O reflects Paul’s emotional appeal to his beloved son in the faith. Timothy means “one who honors God,” and the apostle calls upon him to live up to his name. Guard is from phulassō, a word used of keeping valuables in a safe place. What has been entrusted to you translates one word in the Greek, parathēkē, which means “deposit.” The deposit Timothy was to guard is the truth. J. N. D. Kelly writes,
The suggestion is that the Christian message … is not something which the church’s minister works out for himself or is entitled to add to; it is a divine revelation which has been committed to his care, and which it is his bounden duty to pass on unimpaired to others. (The Pastoral Epistles [Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1987], 150)
Paul told the Thessalonians, “For our exhortation does not come from error or impurity or by way of deceit; but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men but God, who examines our hearts” (1 Thess. 2:3-4). To the Corinthians he wrote, “Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Cor. 4:1). Every Christian, especially those in the ministry, has that sacred trust to guard.
THE DANGER TO AVOID
avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge” (6:20b)
Ektrepō (avoiding) means “to turn away from.” False doctrine must be avoided like the deadly plague it is. Worldly translates bebēlos, a word that originally referred to everything outside the sacred grounds of a Greek temple. It describes what is outside the realm of truth, and hence unholy and profane. Such empty chatter consists of useless, vain arguments that lead only to ungodliness (2 Tim. 2:16).
Opposing translates antithesis, a technical term used in rhetoric for a counter proposition in a debate. Timothy was to avoid the pseudo-intellectual arguments of those who merely wanted to attack Scripture. Such talk “will spread like gangrene” (2 Tim. 2:17).
THE DEVELOPMENT TO CONSIDER
which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith. (6:21)
The danger of false teaching is obvious. Some have professed it and thus gone astray from the faith. The development to consider is apostasy, the abandoning of the truth which, sadly, is so common. Peter warns of false teachers who fall to the danger of error and lead many astray:
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift de struction upon themselves. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned. (2 Peter 2:1-2)
Paul pleads with Timothy not to become like false teachers, but to guard the deposit of truth he had been entrusted to protect. What is involved in such protection? How can the treasure of truth be guarded?
First, by believing the Word of God. In John 5:24, Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” John wrote in his first epistle, “I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one” (1 John 2:14).
Second, by honoring the Word. Job said, “I have not departed from the command of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food” (Job 23:12).
Third, by loving the Word. In Psalm 119:97, the psalmist professes, “0 how I love Thy law! It is my meditation all the day.”
Fourth, by obeying the Word. In John 8:31, Jesus said to those who had professed belief in Him, “If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine.”
Fifth, by proclaiming the Word. Paul charged Timothy to “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction” (2 Tim. 4:2).
Sixth, by defending the Word. Jude 3 reads, “Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.”
Seventh, by studying the Word. Paul commanded Timothy, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15).
Paul’s closing salutation, Grace be with you (plural), goes beyond Timothy to embrace the entire congregation at Ephesus. All Christians are responsible to preserve and pass on to the next generation the precious heritage of truth they have received.