The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities, Law and Public Policy Conference, recently met in Dallas, Texas. This premier gathering of Christian scholars, legal practitioners, university presidents and human resource leaders engaged pressing cultural and constitutional questions shaping public life today. William was privileged to provide the opening devotion. His Biblical exposition reflected on “Guarding That Which Has Been Entrusted to Us,” setting a tone of prayerful reflection and conviction as participants began their work together. Here is a summary of his presentation.
Guarding the Deposit
At Arlington National Cemetery, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier stands in solemn silence, a monument to sacrifice and a testimony to memory. Day and night, through heat, snow, storms, and stillness, a soldier walks the line before the marble tomb. The guard is never absent, never distracted, never casual. His presence declares that the sacrifice of those whose names we will never know is remembered and honored without ceasing. The endless vigil is a statement: what was given here is too precious ever to neglect.
Paul’s words to Timothy echo with a similar sense of sacred trust and vigilant duty. As the first letter to Timothy draws to its close, Paul writes with urgency and affection: “O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you” (1 Tim. 6:20). And in the opening of his second letter, written from prison and facing death, Paul strengthens the charge: “By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you” (2 Tim. 1:14). If the sentry at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier represents a nation’s commitment to remember sacrifice, Paul’s charge to Timothy represents something far greater—the Christian’s call to guard the very truth of the gospel.
The word Paul uses for “guard” (phylassō) was common in the military world. It meant to watch over with vigilance, like a soldier at his post, to keep safe from harm or corruption, and to discharge faithfully a trust placed in one’s hands. It was not casual keeping—it was vigilant defense. The gospel, Paul insists, is not something to be reshaped or reinvented. It is a treasure, a deposit (parathēkē), placed in Timothy’s care. His responsibility is not to modify it but to preserve it, not to hide it but to protect it so that it may be faithfully transmitted.
This theme of guarding runs throughout Scripture. In Genesis 2:15, Adam was placed in the garden “to work it and to keep it.” The Hebrew word there, shamar, means to guard, to preserve, to protect. Adam’s task was to guard creation and, more importantly, to guard God’s word. His failure to do so opened the door to corruption. Later, the priests and Levites were commanded to “guard” the tabernacle, keeping it from defilement so that God’s people could worship in purity (Num. 3:7–8). In Ezekiel 33, God appointed the prophet as a watchman over Israel, responsible to sound the alarm against approaching danger. And in the Psalms, God Himself is called the ultimate guardian: “He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep” (Ps. 121:4). The idea of guarding is woven through the entire biblical narrative: a trust is given, and the faithful must watch over it with vigilance and devotion.
Paul warns Timothy of the dangers that threaten the deposit: “irreverent babble” and “what is falsely called knowledge” (1 Tim. 6:20). The gospel faces constant pressure, not only from overt hostility but also from hollow ideas, clever distortions, and philosophies that sound profound but deny God. Paul is not rejecting knowledge or learning—he himself was an erudite scholar—but he is drawing a line between true wisdom, which begins with the fear of the Lord, and counterfeit wisdom, which leads away from Him. In Timothy’s day, as in ours, there were always teachers who claimed a superior knowledge, a more enlightened way. But their “knowledge” pulled people away from Christ. To embrace such empty chatter was to risk spiritual shipwreck.
Guarding, however, is not a grim or solitary task. Paul anchors Timothy’s charge in the grace and presence of God. In 2 Timothy 1:12, Paul himself declares, “I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.” The same God who guards Paul’s life and mission is the one who empowers Timothy: “By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you” (v. 14). The image is beautiful—Timothy is not a lone sentry pacing the marble line. He is a steward upheld by the indwelling Spirit. The power to guard does not come from human willpower but from God’s sustaining grace.
For Christians in higher education, this call to vigilance is deeply relevant. Students, professors, and researchers live in a marketplace of ideas where every worldview and philosophy is tested, debated, and reshaped. The danger is not in engaging ideas—Paul never suggests retreat from thought or inquiry—but in failing to filter them through Scripture. “Irreverent babble” in the academy might sound like speculative theories that divorce knowledge from moral truth, philosophies that deny objective meaning, or ideologies that attempt to reconstruct humanity apart from its Creator. Christians in such settings are called to discernment: to recognize which ideas are empty sounds and which are aligned with Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:3).
But guarding does not mean withdrawal. It does not mean defensiveness or arrogance. Guarding the deposit means stewarding it with humility and courage, holding firmly to biblical truth while engaging others with grace. It means being unashamed of the gospel, not because we can win every argument, but because, like Paul, we know whom we have believed. Confidence in Christ allows Christian scholars to enter dialogue with openness, love, and boldness, demonstrating that the truth of God is both intellectually credible and spiritually life-giving.
The image of the soldier at Arlington reminds us of vigilance, duty, and respect. But our charge goes further. We do not guard a tomb of silence; we guard a message of life. The gospel is not the memory of the unknown—it is the revelation of the Known One, Jesus Christ, entrusted to us and empowered by the Spirit. Like Timothy, we are called to stand our watch: resisting distortion from without, relying on grace from within, and transmitting the truth to the next generation.
Paul’s closing words still ring with urgency and affection: “O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you.” And with them comes the benediction: “Grace be with you all.” Grace is both the source of our strength and the promise of our preservation. As we remain faithful to guard the truth, we can rest in the greater reality that God Himself is guarding us.
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