📖 New Testament Survey — Unit 10: The Pastoral Epistles: Guarding the Deposit

I. The Last Letters of an Old Apostle

Of all the books in the Bible, the three Pastoral Epistles — 1 Timothy, Titus, and 2 Timothy — are the ones to press into the hands of a new pastor with the most urgency. Why? Because these are the only three letters in the New Testament addressed by Paul to younger pastors rather than to whole congregations. They are the apostle's playbook for ministry. They are the old apostle's last words to the next generation. They are the field manual for guarding the deposit of the gospel after the founder has gone home.

The dating of the Pastoral Epistles is one of the most fascinating sequences in the New Testament. After Paul's first Roman imprisonment of Acts 28 ended around AD 62, he was released. He resumed traveling. He revisited churches in Asia Minor and Macedonia. In or about AD 63 to 65, he wrote 1 Timothy and Titus from somewhere in the field. Then, in or about AD 66 to 67, he was arrested a second time and taken back to Rome — but this time not to a rented house. This time to the Mamertine dungeon, a stone hole below the Roman forum, where the only way in and out was a single trapdoor in the ceiling. From that dungeon, with the death sentence already pronounced, the old apostle wrote his last letter — 2 Timothy. It is the closest thing in the New Testament to Paul's final will and testament. He would be beheaded outside Rome within the year.

II. Three Letters, Three Settings, One Mission

The three Pastoral Epistles take place in three different church settings, and each one targets a particular pastoral need. 1 Timothy is addressed to Timothy at Ephesus — a large, established, doctrinally troubled congregation that was being undermined by false teachers from within (1 Timothy 1:3). Timothy's job at Ephesus was to guard the church by appointing the right elders, silencing the wrong teachers, and conducting himself with integrity in the household of God. Titus is addressed to Titus on the island of Crete — a young Greek pastor sent to a rough, newly-evangelized field of small house churches scattered across the island, surrounded by what Paul calls a culture of "liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons" (Titus 1:12). Titus's job was to organize the churches by appointing elders, teaching sound doctrine, and training the believers to "adorn the doctrine of God our Savior" (Titus 2:10) with the way they lived. 2 Timothy is addressed back to Timothy at Ephesus — but now from the apostle's death cell. Paul knows he will not get out alive. The young pastor he had once led to faith is to finish what Paul has begun. Pass the torch. Guard the deposit. Endure hardship as a good soldier. Suffer for the gospel. And in the day of accounting, hear from the Lord, "Well done."

Three letters. Three settings. One mission. The mission that is the burden of every Pastoral Epistle is to guard the deposit of the gospel and to pass it intact to the next generation. The phrase Paul uses three times across these three letters is exactly that — "Guard the deposit" (1 Timothy 6:20; 2 Timothy 1:12, 14). The Greek is paratheke, the noun for treasure entrusted to a faithful banker. The gospel is the deposit. Timothy and Titus are the bankers. The whole next generation of pastors who would read these letters and never personally meet Paul are the bankers. So are we. The deposit was put into our hands two thousand years ago. We owe it to the Owner intact.

III. 1 Timothy — Guarding the Church

1 Timothy follows the structure of a pastoral handbook. Chapter 1 deals with the false teachers and the law. Chapter 2 deals with public worship and prayer. Chapter 3 deals with the qualifications of elders and deacons — the most important administrative chapter in the New Testament for any congregation choosing its leaders. Chapter 4 deals with personal godliness in the life of the pastor himself. Chapters 5 and 6 deal with widows, elders, masters, slaves, the rich, and the poor — the social fabric of the local church.

The key verse of 1 Timothy is the most majestic single sentence Paul wrote about the church and what holds her up. "That you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Timothy 3:15). Every local church is two things at once. She is a house — a family, a fellowship, a home. And she is a pillar — a structural support holding up the truth in the middle of a falling-down world. The job of the pastor and the congregation together is to keep the house warm and to keep the pillar straight. The 1 Timothy church is a house and a pillar. Both. Neither without the other.

The closing charge of 1 Timothy 6:20–21 is the first time the deposit language appears: "O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge — by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith." Notice the warning at the end. Some have strayed. Some have wandered off. Some have been seduced by something called knowledge that was not knowledge at all. The first time Paul tells Timothy to guard the deposit, he names the threat. The deposit will not guard itself.

IV. Titus — Adorning the Doctrine on Crete

Titus opens with a description of the island where Titus was working that may be the bluntest Paul ever wrote. He quotes a Cretan poet of the sixth century BC named Epimenides, who had said about his own people, "Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons" (Titus 1:12). Paul adds: "This testimony is true." That is the mission field where the young pastor Titus had been left. A culture so morally bankrupt that even its own poets confessed it. And Paul's strategy was not to escape from Crete. The strategy was to plant churches on Crete that lived so visibly differently that the gospel preached itself.

The book of Titus organizes the apostle's strategy into three pastoral targets that match the natural three-point spine of the letter. Sound doctrine (chapter 1) — Titus is to appoint elders who hold firmly to the trustworthy message "so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it" (Titus 1:9). The standard for ministry is not personal charisma. The standard is doctrinal fidelity. Good works (chapter 2) — every group in the church, the older men, the older women, the younger women, the younger men, the slaves, all of them are to be taught how to live in a way that makes the gospel attractive. "That they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things" (Titus 2:10). The word translated adorn is the Greek kosmeō — the root of our word cosmetic. The behavior of the believer puts the makeup on the gospel. The blessed hope (chapters 2:11–3:7) — the present-tense reason for the godly life is the future-tense expectation of the return of Christ.

The key verse of Titus is the great Christmas-and-Easter sentence of 2:11–14. "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works." The grace of God has appeared (Bethlehem). It teaches us to live godly lives (Calvary applied). We look for the blessed hope (His second coming). Past, present, future — all in one paragraph. This single passage is the most complete summary of the Christian life in any of Paul's letters.

And the connecting note Paul strikes between the doctrine and the duty is the great Greek-Spanish wordplay that any pastor in Latin America can press right into a sermon. The Spanish word for the believer's expectation of Christ is esperanza — and it carries three meanings that English breaks into three separate words. Esperar means to wait. Esperanza means hope. And to esperar something also means to expect it. In Spanish, the believer who is waiting for the Lord is hoping for the Lord and is expecting the Lord, all in one verb. That is exactly what Titus 2:13 is teaching. We do not wait without hope. We do not hope without expectation. We do not expect without waiting. The blessed esperanza is the one verb that carries all three.

V. 2 Timothy — The Final Charge from the Dungeon

2 Timothy is the most personal book Paul ever wrote. He is in the Mamertine dungeon. He is cold. He is alone except for Luke. He has been deserted by men he had once trusted. He knows the verdict has been handed down and that he will be executed soon. He has one major task left in this life — to write one more letter to one young pastor who needs to be told what to do next.

The structure of 2 Timothy follows the rhythm of four pastoral charges that Paul lays one on top of the other, the way an old man stacks firewood for a son who will need to keep the house warm after he is gone. Chapter 1 — Be unashamed of the gospel. Chapter 2 — Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Chapter 3 — Continue in the things you have learned. Chapter 4 — Preach the word, in season, out of season.

The deposit verse appears for the second time in 2 Timothy 1:14. "That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us." The same verb. The same noun. The deposit. The deposit is now formally entrusted to Timothy in writing. And the means of guarding it is named: the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. No pastor guards the deposit by personal effort alone. The deposit is guarded by the indwelling Spirit, applied to a faithful man, day by day. Then, in the very next verse, 2 Timothy 2:2, Paul gives Timothy the great discipleship formula of the New Testament: "And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." Four generations are stacked in one sentence. Paul taught Timothy. Timothy is to commit it to faithful men. Faithful men are to teach others also. The deposit was never meant to stop at one banker. It was always meant to be passed.

VI. The Tragedy of Demas

Toward the very end of 2 Timothy, the old apostle drops one personal note that has haunted preachers for two thousand years. A few sad words. "Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica" (2 Timothy 4:10). The line is heartbreaking precisely because of how casual it is. Demas had been Paul's coworker for years. He is mentioned by name in the prison-epistle period as a faithful companion (Colossians 4:14; Philemon 1:24). And now, in the final letter, he is gone.

The tragedy of Demas can be charted in four alliterative steps that take a believer from the inner circle of Paul's ministry to the cold disappearance of his name from the church. Demas was Dutiful at first — a fellow worker named with Mark and Luke. Then Demas became Distracted. Something began to compete with the Lord in his affections. Paul names it: "having loved this present world." The Greek is agapesas ton nun aiona — having developed a settled, ongoing love for the present age. Demas had begun to look sideways. Then Demas Defected. The looking sideways became leaving. He packed his bag and walked out of the dungeon and out of Paul's last days. And finally Demas Died — not necessarily physically, though that may have come too, but he died to the ministry, to the inner circle, to every chronicle of the early church. After 2 Timothy 4:10, Demas is never mentioned again. Dutiful, Distracted, Defected, Died.

The story is told of a young man learning to drive. His instructor sat next to him in the front seat and watched him grip the wheel and look intently down the road. Then a row of mailboxes came up on the right. The young driver's eyes drifted toward the mailboxes — just for a second. And the car drifted toward the mailboxes too. The instructor reached over, corrected the wheel, and said to him a sentence he never forgot: "The car goes where the eyes are looking. You do not have to turn the wheel to crash. You just have to look at what you should not be looking at." That is the tragedy of Demas. He did not announce a defection. He did not write a letter of resignation. He just looked at the present world, and the wheel followed his eyes. Paul's charge to Timothy in the same chapter is the opposite. "Watch in all things" (2 Timothy 4:5). Where you look is where you will go.

And immediately after the note about Demas, Paul writes a sentence that lifts the chapter back up. "Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry" (2 Timothy 4:11). The same John Mark who had defected from Paul at Perga on the first missionary journey (Acts 13:13), who had caused the painful split between Paul and Barnabas, who had once seemed disqualified — is by the end of Paul's life on the apostle's short list of the most useful men in the church. Demas walks out. Mark walks back in. Both stories appear in the same chapter. The Pastoral Epistles refuse to let either one be the whole picture. Some defect. Some are restored. The deposit is guarded by faithful men, and faithful men include the restored.

VII. The Last Days and the Inspiration of Scripture

Sandwiched in 2 Timothy 3 is the most important sentence in the Bible about the Bible. But before he gets to it, Paul gives a warning about the times in which Timothy will have to minister. "But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come" (2 Timothy 3:1). The catalog that follows in 2 Timothy 3:2–5 is exhausting to read. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God — "having a form of godliness but denying its power" (2 Timothy 3:5).

The story is told of a man in Kentucky who lived across the street from one of the most beautiful trees on the block. Its limbs spiraled up toward the sky. Birds nested in it. He used to stand at his window and admire it. One morning he saw a crew from the city in the neighbor's yard cutting it down. He walked over and asked the workman why on earth they would cut down such a beautiful tree. The workman waved him in and showed him the trunk. The bark was still intact. The limbs were still majestic. But inside the heart of the tree, the wood was hollow. Termites had eaten right through the core. The fence around the property had not stopped them. The locked gate had not stopped them. The dog had not stopped them. The outside still looked fine. The inside was gone. The crew had been called in to drop the tree before it fell on the children walking under it on the sidewalk. "Having a form of godliness but denying its power." That is 2 Timothy 3:5 in one tree. The bark looks fine. The core is hollow. The deposit is the only thing that protects from the termites. Without the deposit, the bark will not hold.

And so Paul turns to Timothy with the only piece of equipment the pastor can use to keep the deposit alive in a hollow world: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16–17). The Greek word translated inspiration of God is theopneustos — literally God-breathed. The Bible is not just inspired the way a poem is inspired. The Bible is breathed out of the mouth of God Himself the way the universe was breathed out of the mouth of God in Genesis. The same breath that filled Adam's nostrils and made him a living soul fills the Scripture and makes it a living book. The Bible is not a record of men talking about God. The Bible is the record of God talking, breathed onto pages held by men whose hands were guided by His Spirit.

VIII. The Plumb Line

The test of any teaching is not how new it sounds, how charismatic the teacher is, or how big the crowd has gotten. The test is whether the teaching lines up with the deposit already given. The prophet Amos was given a vision of God standing by a wall, and in His hand was a plumb line (Amos 7:7–8). A plumb line is a simple carpenter's tool — a weight on the end of a string. When the weight is allowed to hang free, the string falls in a perfectly straight vertical line, because gravity is exactly the same in every direction. The carpenter holds the string against the wall he is building, and the line tells him whether the wall is straight. The plumb line does not bend to flatter the carpenter. The plumb line does not change with the carpenter's preferences. The plumb line tells the carpenter the truth, and the carpenter either listens or builds a wall that will fall down.

The Pastoral Epistles are the New Testament's plumb line. They tell every pastor — and every believer who supports a pastor — what the deposit looks like, how to recognize it, and how to keep it from being bent. They name false doctrines and false teachers by category. They warn that the bent will look attractive and that the straight will not always feel comfortable. They charge the next generation of leaders to be plumb-line men and plumb-line women. The deposit either stays vertical, or it falls down on the people inside the house.

IX. The Final Words of Paul

In the last chapter of 2 Timothy, the apostle Paul writes the sentence that is engraved in stained glass in seminary chapels all over the world. "For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing" (2 Timothy 4:6–8). Three verbs in the perfect tense. Fought. Finished. Kept. The man who had once been Saul of Tarsus dragging Christians out of their homes to prison was now in a Roman dungeon waiting for the executioner, and the last words he wrote about his own life were these three perfect-tense verbs in a row.

This paragraph belongs to every believer, not only to Paul. The crown of righteousness is laid up for the apostle "and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing." Have you loved His appearing? Then the crown is laid up for you, too. The dungeon is the address of every faithful believer somewhere in life. The crown is the address of every faithful believer at the end of it.

There was a man named Jim Ruddy whom I knew personally and whom I visited in the hospital in the final days of his life. He had lived for the Lord. He had served the church. He had loved his family. And as his body grew weaker, I went and sat at his bedside, expecting to be the one who would comfort him. He looked at me with that frail clarity that comes only to a believer who has loved Christ's appearing for a lifetime, and he said: "Pastor, it's not going to be long now. I will soon be with Jesus." That was Paul's spirit in 2 Timothy 4. That was the spirit of a man who knew the deposit had been guarded, the race finished, the faith kept. There was no fear in his eyes. There was only expectation. Esperanza. Waiting, hoping, expecting — all in one word, all in one breath, all in one bedside.

Press on, my friend, into the rest of the New Testament with the same Lord who lit a dungeon with the joy of the homecoming, who put the crown of righteousness on the head of the old apostle who had been beheaded outside Rome, who sat with Jim Ruddy in a hospital room, and who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The deposit has been put into your hands. Guard it well. Pass it on. Look at the Lord. The car goes where the eyes are looking. Look at Him, and you will go home with Him. Amen.

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