Skip to main content

Guard Duty II


What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. (II Timothy 1:13-14) 

          Have you ever had to keep watch over something? I have yet to find it exciting or even interesting for long. Oh, sometimes there are moments, but most of guarding involves w…a…i…t…i…n…g…. Waiting for something to happen that threatens what is being guarded. It also involves discipline. You must keep yourself prepared. 
          For military folks, that discipline means physical preparation. One must be able to fight. I’m told that for Treasury agents, that discipline involves studying real money, so that when they encounter a forgery, they can recognize it. If you’ve seen pictures of the soldiers guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, discipline involves all sorts of conditions. Something else about guards is that they rarely work alone. On TV, when they do, they seem to fail more often than not. One of the keys to guarding is the relationship of the guard to what is guarded. It’s easier to guard someone or something if you love what you’re guarding or if you love what you’re guarding it from. As Victor Frankl noted, when you have a why, you can endure the whats and hows.
          Paul wrote of guarding what he had told Timothy as a pattern of sound teaching and of guarding what had been entrusted to him. Like the Treasury agent, that meant that Timothy had to thoroughly know what Paul had said, and to believe it to be true, and to love that truth. No one could be allowed to “improve” on the Mona Lisa or Last Supper that had been handed to him for care. Fortunately, Timothy had help: the Holy Spirit.
          Paul’s charge to Timothy is also to us. We may not be pastors, but God has entrusted His Word to us. He has entrusted His Spirit to us. We need to guard both first from ourselves, and secondly from others who would also twist His Word or quench His Spirit. We are to keep our love for God as a higher priority than our love for ourselves or our love for other people. 
         Fortunately, He has given us the Holy Spirit, who doesn’t sleep or get sloppy about His duty. Even when we get lured away from duty, He can wake us up or remind us what we’re guarding.
          Lord, please cause Your Spirit to remain awake in my soul even when I am sleeping on duty. Teach me to recognize imposters and counterfeits, and to use the weapons You’ve provided to protect what You have entrusted to me.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Think About These Things

                 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8) This passage is a major challenge for me. Like everyone else, I struggle to keep my thoughts from wandering off into the weeds, then wondering what possible benefits those weeds might have… Sigh. But as a writer, I have to delve at least a little into the ignoble, wrong, impure, unlovely, and debased. After all, there’s no story if everything’s just as it should be and everyone’s happy. As Christians, there are times when we need to deal with all the negatives, but that makes it even more important that we practice turning our minds by force of attention to what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. It’s just too easy to get stuck in a swamp. With my...
1 comment
Read more

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
Read more

Pure...

            The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (I Timothy 1:5)   I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:15-16) I’m probably cheating - or mishandling the Bible, but earlier I was thinking about love being pure and purifying. And hatred being pure and purifying. And anger…joy…patience… fear… jealousy… courage…lust… and other strongly felt feelings, attitudes, and beliefs. Today’s verse brings purity and love together, so it’s the verse of the day, but it’s not really the focus. That means my motive for sharing it with you probably isn’t pure. As you read through my list, you   probably thought, “Yeah” about some, and “What’s she on?” about others. But consider how much hatred, a...
Post a Comment
Read more