Law, Prophets and Psalms, in Gospels, Acts and Epistles, but when we examine

the exhortation given in 2 Timothy 1:13 we realize that the apostle has some

special dispensational aspect of truth before him.  The sound words which

constitute the preliminary outline that Timothy should retain are limited by

the apostle's words `which thou hast heard of Me'.

There is a great stress laid by Paul on the personal pronoun in this

connection.  The Greek pronoun ego occurs three times, me occurs eight times,

emou four times, eme once, emoi once and emos once.

Of this number of references the following have a bearing upon the

`form of sound words'.

Paul was the appointed preacher, apostle, and teacher of the

Gentiles (2 Tim. 1:11) `whereunto I am appointed' (ego).

Paul was granted the dispensation of the Mystery as `The prisoner

of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles' (Eph. 3:1) consequently he says

`Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor

of me His prisoner' (2 Tim. 1:8 eme).

Paul having the office of preacher, apostle, teacher and prisoner

of the Lord for us Gentiles, received by revelation the truth and

was the appointed channel through whom it should first of all be

made known (Eph. 3:7 -9), where observe his consciousness of the

insistent `I' and `me', which he offsets with the words:

`Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints'.  Consequently when

he speaks of the `form of sound words' he adds `which thou hast heard of me'

(2 Tim. 1:13); when he further gives instruction concerning the training of

other teachers, he says `The things that thou hast heard of me among many

witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach

others also' (2 Tim. 2:2); and referring to the Divine interposition on his

account, he says: `Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened

me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles

might hear; and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion' (2 Tim. 4:17

It is therefore the very essence of truth to Timothy that he should

remember the distinctive character of the apostle's peculiar stewardship and

the dispensation entrusted to him, and so model his preaching and teaching

that the terms both of the gospel and the dispensational position which are

the glory of the present dealings of God with men, should be kept constantly

before him as a standard with which all must be brought into line.  We never

`heard' Paul preach, but what he said `among many witnesses' is incorporated

in those glorious epistles which constitute the charter and instruction of

the church of the Mystery.  From these epistles, we too may discover a `form

of sound words' which being followed will render us unashamed workmen in that

This form of sound words, enjoined by the apostle Paul, was not only

`heard', not only attested `among many witnesses', not only endorsed and

accredited by his `manner of life', but it bore the Divine Hallmark of

purity, by being `in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus' (2 Tim. 1:13).

What do these words actually signify?  Some associate them with the way

in which Timothy heard the sound words, some in the way in which Paul himself

received and delivered them, but the most natural meaning seems to be that

Timothy was to `hold fast ... in faith and love', that form of sound words