SPECIAL TOPIC: THE ORTHODOXY OF THE PASTORALS

By the time of the writing of the Pastoral Letters (i.e., 1 Timothy, Titus, 2 Timothy) in the mid 60's (Paul was beheaded in A.D. 67; I believe these books were written on Paul's fourth missionary journey), already a sense of the truths of the gospel were being developed into a doctrinal sense. Notice the way Paul refers to this "developed kerygma" (see SPECIAL TOPIC: THE KERYGMA OF THE EARLY CHURCH), which was the church's defense against the false teachers.

  1. "sound teaching"
    1. 1 Tim. 1:10
    2. 2 Tim. 4:3
    3. Titus 1:9; 2:1
  2. "faithful sayings"
    1. 1 Tim. 1:15; 3:1; 4:8-9
    2. 2 Tim. 2:11-13
    3. Titus 1:9; 3:5-8
  3. "the teaching"
    1. 1 Tim. 4:16; 6:1
    2. 2 Tim. 3:10
    3. Titus 2:7
  4. "the good teaching" ‒ 1 Tim. 4:6
  5. "the teaching of godliness"
    1. 1 Tim. 6:3
    2. Titus 1:1
  6. "sound words"
    1. 1 Tim. 6:3
    2. 2 Tim. 1:13
  7. "what has been entrusted"
    1. 1 Tim. 6:20
    2. 2 Tim. 1:12,14 (i.e., "the good deposit")
  8. "the faith"
    1. 1 Tim. 1:5,19; 3:9,13; 4:1,6; 5:8; 6:10,12,21
    2. 2 Tim. 3:10; 4:7
    3. Titus 1:13; 2:2

This doctrinal formulation of the gospel must be

  1. guarded ‒ 1 Tim. 6:20; 2 Tim. 1:14
  2. kept ‒ 2 Tim. 4:7
  3. held fast ‒ Titus 1:9
  4. entrusted to faithful people ‒ 2 Tim. 2:2

All believers have been entrusted with the gospel. We must protect it, keep it, and pass it on intact!

SPECIAL TOPIC: THE GOSPEL

SPECIAL TOPIC: SOUND TEACHING

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