The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
I Timothy 1:5
Paul told Timothy that love—that agape-self-giving-kind-of-love—is the be-all and end-all of everything we do in the Church. Quite literally, without love, the Christian life falls apart. Love is the adhesive that joins all the other virtues together (cf. Col. 3:12-14) and the singularity to which all the other aspects of Christianity can find their source (cf. Rom. 13:8-10). It is the melody line to which the rest of the notes play off. Love is the answer to every "why" question in ministry. Meaning, however the ministry is conducted, or whatever it accomplishes, or wherever it goes, the primary motivation should be love. The Church's end game is a people who have internalized their faith for themselves and then externalized their love for others.
You can have the best bible teaching, the best music program, the biggest budget, and the biggest outreach events. Still, if people are not learning how to love, the Church has failed miserably. As Paul told Timothy, love is the aim of ministry. It is the final destination toward which the whole of church work ought to be moving toward. Love is the sum total of Christianity and the purest expression of the Spirit (cf. Gal. 5:22).
But Paul knows that arriving at love is an impossibility without some way of getting there. So he says this love must come from a "pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith." What do those three things mean, and how do they help us achieve our aim of loving God and loving others? To help us answer that question, let's think of this verse as a metaphor for a journey. Love is the final destination, a "pure heart" is the gas, "a good conscience" is the vehicle, and a "sincere faith" is like the GPS. Only when all three are present and accounted for will we arrive at our journey's end.
A useable energy source.
Paul told Timothy that the kind of love the Church ought to be moving towards comes from a "pure heart." During the first century, whenever someone spoke of the heart, they didn't mean the organ in your chest. Instead, they were referring to the inner-most part of a person. The heart is what gives a person life, expression, and movement. But Paul doesn't just say, "heart." He says that love should come from "a pure heart." Meaning, only when their heart has been washed, redeemed, and sanctified can a person express the kind of love Paul was talking about (cf. Mat. 5:8). To use our car metaphor, before starting out on a long journey, every responsible driver asks themselves, “How am I on fuel?” And not unlike a vehicle that lacks fuel, the person who lacks a pure heart will not move in the direction God wants them to move. Their cars are effectively dead on the spot.
A reliable transportation device.
Not only did Paul tell Timothy that love is a direct result of “a pure heart,” but he also said that love is the clear consequence of a “good conscience.” The conscience is what facilitates choice. It is the mechanism governing man’s will. Generally speaking, the conscience is a good thing guiding a person toward the "right" decision and away from the "wrong" decision. However, scripturally, the conscience can be both a tool for good and a tool for evil. For instance, the conscience can not only be seared (1 Tim. 4:2) but corrupted (Titus 1:3). This is why, quite frankly, "listen to your conscience," can be terrible advice for some people.
On Calvary, the Messiah not only purged our sins, but he purified our conscience so that we might feel bad about things that are truly bad and feel good about the things that are truly good (cf. Heb. 9:11-4). The one who veers away from the Gospel has seared and corrupted their conscience in such a way that they cannot function properly. They cannot make good decisions because they possess a bad conscience. The mechanism that governs their choices is broken down and in disarray. You cannot love well without a good conscience helping you make good decisions. And you cannot have a good conscience until you’ve gone to the Good Shepherd (cf. Jn. 10:11-18).
Going back to our car metaphor once again, not only should you see if you have enough fuel to make the journey, but you should also ask yourself, "How's my vehicle?" A good conscience is not unlike a good car. A functional vehicle can get you from point A to point B. But a dysfunctional vehicle is nothing more than one big accident waiting to happen. And time would fail me to tell of the countless lives that have been ruined simply because of a bad conscience.
A firm adherence to the roadmap.
So, love is the byproduct of “a pure heart” and “a good conscience.” But Paul didn't want Timothy to kick it into autopilot and coast. No. He wanted the Church's love to follow wherever God would lead. Hence, Paul tells Timothy that the last component—the missing piece to this successful journey—is a "sincere faith."
A sincere person is a person that what you see is what you get. They are honest and honorable. You can trust the sincere person, for they do not have any ulterior motives. Thus, when Paul says that love issues forth from a "sincere faith," he's speaking about a faith that is unfaltering, unwavering, and unswerving. It, like the sincere person, is faithful.
When we get saved, we embark on a journey with Jesus as our guide. He directs where we should go. He tells us the pace we should set. He provides the bearing for our life. Though we get some glimpses along the way, we never really know where we are along our journey. Thus, whenever we have doubts or whenever we do not know precisely where God is leading, it is left up to our "sincere faith" to lead the way.
If I may use our car metaphor just one last time. Now that you’ve checked the gas level and seen that it's filled to capacity and now that you’ve gone through your vehicle with a fine-toothed comb to make sure it’s well within operational parameters; the last thing you need to ask before hitting the road is, “Where’s the GPS leading?” Jesus is the leader, and whatever he says we will do, and wherever he sends, we will go.
The Church is a people who are moving toward love carried along by a vehicle that has a “pure heart,” maintained through a “good conscience,” and is directed by a “sincere faith.” To compromise on any of these would mean defiling one’s heart, poisoning one’s conscience, and shipwrecking one's faith. The ultimate fallout would be a people not loving well but a people who've devolved into division, destruction, and doom. They are not a people who are moving toward journey's end, but are broken down on the side of the road.
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