CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
1 Timothy 6:20. Keep that which is committed to thy trust.—Lit. “guard the deposit.” As St. Paul was entrusted with “the care of all the Churches,” so is Timothy with this particular one. Avoiding profane and vain babblings.—“Full of sound … signifying nothing.” Science falsely so called.—Knowledge that deserved the name was no object of the apostle’s contempt or indifference, but this pseudonymous gnosis excites his scorn.
1 Timothy 6:21. Have erred.—The same word as in 1 Timothy 1:6. There it is translated “swerved.” Grace be with thee.—The most contracted form of the apostolic formula of benediction.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— 1 Timothy 6:20-21
The Gospel a Sacred Trust—
I. To be preserved and handed on inviolate.—“O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust” (1 Timothy 6:20). The apostle returns again, and for the last time before concluding his epistle, to the subject uppermost in his mind, and reiterates the solemn charge to fidelity. He makes a touching and impressive personal appeal, indicating his affection for Timothy, and his fears of approaching corruptions. “O Timothy, keep the truth; guard it from spiritual thieves, and from the subtle infusion of errors which its enemies are industriously generating. It is not thine but another’s property with which thou hast been entrusted: diminish it not at all.”
II. Not to be degraded by profitless and ignorant controversies.—“Avoid profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called” (1 Timothy 6:20). The gospel is a Divine revelation, not to be criticised, but believed. To attempt to improve it is to spoil it. It is not the child of reason, but the guide and regulator of reason; it is not contrary to reason, though it is above it. If the gospel rested on human philosophy and a false science, it would be utterly unreliable, and its preaching a tissue of “vain babblings.” The true science is the evolution of Christian faith; all else is counterfeit. The knowledge of the gospel, communicated by the Spirit, is superior to all human science and philosophy. The germ of the Gnostic heresy of the dual principles of good and evil was beginning to sprout, and soon after developed into “oppositions of science falsely so called.”
III. To mix human errors with the gospel is to mistake its spirit and drift.—“Which some professing have erred concerning the faith” (1 Timothy 6:21). Vincentius Lirinensis, in the first half of the fifth century, thus comments on these verses: That which was entrusted to thee, not found by thee—which thou hast received, not invented; a matter not of genius but of teaching, not of private usurpation but of public tradition; a matter brought to thee, not put forth by thee, in which thou oughtest to be not an enlarger but a guardian, not an originator but a disciple, not leading but following. Keep the deposit; preserve intact and inviolate the talent of the catholic faith. What has been entrusted to thee, let that same remain with thee; let that same be handed down by thee. Gold thou hast received; gold return. I should be sorry thou shouldest substitute ought else. I do not want the mere appearance of gold, but its actual reality. Not that there is to be no progress in religion in Christ’s Church. Let there be so by all means, and the greatest progress; but then let it be real progress, not a change of the faith. Let the intelligence of the whole Church and its individual members increase exceedingly, provided it be only in its own kind, the doctrine being still the same. Let the religion of the soul resemble the growth of the body, which, though it develops its several parts in the progress of years, yet remains the same as it was essentially.”
IV. The grace of God the best preservative from error.—“Grace be with thee. Amen” (1 Timothy 6:21). The grace of God reveals the truth, communicates the truth, suffuses every power and faculty of the soul which embraces the truth, and is the influence that keeps the truth pure and vitally operative in the Christian life. The grace that bestows the truth can alone keep it. The grace of God makes us what we are, and must make us what we ought to be.
Lessons.—
1. The gospel that saves us can save others.
2. We receive the gospel not only for ourselves, but in trust for others.
3. To depend on human reason for salvation is to be lost.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
1 Timothy 6:20-21. Science in its Relation to the Christian Faith.
I. Scientific study may be abused to mischievous results.
II. Has a tendency to bring the mind into collision with a number of religious difficulties.
III. May possibly tempt the mind to regard God as the law of the universe rather than as the one Divine Person from whom all law proceeds.
IV. The tone of mind fostered by such a study is a preservative against religious instability.
V. The true tendency of such a study is to lead men to Christ.
VI. Christ is the answer to questions which science cannot answer.—Harvey Goodwin.