20O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge”— 21which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith….
Paul’s message to Timothy here echoes a similar charge he gave to the Ephesian elders: “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:28). While the Greek word for “guard” in this letter is different from that in Acts 20, the charges are similar. While Paul instructed the elders to guard themselves and the people of God against false teachers (Acts 20:29), he admonishes Timothy to tenaciously guard the collection of teachings he had received. The former is to safeguard the people, the latter to protect the truth itself—two sides of the same coin!
Here we find the beginning of theological discipleship. The discipler passes on the truth to his disciple. The disciple must then protect the truth in his own mind against influences that relentlessly offer alternatives or “fake truth.” In his next letter to Timothy, Paul instructs him to pass on the truth to others:
“The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” (2 Tim. 2:2)
The critical factor is faithfulness to the truth. That requires concerted diligence and care in identifying and communicating the truth and challenging others to faithfully do the same. This competition for truth spans the major religions of the world and Christendom at large, but also crops up within evangelicalism, among Bible-believing, born-again Christians. Every generation has its theological issues that consume copious amounts of time and energy. Today’s social media, while obviously being used for propagating the truth, also proliferate “worldly and empty chatter” and time-wasting debates among faceless individuals. Online, anyone—even faithless individuals—try to leverage their sense of self-importance in spouting nonsense, detached from genuine faith. It can be easy to be led astray!
Paul’s instruction to Timothy is all the more significant. We must guard in ourselves the truth we have received from Scripture. We must tenaciously seek the truth and fearlessly reject false teachings, no matter how popular they are. We must learn to be like the Bereans, who compared what they heard with what they had received, that is, the Bible (Acts 17:11).
Lord, help me not be distracted by the cacophony of social media voices and become dull to Your Spirit’s teaching through the Word.
Funny how the spirit works and provides. I have been wresting lately with the individuals who have walked with the Lord, (mostly those in the spot light i.e. Josh Harris – I Kissed Dating Goodbye) and how they can walk away from everything they know including their wives and kids to pursue self-flesh satisfaction. What causes this to occur? How can someone walk away from such wisdom? How can they let such a destructive choice wreak such havoc to the ones they love? I have to believe a major influence is social media and all of the self aggrandizement it offers. Your words here are exactly what I was praying for and the support for a message for the church.
Thank you and blessings.
Praise God. Thanks for the feedback. We must all keep watch over ourselves.