2 Timothy 1:13

2 Timothy 1:13. Hold fast the form of sound words. The word rendered ‘form' (υ ̔ ποτυ ́ πωσις) is the same as that rightly translated ‘pattern' in 1 Timothy 1:16. It is therefore probable that a word so rarely used by St. Paul is used here also in the same sense. Its position shows that it is emphatic, and though without the article in the Greek, the absence is supplied by the emphasis thus given. The full interpretation of the words turns on the meaning of the verb, which may be simply ‘have' in the sense of ‘take,' or ‘have' in the sense of ‘hold fast and keep.' The former gives as the meaning, ‘Take what I have just said as an example of the wholesome words;' the latter, which seems, on the whole, to give the truer meaning, ‘ Hold fast, keep before thee that pattern.'

Wholesome words. As in 1 Timothy 1:10; 1 Timothy 6:3, and elsewhere, words that are characterized by a spiritual healthiness.

Which thou hast heard of me. The Greek tense (‘which thou didst hear') points to some definite occasion which Timothy would remember, and on which, in the temper of ‘the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus,' Timothy had listened eagerly to the words which he was now in danger of forgetting.