Verse of the Day - 2 Timothy 1:13-14

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"Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us." 2 Timothy 1:13-14, NRSV

The challenge in this verse isn't in holding to the teachings or guarding the good treasure. A lot of people are willing to stand their ground for what they believe and for what's important to them. The challenge is identifying what sound teaching it is that we've received and what good treasure we have.

People use vague or general terms like "the gospel," "commandments," or "the teachings of scripture," etc. It's important that we identify what it is we believe we've actually been taught and what it is we believe is actually good treasure. It's important that we learn to talk about those things in specific ways, because the more specifically we can talk about them, the clearer we will see where our beliefs are inconsistent. The more consistent our beliefs become, the easier they will be to hold firm to and to guard.

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