1 Timothy 6:20

‘O Timothy, guard what is committed to you, turning away from the profane babblings and oppositions of the knowledge which is falsely so called,’

‘O Timothy.’ Note the heartfelt cry. He wants Timothy to recognise the depths of his concern. The name Timothy means ‘honourer of God’, and that is what Timothy has to do.

‘Guard what is committed to you (‘has been deposited with you’).’ The Gospel was seen as a ‘deposit’ (the true riches), and as committed to God’s people as something that had faithfully to be handed down. Compare where Paul says, ‘For I delivered to you what I first of all received, how Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, (compare ‘before Pontius Pilate witnessed the good confession’ (1 Timothy 6:13), ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’ (1 Timothy 1:15)) and that He was buried, and that He was raised again on the third day, according to the Scriptures.’ Thus it is stressed that it is ‘according to the Scriptures’. That is how it was originally handed down. And His death for our sins, genuine burial, and resurrection are the central planks of the truth that God became man and died and rose again so that He might be the Mediator between man and God (1 Timothy 2:5-6). This truth had been handed down in the Scriptures, and by the Apostles, and it was to be faithfully guarded (compare 1 Timothy 5:21 ‘I charge you -- guard these things’, where the same word is used). This is the true Apostolic Succession. It is the truth passed on in the New Testament, the new Scriptures.

‘Turning away from the profane babblings and oppositions (antitheses - counter-affirmations as men vied with each other, or contradictory elements in the world) of the knowledge which is falsely so called.’ Man’s wisdom screams at the world from every angle but is full of contradictions. And when it comes to talking about God it is ‘vain babbling’, it is an opposition which claims to have ‘knowledge’ (all cults claim special knowledge and add to the Scriptures) but is not true knowledge. For the true knowledge see 1 Timothy 2:4-6, for in Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3).