2 TIMOTHY 1:13-2:2 NO “FREE-HANDING” ALLOWED

13 What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. 14 Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. 15 You know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes. 16 May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. 17 On the contrary, when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me. 18 May the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day! You know very well in how many ways he helped me in Ephesus.

2:1 You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.

In furniture-making when one wants to reproduce a certain complex shape multiple times, he often makes a pattern that can be used to shape each piece. In some cases the pattern is attached to the unshaped piece of wood and then a router having a bit with a bearing that runs along the pattern is used to cut the piece to the exact shape. Then the pattern can be removed and placed on another piece of wood and the procedure repeated.

The sound teaching from Scripture is the pattern that faithfully transfers the good deposit that is entrusted to those who belong to the Church. St. Paul is not implying that we are to be cookie-cutter Christians, but that our message is to be the message of God and not our improvisation. Just as a carpenter can use the same pattern to cut an identical shape in various species of wood for use on in any number of pieces of furniture, and by employing different types of tools, the Christian is charged with conserving God’s Gospel while delivering it according to the gifts with which she has been equipped and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

When the pattern is deserted, the carpenter is left to approximate the pieces and often has to make up for a deficiency using some less-than-orthodox methods. These methods usually entail shaving down the largest piece to match the smallest and then adjusting all the intermediate pieces to match. The problem with this method is that it is frequently the largest piece that was correct in the first place. So although the table may end up with 4 very similar legs, none of them is a correct rendering of the designed leg. Certainly the integrity of the design is compromised, and in many cases the structural as well as aesthetic integrity of the piece is also destroyed.

Any adjusted version of the Truth is no longer absolutely true. Whenever we approximate the Gospel, it may sound like good news, but it isn’t God’s Gospel that has been entrusted to us. We, who are like careless carpenters who reject their patterns, need the help of the Holy Spirit to convict us of the validity of the pattern and empower us to use it. After all, the Spirit is God and it is God’s Gospel.

Come Holy Spirit and imprint the pattern of teaching that comes from the Father in my heart and in my mind. May I constantly measure the proclamation of my life against your perfect plan. Amen.