A Pure Heart is Required

“Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of a faith unfeigned.”  I Timothy 1:5

The goal of any minister of the gospel is to bring the love of Christ to people in need.  People need God’s love and the ability to love one another which can only come through a right relationship with Christ.  Jesus said that there are really only two commandments:  to love God with all one’s heart, soul, and mind and to love one’s neighbor as oneself (Matthew 22:37-40).  This kind of love requires a pure heart, one that has been cleansed by the blood of Christ, a good conscience which is guided by the Holy Spirit, and an unfeigned faith, one that is genuine and unwavering.  Real faith is not something you can fake.

However, not everyone who claims to know Christ can meet those criteria.  There were some in the church at Ephesus, just as there has been up to our current day, who swerved, that is, were led away from the truth of the gospel because either they never truly received the truth and committed their bodies, souls, and minds to it, or their faith was very weak, and their commitment not as determined which allowed doubts and false doctrine to creep in.  Instead of God’s truth, they began to speak empty words and noisy rhetoric, or, as Paul puts it, “vain jangling” (V. 6).  Matthew Henry wrote that “many people’s religion consists of little else but vain jangling”.

The problem is that those who are full of empty words and useless information desire to teach others.  Jesus said in Matthew 18:5-6 that one who offends a little one who believes in Him would have to answer to God.  Anyone who teaches false doctrine offends God.  Paul wrote in Romans 1:32 that those who dishonor God take pleasure in influencing others to dishonor Him.  Those who teach false doctrine are either ignorant of the truth, they intentionally try to deceive others, or, because of their blatant refusal to glorify God as the LORD God, He gave them up to their sin, in effect, cutting them off from the ability to think or act righteously (Romans 1:19-32).  Thus, it really does matter what one believes and what one shares with others.  Only believing the truth of God’s word and sharing it with others will bring blessings.  To believe a lie and convince others to believe it will bring condemnation.

Paul wrote that the law is good, if a man uses it lawfully (v.8).  How else would he know right from wrong?  He wrote in Romans 7:7 that he would not have known that he was a sinner except by the law.  He even went as far to say that “without the law sin was dead” (Romans 7:8).  The law set the standard by which men and women should live, and, as long as they abide by the law, it is good.  Obeying the law shows that people are aware of the need to do what’s right, but, on the other hand, some only see the law as an inconvenience and only obey to avoid punishment.  The law was described by Paul in Galatians 3:24 as a “schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith”.  Like a schoolteacher teaches us as children what we don’t know, the law teaches us that we are sinners in need of a Savior.  We would never know that if not for God’s law.  Paul wrote in Romans 3:20b that “by the law is the knowledge of sin”.

The law wasn’t made for those who are righteous.  If one could keep the law perfectly, then the law wouldn’t be needed for he or she would always do righteously.  But living perfectly is impossible for humans for they were born with a sin nature, thus the law was required “for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).  “There is none that does good, no, not one” (Psalm 14;3b), thus the law was made for the lawless and disobedient, those who are rebellious against God, for all sinners, for those who live as if there is no God and think they will not be held accountable, and for those who kill others.  In other words, for those who place anything above God, for those who take the LORD’s name in vain, for those who don’t honor their fathers and mothers, and those who murder, the first, third, fifth, and sixth commandments.

Paul continued to name the sins of man for which the law was written by God: those who are whoremongers and homosexuals in violation of the seventh commandment, liars, against the ninth commandment, which also covers perjury, those who kidnap people, and anything else that defies God’s law or is contrary to what is true and sound.  One must have good judgment and a firm grasp of right and wrong to discern what God commands.  Those who violate His commandments either do not understand that they will be held accountable for their sins, or they do not care because they love their sin more than they fear God.  It is all of these violations which Paul listed which contradict the gospel of Jesus Christ of which God entrusted Paul to share with all to whom God sent him.  It is a glorious gospel in that even those guilty of the sins which Paul named can be forgiven if they repent and turn to Christ, leaving those sins behind and following the Lord of glory.  God is the blessed God for making salvation possible.

More from I Timothy next time.