2 Timothy 1:13-14 Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.

I didn’t have a topic for today. I opened up my Biblegateway app to search the Word to see if the Lord had anything for me this day. Here in the verse of the day my eyes became fixed on the word form. I have a tendency to notice words. It was not clear to me what was meant here. This was the KJV so I looked at other translations to see if there was not some clarity to be found.

The NASB uses the word standard. The NIV uses the word pattern. In searching various other translations I noticed the message itself varied greatly. It became clear that others in an effort to bring clarity to this subject also struggled to grasp a consistent meaning.

An image from my past came into mind. I was younger, inexperienced and I was trying to build a box. I had the base and four walls and I was by myself trying to hold everything together to form the shape of the box. There were more pieces than I had hands to hold. I was actually embarrassed to think about how clumsy I was back then.

Verse 14 held a clue as to the meaning of form, it called it a thing. This thing was committed to me by the Holy Spirit. He who dwells in me. Then I got a glimpse of the meaning of form that took shape, not from the efforts of the hands that clumsily tried to hold it together but that by pressing in, the contents within gave shape, form and definition to the container, that thing, me.

Genesis 19:3 And he pressed upon them greatly; and they turned in unto him,

2 Timothy 1:13-14 Hold fast the shape which God has fashioned you by the power of the Holy Spirit working in your inner most parts. (LIV) i.e. Larry’s Insight Version.