Guarding Our Christian Trust

A CHRISTIAN is one who has dedicated himself to do God’s will, even as Jesus Christ did at the river Jordan, and who then seeks to follow in the footsteps of his Exemplar. As for a trust, it is something that has been handed over to another for safekeeping or for profitable use and for which one will be required to render an account. And what is our Christian trust? According to Jesus’ own words it is the glorifying of God’s name and bearing witness to the truth.—Matt. 25:14-30; John 17:4; 18:37.a

It is this trust that Paul was referring to when he wrote: “This beautiful trust guard through the holy spirit which is dwelling in us.” (2 Tim. 1:14) A trust is a thing to be taken not lightly but seriously, and especially is our Christian trust to be taken seriously, for it is a most precious treasure. In fact, to be entrusted with anything by Jehovah is an unspeakable privilege, the greatest honor that could be given to any man. That Jehovah God should commit a trust to us should make us both very humble and extremely concerned with caring for it faithfully. Besides, our eternal life depends upon our faithfully guarding our Christian trust.

To guard a trust means to look well to it, to watch over it, to shield and protect it. And guard our Christian trust we must or we shall lose it; warning examples of which we have in the Scriptures. Did not Adam and Eve lose their Edenic trust because they failed to guard it properly? And what about Esau, Nadab, Abihu, Korah, King Saul and the entire nation of Israel, with but few exceptions? Surely all such was recorded as a warning to us!

If we would not lose out on our Christian trust we must keep guarding it, appreciating it highly, making good use of it, improving our use of it with the months and the years. That takes private study of the Bible and Bible-study aids as well as congregational and group instruction. And especially does guarding our Christian trust mean making room in our lives to discharge its obligations, for preaching publicly and from house to house, as well as incidentally as opportunity affords. Among other aids that we must take advantage of are God’s holy spirit and prayer. We cannot continue guarding our trust until the end without the help of these two.

Guarding our Christian trust also requires of us to be on the alert against the snares of this world’s materialism. These things may not be wrong in themselves, and it is proper to love ourselves. But unless we keep such things under control they will cause us to neglect our Christian trust, even as Demas did, who forsook his Christian trust “because he loved the present system of things.”—2 Tim. 4:10.

Nor may we overlook that guarding our Christian trust also means watching our conduct. It means to “flee from the desires incidental to youth,” or else it may be that after we have preached to others we ourselves shall “become disapproved somehow.” We must be on guard not to let the wrong conduct of others influence us either to follow their example or to become bitter at them or at the organization.—2 Tim. 2:22; 1 Cor. 9:27.

So let us pay constant attention to our beautiful trust, the Christian ministry, guarding it, appreciating it, looking well to it, shielding and protecting it, watching over it so that we may finally gain Jehovah’s approval, share in the vindication of his name and gain life in his new world.

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