In what was almost certainly the Apostle Paul’s last letter he wrote:
That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.
What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you – guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us (2 Timothy 1:12-14).
Notice the parallel here: God is guarding what Paul entrusted to him, and Timothy is also told to guard what he has been entrusted with. The word translated “guard” here (phylassō in the Greek) is the same in both places. Paul trusted God to guard what he treasured; his true life (Colossians 3:3). And God, in return, entrusted Paul with his treasure, the “pattern of sound teaching,” about Christ, which Paul then entrusted to Timothy.
It occurs to me that this is not just a one-off incident, but rather a general principle: we trust God with our lives and our futures, and God trusts us with a treasure of his own. Why? Because it’s only when I am trusting God with everything I value that my mind and my heart are sufficiently free of distractions to focus my full attention on what he wants to entrust to me.
So what is this deposit that God wants to entrust to me, if I will only trust him enough to receive it? I think it’s the same deposit he entrusted to Paul. The same deposit he wants to entrust to each of his children; the gospel – a word that simply means an announcement of good news – of reconciliation through the blood of Jesus Christ. The news that the kingdom of God has come down to us, and is now within the reach of anyone who is willing to enter.
And although we sometimes forget to think of it this way, the message of the kingdom is indeed a treasure that must be guarded at all costs. Not that it can be stolen; it can’t. But it can be corrupted into something false. One of the major themes of both of Paul’s letters to Timothy, and a theme found in most of the other letters in the New Testament as well, is the need to stand firm against false doctrines and deceptive teachers; those who “promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God’s work – which is by faith” (1 Timothy 1:4), and those who view godliness as a way to get rich (1 Timothy 6:3-5).
But God, despite the risk, entrusts this treasure to us, his children. He is willing to deposit into my hands a treasure worth more than the world itself, even though he knows exactly who I am. But then I remember that he also knows who I will someday be (1 John 3:2).
So then, my treasure needs to be kept in heaven (Matthew 6:19-21) so that God’s treasure can be kept on earth, in my custody. And in yours, if you’ll let him.