Guard the Faith

1Timothy 6:20-21
20 O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge-
21 by professing it some have strayed from the faith. Grace be with you. Amen.

Much was entrusted to Timothy! Paul is asking Timothy to take up his mantle. He was charged with the care of the brethren, the health of their spiritual growth. He was entrusted to spread the Gospel of peace of the salvation of Jesus Christ. Here we see Paul refer back to the opening chapter of the epistle. The charge in these verses is relating to that of keeping the doctrine of the church sound. We have scripture to help us to not stray in this area. Gods holy word is the ultimate authority. If anyone says anything contradictory to the word of God he is a liar. It is that simple. Paul also admonishes Timothy to avoid idle babblings and the profane. These are things which earlier in the book are called fables and old wives tales. In other words not part of the cannon of scripture. These things tended to be snares that got people wound up in false doctrines. When they propagated these false doctrines they led people astray. Timothy is therefore told to make sure he guards the faith by making sure the doctrine stayed undefiled in these ways. Thank God for his word! It protects us from modern instances of the same things, the name it and claim it prosperity doctrine, Mormonism and the emergent church movement are just a few things that the knowledge of his word will protect us against.