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"I give thee charge in the sight of God, Who quickeneth all things, and before
Christ Jesus, Who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession, that thou keep this
commandment without spot . . . . . O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust"
(I Tim. 6: 13, 14, 20).
Closely linked with the thought of not being ashamed in II Tim. 1: is the "testimony
of our Lord, and of Paul His prisoner" (II Tim. 1: 8). This is called "My deposit" (A.V.
"that which I have committed") in II Tim. 1: 12, and "That good thing which was
committed unto thee" in II Tim. 1: 14. This same trust is also in view in II Tim. 2: 2,
where the Apostle writes:
"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."
We must remember that II Timothy contains a message for ourselves at the present
time, and, as in Philippians, set before us "examples" both of those to whom the prize
will be awarded, and of those who will be "denied" (II Tim. 2: 12). No one can rightly
entertain the remotest hope of "reigning with the Lord" or of receiving a "crown", who is
ashamed of the special "deposit of truth" associated with the Lord's prisoner.
Before going further we must attempt to discover the structure of the passage. We
have already seen that the three references to "being ashamed" seem to divide the section
up into three parts. We therefore note this fact as follows:
Not ashamed of the testimony.--Paul the Prisoner (II Tim. 1: 8).
Not ashamed though suffering.--Paul the Prisoner (II Tim. 1: 12).
Not ashamed of my chain.--Paul the Prisoner (II Tim. 1: 16).
We next observe that in the first division the Apostle speaks particularly of the gospel:
"Be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel . . . . . brought life and immortality to
light through the gospel" (II Tim. 1: 8-10).
In the second section, the subject is "that good deposit" (II Tim. 1: 12, 14), service is
prominent; "He oft refreshed me"; "He ministered unto me" (II Tim. 1: 16-18). We
therefore note these facts as follows:
The subject of verses 8-12 is the Gospel.
The subject of verses 12-14 is the "good deposit".
The subject of verses 15-18 is service.
These three subjects, each associated with being unashamed, are connected by the
Apostle with two time periods. The Gospel is connected with a period "before the world
began" (II Tim. 1: 9), while the "good deposit" (II Tim. 1: 12) and the recognition of the
service of Onesiphorus (II Tim. 1: 16-18) are both connected with "that day".
We now have sufficient material to enable us to arrive at the structure: