By: Dan Gallagher, The Stewardship Team
…guard the deposit entrusted to you…
(1 Timothy 6:20; 2 Timothy 1:14)
Lent is a good time to consider Paul’s charge to maintain the purity of true doctrine and avoid godless ideas.
While some consider what to “give up” for Lent, the essence of the Gospel is what we “receive.” To paraphrase Paul, what the Father planned, the Son purchased and the Spirit preserves (Ephesians 1:3-14). The Gospel calls us to “turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God” (Acts 26:18). “Repent and believe” is an invitation to an entirely different Kingdom with entirely different values and under an entirely different authority. No longer do we need to languish in guilt and shame, but joyfully embrace our redemption and new life in Christ Jesus.
Paul’s concern was false teachers leading Christians astray with claims of superior “knowledge” and people being more interested in listening to what suits their deceitful hearts. Hello 2023! Hedonism abounds and distorts the Gospel by mocking God’s created order, the Lordship of Christ Jesus and the power of the Spirit to bring our lives in line with holiness.
Paul’s prescription was “preach the Word”
(2 Timothy 4:2). The great Puritan Matthew Henry stated, “The Christian doctrine is a trust committed to us…It is committed to us to be preserved pure and entire, and to be transmitted to those who shall come after us, and we must keep it, and not contribute anything to the corrupting of its purity, the weakening of its power, or the diminishing of its perfection.” You can’t sever orthodoxy from ethics.
The Gospel rests on what God has accomplished for us. After all, is that not why Good Friday is good?
