"KEEP THE FAITH" (II TIMOTHY 4:7)

 When I was living in upstate New York there was a devout Catholic coworker of mine who would always tell me “Keep the faith” every time we parted. I just realized that I had never looked through the Bible to see if that phrase actually occurred there and if so, what meaning it had.

Word Definitions

Faith: Consulting an exhaustive concordance, one can easily see that “faith” appears only rarely in the Old Testament. As for its meaning in the New Testament, the most common Greek word translated in that way is the noun pistis (or its corresponding verb pisteuo). Vine says this concerning pistis: “primarily, firm persuasion, a conviction based upon hearing..., is used in the N.T. always of faith in God or Christ, or things spiritual.” Then, most importantly, Vine outlines the three elements that are encompassed by pistis: “(1) a firm conviction, producing a full acknowledgment of God's revelation or truth, e.g., 2 Thess. 2:11,12; (2) a personal surrender to Him, John 1:12; (3) a conduct inspired by such surrender, 2 Cor. 5:7. Prominence is given to one or another of these elements according to the context. All this stands in contrast to belief in its purely natural exercise, which consists of an opinion held in good faith without necessary reference to its proof.”

Note that Vine's definition includes not only an internal mindset but also the practical outworking of that mindset in our lives. In this manner, we can see that there is really no contradiction between the writings of James and Paul on the subject of faith.

Michel adds, “'Repentance from dead works' and 'faith in God' were important elements in the teaching of the primitive Christian catechism (Heb. 6:1). More important is the pointed use of pistis in the context of Pauline theology to denote the reception of Christian proclamation and the saving faith which was called forth by the gospel (Rom. 1:8; 1 Thess. 1:8). For Paul pistis is indissolubly bound with proclamation. Early Christian missionary preaching thus brought faith into sharp focus.”

Keep: Then we come to the verb “keep,” which translates several Hebrew and Greek words. In the OT there are three main words which convey this basic meaning. Natsar means to watch or reserve and appears often in the Wisdom Literature; asah denotes doing or performing and often refers to ceremonies and holy days; and the most common word shamar has the basic meaning of “observe, take heed.” In the NT, the verbs tereo (keep, watch, observe) and katecho (take, possess, retain, hold fast) are the most commonly employed terms. It is from that latter Greek word that we get our English “catechism,” that which is to be held fast.

Old Testament Formulations

As far as I could determine, there is no exact appearance of the phrase “keep the faith” in the OT. But the general concept is certainly conveyed by some equivalent expressions. Below are just a few representative examples:

    Leviticus 18:5 – “You shall keep my statutes and my ordinances; by doing so one shall live: I am the LORD.” A promise from God is attached to this admonition.

    Deuteronomy 33:9b – Speaking of the Levites, Moses says, “They observed your word and kept your covenant.” The covenant included the idea of a close relationship between God and the Israelites as a whole as well as each individual.

    Psalm 78:7 – The Psalmist says God taught the Israelites, “so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.” Here we have both positive and negative definitions of keeping the faith.

    Psalm 119 – If you want to see a complete compendium of synonyms for both “keep” and “faith” in an OT context, you cannot do better than read through this whole Psalm. Practically every verse expresses this concept in one way or another.

Of course, the epitome of keeping the faith in the OT is exemplified by observing the Ten Commandments. After a repetition of them in Deuteronomy 5, Moses says in Deuteronomy 6:5 – “Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all our soul, and with all your might.” So in these two chapters we have all three aspects of the NT pistis laid out by Vine above. Such faith begins with recognition of God as the only source of truth, includes a personal commitment to Him and all He stands for, and culminates in appropriate actions on our part that are in line with His will.

New Testament Formulations

Here is a quick survey of some of the key NT passages expressing equivalents to “keep the faith,” beginning with statements coming from Jesus Himself:

    Matthew 19:17b – “If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” Apparently, the young man to whom this was addressed had actually kept all of the Ten Commandments. However, when Jesus then advised him to give all his possessions to the poor and follow Him, the man went away sorrowful.

    Luke 8:15 – In this conclusion to Jesus' parable of the soils, those seeds which were successful in growing and multiplying are said to be those who “when they hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patient endurance.” Thus, as James says, we need to be “doers of the word, not just hearers.”

    John 8:51-52 – In this passage, Jesus not only tells the critical Jews that “whoever keeps my word will never see death” but also proceeds to accuse them in vv. 54-55 of not knowing God. Thus, he reveals to them that they have not met the second of Vine's definitions for “faith,” having a personal relationship with Him.

    John 14-15 – Jesus reiterates his above accusation in 14:21 as well as summarizing much of the OT commandments under the category of love for one's fellow man and extends them by adding the command to keep his own words (see 14:15;23; 15:10;20).

    Acts 14:22 – As Paul and his companions return to cities they had already evangelized, Paul encourages the believers to “continue in the faith.” Obviously it is not just a once-only thing.

    I Corinthians 11:2 – This congregation is commended for maintaining “the traditions just as I handed them on to you.” Thus, to the OT faith in God and the keeping of Jesus' words, we are instructed to keep the words of those to whom Jesus entrusted the faith.

    I Corinthians 16:13 – And then toward the end of the letter Paul admonishes them to “Keep alert, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong.”

    Colossians 1:23 – Paul tells the members of this congregation that they will be presented blameless before God “provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith.”

    II Thessalonians 1:4 – And again in this verse, Paul stresses the necessity of remaining steadfast in the faith despite afflictions which they may undergo.

    I Timothy 6:13-14 – In an interesting variation on common OT teachings, Paul charges Timothy to “keep the commandment,” rather than the commandments.

    I John – This letter is known for its constant repetition of just a few key themes. Thus, it is no surprise that seven times John stresses the necessity of the believer to “keep” the word or commandments.

    Jude 3 – Even in this short letter, we find a variation on the same idea when the addressees are urged to “contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.”

    Revelation – And in this final book of the Bible we are instructed to keep the things written in the book (1:3; 22:7,9), the word (2:26; 3:8), and the commandments (12:17; 14:12) as another example of the number seven in John's writings.

II Timothy 4:7

Actually, it is only here in the Bible that we have the exact formulation we have been searching for. Paul says to Timothy, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. But it turns out that this third metaphor can be understood in at least three different ways:

“I have kept faith”

This is the basic understanding of commentators such as Spicq and Brox. It is also indicated in translations such as NEB (“kept faith”), Phillips (“kept true to him”), and the alternative TEV translation of “been true to my promise.” That understanding, according to Hanson (who does not subscribe to it) indicates “perhaps keeping faith with God, Christ, his baptismal confession, or his commission as an apostle.” And D. Guthrie similarly rejects this idea, which “has been understood by some writers to refer to the athlete's promise to keep the rules, or to the military man's oath of fidelity (Calvin).”

Hendricksen: “Here as in I Tim. 6:12, the meaning is probably not, 'I have kept the pledge' (or 'fidelity') nor 'I have maintained the true doctrine' ('faith' in the objective sense), but, in harmony with the present context, 'I have retained my personal trust in God, my confidence in all his Christ-centered promises.'”

Lea echoes Hendricksen's understanding of Paul's assertion: “'To keep the faith' may have involved either maintaining the sound doctrine of Christianity intact or keeping a loyalty to the trust the Father had given him. In light of the fact that the phrase 'kept the faith' seems to be a fixed formula for maintaining a personal trust, the latter option seems more likely.”

“I have kept the faith”

Knight explains that 'the faith' may have been utilized by Paul “in a subjective or objective sense, i.e. whether he is saying that he has kept on believing or that he had preserved 'the faith' intact. He opts for the objective meaning, in concert with other teachings in the Pastoral Epistles [see some of them quoted above]...Further, since the other two verbs [in v. 7] emphasize perseverance it is likely that this nuance of ['kept] is intended here as well.”

Those who ascribe to this view generally treat “I have kept the faith” as a different type of metaphor than the first two in the verse. For example, Guthrie states that “since the apostle has urged his lieutenants many times to guard the deposit [i.e., body of apostolic teaching], it is possible that the same metaphor of a steward is in mind.” This is certainly the understanding of the next four scholars quoted:

Stibbs defines 'the faith' in this case to be “the gospel, or deposit of doctrine, entrusted to Paul. This he has successfully guarded (cf. 1:14).”

Nute feels that the statement “may well correspond to the earlier references to guarding the deposit (cf. 1 Tim. 6:20; 2 Tim. 1:12,14).”

Litfin says that the phrase “draws again on the image of faithfulness in one's stewardship of Christian faith (2 Tim. 1:14).”

Ward: “It seems to mean that the faith is intact in my hands. It has not been lost through carelessness, abandoned through frivolity, neglected through underestimation. The deposit has been guarded and is still safe.”

Both meanings are intended

Those reading the above comments may be understandably confused and wonder whether there is really that much difference between the objective and subjective interpretations. If so, then Towner's view may appeal to you more than either of the two above options.

“Within these letters to coworkers, the 'faith' word group is a dominant feature of the theological and ethical vocabulary, expressing ideas ranging from 'the faith' (noun) as the objective content of Christian belief, to the act of believing in God/Christ (verb), to 'faithfulness' (adj.; of believers), to trustworthiness (adj. of sayings; cf. 1 Tim 1:2)...This is a case where the ambiguity of the reference to 'keeping the faith' intentionally invites the wider rather than the narrower of possible meanings: if the widest meaning is intended (the loyalty of the apostle), it must incorporate the narrower specifics.”