1 Timothy 6:20-21

_ _ Recapitulatory conclusion: the main aim of the whole Epistle being here summarily stated.

_ _ O Timothy — a personal appeal, marking at once his affection for Timothy, and his prescience of the coming heresies.

_ _ keep — from spiritual thieves, and from enemies who will, while men sleep, sow tares amidst the good seed sown by the Son of man.

_ _ that which is committed to thy trust — Greek, “the deposit” (1 Timothy 1:18; 2 Timothy 1:12, 2 Timothy 1:14; 2 Timothy 2:2). “The true” or “sound doctrine” to be taught, as opposed to “the science falsely so called,” which leads to “error concerning the faith” (1 Timothy 6:21). “It is not thine: it is another’s property with which thou hast been entrusted: Diminish it not at all” [Chrysostom]. “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,’ saith he, ‘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 aught else. I should be sorry that for gold thou shouldest substitute lead impudently, or brass fraudulently. 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” [Vincentius Lirinensis, a.d. 434].

_ _ avoiding — “turning away from” (compare 2 Timothy 3:4). Even as they have “turned away from the truth” (1 Timothy 1:6; 1 Timothy 5:15; 2 Timothy 4:4).

_ _ profane — (1 Timothy 4:7; 2 Timothy 2:16).

_ _ vain — Greek, “empty”: mere “strifes of words,” 1 Timothy 6:4, producing no moral fruit.

_ _ oppositions — dialectic antithesis of the false teachers [Alford]. Wiesinger, not so probably, “oppositions to the sound doctrine.” I think it likely germs existed already of the heresy of dualistic oppositions, namely, between the good and evil principle, afterwards fully developed in Gnosticism. Contrast Paul’s just antithesis (1 Timothy 3:16; 1 Timothy 6:5, 1 Timothy 6:6; 2 Timothy 2:15-23).

_ _ science falsely so called — where there is not faith, there is not knowledge [Chrysostom]. There was true “knowledge,” a special gift of the Spirit, which was abused by some (1 Corinthians 8:1; 1 Corinthians 12:8; 1 Corinthians 14:6). This gift was soon counterfeited by false teachers arrogating to themselves pre-eminently the gift (Colossians 2:8, Colossians 2:18, Colossians 2:23). Hence arose the creeds of the Church, called symbols, that is, in Greek, “watchwords,” or a test whereby the orthodox might distinguish one another in opposition to the heretical. Perhaps here, 1 Timothy 6:20, and 2 Timothy 1:13, 2 Timothy 1:14, imply the existence of some such brief formula of doctrine then existing in the Church; if so, we see a good reason for its not being written in Scripture, which is designed not to give dogmatic formularies, but to be the fountain whence all such formularies are to be drawn according to the exigencies of the several churches and ages. Probably thus a portion of the so-called apostle’s creed may have had their sanction, and been preserved solely by tradition on this account. “The creed, handed down from the apostles, is not written on paper and with ink, but on fleshy tables of the heart” Jerome [Against John of Jerusalem, 9]. Thus, in the creed, contrary to the “oppositions” (the germs of which probably existed in the Church in Paul’s latter days) whereby the aeons were set off in pairs, God is stated to be “the Father Almighty,” or all-governing “maker of heaven and earth” [Bishop Hinds].