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#4. The Doctrine.
"That Good Deposit."
pp. 109 - 111
We have seen that (1) "other doctrine" is to be discountenanced; and (2) an
appreciation of the purpose of God and our stewardship must be continually before us.
We have one other phase of this subject to consider before we have a complete
presentation of the truth. If the apostle in his opening words charges Timothy to give no
heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister questions, but rather to exercise
the stewardship of God in faith, at the close of the epistle he says:--
"O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain
babblings . . . . ." (I Tim. 6: 20).
It is very evident that "stewardship" is echoed in the words, "committed to thy trust".
What had been committed to Timothy's trust that he must hold against all seduction
and opposition? By turning to the original we find that a rather peculiar word, paratheke,
is used, translated "that which is committed to thy trust". The marginal note of the R.V.
is "the deposit". The word occurs again in II Tim. 1: 14, where we read in the A.V.
"That good thing that was committed unto thee", where again the R.V. margin reads,
"the good deposit". In II Tim. 1: 12 the apostle uses the word of himself:--
"I suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed; for I know Whom I have
believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep MY DEPOSIT against that day."
The passage does not mean what Paul had deposited with the Lord, as a well known
hymn so stresses, but rather what had been deposited by the Lord with Paul. To this the
apostle refers in the preceding verse:--
"Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles."
What was this "deposit", this "entrusted thing", that Timothy was to keep, and that the
apostle knew his Lord would guard? Surely we have the explanation in verses 13 and 14
of the same chapter, viz.:--
"Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard from me, in faith and love
which is in Christ Jesus. That good deposit keep."
That which Timothy was to hold fast, that which he was so solemnly called upon to
keep or to guard, is one and the same thing. In the first place it had been entrusted to the
apostle Paul, "my deposit" (II Tim. 1: 12). This was in turn committed to Timothy to hold
fast and to keep. In his turn he was to "commit" or "deposit as a trust" the self-same
teaching to faithful men who shall be able to teach others (II Tim. 2: 2). The good
deposit is defined as "a form of sound words". An old hymn has it:--