1 Timothy 6:20




'Timothy, guard what God has entrusted to you. Avoid godless, foolish discussions with those who oppose you with their so-called knowledge.'
In Greek, the name ‘Timothy’ literally means ‘he who honours God’. As Paul drew his letter to an end, he challenged Timothy to live up to his name. He would do that by looking after what had been entrusted to him. It is as if Paul was telling him that he had been called by God to look after a treasure chest, and he needed to ensure that it wasn’t spoilt in any way. It needed to be passed on to others. We all have exactly the same responsibility. Our Christian faith is so precious and important that we need to ensure we look after it so we can hand it on to the next generation.
Looking after our Christian faith sounds simple enough, but Paul often reminded Timothy that his faith would be continually under attack. Timothy needed to keep away from time-wasting conversations. The Greeks loved nothing better than to engage in philosophical debate and there was one particular school called the Academics, who thought that it was possible to find the precise opposite of every opinion by logical argument. They claimed that there was no such thing as absolute truth, because there would always be two opposite and logically satisfying conclusions on every subject. In their opinion, the wise person was one who never made up his mind about anything but lived forever in a state of suspended judgment. But the effect of that was to paralyse all action and to reduce everyone to complete uncertainty. This was precisely the sort of nonsense that Paul was arguing against. Timothy needed to make sure that he didn’t fritter away his life by becoming entangled in time-wasting debate that hindered action.




As we head into today, let’s remember that we are responsible for looking after the greatest treasure on earth. What
an incredible privilege it is that we have been invited to receive faith in Jesus Christ and care for it, passing it onto the next generation. The debates of our day may be very different from those in Paul and Timothy’s, but we need to be just as careful that we don’t allow the treasure to be spoilt.




Question: In what way are you conscious of the need to guard what God has entrusted to you?
Prayer: Loving God, thank you for the gift of faith. Help me to be strong and determined as I guard this precious gift. Amen

Released on 6 Oct 2022