Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. 1 Timothy 6:20a
“Guard this commandment as I have spoken it to you, that your repentance and that of your household may be found to be in simplicity — and pure, innocent, and blameless.”
The Shepherd of Hermas 27.7, Commandment II (c. A.D. 70-140) as reported by Bart Ehrman in Lost Scriptures: Books That Did Not Make It Into The New Testament (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003) 265.
This short post has a lot in it.
Hermas follows Paul’s example using the same Greek imperative (“guard”) after providing explicit instructions about giving. Here’s what Paul says to Timothy.
Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. 1 Timothy 6:17-20a
Then he echoes this charge with the same Greek imperative twice in his second letter to Timothy using financial language.
Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. 2 Timothy 1:14
The “deposit” is financial language and “good” deposit implies the good teaching about handling money (because money is depicted in Scripture as “worldly wealth” or literally “wealth of unrighteousness.”
I tell you, use worldly wealth (literally, “wealth of unrighteousness”) to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. Luke 16:9
A plain way to explain the Greek here is to use the wealth gained or accumulated by not-right, worldly behavior to gain friends for eternity by sharing it generously. That’s not how the world thinks, for sure.
And notice what Hermas says, basically the same thing about 50 years after Paul.
“Do what is good, and take what you have earned through the toils God has given you and give simply to those in need, not wavering about to whom you should give something and to whom not. Give to everyone. For God wishes every one to be given something from his own gifts.
And so, those who receive something will render an account to God, about why they received something and to what end. For those who received because of hardship will not face condemnation; but those who received out of hypocrisy will pay a penalty.
And so the one who gives is innocent. For as he was given a ministry from the Lord to complete, he has completed it in a simple way, having no doubts about to whom he should give or not give something. This ministry that is completed in a simple way becomes glorious before God, so that the one who ministers thus, in a simple way, will live to God.
Guard this commandment as I have spoken it to you, that your repentance and that of your household may be found to be in simplicity — and pure, innocent, and blameless.”
He wants us to “complete the gift” by living pure, simple, and innocent lives (think “righteous”) as generous sharers.
This is countercultural and crazy in earthly terms but precisely how Jesus wants us to live. And we have to guard this thinking lest we drift and conform to the patterns of this unrighteous world.