A Tenacious Hold on God’s Eternal Truth!

  Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus." Those are the apostle Paul’s words to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:13. Paul urges Timothy to maintain a firm and inflexible determination to preach and teach the same gospel message he had been taught by Paul, his spiritual father in the faith (2 Timothy 1:2 * 1 Timothy 1:2 * Philippians 2:22). That was by no means an easy task, for then, as now, many were preaching and promoting what Paul calls "words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers" (2 Timothy 2:14). Paul describes their teaching as "profane and idle babblings" and warns Timothy to shun their teachings "for they will increase to more and more ungodliness" (2 Timothy 1:16). Paul seems rather firm and definite about this, doesn’t he? Such bluntness and clarity is offensive to many religious and non-religious people alike in our (now) "theologically correct" and non-judgmental atmosphere where it is deemed insensitive and intolerant and bigoted to speak the way Paul does! Be that as it may, the apostle goes on to warn the younger preacher, "Their message will spread like cancer" [gangrene] – and Paul is even so brash as to expose the names of two of the ringleaders troubling the church – "Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort" (2:17). Some people in the church are eager to latch on to any new and trendy thing that comes down the religious pike, whether it is found in the apostles’ teaching or not. But Paul did not blink or hesitate to say about Hymenaeus and Philetus "and [others of] this sort" that they "have strayed concerning the truth, saying the resurrection is already past, and overthrow the faith of some." Later in the book the apostle piles on more urgent words and charges Timothy to, "Preach the word ... For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for them- selves teachers, and will turn their ears away from the truth" (2 Timothy 4:2-4). Itching on any part of the body is uncomfortable – and it feels good to scratch the itch! Or if we can’t reach the itchy spot ourselves, call on someone else to scratch that spot for us! Paul warns there are plenty of preachres, teachers, churches and spiritual gurus out there, and some even within the body of Christ, who are eager and willing to scratch itching ears with "new" and novel ideas and practices. Ideas and practices that go far beyond the God-breathed limitations found in God’s word (2 Timothy 3:16-17). They claim, of course, nothing more than a desire to be more "relevant, inclusive, loving, open-minded and tolerant."

All of that is behind Paul’s words to Timothy quoted above at 2 Timothy 1:13 – "Hold fast the pattern of sound words" or as the New American Standard Bible renders it, "Retain the standard of sound words." The charge is to hold tenaciously to the truth. The devil relentlessly works to pervert the pattern and take us away from God’s truth. The only safe course is to cling to the truth with the vice-like grip of a Rottweiller or Pit Bull. Be tenacious. Get a firm grip on the truth. Hold fast. Think about it.

   – Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN