The good deposit

NORSK
What is my attitude towards everything that I have received?

When I read how Paul mentors Timothy, it is evident that he works with his general attitude to everything we have been entrusted. I have already quoted one verse reminding us about this (1), and today I read:

Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
2 Tim 1:14

I am entrusted with a ‘good deposit’ – sometimes translated ‘treasure’, which I am accountable for and expected to be a good steward of. Jesus compared the Kingdom with a treasure:

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
Matt 13:44

It is likely that Paul thought about the gospel as the entrusted good treasure, and the gospel is the entrance to the Kingdom. To the Corinthians he wrote that he was compelled to preach the gospel and concluded: “I am simply discharging the trust committed to me” (2). He further testified that he to proclaim the gospel to the uncircumcised was his specific calling (3). To Timothy he wrote:

And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.
2 Tim 1:11-12

The good thing about Paul’s letters to Timothy is that he shows how the good deposit is to be guarded, and how this will influence how a disciple lives his life. There is a lot to look into in the future.

‘Manna’ for today:

The gospel is the good deposit entrusted me.

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(1) See: ‘Journey of Renewal’ including 1 Tim 6:20a
(2) 1 Cor 9:17
(3) Gal 2:7