Teaching Myself 1 Timothy 1:5

"The aim of our charge is love that issues from

a pure heart and

a good conscience and

a sincere faith."

Every so often I read something that jumps out at me in a way it never has before, even though I have read it thousands of times. This verse seemed to split itself into sections right before my eyes.

The aim of our charge is love...

Do you know how often faith, hope, and love are mentioned in the Bible? And Paul tells us the greatest of these is love. (1Corinthians 13:13) Love is expounded, commanded, explained and considered time and again from the beginning of the Old Testament through to the New.

Why?

Well, God is love (1 John 4:8), and He commands that we ought to love one another, even as He loves us. Love is from God (1 John 4:7), and so we are to love one another if we are to be like Him.

What is love?

Love is more than just a feeling. It's more than saying "I love you". It's all about action. God is love, and God reached out with sacrifice and salvation. He gave Himself up for us. We're called to love like that.

So, that's my preliminary thought on love itself. But what really stood out to me was the next part of the verse.

So, the aim of our charge is love...

1) That issues from a pure heart

In reading this, two questions popped into my head.

- How can we be pure?

- From where does purity come?

Purity is an interesting thing. To be pure means to be unsullied, undefiled, innocent. Set apart.

In Scripture we are commanded to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. (Matthew 10:16) Doves are a symbol of innocence. They're white; spotless; unstained. So should we be.

When I think about this, though, I realize how impossible it is to have a pure heart. I do not. If anything, I have a vile, black, infected heart full of twisted and deranged thoughts and expressions. I am a sinner. The outpouring of my heart is filthy. I bear a heart of stone.

And yet, there's hope.

In Psalm 51:10 it says this:

"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me."

Do you know what is the greatest part about this verse? God answers that prayer.

Ezekiel 36:26 says this:

"And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."

When Christ died for me, He took on my filthy heart of stone and replaced it with a heart of flesh, a heart that loves Him, a heart that desires to please Him. He gave me a heart that can obey. He gave me a heart that is pure and unsullied. God looks at me and sees a pure child, because Christ paid the price for my sins.

2) That issues from a good conscience

- How can we have a good conscience?

- What can we do to strengthen and protect our conscience?

My conscience is seared and darkened with sin. In many ways I do not have a good conscience. However, with Christ's sacrifice and redemption, I am created anew, and I have a conscience that is able to see and choose what is good. By Christ's death and resurrection, I have a renewed mind.

Now, by God's grace I am called to continue renewing my mind, and be transformed by this (Romans 12:2; Ephesians 4:23). God enables us by His grace to have a good conscience, so that we can discern what His will is, and choose to obey and so please and glorify Him.

We strengthen and protect our conscience by fleeing what is evil, and pursuing what is good.

How often in Scripture are we commanded to put off the old, and put on the new? How often are we told to flee sin and pursue righteousness? Having a good conscience means, in part, being able to say "by God's grace I have not fallen in this area of sin to which I am prone." Having a good conscience means, in part, being able to stand before the presence of those who would seek to condemn you, and being able to say "I have followed God." If you fall into sin, your conscience condemns you. If you flee from sin and do not fall, God is glorified because no one can accuse you.

A good conscience places you above reproach. Christ's sacrifice placed His righteousness - including His good conscience - upon us. We should therefore seek to live up to what we have been given. For the sake of God's glory, let us pursue a good conscience.

3) That issues from a sincere faith

- What does it mean to have a sincere faith?

- How can I make my faith sincere?

Sincere faith is a faith that proves itself to be true. It's a faith without blemish; a faith that really believes what it says it believes.

Do we believe what we say we believe? How do we know?

James says "show me your faith apart from works, and I will show you my faith by my works." (James 2:18)

Sincere faith proves itself by an outpouring of activity. We believe that God is real, so we seek to go out into the world and proclaim His gospel (Mark 16:15). We believe that God is love, so we seek to glorify Him by showing the love of Christ to broken, messed up humanity. We believe that we can do all things through Christ (Philippians 4:13), so we "attempt great things for God, and expect great things from God." (William Carey said it better than that, but you know.)

Head knowledge and merely saying "I believe," don't mean you have sincere faith. If God is truly working in you and sanctifying you, your faith will abound more and more in good works.

So, all of these things - a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith - are tied up together. If you have these things, you will have an outpouring of love. You won't be able to help it.