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5 The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 6 Some have departed from these and have turned to meaningless talk. 7 They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm. ~ 1 Timothy 1:5-7
According to the Bible, Satan is a liar and a master deceiver. His primary mode of operation is to use deception to gain power. One of the manifestations of his lying intent is the proliferation of false teachers who try to thwart the advancement of the gospel. Wherever truth is found, there will always be this offer of what seems to be good, yet isn't.
The Apostle Paul knew that the church at Ephesus, like any church, would come under attack from errant teachers. That is exactly what happened in Ephesus. The church there, where Timothy labored, though it had a great beginning, was never impervious to false teachers. So, the Apostle Paul wrote this letter to Timothy, to tell him to keep the teaching pure, and set an example for other churches to follow.
In v.5 we read, "The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith."
In order to stop false teaching, the goal of the correction must always be love. The word used here for love is agapē which is a self-denying choice, a self-sacrificing love. It is essential that Christians are known as those who “love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love our neighbor as ourselves." This love is not an emotion, it is a choice made which comes from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and a sincere faith.
Someone once said, "The heart of the matter is a matter of the heart." The heart is the center of our beliefs and convictions. The heart is the center of our longings for God and others. And when our hearts are made pure by the washing of regeneration, then it is a pure heart. And a pure heart is one devoted to God with an undivided allegiance, because it’s been washed and cleansed by the blood of Christ.
Now, whatever is in the mind influences the conscience. What we think influences our conscience. It is not that we are sinless, it is that Christ's presence in our lives have changed our orientation on life. We are being changed from the inside out. The motivation of our hearts has been influenced by the love we have and are receiving from Christ Himself.
Those who have a pure heart, are being granted a pure conscience. This new heart and conscience increasingly does not accuse or condemn such a one. Self-judgement and the judgement of others will be increasingly silenced and the heart and conscience will render peace, and freedom from guilt, because the heart is being changed to see all through the eyes of the Lord.
In addition, love comes out of sincere or genuine faith, not the hypocritical faith that false teachers manifest. Biblical faith is a faith that has no pretense, and it causes us to love others the way God loves us.
God's love is pure but it can only be accessed through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, whereas God loves everybody, not everybody is loved by God. You see, our sin has separated us from God and in order to bridge that gap, God sent His Son to take the punishment for our sin so that we can access a personal relationship with God.
According to Proverbs 3:12, "God disciplines those whom He loves." We love it when we experience certain aspects of God's love like His provision and His protection. But, when He disciplines us, we struggle. Most often, while we are being disciplined, we conclude that He does not love us because we have an incomplete understanding of love.
God loves us just as we are but He loves us too much to allow us to remain as we are. So, He has to, at times, chisel those things out of our lives that are not good for us. This is the approach we must take with those who are teaching false doctrines, and if they reject the correction, we must be obedient to the Lord.
In v.6 we read, "Some have departed from these and have turned to meaningless talk." Their teaching is wrong because their goal is not love. The false teacher's desire is always for self. He is most interested in getting rich; he is in it for what he can get. Therefore, his message is defiled.
In v.7 we read, "They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm."
The motive for these false teachers was the desire to be
teachers of the law. They wanted the recognition but the law of love was not in their hearts. The primary expression of the love of Christ in the human heart is that there is obvious care for
people, especially the least. People do not care about what we believe until they know that we care. These false teachers
wanted selfish status that came through the applause of men. The source of our understanding of love is of utmost importance for obvious reasons.
We live in a world full of deception. Many today are being deceived because they are not being defined by what God says in His word. And, being defined by God's word is not only reading it daily, but thinking about it in such a way that we live it. We never merit God's favor by our obedience; we can not do that. But the more we get to know the Lord and His truth, we naturally will want to walk in His truth.
In addition, developing the habit of talking to the Lord about what He is teaching us in His word throughout the day gives Him opportunity to show us how it applies to our lives for that day. This is eternal life. This is the type of life the Lord Jesus died to give us. We must be diligent to resist selfishness and receive the truth from Him daily, so that we can love people in the way we want to be loved.
