“Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge.”
Do you actively defend the integrity of God’s word? According to this verse we have been entrusted with that mission. We are to stand guard against the forces that would water down truth to make it more palatable. That will not make us popular, and just like the world hated Jesus, they will often hate His disciples as well. But that is not our concern, because pleasing God must be our exclusive goal.
The gospel is pure truth, and Paul instructs Timothy to keep it that way. We must not bend the truth to fit our lives, we must bend our lives to fit the truth. Truth is not defined by comfort, inclusion, happiness, or contentment. Living in truth often produces those things, but truth is a static component that reflects the righteousness and the power of God.
It has been said that we must all find “our own truth”. That kind of nonsense is what Paul calls “godless chatter” and is what is falsely called knowledge today by those who seek teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. The mantra is to eliminate “hate speech”, the problem is that those who hate truth, call truth hate, and our culture is quick to attempt to cancel it. There is only one truth… and it does not belong to us, it belongs to God. What belongs to us is the charge to defend it against such mind-numbing conversations.
This verse gives us the responsibility of guarding the purity of God’s word. If you do this, you may be called unloving… but the opposite is actually the case. If I see symptoms of an illness in you but say nothing because I do not want to offend you, that is the opposite of love. Love points out danger and offers deliverance. That is the gospel and that is our job.
Speak the truth in love. Never water down the Word, and never let others pollute what God has made clear. Pure gold has been given to us… let us make sure it is gold that we pass on.
“A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent.” - John Calvin
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