2 Timothy 1:13-14 English Standard Version

¹³ Follow the pattern of the sound^[healthy] words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. ¹⁴ By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.

Yesterday I declared that I did not see pattern at first glance. In preparing that devotional at third glance I now see deposit. This happens often enough in scriptures that it is worthy of noting. It is not unlike walking from your car to a store to glance down and find a coin. It is entirely up to you to pick it up or to leave it lay. So in my journey from the car I picked up a dime and on my return I discover a quarter.

Which has the greater value, pattern or deposit? We shall allow the Lord to decide.

2 Corinthians 1:21-22 English Standard Version

²¹ And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, ²² and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.^[a]

Footnote ^[a] Or down payment

Down payments are deposited therefor our good deposit is the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is God in the third person, how can we guard God?

The first thing that comes to my mind is not to proclaim that our thoughts and words are given to us by the Holy Spirit when they are not. That is bearing false witness. That is not all that much different than saying the devil made me do it when it is our bad choices that are at fault.

I am sure there are other ways to discover how to guard the presence of the Holy Spirit in us if we think about it. Maybe refraining from sin might be a strong candidate in such matters. When our sins are discovered it calls in to question our faithfulness to God.

If you pick it up, own it.

2 Timothy 1:13-14 English Standard Version

¹³ Follow the pattern of the sound^[healthy] words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. ¹⁴ By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.

I did not see this at first. I had to seek meaning from Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words. The Word was pattern. It denotes “the special or characteristic form or feature” of a person or thing; (end quote)

When I saw the word thing, memory took me back to my childhood where my mother would sew her own dresses because we were poor. She would go to the store to buy patterns for dresses that she wished to make. She would pick out the cloth at the same time.

Then she would bring them home and place the pattern on top of the cloth and smooth it out and pin it in place so that the cloth was “fixed” to the pattern. Then she would cut along the dotted line to form each piece to be fitted together and sewn to make a whole dress. She had to follow the pattern but what was missing in my memory was how she came to understand how to do the work.

She had watched her mother do it year after year and was trained up in how to do it for herself.

Picking our pattern is vital. Will it be Jesus or a person we know? What cloth will be use to pin our pattern upon? His righteous robes or the ego of someone we admire? Once we have the pattern, will we fit all the pieces together properly and bind them together in a way that makes sense?

Don’t put a pant leg where a shirt sleeve should go.

Follow the pattern of sound words, His Word.