That good thing which was committed unto thee. — “The good thing committed unto thee,” or the deposit, differs from the “deposit” of 2 Timothy 1:12, inasmuch as the “deposit” of 2 Timothy 1:12 was something committed by St. Paul to God; while, on the other hand, in 2 Timothy 1:14 a trust committed by God to Timothy is spoken of. But the Apostle, remembering the solemn meaning of the word in the first instance, uses it with especial emphasis on this second occasion. Yes, he seems to say, God will keep the most precious deposit you or I shall intrust to Him — our soul — safe against that day; do thou, in thy turn, keep safe, unharmed, the deposit He, through me, has intrusted to thee. In what God’s deposit with men like Timothy and St. Paul consisted has been discussed in the Note to 1 Timothy 6:20. “The treasure of the Catholic faith” — that was to be kept unchanged, unalloyed. The epithet “good,” which is here applied to this most sacred trust, we find joined to “the doctrine” (“the good doctrine,” 1 Timothy 4:6), and to “the fight” (“the good fight,” 1 Timothy 6:12).
Keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us. — But this glorious deposit of the Catholic faith must be preserved, let Timothy and others holding a like position with Timothy mark well, by no human agencies. He indicates here the only means that must be employed to preserve this sacred charge safe and pure, when he bids us keep the deposit by the Holy Ghost — the Holy Ghost which, St. Paul adds, dwells in us.
It would seem that the Apostle here was warning Timothy, as the representative Christian teacher, that the sacred deposit of the Catholic faith was to be preserved by no weak compliance with the scruples of false teachers or of doubting men, by no timid accommodation, by no yielding a little here and a little there to prejudice or vanity. By no such or any other short-sighted human arts of defence was the deposit of faith to be guarded. But the Holy Ghost will keep His own, and will show His faithful teachers in every age how to hand down the lamp of holy Catholic doctrine still burning brightly, with flame undimmed, to their successors in the race of life.