2 Timothy 1:13

Hold fast the form of sound words; - see the notes at 1Ti 1:3. On the Greek word here rendered “form,” see the notes at 1Ti 1:16, where it is rendered pattern. The word means a form, sketch, or imperfect delineation - an outline. Grotius says that it here means “an exemplar, but an exemplar fixed in the mind - an idea.” Calvin says that the command is that he should adhere to the doctrine which he had learned, not only in its substance, but in its form.

OUR Apostle was in prison. If he was confined in the Mammertine, those of us who have shivered in that dark underground dungeon may well pity him. And if he was confined in the prison of the Praetorian Guards, he fared no better, for the near company of such rough and cruel soldiers would involve much suffering. The Apostle was not only a prisoner, chained by his right hand to a soldier both day and night, but he was, to his intense sorrow, forsaken by his friends.

Hold fast the form--rather as Greek, "Have (that is, keep) a pattern of sound (Greek, 'healthy') words which thou hast heard from me, in faith and love." "Keep" suits the reference to a deposit in the context.

MY INCESSANT anxiety for you, dearly beloved in the faith of Jesus Christ, is that I may be able, in the first place, to teach you what God’s truth is; and then, trusting that I have to the best of my ability taught you what I believe to be God’s most holy gospel, my next anxiety is, that you should “hold fast the form of sound words;” that whatever may occur in the future, should death snatch away your pastor, or should anything occur which might put you in perilous circumstances, so that you were tempted to…

OUR Apostle was in prison. If he was confined in the Mammertine, those of us who have shivered in that dark underground dungeon may well pity him. And if he was confined in the prison of the Praetorian Guards, he fared no better, for the near company of such rough and cruel soldiers would involve much suffering. The Apostle was not only a prisoner, chained by his right hand to a soldier both day and night, but he was, to his intense sorrow, forsaken by his friends. The encouragements of Christian communion are exceedingly great and the loss of them is very bitter. Those who ought to have gloried in the Apostle for his fervor, his self-sacrifice, his courage and his zeal, had turned against him. He writes to Timothy, "This you know, that all they which are in Asia have turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Her-mogenes." It would seem that these two notable persons were ashamed of Paul's chain and, to their endless disgrace, turned against him. Deserted in his utmost need, deprived of his liberty and treated as a breaker of the laws, we could not have marveled if the Apostle had been somewhat dispirited. Active spirits are apt to fret in confinement and tender hearts bleed under desertion. Beside that, the man of God was in daily danger of execution by the tyrant's sword. He was not likely to be spared by the monster who occupied the Roman throne and already he had the sentence of death in himself. Any morning he might be awakened by a rough summons to come forth and die.

MY INCESSANT anxiety for you, dearly beloved in the faith of Jesus Christ, is that I may be able, in the first place, to teach you what God’s truth is; and then, trusting that I have to the best of my ability taught you what I believe to be God’s most holy gospel, my next anxiety is, that you should “hold fast the form of sound words;” that whatever may occur in the future, should death snatch away your pastor, or should anything occur which might put you in perilous circumstances, so that you were tempted to embrace any system of heresy, you might every one of you stand as firm and as unmoved as rocks, and as strong as mountains be, abiding in “the faith which was once delivered unto the saints,” whereof ye have heard, and which we have proclaimed unto you. If the gospel be worth your hearing, and if it be a true gospel, it is worth your holding, and our anxiety is, that you should be so established in the faith, that you may, “hold fast the profession of your faith without wavering, for he is faithful that has promised.” The Apostle most earnestly admonished Timothy to “hold fast the form of sound words which he had heard of him in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.” I do not suppose that by this it is intended that Paul ever wrote out for Timothy a list of doctrines; or that he gave him a small abstract of divinity, to which he desired him to subscribe his name, as the articles of the church over which he was made a pastor. If so, doubtless the document would have been preserved and enrolled in the canons of Scripture as one of the writings of an inspired man. I can scarce think such a creed would have been lost, whilst other creeds have been preserved and handed down to us.

Hold fast the form of sound words - The word ὑποτυπωσις signifies the sketch, plan, or outline of a building, picture, etc.; and here refers to the plan of salvation which the apostle had taught Timothy. No man was left to invent a religion for his own use, and after his own mind. God alone knows that with which God can be pleased. If God did not give a revelation of himself, the inventions of man, in religious things, would be endless error, involving itself in contortions of unlimited confusion. God gives, in his mercy to man, a form of sound words or doctrines; a perfect plan and sketch of the original building; fair and well defined outlines of every thing which concerns the present and eternal welfare of man, and his own glory. In faith and love - Faith credits the Divine doctrines. Love reduces them all to practice. Faith lays hold on Jesus Christ, and obtains that love by which every precept is cheerfully and effectually obeyed.