Digital Logos Edition
In the letters to Timothy and Titus, Paul focuses on the idea of inheritance. The faithful, he writes, must guard and deliver the inheritance of gospel truth. Nearing the end of his life, Paul is intent on securing the heritage of gospel truth for the next generation.
In this Bible Speaks Today volume (previously released under the title Guard the Truth), John Stott finds in 1 Timothy and Titus a dynamic truth that orders Christian life in the church, the family and the world. Here is the lucid commentary we have come to expect from Stott, ever faithful to the text and time of Paul's letters. But in a manner unique to Stott's role as a distinguished Christian statesman, this work's interpretive and pastoral voice remarkably echoes Paul for our own day. One generation speaks to another: "Guard the truth."
“Behind the ministry of public teaching there lies the discipline of private study. All the best teachers have themselves remained students. They teach well because they learn well. So before we can effectively instruct others in the truth we must have ‘really digested’ it (jb) ourselves.” (Page 116)
“Paul’s preoccupation in this first chapter is with the importance of maintaining true or ‘sound’ doctrine, and of refuting ‘false’ doctrine.” (Page 42)
“Here then is the double responsibility of the church vis-à-vis the truth. First, as its foundation it is to hold it firm, so that it does not collapse under the weight of false teaching. Secondly, as its pillar it is to hold it high, so that it is not hidden from the world. To hold the truth firm is the defence and confirmation of the gospel; to hold it high is the proclamation of the gospel. The church is called to both these ministries.” (Page 105)
“Thus the law’s three functions according to Calvin are punitive (to condemn sinners and drive them to Christ), deterrent (to restrain evildoers) and specially educative (to teach and exhort believers).” (Pages 47–48)
“It seems to me that the third understanding is the most likely, namely that women ‘will be saved through the Birth of the Child’ (neb mg.), referring to Christ.” (Page 87)