In 2 Timothy 1:12, Paul reminds us that God, Himself, is the ultimate guardian of the  Gospel.  He also  tells Timothy that all Christians  have a  responsibility  to “guard the Gospel.” What   does it  mean to “guard the Gospel?”  The  word for  “guard” is a  military term used of a soldier on watch.   Paul  reminds Timothy and us to trust the  security of God.

Paul charges  Timothy in 2 Tim. 1:13-14 to build upon the  rock-solid confidence he  has in the unchanging  gospel to “Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.  By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.”  The  word “follow” is  also translated “hold on to.”  The  word for “sound”  means “healthy.”

The gospel makes  spiritually sick people whole in Christ. Timothy  is  told to give God’s people healthy teaching (doctrine)  so that they can  “grow in the  grace and  knowledge of the  Lord Jesus.” (2 Peter 3:18)

The  gospel is not just  healthy words and the  outline for our teaching, but  it may be thought of as the “good deposit. ” (2 Tim. 1:14, ESV) The  Greek word for “good” can be translated as “beautiful.”  That means that  the  gospel is beautiful, and it is to be  “guarded” with such care that it is not damaged. Timothy experienced the  presence of  heretics  in his ministry in Ephesus.  It is no  different  in our day. It is  because if this that we must “guard” the  precious  gospel.

Paul stopped at Miletus in Acts 20:28-30  to see the  Ephesian elders. He  told them that the  Holy Spirit had made them “overseers” to care for the church of God.”  He  told them  that there  would be threats to the   church  from  within.  In light of that, they. as well as us today, have a  responsibility to completely  stand upon the  Word of God because it is  there that we  find the resources  to live the Christian  life. Paul wrote in Eph. 6:11 that  we must “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.”

If we do this, we  will be faithfully  “guarding the Gospel,”  and “contending earnestly for the  faith that was once for all delivered to the  saints.” (Jude 3).

from  An Approved Servant of the Lord Series  http://larryslines.com

Larry Miles is part-time minister at the Mackville Church of Christ in Mackville,KY. He attends

                 Cherry St. Church of Christ, New Albany, IN