Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Timothy 1:5
Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and [of] a good conscience, and [of] faith unfeigned:
5. Now the end of the commandment ] Better, But the end of the charge, ‘but’ rather than ‘now’ because it is not so much the commencement of a new paragraph as a positive statement of the true aim of the ministry to counteract the statement just made of false aims, so completing the paragraph. ‘The charge,’ the verb or noun occurs seven times in this epistle, and as thus constantly present to St Paul might almost give a second title to the epistle of ‘The Chief Pastor’s Charge,’ 1Ti 4:11, 1Ti 5:7 , 1Ti 6:13-17. Here one of the best comments is in the Bishop’s words at the Ordination of Priests in the English Prayer Book, ‘Be thou a faithful dispenser of the word of God,’ ‘Take thou authority to preach the word of God.’
charity ] love, a life of active love and union; the opposite of the ‘strifes’ which result from ‘questionings,’ 2Ti 2:23. It is important to keep the English word ‘love’ as the equivalent of the Greek word agap throughout the New Testament, as the Revisers have very properly done. It is a characteristic word, and only confusion is introduced in the mind of English readers by sometimes rendering it ‘charity.’
a pure heart ] thoroughly bent on turning from sin and youthful lusts, honestly growing in righteousness, 2Ti 2:22.
of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned ] ‘Conscience’ is one of St Paul’s most characteristic words; out of 32 places where it occurs in N.T. 23 are of his using either in speech or writing, six of these belonging to the Pastoral Epistles. See Appendix, D. Literally the word means ‘knowing with ’ and Bp Westcott draws out this idea in his definition, “It presents man as his own judge. Man does not stand alone. He has direct knowledge of a law a law of God which claims his obedience, and he has direct knowledge also of his own conduct. He cannot then but compare them and give sentence. His ‘conscience’ as the power directing this process is regarded apart from himself (Rom 9:1; Rom 2:15).” See his Additional Note, Heb 9:9.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Now the end of the commandment – see the notes on Rom 10:4. In order that Timothy might fulfil the design of his appointment, it was necessary that he should have a correct view of the design of the law. The teachers to whom he refers insisted much on its obligation and importance; and Paul designs to say that he did not intend to teach that the law was of no consequence, and was not, when properly understood, obligatory. Its nature and use, however, was not correctly understood by them, and hence it was of great importance for Timothy to inculcate correct views of the purpose for which it was given. The word commandment here some have understood of the gospel (Doddridge), others of the particular command which the apostle here gives to Timothy (Benson, Clarke, and Macknight); but it seems more naturally to refer to all that God had commanded – his whole law. As the error of these teachers arose from improper views of the nature and design of law, Paul says that that design should be understood. It was not to produce distinctions and angry contentions, and was not to fetter the minds of Christians with minute and burdensome observances, but it was to produce love.
Is charity – On the meaning of this word, see notes on 1Co 13:1.
Out of a pure heart – The love which is genuine must proceed from a holy heart. The commandment was not designed to secure merely the outward expressions of love, but that which had its seat in the heart.
And of a good conscience – A conscience free from guilt. Of course there can be no genuine love to God where the dictates of conscience are constantly violated, or where a man knows that he is continually doing wrong. If a man wishes to have the evidence of love to God, he must keep a good conscience. All pretended love, where a man knows that he is living in sin, is mere hypocrisy.
And of faith unfeigned – Undissembled confidence in God. This does seem to be intended specifically of faith in the Lord Jesus, but it means that all true love to God, such as this law would produce, must be based on confidence in him. How can anyone have love to him who has no confidence in him? Can we exercise love to a professed friend in whom we have no confidence? Faith, then, is as necessary under the law as it is under the gospel.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Ti 1:5-7
Now the end of the commandment is charity.
The end of the commandment
These verses are occupied with a description of what Gods dispensation was meant to produce, and indicate how it came to pass that many failed of it. The commandment or charge which Timothy had received had this as its end or purpose–the promotion of love out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned. By love is meant the right relation of the whole nature both to God and to man; for love to man is in the highest sense a consequent of love to God.
I. Three conditions Of this love are specified.
1. A pure heart. This is essential to any vision of God. Unless we are purified our affections will naturally fasten upon selfish objects, or even upon those which are evil.
2. A good conscience is often insisted upon in Scripture as one of the inestimable blessings enjoyed by Gods children. Conscience is the activity of consciousness towards the ethical aspect of things. But conscience is good if it is healed and purged by the Saviours touch; if, instead of condemning us, it gives us confidence towards God; if it is reliable and unbiassed in its decision on all questions brought before its tribunal; and if it not only directs the will, but spurs it into instant activity.
3. Faith unfeigned is the third condition of God-accepted love. Though mentioned last, faith is the germ grace–the seed principle. To us fallen men there is no way to a good conscience and a pure heart but that of faith in Jesus Christ–that faculty which, laying hold of Him the Mediator, brings us into fellowship with God and all unseen realities. The apostle now turns from the conditions of love to–
II. Its counterfeits, exhibited in those who, professing to aim at it, miss their mark and swerve aside to vain janglings–that is, to empty talking and disputation. Too often the Church has had members who have been destitute of moral and spiritual perceptivity, but have made themselves at home in speculations and controversies. And the worst tempers are to be found among the members of the more talkative and disputatious sects. Paul heartily abhorred vain babbling–talk on religious subjects which was sometimes made a substitute for holy living; and in the Epistle to Titus, as well as here, some sharp sternwords are uttered against it. False teaching is not to be lightly regarded or easily welcomed, as if it could have no evil effect on moral and spiritual life. For example, the philosophy of materialism, which represents our thoughts and affections as nothing but the emanations of movements in our physical bodies and brains, is ultimately destructive of moral responsibility and of belief in a coming immortality. Continue thou in the things wherein thou hast been taught. Do not foolishly give up the faith which was associated with all that was sacred in your childhood. Remember that there is a sphere of existence outside the range of your senses, beyond the proof of your reason, of which you know nothing unless you accept the glimpses given of it in this Divine revelation. Beware lest, like these Ephesian heretics, you swerve from the faith, having turned aside unto vain jangling. (A. Rowland, LL. B.)
The use and the abuse of the gospel
I. The use of it. What is the use of it? First: The production of love in the soul. The end of the commandment is charity. Secondly: The production of purity in the soul. A pure heart. Thirdly: The production of a sound moral sense in the soul. A good conscience. Fourthly: The production of a genuine confidence in the soul. Faith unfeigned.
II. The abuse of it. Some, says the apostle, having swerved have turned aside, i.e., have missed the mark. The apostle mentions some out of the many great abuses of the gospel. Their talk was jangling. Miserable discussions about forms, ceremonies, traditions, etc., etc. How much in all ages has there been of this in connection with the gospel. What miserable jargon, what jejeune gabbling. Their talk was–
(1) Vain–vain, in the sense of emptiness and unsatisfactoriness. It had no substance of truth in it, and therefore nothing in it to satisfy either the intellect or the heart.
(2) Ambitious. Desiring to be teachers of the law. In how many thousands in Christendom does the gospel awaken little more than the ambition to be teachers? All it does for them is to strike into their hearts a desire to talk about it, mainly for the purpose of self-parade. Perhaps there is no greater abuse of the gospel than a certain kind of pulpiteering.
(3) Ignorant. Understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm. As a rule, the men who are most anxious to preach are the most ignorant. (The Homilist.)
Charity.
The importance of heart love
John Wesley wrote to a student, Beware that you are not swallowed up in books. An ounce of love to God is worth a pound of transient knowledge. What is the real value of a thing, but the price it will bear in eternity? Let no study swallow up or entrench upon the hours of private prayer. Nothing is of so much importance as this, for it is not the possession of gifts, but of grace, nor of sound knowledge and orthodox faith, so much as the principle of holy love and the practice of Christian precepts, which distinguish the heir of glory from the child of perdition. Charity and almsgiving:–The word charity is confined, in common acceptation, to two meanings, neither of which gives a just idea to a general reader of its original and scriptural meaning. It is, first, applied to modes of thinking or speaking respecting things and persons; and in this sense is often grievously misemployed by the insincere and the worldly; and, secondly, charity to the poor is used as another term for almsgiving. Either of these methods of employing the term is a corruption of this large and noble word, and an instance how the depravity of our nature has a tendency to spoil every thing it touches. Indifferent to the rules and practices of a holy life, some call that charity which glosses over gross vice and ruinous error; and others, under a total indifference to the meaning of the text–Charity covereth (or hideth) many sins, hope to compound for a sinful life by contributing, as they think, largely of their own substance to the poor of their neighbourhood or to some charitable institution. That neither of these apparent results is really the fruit of Christian charity is too often evident, from the change induced by some slight provocation, which immediately quickens us into a vivid perception of wrong; what appeared charity is then seen to have been indifference either to truth or to holiness. But charity, in its real and scriptural sense, has a far more enlarged signification. It is a love to God, which is thence reflected upon all the creatures of God. It embraces cheerful devotedness and submissiveness to His will, founded on a faith in His declarations, a trust in His righteousness, an awful estimate of His character and counsels; and thence issues forth in sentiments of kindness, compassion, and good will, to all with whom we have a direct or distant intercourse. Patient under wrong, candid in its constructions in the world, slow to wrath, easy to forgive; it cheerfully sacrifices self, whenever such sacrifice can promote the Saviours glory, or the temporal and moral welfare of mankind. It is evident, therefore, that whatever goes by the name of charity, is unworthy of that name, unless it be the fruit of that devotion of the affections, to which that name is confined in Scripture. Hence, almsgiving is no charity, unless it proceed from love. And since the end of the commandment is charity; since He who was rich and for our sakes became poor, has left us His example as well as His command; since in that world of rest, which lies all but exposed before the Christians gaze, the heavenly Canaan–there will be no sorrows, no ignorance, no distress, no dangers, no toils, no death–let us esteem it no mean privilege, that now living in a world of varied grief and suffering, we have at once the means and the opportunity to imitate Christ–and while we have the time, let us do good to all men. (C. Lane, M. A.)
A good conscience.–
A good conscience
Every man has a conscience. As without the physical senses I could never feel my connection with this material system–the green earth beneath my feet and the blue heavens that encircle me would be nothing without them; so, without this conscience, this moral sense, I could have no idea either of moral government or God. Had you no conscience, I might as well endeavour to give to one that is born blind and deaf the idea of beauty and sweet sounds, as to give to you the idea of duty and God. What is a good conscience? Three things are necessary to it.
I. It must live. There are two classes of dead consciences. First: Those that have never been quickened. Conscience is in the breast of all in the first stages of childhood: but it is there as a germ unquickened by the sunbeam of intelligence, it is there as the optic nerve on which no light has fallen, it is dead. Secondly: Those which have been quickened but are now dead.
II. It must rule. There are consciences with some vitality in them, but no royalty; they are enslaved. They are found sometimes in subjection to–
(1) Animalism. They are carnally sold under sin.
(2) Worldliness. Worldly interests govern them.
(3) Superstition. No conscience is good in this state.
Conscience is the imperial faculty in the human soul; it is not only self-inspecting, self-judging, but should be self-ruling.
III. It must rule by the will of God. If it rule–and it often does–by a worldly expediency, a conventional morality, or a corrupt religion, it is a bad conscience. It must rule by the will of God, it must have no other standard. A good conscience is essential to every mans spiritual growth, power, peace, and usefulness. Without a good conscience what is he? A moral wreck tossed on the billows of passion and circumstances. (The Homilist.)
A good conscience
Oh, for a good conscience, to meet the terrors of that day without apprehension! But to have it then, we must possess it now. What is a good conscience? Its importance and necessity.
I. Three things are essential to a good conscience.
1. Illumination.
2. Pacification.
3. Sanctification.
(1) I say, first, the conscience must be enlightened. In itself it is not an infallible guide. Its province is not to teach men truth, not to correct erroneous principles, but simply to show a man when his conduct is, or is not, at variance with his knowledge and convictions of what is right. That knowledge must be obtained elsewhere; and then conscience will dictate the course of rectitude and consistency. If the judgment be under the influence of false principles, the conclusions of conscience will also be false. Some of the vilest things that have ever been done in this world have been done in its name and under its authority. It is evident, therefore, that a conscience, to be rightly directed, must have light; so far as it is instructed it invariably conducts a man in the right way. Therefore, seek illumination. Be concerned to have correct principles, and labour after proper views of Divine truth; for if the clouds of ignorance and error hang over the mind, not the greatest firmness of character, not the utmost integrity of purpose, no, not even the most decided sincerity of conviction, can preserve the vessel of the soul from pursuing a false track till, finally driven upon the quick-sands or dashing against the rocks, it makes shipwreck of faith and of good conscience, and thus through ignorance is for ever cast away. From this cause arise the calmness and complacency of the unconverted sinner. He is in darkness: he is the victim of false judgments, false views of the character of God, false views of the claims of His most holy law, false views of the true nature and enormity of sin, false hopes and schemes of salvation.
(2) A conscience, when it has been thus enlightened, requires to be appeased. A conscience that is only enlightened is a torment, an accuser; the greatest enemy of the souls peace; a fire in the veins, the bones, the marrow; a worm that gnaws with insatiable cruelty. Such was the state of Cain when he had lifted up his arm against his brother Abel. His innocent and injured shade seemed to pursue him. Such, too, was the case of Herod, who had been betrayed in an unguarded moment into the murder of John the Baptist. Such was the state of Belshazzar, at a time when he was surrounded with all his pomp and power, and everything yielded to his authority. Are any of you in this condition? Behold here, in the gospel, your remedy; here, in the sacrifice of Gods dear Son, the spotless victim, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Carry your broken spirit, then, to the feet of Jesus. If His precious blood distil upon it, every gaping wound will heal.
(3) But conscience may be appeased on false grounds. Various devices are employed to pacify it when awakened, but it is a good conscience only when appeased in a way of sanctification. There remains, however, one question which deserves our serious consideration before we quit this branch of the subject. May not a worldly man possess a good conscience without vital religion, and to what extent? Here we must distinguish between the duties of the first and those of the second table. In so doing we shall distinguish between a conscience void of offence toward God and a conscience void of offence toward men. He who has been thus just to man has not satisfied the claims of God. Before the All-seeing Eye he stands convicted of imperfection and transgression in every thought, word, and deed. A conscience void of offence toward men has crowned him with moral glory while he lived; a conscience not void of offence toward God will cover him with eternal confusion when he stands before the great tribunal! Thus we reach a momentous and an inevitable conclusion. Every man is a sinner against God by the decision of Scripture, and in most cases by his own confession. Therefore, first let every man seek to comprehend and feel the extent of his guilt and the magnitude of his transgressions.
II. We shall point out the importance and necessity of a good conscience.
1. And here let me remind you that this judge is enthroned in you by God Himself and cannot be east down. It may be kept in ignorance, it may be bribed, it may be lulled to sleep, but there it is, not to be dispossessed of its rightful authority. It cannot be extinguished either by fraud or by force. Since, then, you cannot help entertaining this inmate because God has erected its tribunal, there remains but one remedy, to bow to its decisions. To fight against it will be but to beat the air. If we have true wisdom we shall be concerned to make a friend of a companion that we cannot shake off, and whose decisions, for or against us, will be confirmed at the last day.
2. Consider, again, how great and how solid is the peace which a good conscience is capable of conveying to the soul. It is an inestimable treasure, a constant and an unchangeable witness to our sincerity. There may be disquietudes without, there may be pains of body, there may be assaults and temptations, there may be losses, afflictions, and persecutions, but, amidst the wildest storms, it maintains inward serenity. Let self-convicted sinners tremble in proportion as they draw near to the throne of an offended God: the accepted Christian can defy death, and enter eternity with unextinguished joy.
3. Consider what strength and spirit a good conscience imparts through all the journey of life. Without it the hands become weak in duty, the feet weary in travel, and the heart is languid and depressed in religious engagements. You cannot approach the mercy-seat with confidence, for, while you do not approve yourselves, what hope can you have of acceptance with God? He can find no comfort or satisfaction in the world, and yet he is shut out from the comfort of religion. Present things have no relish, and yet he dares not appropriate the future. Give me an unclouded conscience; let it bear me witness in the Holy Ghost: then I shall stand upright in the presence of the enemy. My arm will be strong to wield the sword of the Spirit. There will be an inward vigour and elasticity that shall rise in proportion to opposition.
4. Consider that subjection to the dictates and decisions of conscience anticipates and prevents an adverse verdict in the great day. If we would judge ourselves, says the apostle, we should not be judged of God; that is, not so judged as to be condemned.
We shall close this important subject with a few words of practical application.
1. In the first place, to the true Christian who is deeply concerned to keep a good conscience, we would offer the following directions. Be anxiously vigilant against all evil, and watchful as to all opportunities of good. The conscience of a saint is like the eye of the body, extremely sensitive, requiring to be guarded with most jealous care. The least mote that enters into it makes it smart and agonize. Remember, believer, that your sins are, in some points of view, worse than those of all other men. They are committed against greater light and knowledge. Let it be your constant concern to live and act as under the eye of your great Master, to whom all things are naked and open, before whom the heart is anatomized as it were, and all its secrets are perfectly known. Realize the presence of Christ with you, and carry it into all the engagements of life, striving to do nothing which you would not be willing that He should behold. Be diligent and habitual in the work of self-examination, without which it is certain that no one can be satisfied as to the reality of his condition. What a shame it is to some men, that they know everything but their own hearts and characters! (D. Katterns.)
Importance of a good conscience
A good minister, whom we will not name, while sitting at the dinner table with his family, had these words said to him by his son, a lad of eleven years; Father, I have been thinking, if I could have one single wish of mine, what I would choose. To give you a better chance, said the father, suppose the allowance be increased to three wishes; what would they be? Be careful, Charley! He made his choice, thoughtfully; first, of a good character; second, of good health; and third, of a good education. His father suggested to him that fame, power, riches, and various other things, are held in general esteem among mankind. I have thought of all that, said he, but if I have a good conscience, and good health, and a good education, I shall be able to earn all the money that will be of any use to me, and everything else will come along in its right place. A wise decision, indeed, for a lad of that age. (S. S. Chronicle.)
And of faith unfeigned.—
Unfeigned faith
An agnostic (or infidel), being present one day in a circle of refined people, was surprised when told that a certain lady, noted for her intelligence and her boldness and originality of thought, was a firm believer in the sacred Scriptures. He ventured to ask her at the first possible opportunity, Do you believe the Bible? Most certainly I do, was her instant and unhesitating reply. Why do you believe in it? he queried again. Because, she confidently added, I am acquainted with the Author. Poor souls, that know not God in Christ as their Saviour, think, like the leaders of our nineteenth century philosophical infidelity, that He is unknowable, and so reject His Word. But true believers have a blessed acquaintance with both.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 5. Now the end of the commandment is charity] These genealogical questions lead to strife and debate; and the dispensation of God leads to love both to God and man, through faith in Christ. These genealogical questions leave the heart under the influence of all its vile tempers and evil propensities; FAITH in Jesus purifies the heart. No inquiry of this kind can add to any thing by which the guilt of sin can be taken away; but the Gospel proclaims pardon, through the blood of the Lamb, to every believing penitent. The end, aim, and design of God in giving this dispensation to the world is, that men may have an unfeigned faith, such as lays hold on Christ crucified, and produces a good conscience from a sense of the pardon received, and leads on to purity of heart; LOVE to God and man being the grand issue of the grace of Christ here below, and this fully preparing the soul for eternal glory. He whose soul is filled with love to God and man has a pure heart, a good conscience, and unfeigned faith. But these blessings no soul can ever acquire, but according to God’s dispensation of faith.
The paraphrase and note of Dr. Macknight on this verse are very proper: “Now the scope of the charge to be given by thee to these teachers is, that, instead of inculcating fables and genealogies, they inculcate love to God and man, proceeding from a pure heart, and directed by a good conscience, and nourished by unfeigned faith in the Gospel doctrine. The word denotes a message or order, brought to one from another, and delivered by word of mouth. The charge here meant is that which the apostle ordered Timothy to deliver to the teachers in Ephesus; for he had said, 1Ti 1:3: I had besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, , that thou mightest charge some: here he tells him what the scope of this charge was to be.”
Of faith unfeigned] . A faith not hypocritical. The apostle appears to allude to the Judaizing teachers, who pretended faith in the Gospel, merely that they might have the greater opportunity to bring back to the Mosaic system those who had embraced the doctrine of Christ crucified. This IS evident from the following verse.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Now the end of the commandment is charity: the word translated commandment here is , which rather signifies a particular charge given by superiors as to some thing, than a general law, Act 5:28; 16:24; and so in this chapter, 1Ti 1:18; which inclineth me to think, that though the proposition be true of the whole law of God, (for love is the fulfilling of the law), and more eminently of the Divine doctrine in the gospel, for the end and perfection it aims at and produces is a pure, ardent love of God, and of men for his sake, and of the gospel, yet it is rather here to be restrained to the commandment relating to preaching, or discoursing the revealed will of God relating to mens salvation, the end of which is doubtless charity, which ought to be finis operantis, the end of the workman, what he ought to intend and aim at; and is finis operis, the effect of the work, viz. the begetting in the souls of people love to God and their neighbour, neither of which can rationally be obtained by preachers telling people idle stories, and filling their heads with idle questions and speculations.
Out of a pure heart: which love to God and men must proceed from a clean, and holy, and sincere heart.
And of a good conscience; and a good and holy life, when conscience doth not sourly reflect upon men for presumptuous miscarriages.
And of faith unfeigned; which must all be rooted in and attended with a faith unfeigned; rooted in it, as faith signifies a steady assent to Divine revelation; attended with it, as it signifies the souls repose and rest upon Christ for the fulfilling of the promises annexed to him that believes and liveth up to such propositions. These are the noble ends of the whole law of God, and particularly of the charge or command God hath given ministers as to preaching, which can by no means be attained by teachers discoursing fables and endless genealogies to people, nor by peoples attendance to such discourses, for they can only fill peoples heads with notions and unprofitable questions, which serve to gender strife and contention amongst people, instead of love either to God or men, and so to defile instead of purifying the heart, and have no influence at all upon a holy life, all which can grow out of no root but an unfeigned faith.
From which; from which things (for the article is plural, ); from which commandment, and from the end of which commandment, from which pure heart, good conscience, and faith unfeigned.
Some having swerved: , the word signifies to wander from a scope or mark. Some men either propounding to themselves ends in their discourses to people different from the command concerning preaching, and the true end of that, or at least wandering from that true end, they have turned aside. To do an action well, two things are necessary:
1. The propounding to ourselves a right end;
2. A moving to it by due means and in right order: whoso faileth in either of these, can no more do an action well, than he can shoot an arrow well, that either eyeth no mark, or levelleth his arrow quite beside it.
The preachers reflected on by the apostle, either never considered the true end of preaching, or never regarded it in their action; this made them turn aside from theology to mataeology, from preaching to vain jangling; so we translate it, but the word signifieth foolish talking; so we translate the adjective: Tit 1:10, and so the word properly signifieth, any kind of foolish, impertinent discourse, either serving to no good end, or at least not that which the discourse pretendeth to. And indeed all discourses of fables, and unprofitable, idle questions, tending not to edifying, is no better than foolish talking.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. Butin contrast to thedoctrine of the false teachers.
the endthe aim.
the commandmentGreek,“of the charge” which you ought to urge on your flock.Referring to the same Greek word as in 1Ti 1:3;1Ti 1:18; here, however, in alarger sense, as including the Gospel “dispensationof God” (see on 1Ti 1:4;1Ti 1:11), which was the sumand substance of the “charge” committed to Timothywherewith he should “charge” his flock.
charityLOVE; the sumand end of the law and of the Gospel alike, and that wherein theGospel is the fulfilment of the spirit of the law in its everyessential jot and tittle (Ro13:10). The foundation is faith (1Ti1:4), the “end” is love (1Ti 1:14;Tit 3:15).
out ofspringing asfrom a fountain.
pure hearta heartpurified by faith (Act 15:9;2Ti 2:22; Tit 1:15).
good conscienceaconscience cleared from guilt by the effect of sound faith in Christ(1Ti 1:19; 1Ti 3:9;2Ti 1:3; 1Pe 3:21).Contrast 1Ti 4:2; Tit 1:15;compare Ac 23:1. John uses”heart,” where Paul would use “conscience.” InPaul the understanding is the seat of conscience; the heartis the seat of love [BENGEL].A good conscience is joined with sound faith; a bad conscience withunsoundness in the faith (compare Heb9:14).
faith unfeignednot ahypocritical, dead, and unfruitful faith, but faith working by love(Ga 5:6). The false teachersdrew men off from such a loving, working, real faith, to profitless,speculative “questions” (1Ti1:4) and jangling (1Ti 1:6).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Now the end of the commandment is charity,…. By the “commandment” may be meant, the order given to Timothy, or the charge committed to him; see 1Ti 1:18 to forbid the teaching of another doctrine, and to avoid fables and endless genealogies; the end and design of which was to cultivate peace, to maintain and secure brotherly love, which cannot long subsist, when a different doctrine is introduced and received; and to promote godly edification, which is brought about by charity or love, for charity edifies; but is greatly hindered by speculative notions, fabulous stories, and genealogical controversies and contentions: or by it may be intended the ministration of the Gospel, called the commandment, 1Ti 6:14, because enjoined the preachers of it by Christ; the end of which is to bring persons to the obedience of faith, or to that faith which works by love, to believe in Christ, to love the Lord, his truths, ordinances, people, and ways; or rather the moral law is designed, which is often called the commandment, Ro 7:8 since of this the apostle treats in some following verses; the end and design, sum and substance, completion and perfection of which law are love to God, and love to one another; see Mt 22:36, which charity or love, when right,
springs out of a pure heart; which no man has naturally; every man’s heart is naturally impure; nor can he make it pure; by the strength of nature, or by anything that he can do: there are some that are pure in their own eyes, and in the esteem of others, and yet are not cleansed from their filthiness, and are inwardly full of all manner of impurity; though there are some that have pure hearts, and they are such, who have clean hearts created in them by the Spirit of God; who are regenerated and sanctified by him; whose hearts are purified by faith; and who have their hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience by the blood of Christ; and who are not double minded, speak with a heart and a heart, but whose hearts are sincere and upright, and without hypocrisy; so that charity or love, from such a heart, is love without dissimulation, which is not in tongue and words only, but in deed and in truth; it is an unfeigned love, or loving with a pure heart fervently.
And of a good conscience; there is a conscience in every man, that accuses or excuses, unless it is cauterized or seared: but this conscience is naturally evil and defiled, and does not perform its office aright; either it takes no notice of, and is not concerned about sin, and has no remorse for it, or it takes notice of little things, and lets pass greater ones, or speaks peace when destruction is at hand: a good conscience is a conscience purified by the grace of God, and purged from dead works by the blood of Christ; under the influence of which a man acts uprightly in the discharge of his duty, and exercises a conscience void of offence towards God and man; and charity, proceeding from such a conscience, is of the right kind: and of faith unfeigned; with which a man really, and from the heart, believes what he professes; so did not Simon Magus, and all other temporary believers, whose faith is a feigned faith, a dead and inactive one; whereas true faith is an operative grace, it is attended with good works, and particularly it works by love: and that charity or love, which springs from faith unfeigned, is unfeigned love also, such as answers the design, and is the substance of the commandment. These words may be considered in a gradation, or as a spiritual genealogy, in opposition to the endless ones before mentioned, thus; that charity which is the end of the commandment comes out of a pure heart, out of which proceeds a good conscience, and from thence faith unfeigned. But the other way of interpreting seems best.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Timothy Reminded of His Charge. | A. D. 64. |
5 Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: 6 From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling; 7 Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm. 8 But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; 9 Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, 10 For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine; 11 According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.
Here the apostle instructs Timothy how to guard against the judaizing teachers, or others who mingled fables and endless genealogies with the gospel. He shows the use of the law, and the glory of the gospel.
I. He shows the end and uses of the law: it is intended to promote love, for love is the fulfilling of the law, Rom. xiii. 10.
1. The end of the commandment is charity, or love, Rom. xiii. 8. The main scope and drift of the divine law are to engage us to the love of God and one another; and whatever tends to weaken either our love to God or love to the brethren tends to defeat the end of the commandment: and surely the gospel, which obliges us to love our enemies, to do good to those who hate us (Matt. v. 44) does not design to lay aside or supersede a commandment the end whereof is love; so far from it that, on the other hand, we are told that though we had all advantages and wanted charity, we are but as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal, 1 Cor. xiii. 1. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you love one another, John xiii. 35. Those therefore who boasted of their knowledge of the law, but used it only as a colour for the disturbance that they gave to the preaching of the gospel (under pretence of zeal for the law, dividing the church and distracting it), defeated that which was the very end of the commandment, and that is love, love out of a pure heart, a heart purified by faith, purified from corrupt affections. In order to the keeping up of holy love our hearts must be cleansed from all sinful love; our love must arise out of a good conscience, kept without offence. Those answer the end of the commandment who are careful to keep a good conscience, from a real belief of the truth of the word of God which enjoins it, here called a faith unfeigned. Here we have the concomitants of that excellency grace charity; they are three:– (1.) A pure heart; there it must be seated, and thence it must take its rise. (2.) A good conscience, in which we must exercise ourselves daily, that we may not only get it, but that we may keep it, Acts xxiv. 16. (3.) Faith unfeigned must also accompany it, for it is love without dissimulation: the faith that works by it must be of the like nature, genuine and sincere. Now some who set up for teachers of the law swerved from the very end of the commandment: they set up for disputers, but their disputes proved vain jangling; they set up for teachers, but they pretended to teach others what they themselves did not understand. If the church be corrupted by such teachers, we must not think it strange, for we see from the beginning it was so. Observe, [1.] When persons, especially ministers, swerve from the great law of charity–the end of the commandment, they will turn aside to vain jangling; when a man misses his end and scope, it is no wonder that every step he takes is out of the way. [2.] Jangling, especially in religion, is vain; it is unprofitable and useless as to all that is good, and it is very pernicious and hurtful: and yet many people’s religion consists of little else but vain jangling. [3.] Those who deal much in vain jangling are fond and ambitious to be teachers of others; they desire (that is, they affect) the office of teaching. [4.] It is too common for men to intrude into the office of the ministry when they are very ignorant of those things about which they are ton speak: they understand neither what they say nor whereof they affirm; and by such learned ignorance, no doubt, they edify their hearers very much!
2. The use of the law (v. 8): The law is good, if a man use it lawfully. The Jews used it unlawfully, as an engine to divide the church, a cover to the malicious opposition they made to the gospel of Christ; they set it up for justification, and so used it unlawfully. We must not therefore think to set it aside, but use it lawfully, for the restraint of sin. The abuse which some have made of the law does not take away the use of it; but, when a divine appointment has been abused, call it back to its right use and take away the abuses, for the law is still very useful as a rule of life; though we are not under it as under a covenant of works, yet it is good to teach us what is sin and what is duty. It is not made for a righteous man, that is, it is not made for those who observe it; for, if we could keep the law, righteousness would be by the law (Gal. iii. 21): but it is made for wicked persons, to restrain them, to check them, and to put a stop to vice and profaneness. It is the grace of God that changes men’s hearts; but the terrors of the law may be of use to tie their hands and restrain their tongues. A righteous man does not want those restraints which are necessary for the wicked; or at least the law is not made primarily and principally for the righteous, but for sinners of all sorts, whether in a greater or less measure, 1Ti 1:9; 1Ti 1:10. In this black roll of sinners, he particularly mentions breaches of the second table, duties which we owe to our neighbour; against the fifth and sixth commandments, murderers of fathers and mothers, and manslayers; against the seventh, whoremongers, and those that defile themselves with mankind; against the eighth, men-stealers; against the ninth, liars and perjured persons; and then he closes his account with this, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine. Some understand this as an institution of a power in the civil magistrate to make laws against such notorious sinners as are specified, and to see those laws put in execution.
II. He shows the glory and grace of the gospel. Paul’s epithets are expressive and significant; and frequently every one is a sentence: as here (v. 11), According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God. Let us learn hence, 1. To call God blessed God, infinitely happy in the enjoyment of himself and his own perfections. 2. To call the gospel the glorious gospel, for so it is: much of the glory of God appears in the works of creation and providence, but much more in the gospel, where it shines in the face of Jesus Christ. Paul reckoned it a great honour put upon him, and a great favour done him, that this glorious gospel was committed to his trust; that is, the preaching of it, for the framing of it is not committed to any man or company of men in the world. The settling of the terms of salvation in the gospel of Christ is God’s own work; but the publishing of it to the world is committed to the apostles and ministers. Note here, (1.) The ministry is a trust, for the gospel was committed unto this apostle; it is an office of trust as well as of power, and the former more than the latter; for this reason ministers are called stewards, 1 Cor. iv. 1. (2.) It is a glorious trust, because the gospel committed to them is a glorious gospel; it is a trust of very great importance. God’s glory is very much concerned in it. Lord, what a trust is committed to us! How much grace do we want, to be found faithful in this great trust!
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
The end ( ). See Rom 6:21; Rom 10:4 for (the good aimed at, reached, result, end).
Love (). Not “questionings.” Ro 13:9. “Three conditions for the growth of love” (Parry): “Out of a pure heart” ( , O.T. conception), “and a good conscience” ( , for which see Ro 2:25), “and faith unfeigned” ( , late compound verbal in 2Cor 6:6; Rom 12:9).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
The end of the commandment [ ] . The article with “Commandment” points back to might’st charge, ver. 3. Rend. Therefore, of the charge. Telov end, aim, that which the charge contemplates.
Love [] . See on Gal. ver. 22. The questionings, on the contrary, engendered strifes (2Ti 2:23). Love to men is meant, as meant as N. T. When the word is used absolutely. See Rom 13:10.
Out of a pure heart [ ] . Comp. Luk 10:27, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God out of they whole heart [ ] , and in or with [] thy whole soul,” etc. For a pure heart, comp. 2Ti 2:22. Kaqarov pure in Paul only Rom 14:20. The phrase a pure heart occurs, outside of the Pastorals only in 2Pe 1:22. For kardia heart see on Rom 1:21.
A good conscience [ ] . Comp 2Ti 1:3. Suneidhsiv conscience is common in Paul. See on 1Pe 3:16.
Faith unfeigned [ ] . Anupokritov unfeigned twice in Paul, Rom 12:9; 2Co 6:6, both times as an attribute of love. In Jas 3:17, it is an attribute of wisdom, and in 1Pe 1:22, of brotherly love. Notice the triad, love, conscience, faith. There is nothing un – Pauline in the association of conscience and faith, although, as a fact, Paul does not formally associate them. In 1Co 8:7, 10, 12, conscience is associated with knowledge.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Now the end of the commandment” (to de telos tes parangelias) “Now the end (purpose or intent) of the charge” — the charge or commandment that Timothy was to give to “certain persons” 1Ti 1:3.
2) “Is charity out of a pure heart,” (estin agape ek katharas kardias) “Is true love out of a cleansed heart,” — “to love one another.” Rom 13:8; Rom 13:10; Gal 5:14; Eph 6:24.
3) “And of a good conscience,” (kai suneideseos agathes) “And out of a good conscience,” — a conscience that does not accuse one of wrong or condemn ones’ self. Act 24:16; Heb 13:18; 1Pe 3:21.
4) “And of faith unfeigned:” (kai pisteos anupokritou) “And out of faith unfeigned, without hypocrisy,” or without pretense, not put-on.” 2Co 6:6; 2Ti 1:5; 1Pe 1:22.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Those unprincipled men with whom Timothy had to deal, boasted of having the law on their side, in consequence of which Paul anticipates, and shews that the law gives them no support but was even opposed to them, and that it agreed perfectly with the gospel which he had taught. The defense set up by them was not unlike that which is pleaded by those who, in the present day, subject the word of God to torture. They tell us that we aim at nothing else than to destroy sacred theology, as if they alone nourished it in their bosom. They spoke of the law in such a manner as to exhibit Paul in an odious light. And what is his reply? In order to scatter those clouds of smoke, (10) he comes frankly forward, by way of anticipation, and proves that his doctrine is in perfect harmony with the law, and that the law is utterly abused by those who employ it for any other purpose. In like manner, when we now define what is meant by true theology, it is clearly evident that we desire the restoration of that which had been wretchedly torn and disfigured by those triflers who, puffed up by the empty title of theologians, are acquainted with nothing but vapid and unmeaning trifles. Commandment is here put for the law, by taking a part for the whole.
Love out of a pure heart If the law must be directed to this object, that we may be instructed in love, which proceeds from faith and a good conscience, it follows, on the other hand, that they who turn the teaching of it into curious questions are wicked expounders of the law. Besides, it is of no great importance whither the word love be regarded in this passage as relating, to both tables of the law, or only to the second table. We are commanded to love God with our whole heart, and our neighbors as ourselves; but when love is spoken of in Scripture, it is more frequently limited to the second part. On the present occasion I should not hesitate to understand by it the love both of God and of our neighbor, if Paul had employed the word love alone; but when he adds, “faith, and a good conscience, and a pure heart,” the interpretation which I am now to give will not be at variance with his intention, and will agree well with the scope of the passage. The sum of the law is this, that we may worship God with true faith and a pure conscience, and that we may love one another. Whosoever turns aside from this corrupts the law of God by twisting it to a different purpose.
But here arises a doubt, that Paul appears to prefer “love” to “faith.” I reply, they who are of that opinion reason in an excessively childish manner; for, if love is first mentioned, it does not therefore hold the first rank of honor, since Paul shows also that it springs from faith. Now the cause undoubtedly goes before its effect. And if we carefully weigh the whole context, what Paul says is of the same import as if he had said, “The law was given to us for this purpose, that it might instruct us in faith, which is the mother of a good conscience and of love.” Thus we must begin with faith, and not with love.
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A pure heart” and “a good conscience” do not greatly differ from each other. Both proceed from faith; for, as to a pure heart, it is said that “God purifieth hearts by faith.” (Act 15:9.) As to a good conscience, Peter declares that it is founded on the resurrection of Christ. (1Pe 3:21.) From this passage we also learn that there is no true love where there is not fear of God and uprightness of conscience.
Nor is it unworthy of observation that to each of them he adds an epithet; (11) for, as nothing is more common, so nothing is more easy, than to boast of faith and a good conscience. But how few are there who prove by their actions that they are free from all hypocrisy! Especially it is proper to observe the epithet Which he bestows on “faith,” when he calls it faith unfeigned; by which he means that the profession of it is insincere, when we do not perceive a good conscience, and when love is not manifested. Now since the salvation of men rests on faith, and since the perfect worship of God rests on faith and a good conscience and love, we need not wonder if Paul makes the sum of the law to consist of them.
(10) “ Pour demesler tout ce qu’ils entassoyent pour esblouir les yeux des simples.” — “In order to sweep away all that they heaped up for the purpose of blinding the eyes of plain people.”
(11) “ Il donne a chacune vertu son epithet.” — “He gives to each virtue its epithet.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
1Ti. 1:5. The end of the commandment.The end is not the same thing as the fulfilment of the law. It is the goal towards which, with strenuous endeavour, each Christian must press on. Commandment (R.V. charge) is the monitory teachinga touch of severity clings to the word from the old economy. Unfeigned.So of love (Rom. 12:9); of wisdom from above (Jas. 3:17) (without hypocrisy).
1Ti. 1:6. Some having swerved.Margin, not aiming at. R.V. margin, Gr. missed the mark. This metaphor was suggested, probably, by the word for end in 1Ti. 1:5. Compare St. Pauls graphic word to the Galatians, You were running gallantly: what sudden spell has been laid upon you? Have turned aside.The figure is that of the racer who breaks away from the prescribed course. Unto vain jangling.R.V. vain talking. The Pastoral epistles more than once warn against this fault (Tit. 1:10; Tit. 3:9).
1Ti. 1:7. Desiring to be teachers of the law.The R.V. also gives the same rendering. Perhaps we might note that it is not so much a wish as a determination. They would be legalists. Understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.They neither see the significance of the words they use, nor do they know anything of the subjects they profess to teach. St. Paul knew too much of Judaism to be imposed on by a parade of phrases. Here, as so often, loud and positive assertion makes up for the lack of profounder knowledge.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.1Ti. 1:5-7
The Grand Moral Aim of the Gospel
I. Is to elicit the exercise of Christian love.Now the end of the commandment is charitylove (1Ti. 1:5).
1. This love emanates from a purified heart. Charity out of a pure heart (1Ti. 1:5). The word commandment may here be taken in the larger sense as comprehending the gospelthe latest expression of the will and commandment of God. The great burden of the gospel theme is love, which is the sum and end of the law and of the gospel alike. The gospel is a development and fulfilment of the law in all its essential demands, and expresses its spirit in gentler and more winning terms. Love springs from the heart as from a fountain, but it is a fountain cleansed and purified by faith. There is little taste for jangling and the strife of words when the heart is sanctified. When Archbishop Ussher was urged by a friend to write on sanctification, and had begun to do so, he confessed he could not proceed, as he found so little of that grace in himself; and when his friend expressed amazement to hear such an admission from so grave and holy a person, the prelate added: I must tell you we do not well understand what sanctification and the new creature are. It is no less than for a man to be brought to an entire resignation of his own will to the will of God, and to live in the offering up of his soul continually in the flames of love, as a whole burnt offering to Christ. And oh! how many who profess Christianity are unacquainted experimentally with this work upon their souls! Love is rare, but a truly sanctified nature is rarer.
2. This love is regulated by a good conscience. And of a good conscience (1Ti. 1:5). A pure heart and good conscience go together. Bengel says: In Paul the understanding is the seat of conscience, the heart the seat of love. In the work of sanctification the conscience benefits with every other faculty of our nature. A Christianised and sanctified conscience governs the exercise of love, and saves it from degenerating into a mere sensual passion or weak sentimentality.
3. The exercise of a love like this is made possible by a genuine faith. And of faith unfeigned (1Ti. 1:5). Not a hypocritical, dead, and unfruitful faith, but faith working by love. The false teachers drew men off from such a loving, working, real faith, to profitless speculative questions and jangling. A good conscience is joined with sound faith, a bad conscience with unsoundness in the faith (Fausset). To be a power in the Christian life, stimulating the growth of every Christian grace, faith must be active and sincere. Conscience is warped and love is feeble when faith is feigned and a mere make-believe.
II. Is utterly missed by pretentious teachers.From which some having swerved desiring to be teachers of the law (1Ti. 1:6-7). They would fain be teachers of the law, but were utterly incompetent for the task. They swerved from or missed the mark at which even an honest teacher of the law aimedto produce uprightness of conduct and life.
1. They are foolish talkers. Have turned aside to vain jangling (1Ti. 1:6)silly, empty talk. Their utterances were waste words, containing no rational sense, no unity of reasoning, no depth and reality of conviction. A friend admiring the eloquence of a certain preacher said to Archbishop Whately, What a fine command of language! Nay, said the prelate, the language has the command of him.
2. They are grossly ignorant. Understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm (1Ti. 1:7). Says the old proverb, Ignorance is rash. Some men speak with the greater confidence of that which they know least about. Ignorance is both coarse and dogmatic. The more a man knows he is not the less certain about truth, but he is the more circumspect in dogmatising about it. The Judaisers here meant seem to be distinct from those impugned in the epistles to the Galatians and Romans, who made the works of the law necessary to justification in opposition to gospel grace. The Judaisers here referred to corrupted the law with fables which they pretended to found on it, subversive of morals as well as of truth. Their error was not in maintaining the obligation of the law, but in abusing it by fabulous and immoral interpretations of and additions to it. They neither understood their own assertions nor the object itself about which they made them. They understood as little about the one as the other (Fausset, Alford).
Lessons.
1. The gospel is a message of love.
2. Christian love is based on the righteousness of faith.
3. False teachers are unloving and unlovable.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
1Ti. 1:5. The Genuine Sources of Christian Charity.
I. The apostles declaration of the excellence of charity as the end of the commandment.
1. The commandment may signify the moral law.
2. May also signify the gospel of Christ, or in general the whole of Gods revealed will.
3. May mean the charge the apostle gave to Timothy as a Christian minister (1Ti. 1:18). That the great design of the gospel Timothy was to preach as worthy of mens acceptation and of the law he was to inculcate as the rule of their duty was simply and supremely this: Charity, or love, out of a pure heart.
II. The principles from which true charity must spring and by which it must be upheld.
1. From a pure heart. A heart purified by the power of Divine truth from the love of sin and the dominion of evil passions. In proportion as the heart is purified it is filled with charity; and charity is genuine in proportion only as it springs from the heart thus made pure by the Spirit and truth of God
2. From a good conscience. A conscience well informed as to the will of God, purged from guilty fears by the blood of Christ, and preserved tender by the influence of Divine grace.
3. From faith unfeigned. A sincere belief of the truths revealed in sacred Scripture; a reliance on the Son of God and the promises of God through Him for salvation.
Lessons.
1. Search earnestly how far you have this Divine principle of charity dwelling in your hearts.
2. Examine and prove the nature of those inward principles from which your love of God and man proceeds. Look to the state of your heartconsult your conscienceexamine your faith.J. Brewster.
1Ti. 1:6-7. A Corrupt Conscience
I. Is a prey to useless controversy.
II. Is ambitious to pose as a teacher and guardian of consciences.
III. Is misled and confused by utter ignorance.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(5) Now the end.The Greek word should be translated But the end. Though Timothy must resist and oppose these false teachers with all courage and firmness, still he must not forget what was the real end, the aim, the purpose of all Christian teaching, which, the Apostle reminds him, is Love.
Of the commandment.There is no reference here to the famous commandments of the Law of Moses. Commandment may be paraphrased in this place by practical teaching.
With the false teachers sickly fables, which only led to disputing, St. Paul contrasts that healthy practical teaching, the end and aim of which was love, or charity.
Charity.That love, or broad, comprehensive charity, towards men, so nobly described in 1 Corinthians 13.
Out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.This broad all-embracing love, or charity, emanates only from a pure heart: i.e., a heart free from selfish desires and evil passions. The pure in heart alone, said the Lord, in the sermon on the mount (Mat. 5:8), shall enjoy the beatific vision of God.
And of a good conscience.This charity must also spring from a conscience unburthened of its load of guilt, from a conscience sprinkled with the precious blood, and so reconciled to God.
And of faith unfeigned.And, lastly, the root of this charitythe end and aim of the practical teaching of the gospel preached by the Apostlesmust be sought in a faith unfeigned, in a faith that consists in something more than in a few high-sounding words, which lay claim to a sure confidence that is not felt. The unfeigned faith of St. Paul is a faith rich in works rather than in words.
Without this faith, so real that its fruits are ever manifest, there can be no good conscience; without this conscience, washed by the precious blood, there can be no pure heart.
The error of the teachers of whom Timothy was warned, we see from the next verse, consisted not so much in false doctrines as in an utter neglect of inculcating the necessity of a pure, self-denying life. They preferred curious questions and speculative inquiries to the grave, simple gospel teaching which led men to live an earnest, loving life.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5. The end, or purpose, of the commandment, or injunction contained in the law, and presupposed in the gospel. Is Not an imaginary wisdom made up from these fables and allegories, but charity.
Charity Love. See Introductory Note to 1 Corinthians 13. The commandment prohibits sins and enjoins duties; but its intrinsic purpose is to reach deep into the heart and find its complete fulfilment in love.
Out of a pure heart From a heart instructed by the gospel and sanctified by the divine Spirit would flow the outgoings of love. Omitting the of inserted by the translators, the good conscience and the faith are second and third elements of the end of the commandment. Love not only produces goodness in action, but guards against wrong, and so preserves a good conscience. And by establishing a sympathy between the heart and Christ it results in relying faith; a faith not feigned, like that of the teachers of other doctrines, in order to win the Church to error, but unfeigned and true to Christ.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Goal of the Commandment In 1Ti 1:5-7 Paul reminds Timothy of the original purpose and intent of the Mosaic Law, which is to instruct people to love God with all of one’s heart and to love his neighbor as himself. Jesus quoted the Shema, the heart of the Law found in Deu 6:4-5, which summed up the Law of Moses as man’s requirement to walk in love towards God and others (Mar 12:29-31).
1Ti 1:5 Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:
1Ti 1:5
Mat 22:36-40, “Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Mar 12:29-31, “And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”
Joh 13:34, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”
Joh 15:10-13, “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
Joh 15:17, “These things I command you, that ye love one another.”
Paul mentions this love walk often in his epistles.
Rom 13:8, “Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.”
Gal 5:6, “For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.”
Eph 4:16, “From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love .”
Eph 5:2, “And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.”
1Th 4:9, “But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.”
Paul says that faith expresses itself by love.
Gal 5:6, “For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love .”
The General Epistles also teach the commandment of love.
Heb 13:1, “Let brotherly love continue.”
Jas 2:8, “If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:”
1Jn 3:11, “For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.”
1Jn 3:23, “And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.”
1Jn 4:21, “And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.”
2Jn 1:5-6, “And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.”
1Ti 1:5 “out of a pure heart” Comments – God’s Word in us makes us clean:
Psa 19:8, “The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes .”
Psa 119:11, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”
Joh 15:3, “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.”
Joh 17:17, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”
Pure means “innocent”:
Act 18:6, “And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean : from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles.”
Act 20:26 Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men.”
In Luk 11:37-54, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for serving the law in hypocrisy and not out of a pure heart, in contrast to:
Jas 1:27, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
Illustration – A heart without sin is bright and radiant in a person.
Son 6:10, “Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun , and terrible as an army with banners?” The NIV says “bright at the sun.”
Scripture References – Also note verses on a pure heart:
Psa 24:4, “He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart ; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.”
Psa 73:1, “Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart .”
Psa 73:13, “Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. “
Mat 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart : for they shall see God.”
Rom 14:20, “For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure ; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence.” The word “pure” here means “fit for use for God’s purposes”.
2Ti 2:22, “Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart .”
Tit 1:15, “ Unto the pure all things are pure : but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.”
Conclusion:
A. The God kind of Love with a pure heat is two-fold:
1. Omission Putting sin out of one’s life:
1Jn 5:3, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments : and his commandments are not grievous.”
Jas 1:27, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world .”
2. Commission Doing things out of a pure heart:
1Jn 5:3, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments : and his commandments are not grievous.”
Jas 1:27, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction , and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
B. How to receive a pure heart: By giving heed to God’s Word
Psa 51:6, “Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts : and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.”
Psa 119:11, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”
Joh 15:3, “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.”
Joh 17:17, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”
C. By nature:
1Sa 16:7, “But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.”
Psa 51:5, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.”
Jer 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
Act 15:9, “And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith .”
1Pe 1:22, “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently :”
1Pe 3:15, “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:”
A pure heart is two-fold (Joh 13:10):
1. At salvation, all of our sins are washed away.
2. As a life of sanctification, we daily become more Christ-like and less like the old carnal man.
Joh 13:10, “Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all.”
1Ti 1:5 “and of a good conscience” Comments – Our conscience is the voice of our heart. It is the renewing of our minds by the Word of God that allows us to make the decisions that our conscience tells us are good, and to avoid defiling our conscience with decisions that violate our conscience. Study:
1Ti 3:9, “Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience .”
2Ti 1:3, “I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience , that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day;”
Heb 10:22, “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience , and our bodies washed with pure water.”
1Pe 3:16, “ Having a good conscience ; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.”
1Ti 1:5 Comments – 1Ti 1:5 tells us that the evidence of the love walk is manifested by having pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith. A “pure heart” refers to our spirit man, while a “good conscience” refers to our mental, or soulish, man, while our “sincere faith” refers to the actions of our physical body. Our hearts are either pure or evil. Our conscience is the voice of man’s spirit, and was created to discern between good and bad and tell our minds what choices to make. Our actions reflect the sincerity of our faith in that they can be either genuine or false. In addition, it is the Word of God and only the Word that is able to purify our hearts, to renew our minds so that we have the discretion to walk with a good conscience, and to judge our actions whether they are from sincere motives or false. A love walk for a believer can be seen when an individual serves the Lord and not gives place to fleshly passions and attempts to please man. We may call this lifestyle of “a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned” the three-fold aspects of the love walk. The epistle of 1 Timothy is structured after this key verse:
A Pure Heart: Corporate & Personal Prayer 1Ti 2:1-15
A Good Conscience: Appointing & Training Church Leaders 1Ti 3:1 to 1Ti 4:16
A Sincere Faith: the Roles of the Congregation 1Ti 5:1 to 1Ti 6:19
1Ti 1:6 From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling;
1Ti 1:6
Illustration – For example, in April 1996 the Lord gave me a dream in which He said that there were two steps in the Christian life; there is conversion and discipleship. Once both steps are completed, it is difficult to re-convert someone out of an erroneous teaching and discipleship plan. He reminded me of how people in cults will do fanatical things, such as committing suicide with their leader. This is because such people have been through both conversion and discipleship. Then He quickened the words to me the phrase, “And many disciples followed their conversion.” Jesus had many who believed in Him (converts), but He had few disciples. This was the error that Paul was attempting to avoid in the Church. He wanted the Gentiles both converted and discipled in the Christian faith.
1Ti 1:7 Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.
1Ti 1:7
The other two places where this word is used are:
Luk 5:17, “And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judaea, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was present to heal them.”
Act 5:34, “Then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law , had in reputation among all the people, and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space;”
Comments – In Luk 5:17 this word is equivalent to “scribes” as this word is substituted for “doctors of the law” within this same passage of Scripture.
Comments – The reason that Paul uses the phrase “teachers of the Law” in 1Ti 1:7 was not to attack Judaizers, but rather, because the Old Testament Scriptures was the only “Bible” the New Testament Church had in the beginning. It was commonly referred to as “the Law” by the Jews. Thus, a teacher of the Law in the context of this passage simply refers to those individuals who wanted to appoint themselves as instructors over the congregation. However, within the context of this epistle, its definition should be broadened to means, “custodians of the doctrines of the Church of the Living God, whose job is to hand them down to other faithful men.” This custodianship becomes the charge that Paul hands over to Timothy in which he is to protect the pure doctrine deliver it to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others.
There were also Jewish emissaries who visited local synagogues in the Roman Empire and taught out of the Law. We can imagine that Paul must have encountered such “teachers of the Law” in many of the synagogues of the Jewish Diaspora. They could have been sent from Jerusalem to these foreign synagogues to be teachers of the Law for the local Jews. Such “teachers” would have been the Jews that would have been most likely to contend with him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
1Ti 1:7 Comments – Within the context of the Pastoral Epistles, we find evidences of Jewish heresies in phrases such as “endless genealogies” (1Ti 1:4), “desiring to be teacher of the law” (1Ti 1:7), “there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision” (Tit 1:10), “Jewish fables, and commandments of men” (Tit 1:14) and “foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law” (Tit 3:9). There are references to Greek philosophy and Gnosticism in phrases such as “forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats” (1Ti 4:3) and “avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called” (1Ti 6:20). Paul the apostle was determined to combat these enemies of the Cross and decided to keep Timothy at Ephesus to set it in order, both in doctrine and in practice.
In the Gospels Jesus was often call by this title of teacher, which is actually the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew/Aramaic term “rabbi.” Since Paul is warning Timothy about these Jewish teachings, it was a term, or office, that he clearly understood would fit the Jewish community. We see it used again in Heb 5:12 and Jas 3:1 within the context of Jewish recipients to these two General Epistles.
Heb 5:12, “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.”
Jas 3:1, “My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.”
1Ti 1:7 Comments – Man’s nature has not changed. Many people today want to teach God’s Word, but many of them are not aiming for the goal, which is love. Some have self-centered motives, which disqualifies them from becoming leaders in a local congregation. Such selfish desires stand in contrast to those who “desire the office of a bishop” from a pure heart (1Ti 3:1).
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
1Ti 1:5. Now the end of the commandment, &c. “The sum and great end of the Christian doctrine, or of the gospel, is love, &c.” See 1Th 5:10. Phm 1:2
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Ti 1:5 . . . .] It cannot be denied that in we have an echo of in 1Ti 1:3 ; but it does not follow that we are to understand by it the command which the apostle gave to Timothy not to teach falsely (so Bengel: praecepti quod Ephesi urgere debes). It rather stands here in contrast with the just mentioned, and denotes the command which is serviceable to the (1Ti 1:4 ). It is equivalent to the in 1Ti 6:14 , the evangelic law which forms the external rule for the conduct of Christians (Hofmann). The apostle alludes to this because he is about to pass to the doctrine of the heretics regarding the law.
It is wrong to understand by the Mosaic law (Calvin, Beza, and others), from which there would arise a thought foreign to the context; and it is unsatisfactory to take it in a general sense as “practical exhortation” (de Wette, Wiesinger, Plitt, Oosterzee), for in that case the imperative should have been used instead of . It is a peculiarity of the N. T. usage to take expressions which of themselves have a more general signification, and to mark them off with the definite article as ideas specifically Christian; thus , (often in Acts), , and others.
] is neither “fulfilment” nor “chief sum” (Luther, Erasmus: quod universam legis mosaicae vim compendio complectitur ac praestat est caritas), but “goal, scopus ad quem tendit ” (Koppe, Wegscheider, de Wette, Wiesinger, and others [50] ).
While the only causes , which serve to engender divisions ( , 2Ti 2:23 ), the aim of the command of the gospel is love.
. . .] The gospel proclaims to the believer one divine act, the reconciliation through Christ grounded in God’s love, and it demands also one human act, viz. love, for (Rom 13:10 ). Leo and Matthies wrongly explain here of love to God and to one’s neighbour. Here and elsewhere in the N. T., where no other genitive of the object is added, we should understand by it love to one’s neighbour. The words following declare of what nature this love should be.
] denotes the inward centre of human life, especially as the seat of emotions and desires. Hence in regard to love it is often remarked that it must come from the (comp. Mat 12:37 ), and from a heart that is pure, i.e. free from all self-seeking; 1Pe 1:22 : ; comp. 1Co 13:5 : .
The two additions that follow: (as is clear from 1Ti 1:19 ; 1Ti 3:9 ; 1Ti 4:2 ), are added with special reference to the heretics, who are reproached with having both an evil conscience and a pretended faith.
(1Ti 1:19 ; 1Pe 3:16 ; , Heb 13:18 ; , 1Ti 3:9 ; 2Ti 1:3 ) is not “the conscience pure from the guilt of sin” (de Wette), nor “the conscience reconciled with God” (van Oosterzee, Plitt), nor “the consciousness of peace with God” (Hofmann). Although “a conscience not reconciled with God and one’s neighbours cannot love purely,” there is no hint here of the element of reconciliation. It is simply the consciousness of cherishing no impure, wicked purposes. [51]
] is not confidence towards one’s neighbour, as it might be here when placed in connection with the idea of love; but, in accordance with the contents of the epistle, is “faith,” which in Gal 5:6 also is denoted as the ground of love.
(also in Rom 12:9 ; 2Co 6:6 ; 1Pe 1:22 , connected with the idea of love) denotes truth and uprightness in opposition to all flattery. It is used here not without allusion to the heretics who conducted themselves as believers in order to gain a more easy admission for their heresies.
[50] Arriani dissertt. Epict. Book I. chap. 20: .
[51] Otto on 2Ti 1:3 (pp. 302 f.) explains the expression rightly (following Matthies) as “the self-consciousness of pure thoughts and endeavours;” but, on the other hand, he is wrong in regard to 1Ti 1:19 , where he interprets . as “the conscience innocent and expectant of all salvation,” “the consciousness of divine grace supporting itself by daily putting to death the old nature.”
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 2220
CHARITY THE TRUE SCOPE OF THE GOSPEL
1Ti 1:5. Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good, conscience, and of faith unfeigned.
THE Gospel of Christ is thought by many to be a source of evil: and certain it is, that evils have not unfrequently followed in its train. But we must distinguish between two things, which are very often confounded; namely, the cause of evil, and the occasion of evil. There is not any blessing which divine Providence has bestowed upon us, which may not be an occasion of evil, if it be not used in the manner, and for the ends for which it was intended. Our corporeal and mental faculties may be all abused, for the production of evil; and all the fruits of the earth may be made subservient to the gratification of inordinate desire. This has happened in relation to the Gospel. Even in the primitive Churches, some, instead of delivering their divine message with the simplicity that became them, made it, in many instances, an occasion of promulgating their own vain and superstitious notions; thus administering to strife and contention, where they should have laboured only for the edification of souls in faith and love. St. Paul, in order to correct this, directed Timothy to protest against it, as an abuse of the Gospel; and to make it appear, that the Gospel was in no respect to be blamed for these evils; since, in its own nature, it tended only to love: The end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.
From these words I shall take occasion to shew,
I.
What is the true scope of the Gospel, as contrasted with the use too often made of it
The use too often made of it has been, to spread disputation and division
[To such a degree did this evil obtain at Ephesus, that St. Paul, when going into Macedonia, was constrained to deprive himself of the comfort of Timothys society, in order that he, by abiding still at Ephesus, might charge the teachers to confine themselves to the great truths of the Gospel, instead of giving heed to fables and endless genealogies, as they were wont to do; whereby they ministered to vain questions, rather than to godly edifying [Note: ver. 3, 4.]. This lamentable evil prevailed also at Colosse; and, more or less, in all the Churches. Jewish converts would insist upon some favourite observances of their law, which was now abrogated and annulled: and the Gentile converts strove to blend with the Gospel the notions of their philosophers: so that the Apostle was constrained to guard the people against both the one and the other; bidding them to beware, lest any man should spoil them through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ [Note: Col 2:8; Col 2:16-19.].
In every subsequent age, the Church has been torn and rent with heresies of different kinds; so that, in fact, the history of the Church contains rather a record of successive contentions between different parties in it, than any account of practical and experimental piety. The smallest knowledge of ecclesiastical history will suffice to convince us of this deplorable fact.
And what is the state of things at this day? Is there any thing like unity in the Church of Christ? The seamless garb of our adorable Saviour is rent into a thousand pieces. On all the leading subjects of doctrine and of discipline, there is in the Church, not merely a diversity of sentiment, but a violent hostility; whole Churches anathematizing each other, and individuals ready to bite and devour one another as enemies to the public weal. Nor is this acrimony confined to those who differ on fundamental points, as Papists and Protestants: it obtains equally amongst those who are agreed in professing the reformed religion; and sets at a distance from each other the Calvinist and Arminian, the Churchman and Dissenter, as if there were no common bond of union for them in Christ Jesus. This is cast in our teeth by the Papist, from whom we have separated: and it lays a stumbling-block before the Jew; who, with some shadow of justice, says to us, Call not on me to embrace your religion, till you are yourselves agreed what that religion is.]
But the proper end of the Gospel is charity
[The commandment of which the text speaks, is, by some, supposed to mean the law; and, by others, the particular injunction given by St. Paul to Timothy. But its connexion with the pure heart, and good conscience, and unfeigned faith, from which the charity, which is its end, proceeds, clearly shews, in my judgment, that it must be understood of the Gospel [Note: The use of the expression in ver. 3. by no means determines the import of in ver. 5: such a change in the use of the same word being quite common with St. Paul.].
Now the end of the Gospel is love; its chief object being to bring man back again to the state in which he was originally formed, and to renew him after the image of God, whose name and nature is love [Note: 1Jn 4:8; 1Jn 4:16.]. Fallen man possesses it not: he is by nature altogether selfish; and whatever stands in the way of self-gratification and self-advancement, he hates. Hence man universally opposes his fellow-man, as soon as ever a prospect opens to him of promoting his own interests, though at the expense of his neighbours welfare. In nations, whether civilized or uncivilized, this universally appears. The same is found in rival societies; yea, to such a degree does this malignant spirit operate, that it is a miracle if even a single family be found altogether united in love. But these malignant passions are mortified and subdued by the Gospel; according to that prediction of the Prophet Isaiah: The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them [Note: Isa 11:6-9.]. In confirmation of this truth, we need only look to the day of Pentecost, and see what a change was wrought on the most malignant characters that ever disgraced our fallen nature: three thousand of them, who had but a few hours before concurred in shedding the Saviours blood, became all of one heart and one mind, and gladly surrendered all that they possessed, with a view to the welfare of the whole body [Note: Act 2:44-45.]. Not that the Gospel will prevent all difference of sentiment amongst men; for, constituted as the human mind is, and different as are the degrees of mans information upon different subjects, it is not possible that all men should have precisely the same views, even of any subject, and much less of all; but it will induce a mutual forbearance, in reference to things that are dubious and non-essential; and will form all the variously-constructed members into one harmonious and compact body [Note: Eph 4:15-16.]. And unless it have this effect, it leaves us without any hope of its ultimate and eternal blessings [Note: 1Co 13:1-3.].]
It is of great importance, however, to be informed,
II.
When that end may be said to be truly and properly attained
The love here spoken of is not that which exists in the bosom of the natural man; nor is it that which is engendered by a party-spirit: it is a love formed by the Gospel, through the instrumentality of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned. Such is the account given of it in the text; and it is of importance to observe the order in which these words are introduced. a pure heart is first mentioned, as being the proximate cause of love: in the production of which, a good conscience operates as a more remote cause; whilst its primary cause, which sets the others in motion, is, an unfeigned faith.
These are the immediate effects of the Gospel
[The Gospel, bringing home conviction to the soul, creates there an unfeigned faith, without which no one of its truths can be received aright. The faith that is insincere, like that of Simon Magus [Note: Act 8:13; Act 8:18-20.], will soon betray its worthlessness; nor can it ever prevail for the subjugation of our selfish propensities. But when the Gospel leads us to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ in all his offices, and to look for salvation through him alone, then it will bring with it a good conscience, purged from all sense of guilt, and filled with a peace that passeth all understanding. Thence will flow a purification of the heart from every thing that is earthly, sensual, or devilish, and a transformation of the soul into the Divine image. Only let a man so embrace the promises as to obtain peace with God, and he will instantly begin to cleanse himself from all filthiness, both of flesh and spirit, and to perfect holiness in the fear of God [Note: 2Co 7:1.]. Having a good hope that he is accepted in Christ, he will labour to purify himself, even as Christ is pure [Note: 1Jn 3:3.].]
Then, through the combined influence of these, it works its destined end
[The soul is, by nature, narrow and contracted: its desires both originate in self, and end in self. Self is its centre and circumference. The natural man will indeed assume, on many occasions, an appearance of generosity; but, of the charity that suffereth long, and is kind; that envieth not; that vaunteth not itself; that doth not behave itself unseemly; that seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil: rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; that beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things [Note: 1Co 13:4-7.]; of that charity, I say, he knows nothing. But the Gospel expands the soul; filling it with a sense of the Saviours love, and stirring it up to a holy imitation of it; and bringing home to it, with irresistible force, this blessed truth, If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another [Note: 1Jn 4:10-11.]. Thus, at the same time that it disposes the soul for love, it also forms love in the soul. It brings men into the closest union with the Lord Jesus Christ, and with each other in him, so as to make of all one body in Christ. All look to him as their common head; and all regard each other as members of the same mystical body; and, in consequence of that union, are penetrated with a love that is reciprocal and universal. The degree of affection that is experienced by them is unknown in the whole world besides. The union, that from thenceforth subsists between them, is so close, that nothing short of the union between Almighty God and his only dear Son can adequately describe it. This is what the Lord Jesus Christ himself has affirmed: I pray for them, that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they may all be one in us. And the glory which thou hast given me, I have given them, that they all may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one [Note: Joh 17:21-23].
This, then, may suffice to shew us, not only what the true end of the Gospel is, but when that end may be said to be truly and properly attained: for it never is truly wrought in us, till we are brought into this union with each other in Christ, and are made to exercise the dispositions which must necessarily result from it.
That I may not be thought to have insisted too strongly on this matter, let me confirm it from the express declaration of an inspired Apostle; a declaration in which not only the same truth is maintained, but the very same process is accurately described. St. Peter, speaking to his believing brethren throughout all the world, says, Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth, through the Spirit, unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently [Note: 1Pe 1:22.].]
Let me now address a few words to you on the subject of the Gospel,
1.
In reference to its primary operations
[The peculiar process here described is not alike visible in all: in some it advances rapidly; in others with a more tardy step. But it must be found in all.
Brethren, see to it, that your faith in the Gospel be unfeigned. It must be such a faith as brings you, in penitential sorrow and utter self-renunciation, to the foot of the Cross; and causes you to live altogether by faith in the Son of God, as having loved you, and given himself for you [Note: Gal 2:20.]. See to it, also, that you obtain a good conscience. There must not be a day or an hour in which you do not apply the blood of sprinkling to your souls: for it is by that only that your conscience can be purged from dead works to serve the living God [Note: Heb 9:14; Heb 12:24.]. Take care, too, that your heart be purified from all earthly, sensual, and devilish affections. No evil whatever must be harboured in your bosom. The whole of your life must be occupied in putting off the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and in putting on the new man, which, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness [Note: Eph 4:22-24.]. These things are absolutely indispensable: and if the Gospel produce them not in your souls, it is in vain for you to expect any blessing from it in the world to come ]
2.
In reference to its ultimate effect
[Never forget what is the great scope and end of all: it is not to save your soul from destruction, but to save your soul from sin. Heaven is a region of love; and no man could be happy there who has not been previously rendered meet for it in this world. He would be out of his element: he would have no delight in God himself, nor any sympathy with those who were around his throne. Away, then, with selfishness, and apathy, and party-spirit; and begin to realize a heaven upon earth. This is the way to fulfil the law [Note: Gal 5:14.]; this is the way to adorn the Gospel [Note: Gal 5:6.]; this is the way to answer all Gods purposes of love towards you. Remember this, then, I pray you. And as I am charged of God to teach no other doctrine among you [Note: ver. 3.], so I must charge you, in the name of God, to receive no other amongst yourselves. You will find persons without number ready to obtrude upon you some matters of doubtful disputation; yea, and within your own bosoms you will find much to contend with that is contrary to love. But set the Lord Jesus Christ before you. See how love burned in his bosom, till his zeal had even consumed him, and till he had surrendered his life upon the cross [Note: Joh 13:1. Eph 5:2.]. So grow ye up into him in all things: and as ye have been taught of God to love one another, see that ye increase more and more [Note: 1Th 4:1; 1Th 4:9-10.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
5 Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:
Ver. 5. Now the end of the commandment ] Or, of the charge, to wit, of that charge, to teach no other doctrine, &c., 1Ti 1:3-4 . As if the apostle had said, This is that which a teacher should aim at, to beget such a love in his hearers’ hearts, as may speak them true believers and good livers. Boni Catholici sunt (saith Augustine) qui et fidem integram sequuntur, et bonos mores. Those are good Catholics that believe well and live well.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
5 .] But (contrast to the practice of these pretended teachers of the law) the end (purpose, aim: Chrys. quotes ) of the commandment (viz. of the law of God in ( 1Ti 1:11 ) the gospel: not, although in the word there may be a slight allusion to it, of that which Timothy was , 1Ti 1:3 . This commandment is understood from the just mentioned, of which it forms a part) is Love (as Rom 13:10 . We recognize, in the restating of former axiomatic positions, without immediate reference to the subject in hand, the characteristic of a later style of the Apostle) out of (arising, springing from, as its place of birth the heart being the central point of life: see especially ref. 1 Pet.) a pure heart (pure from all selfish views and leanings: see Act 15:9 ; on the psychology, see Ellicott’s note: and Delitzsch, Biblische Psychologie, iv. 12, p. 204) and good conscience (is this , 1) a conscience good by being freed from guilt by the application of Christ’s blood, or is it 2) a conscience pure in motive, antecedent to the act of love? This must be decided by the usage of this and similar expressions in these Epistles, where they occur several times (reff. and 1Ti 3:9 . 2Ti 1:3 . 1Ti 4:2 . Tit 1:15 ). From those examples it would appear, as De W., that in the language of the pastoral Epistles a good conscience is joined with soundness in the faith, a bad, conscience with unsoundness . So that we can hardly help introducing the element of freedom from guilt by the effect of that faith on the conscience . And the earlier usage of St. Paul in Act 23:1 , compared with the very similar one in 2Ti 1:3 , goes to substantiate this) and faith unfeigned (this connects with above; it is faith, not the pretence of faith, the mere ‘ Scheinglaube ’ of the hypocrite, which, as in Act 15:9 , , and as in Gal 5:6 , : Wiesinger well remarks that we see from this, that the general character of these false teachers, as of those against whom Titus is warned, was not so much error in doctrine, as leading men away from the earnestness of the loving Christian life, to useless and vain questionings, ministering only strife ):
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
commandment. Greek. perengelia. See Act 5:28.
charity. App-135.
out of. App-104, good conscience. See Act 23:1.
unfeigned. Greek. anupokritos. See Rom 12:9.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
5.] But (contrast to the practice of these pretended teachers of the law) the end (purpose, aim: Chrys. quotes ) of the commandment (viz. of the law of God in (1Ti 1:11) the gospel: not, although in the word there may be a slight allusion to it,-of that which Timothy was , 1Ti 1:3. This commandment is understood from the just mentioned, of which it forms a part) is Love (as Rom 13:10. We recognize, in the restating of former axiomatic positions, without immediate reference to the subject in hand, the characteristic of a later style of the Apostle) out of (arising, springing from, as its place of birth-the heart being the central point of life: see especially ref. 1 Pet.) a pure heart (pure from all selfish views and leanings: see Act 15:9; on the psychology, see Ellicotts note: and Delitzsch, Biblische Psychologie, iv. 12, p. 204) and good conscience (is this , 1) a conscience good by being freed from guilt by the application of Christs blood,-or is it 2) a conscience pure in motive, antecedent to the act of love? This must be decided by the usage of this and similar expressions in these Epistles, where they occur several times (reff. and 1Ti 3:9. 2Ti 1:3. 1Ti 4:2. Tit 1:15). From those examples it would appear, as De W., that in the language of the pastoral Epistles a good conscience is joined with soundness in the faith, a bad, conscience with unsoundness. So that we can hardly help introducing the element of freedom from guilt by the effect of that faith on the conscience. And the earlier usage of St. Paul in Act 23:1, compared with the very similar one in 2Ti 1:3, goes to substantiate this) and faith unfeigned (this connects with above; it is faith, not the pretence of faith, the mere Scheinglaube of the hypocrite, which, as in Act 15:9, , and as in Gal 5:6, : Wiesinger well remarks that we see from this, that the general character of these false teachers, as of those against whom Titus is warned, was not so much error in doctrine, as leading men away from the earnestness of the loving Christian life, to useless and vain questionings, ministering only strife):
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Ti 1:5. , the end) to which all things tend. The article denotes the subject. Whoever rightly looks to the end, cannot suffer his energies to be diffused on other things. Paul does not, even to Timothy, write about profound mysteries in particular, in order that he may the rather rebuke the Gentiles; the governor of a church ought to look to the things which are necessary, not to such as are sublime (too high-flown), in discharging the duties of his office.- , of the commandment) which you ought to urge upon men at Ephesus, 1Ti 1:3; 1Ti 1:18.-, love) The foundation is faith, 1Ti 1:4 : the end is love, 1Ti 1:14; Tit 3:15. Contentions are unfavourable to this love.-, pure) 2Ti 2:22; Tit 1:15.- , a good conscience) ch. 1Ti 3:9; 2Ti 1:3; 1Jn 3:19, note.[3] Here, with Paul, conscience is in the understanding; the heart is the seat of love. The former would be in the idea, the latter in the desire; comp. Mat 22:37, note.[4]-, of faith) Faith towards God becomes stronger when the heart is purified in respect of our neighbour, and when the conscience is cleansed (rectified) in respect of ones self; wherefore faith is put in the third place. Pure faith and a good conscience are also treated of conjointly, in 1Ti 1:19, and ch. 1Ti 4:1-2.
[3] Peter and Paul alone use the term , conscience. John uses instead.-ED.
[4] Joh. Jam. Sirbius says, there are three foundations of all that is found in man, Idea, Desire, Motion.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
1Ti 1:5
But the end of the charge is love out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned:-The purpose and end of Gods law is that man may be led to do Gods will out of a pure heart and with a good conscience and faith unfeigned. It takes all three of these conditions to make service acceptable to God. A man without a pure heart, a good conscience, and faith that is unfeigned cannot do acceptable service to God. Men harden their hearts and sear their consciences by doing what their consciences condemn. A man who thus violates and corrupts his conscience cannot do acceptable services to God. While the good conscience may lead men to violate the will of God, run counter to his teaching, it cannot serve God without it is kept pure. A mans conscience is defiled, blinded, seared by doing what he knows is wrong or refusing to do what he knows is right. There is no more dangerous condition in which a man can place himself than to habitually do what he knows to be wrong or refuse to do what he knows to be right.
Of the same nature is the expression whatsoever is not of faith is sin. (Rom 14:23.) This Scripture is usually applied in a sense differing from the meaning of the apostle. Its use is not one hurtful in its nature, or out of harmony with the Scriptures, and it grows out of the true meaning of the apostle in this text. The meaning clearly is that of doing a thing as an act of worship, in reference to which we have doubts, we condemn ourselves. That is, we cannot violate conscience; if it has doubts, they must be respected. The convictions of our hearts must be honored.
God accepts nothing as worship that is not done heartily with full faith. The inference is clear that one who habitually violates his convictions of right soon loses all sense of right, hardens his heart, and makes his reformation impossible. The old philosopher who averred his ability to move the world, if he only had a fulcrum on which to rest his lever, expressed a universal, necessary truth. In the material world the lightest particle of matter cannot be moved without a fulcrum on which to rest the lever that moves it. It is equally true in morals. No movement of our moral sense or action can take place without a moral fulcrum on which to rest the lever of truth which moves it. That fulcrum is the sense of right in human nature. If it is destroyed, there is no starting point to correct mans moral and spiritual errors. Hence, Paul found mercy because he did his evil in ignorant unbelief; his conscience was good, pure, active; his sense of right was keen and sensitive. There is always hope of such men; God has respect for them. But when a man trifles with his convictions, does violence to his conscience, holds the truth in unrighteousness-that is, does not practice what he knows to be right, especially if he practices what he knows to be wrong-he corrupts his own moral nature, destroys his sense of right, and cuts off all possibility of his turning. In many evil ways is this protesting against wrong, yet encouraging the wrong, manifested.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Chapter 2 Law and Grace
1Ti 1:5-11
Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: from which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling; desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm. But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine; according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust, (vv. 5-11)
In these words the apostle Paul brings out very vividly the difference between two great principles: that of grace, which has been manifested in the cross, and results in love for God and love for our fellow men when we trust that grace; and the principle of law, which demands a righteousness that sinful man can never fully render. We have noticed that one of the objects which the apostle had in writing this letter was to put Timothy on his guard, and to charge him to use care concerning certain emissaries of a legal system who were moving about among the early Christian churches, seeking to pervert believers from the simplicity that is in Christ. This system was based partly on the law of Moses and partly on Eastern mystical traditions. It developed in after years into what became known down through the centuries as Gnosticism, the advocates of which claimed they had a superior knowledge not vouchsafed to other Christians. They sought to gain as many proselytes to their system as they possibly could.
Paul stressed the importance of faith in Christ, which involves salvation by grace alone and not by works of righteousness which we have done, or by any fancied merit of our own. He shows that we are saved by grace alone, and when we have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ and are justified by faith, that faith results in the love of God being shed abroad in our hearts. With this comes ready obedience, but not as a matter of legality. It is easy to do the things which please God when we love Him supremely. The heart readily seeks to please those whom we love, and so the apostle says, Now the end of the commandment [the charge he was giving to Timothy] is charity. Our old English word charity really means love. [Love] out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and [the manifestation] of faith unfeigned.
When ones conscience is aroused and is seized with the terror of the law, when he realizes that he is lost, then he can never find real rest or peace until he finds it in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. When he sees that all his sins have been put away by that work, then his conscience is purged, and he is at peace with God. With this is linked the communication of a new life. The believer in Christ is born again, and being born of God, he has a new nature that delights in holiness, purity, and goodness. He is actually a partaker of the divine nature. Therefore he loves God. He loves his fellow Christians. He loves lost men who are still in darkness and living according to the course of this world. This is why genuine Christians are willing to sacrifice in order that they may win others to Christ.
It is this that Paul emphasizes in writing to the younger preacher, Timothy. He stresses the need of preaching the Word, the importance of this gospel of Christ which is the sole remedy for sin. Some had swerved from this and had turned aside unto vain jangling because false teachers had gotten into the church, and some were not strong enough to resist them and so were carried away by their specious theories. They had swerved from the simplicity that is in Christ. It is ever the object of the Devil to obscure the truth and get Christians occupied with something that will hide the glorious face of the Lord Jesus Christ and becloud the truth regarding His finished work.
Such evil teachers were active at Ephesus where Timothy was laboring: Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm. These self-appointed teachers had no knowledge of that which they professed to proclaim. They displayed their own ignorance as they sought to add law to grace. This very fact proved that they did not know what they were talking about, because law and grace will no more mix than will water and oil. They are two altogether different principles. The law says, Be good, and I will bless you; grace says, I have blessed you, now be good. They are opposites. The law says, Do this, and thou shalt live; grace says, Believe this, and thou shalt live. Law demands; grace freely bestows.
Paul says that we know the law is good. We do not ignore the importance of law; we do not set aside the authority of the Ten Commandments. Preachers of grace are often asked if the Ten Commandments were ever abrogated. No, the law remains with all its stern demands. But the believer has died to the law in the Person of Christ, who is the end of the law to every one that believes. But to the unsaved the law speaks as loudly as ever: We know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane. By the term righteous here we are to understand those who have been made righteous in Christ. The law is for the lawless and disobedient. It is not designed to show spiritually-minded believers how to behave.
If you are a Christian you do not refrain from taking the name of God in vain because you learn it is contrary to law. You love your heavenly Father, and because you love Him you would not think of using His name carelessly. Every Christian knows the sense of shock, of displeasure, that comes whenever he hears the name of God the Father or of the Lord Jesus Christ used profanely. Why is it that it stirs us when many of us were not concerned about such language as this before we were saved? It is because we have now a new nature, a new love for the Lord Jesus Christ and for God who, in His mercy, has brought us to know Himself. And so, I repeat, it is not the law which teaches us how to behave. If we refrain from stealing it is not because the law says Thou shalt not steal, but because we have no desire to steal, even if we were ever addicted to such wickedness as this before we were saved. Now our desire is to be a blessing to others and not to wrong them in any way. Thus we see that the law is not for righteous men and women.
What then is the standard of the righteous? It is Christ Himself. The Word of God reveals Him as our example, and we seek to walk as He walked. The consistent believer seeks to be like Him, to love as He loves, and to behave as He would behave. The righteousness of which the apostle speaks is a righteousness that springs from a renewed mind. We delight to honor the One who redeemed us.
The law still speaks to the ungodly. It convicts the sinner of his lawlessness. In 1Jn 3:4 we read, Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. But this is not exactly what John meant, as every careful Greek scholar knows. It might be better translated, sin is lawlessness. Sin is self-will. It defies the law of God, which insists on righteousness. Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers. Is not that rather strange? It is not murderers in general who are mentioned, but murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, as though to put it in the very strongest sense. The law says, Thou shalt not kill. That forbids all murder.
Let me say this, dear young people, you do not have to stab your mother with a knife or a dagger, or strike your father with a club in order to kill them. You can kill them by your willfulness. Many a dear mother has gone down to an early grave heartbroken because of the evil behavior of a loved son or daughter, and many a father has sunk under the awful blow of a son or daughter who turned away from the path of righteousness. We need to remember that murder does not necessarily mean driving a knife into the heart or mixing a cup of poison, but it may consist of anything that breaks a dear ones health and results in early death. And so the law is given for the lawless, those who would destroy others.
Note the awful list of sinners mentioned in verse 10: For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine. I have heard people say, Why does the Bible have those nasty words in it? I do not like to read them, and I do not like to hear them read from the pulpit. It is not the words that are so bad; it is the vile sins that they represent. The Holy Spirit always uses the right words to describe these shameful sins in order that men might realize their wickedness and corruption when they indulge in such sins as these.
If I dared to believe all that I am told by Christian high school teachers and college professors, I would have to believe that many of the youth of our land today are becoming almost as corrupt as the people before the flood, and conditions are as vile as those in Sodom and Gomorrah when those cities were destroyed with fire from heaven. From what these teachers tell us, many young people of high school and college age, as well as older people, are given to the very sins depicted here. But to everyone comes that stern command, Thou shalt not commit adultery, and that covers every kind of sexual evil. If people would only listen to the voice of the law we would never have such terrible crimes against children and others which have become so prevalent in this and other enlightened lands. Gods law is defied, and so sin flaunts itself openly and men glory in their shame.
The law is given for liars. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Men are in the habit of distinguishing between different types of lies. Some lies are called white lies, and some are called black lies. But my Bible tells me, All liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone (Rev 21:8). It does not make any distinction between white, black, and gray lies. So the commandment comes to every untruthful person, condemning falsehood of every description.
And if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine. In other words, the law was given to convict men of every sort of sinfulness and wickedness. All such are exposed to the righteous judgment of God. For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them (Gal 3:10). The only way one can ever escape that curse is by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He died to redeem us from the curse of the law; He was made a curse for us: Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree (Gal 3:13).
If there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine. Notice how frequently Paul uses this word sound. Of course I realize he was writing by inspiration; nevertheless, it appealed to his own heart. Sound means healthy, and when the apostle speaks of sound doctrine, he means doctrines that are conducive to spiritual health.
If we will turn to some of the other passages in these Pastoral Epistles where he uses this word, it will help us to get the force of it: If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome [that is, sound] words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness (1Ti 6:3). Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus (2Ti 1:13). For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears (2Ti 4:3). Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers (Tit 1:9). But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine: that the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound m faith, in charity, in patience (Tit 2:1-2).
Through all these Pastoral Epistles, Paul emphasizes the importance of teaching the spiritually healthful doctrine. The proclamation of the truth of Gods Word is conducive to health spiritually. False teaching leads to death and decay. Where the teaching in the classroom and from the pulpit is sound, it has an effect for good, and tends to build up believers in holiness of life and Christlike-ness in character. Where it is otherwise, it has the very opposite effect.
Paul concludes this section with the words, According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. Now in order to get the connection we should notice that all that is included from the first word of verse 6 to the last word in verse 10 came in parenthetically. Go back to verse 5, Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned; now verse 11: According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. The glorious gospel is really the gospel of the glory. It is an expression peculiar to the apostle Paul. In 2Co 4:4 he says, In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
Paul spoke of the gospel as the gospel of the glory because it tells of a glorified Christ, a Christ who once bore our sins when He hung as a bleeding Victim on Calvary that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. He is now the glorified Man seated on the right hand of God in heaven, and Paul was eager to proclaim the message about that Man in the glory, so he calls his message the gospel of the glory. This is the message that has been passed on to us. A glorified Christ at the Fathers right hand tells us that the sin question is settled, and now God can save in righteousness all who come to Him and believe in His Son.
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
the end: Rom 10:4, Rom 13:8-10, Gal 5:13, Gal 5:14, Gal 5:22, 1Jo 4:7-14
charity: Mar 12:28-34, Rom 14:15, 1Co 8:1-3, 1Co 13:1-13, 1Co 14:1, 1Pe 4:8, 2Pe 1:7
a pure: Psa 24:4, Psa 51:10, Jer 4:14, Mat 5:8, Mat 12:35, Act 15:9, 2Ti 2:22, Jam 4:8, 1Pe 1:22, 1Jo 3:3
a good: 1Ti 1:19, 1Ti 3:9, Act 23:1, Act 24:16, Rom 9:1, 2Co 1:12, 2Ti 1:3, Tit 1:15, Heb 9:14, Heb 10:22, Heb 13:18, 1Pe 3:16, 1Pe 3:21
faith: Gal 5:6, 2Ti 1:5, Heb 11:5, Heb 11:6, 1Jo 3:23
Reciprocal: Mat 7:12 – for Mat 22:40 – General Mar 12:29 – Hear Rom 12:9 – love 1Co 8:2 – if 1Co 13:13 – the greatest 1Co 16:14 – General Eph 1:15 – faith Eph 4:16 – edifying Col 3:14 – charity 1Th 3:6 – faith 1Ti 2:15 – in faith Tit 2:2 – in patience Tit 3:15 – love Jam 1:27 – Pure Jam 2:14 – though Jam 2:17 – so Jam 2:18 – and I will 1Jo 3:11 – message Rev 2:19 – charity
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
LOVE AND ITS SOURCES
Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.
1Ti 1:5
What is meant here by the commandment? In the Greek, the word for commandment is the same as that translated charge in the third verse, and the meaning is, the end, the point, of the charge you must give is charity. Now charity is only another word for love. There is only one word in the Greek for both of our English words, and the authors of the Revised Version rightly substituted the more comprehensive word love for charity. The Apostle Paul is here exhorting Timothy, Bishop of Ephesus, how to deal with certain persons who were disputing about unimportant things instead of with the all-important principles of the Christiaa faith. You have among you, the Apostle would say, teachers, perhaps clergy, who need instructing in the things they should teach; they are making the people take up foolish questions, and neglecting the all-important things. Their teaching is vain jangling. Now the point of your charge that I am so anxious you should press upon them is love, out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned. In a word, the great subject which St. Paul urges Christian teachers to inculcate is love and its sources.
St. Paul tells us there are three sources of the true and blessed love which God asks for.
I. It must flow out of a pure heart.There is a sort of love which can flow out of an impure heart. That is a mockery of lovea low, mean, contemptible thing. A pure heart! it is a priceless possession. Guard the treasure, for it is easy to lose, and hard to regain it.
II. Love must issue out of a good conscience.Let us understand clearly what conscience is. It is the power or faculty within us which tells us when we do right or wrong, approving the right and condemning the wrong. Conscience needs to be well instructed and guided by right principles. But it is our best guide, and it is better to err with conscience than to go right against it.
III. Love is the outgrowth of faith unfeigned.Faith is the power in the soul which makes real the unseen, which lives for another world; it is the realising faculty. Surely this faith in the unseen lies at the root of all religion. But it must be unfeigned. It must be realno mere words, no mere profession. It must set the soul in the presence of God. Above all, it must make real to the soul the living Saviour.
Bishop Walsham How.
Illustration
What do you think of Father Damien, who, knowing perfectly well what it meant, went and lived in Leper Island, till he took the complaint and died? I could name men of high promise and prospects in this world who have, for pure love, given up all to live and labour among the poor and outcasts. Such characters may be rare, but they are not impossible; but, even were they rarer, remember there is Gods ideal given us.
(SECOND OUTLINE)
THE END OF THE COMMANDMENT
The end of commandment is not love all at once; it requires no small amount of soil-forming and foundation-laying first. The true love of which the Apostle was thinking involves no little preparatory culture and accomplishing; it is emphatically the commandments endthe end of seed sown and work done.
I. True love is not by any means the very simple and easy thing which it is frequently assumed to be.You cannot resolve to begin at once to be loving; you must become much that you are not, perhaps, to be so. True, it is not much to be for the most part gracious and kind and tender, to give away things, and indulge people, and think only of making them instantly comfortable; it is not much, especially for some personsno straight gate, but a very broad, smooth way; it is their instinct, their naturethey cannot help it. One might say of them often, that they have not purity, conscience, or faith enough to be otherwise; for there is a love very pretty and pleasant, the influence and exercise of which is owing to the absence of these. But this is not the end of the commandment, or the fulfilment of the law.
II. The love which St. Paul intends and desires is love
(a) Rooted in purity.
(b) Rooted in conscience, and
(c) Rooted in faith, one of the highest and ripest attainments of the Christian life.
Illustration
There is the love of unbelief, of which the present day affords us some examples. A love which, recognising in man nothing but an outcome and development of matter, nothing but a perishing transient child of the dust, with no immortal future before him and no invisible Father belonging to him, says, Let us at least try to minister to him while he remains. This is the love, the cheerless, melancholy love of unbelief. And it is kind and generous enough; its drear eyes weep with them that weep; its pale hands are stretched forth to heal; but very different is the love which St. Paul contemplated, and to which the commandment leads. The commandment, with its declaration of the Divine Fatherhood, and the human Brotherhood of redemption and immortality, and the call to eternal gloryit teaches us the sublime worth and dignity, the awful greatness and sacredness, of man; shows us upon him, under all his dirt and disfigurement, the image and superscription of heaven; presents us to him at his lowest estate, in his deepest debasement, as a child of the Highest whom the Highest has come seeking through sacrifice.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
1Ti 1:5. End is from TELOS, and Thayer defines it at this place as follows: “The end to which all things relate, the aim, purpose.” The commandment refers to the charge that Paul had given Timothy regarding the kind of teaching he was to require among the people at Ephesus. The end or purpose of the charge was that it would produce charity or love. Out of a pure heart denotes that it was to be a sincere love and not a mere pretended one. Such a pure love would be in harmony with a good conscience; it could be professed conscientiously. Faith unfeigned means a genuine faith and not an empty pretense for personal advantage such as the evil Judaizers displayed.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1Ti 1:5. The end of the commandment. The statement would of course be true of the commandment, or law, of God, as in Rom 13:10. But the word so translated is not used elsewhere in the New Testament in that higher sense, and is used in 1Ti 1:3; 1Ti 1:18 of the charge or instruction which the apostle had given Timothy. It would seem better, therefore, so to take it here. The sum and substance so which all that charge converged wasnot questioningbut love. Here as elsewhere love is preferable to charity.
Out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned. We have here, as it were, the genesis of love, the three elements out of which it springs(1) the heart, or seat of the affections, purified (by God, working through faith, Act 15:9) from the selfish sensual life which shuts out love; (2) the conscience, which never knowingly allows the will to be swayed by that lower life, and so becomes a law unto itself; (3) the faith, which is not the hypocritical assent to a dogma, the unreal profession of a religion, but true trust in God as loving all men, and which therefore leads us in our turn to love all because He loves them.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
In these words our apostle smartly reflects upon the judaizing teachers, who were so zealous for their ceremonial law, that they mingled works with faith in the point of justification: the apostle tells them that the end of the law, aye, and of the gospel too, is love; the end, that is, the aim, the scope, the design, the perfection and consummation, the perfecting end; the sense is, that all the duties which the law of God and the gospel of Christ do enjoin, are designed only as means to advance and perfect our love both to God and man; the end of all Christ’s doctrine is charity, or the bringing of men to love God and their neighbour.
Observe next, the apostle describes the nature and quality of that love which is the end and design, the intention and perfection, of the law, and the fountain from whence this love must spring and flow, namely, from a pure heart, or heart purified by the Spirit of Christ; from a good conscience, or a conscience purified by the blood of Christ; and from a faith unfeigned: implying, That love either to God or man is not sincere, unless it proceed from a clean heart, and is accompanied with an holy and innocent life, and has faith for the root and principle from which it flows.
Observe lastly, How he taxes these judaizing and false teachers, with swerving from charity, purity, and faith, and turning aside to vain janglings; and that whilst they affect to be thought learned teachers, and expounders of the law, they betray their ignorance, not understanding either what they say, or whereof they affirm.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Sound teaching will produce three desired results.
Second, there will be a good conscience that is well trained in God’s will.
Third, there will be a faith without hypocrisy. The false teachers at Ephesus had missed the mark of the true faith and involved themselves in empty talking. These teachers wanted the respect that was always given to true teachers of the law of Moses, but they did not understand its ultimate purpose ( Gal 3:19-25 ). Their failure to understand the law’s purpose caused them to miss out on the true glories of the gospel of Christ ( 1Ti 1:5-7 ).
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
1Ti 1:5-7. Now the end The scope, design, or substance; of the commandment Or charge, rather, as properly signifies, being a noun derived from the verb, translated, that thou mightest charge, 1Ti 1:3. The apostle had desired Timothy to continue at Ephesus, that he might charge some to teach no other doctrine than what had been taught: here he informs him what the scope of his charge to these teachers was to be, namely, that instead of inculcating fables, &c., they should inculcate charity, or love to God and man, proceeding from a pure heart That is, from a heart purified by the Word and Spirit of God, from the love of sin, the love of the world, and all inordinate self-love, and from all corrupt affections and dispositions; a good conscience A conscience properly informed concerning sin and duty, thoroughly awakened and sprinkled from evil, or the guilt of sin, by the blood of Jesus, Heb 9:14; Heb 10:22; and faith unfeigned Namely, in the truths and promises of the gospel, and in Christ, in whom those truths and promises are yea and amen. Observe, reader, this faith unfeigned is the root of the other particulars here named. By it, and by it only, we obtain deliverance from the guilt and power of sin, essential to a good conscience; by it our hearts are purified, Act 15:9; 1Pe 1:22 : and as it always worketh by love, (Gal 5:6,) by it we obtain the love of God and of all mankind, the source, yea, and essence, of all piety and virtue. Here therefore the apostle asserts that the love which he speaks of, proceeding from the principles here named, is the scope and design of the gospel doctrine, or of the whole Christian institution, as it is indeed also of the moral law, and the writings of the prophets. From which Love, accompanied with these other particulars; some having swerved The verb , thus rendered, signifies to err from the mark at which a person shoots or aims; and is elegantly used in this place, as , the scope aimed at, was introduced in the preceding verse: have turned aside into vain jangling Unprofitable disputes and discourses. An affectation of high and extensive knowledge sets a man at the greatest distance from faith, and all proper sense of true experimental religion: and of all vanities none are more vain than dry, empty disputes on the things of God. Desiring to be teachers of the law Greek, , a word which, in the evangelists, is rendered doctors of the law, of the same import with the Hebrew word rabbis. And though it is not used exactly in that sense here, yet there seems to be some reference to it: understanding neither what they say The very things they utter; nor whereof they affirm The subject they speak of, or concerning which they express themselves strongly and confidently, as the words properly signify.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
ARGUMENT 2
THE WHOLE BIBLE IN A NUTSHELL
5. The end of the commandment is Divine love out of a clean heart, and a good conscience and faith free from hypocrisy. This verse is a wonderful convenience to all candid inquirers after truth, as it focalizes all the commandments in the Bible, and con substantiates them in this abbreviated statement, which all are competent to receive and remember. This agape, Divine love, is the essence of the Divine nature (1Jn 4:18), indigenous only in the heart of God, and exotic in all other beings and dependent solely on Divine intervention for its existence. The Holy Ghost, who is none other than very and eternal God, pours it out into truly penitent and believing hearts. (Rom 5:5.) As our hearts are depraved by the fall, we must have a subsequent purgation, which we receive in the great work of entire sanctification wrought by the Holy Ghost. This is indispensable to the perpetuity and purity of that heavenly stream poured into our hearts in regeneration. Not only must this Divine love, as here revealed, flow out of a clean heart but a good conscience. Paul said he lived in all good conscience before he was converted. Yet his conscience was not a correct guide, because he had not received the Divine love and a Clean heart. In Rom 9:1, he testifies, My conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost. Hence, we see that this noble God-given faculty, the voice of God in the soul, must be corroborated by the Holy Ghost, in order to be a correct guide. But not only is this Divine love to flow out of a clean heart and a good conscience, but faith free from hypocrisy; i.e., an unhypocritical faith, rendering our lives and conduct perfectly transparent under all circumstances. The Grecian god Momus said the creation of man was a great failure, as there should by all means be a mirror in his breast, so you could look in and see his thoughts.
6. From which some, having deflected, have gone away into empty talking. All speaking without the solid truth of God and the Holy Ghost is empty. Hence, when you preach anything except the love of God flowing out of a clean heart, and a good conscience and unhypocritical faith, you are simply indulging in empty talk. O the empty little talks ringing from the pulpits at the present day, neither freighted with solid saving truth nor the dynamite of the Holy Ghost!
7. Wishing to be teachers of the law, not knowing either what things they say, nor concerning what they affirm. No wonder our Savior forbade his own apostles to go and preach the sanctified gospel till they received the pentecostal experience. He knew they could not preach successfully that they had never experienced. That is our great trouble, the blind leading the blind, and all falling into the ditch together; millions, like signboards, pointing out road they never travel.
9. Knowing this, that the law is not for a righteous man, but for the lawless, the disorderly, the ungodly, the sinners, the unholy, the profane, patricides matricides, homicides,
10. Fornicators, Sodomites, kidnapers, liars, perjurers, and if there is anything else contrary to hygienic teaching,
11. According to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted. What a black catalogue! Patricide is a murderer of a father, and matricide of a mother. O the thousands of fathers and mothers who are murdered by the wicked lives of their children, thus killing them with sorrow and bringing down their prematurely gray hairs to an untimely grave! Homicide is the murder of a man. John says, He that hateth his brother is a murderer. Hatred is the spirit of murder. If you have it in your heart, you are a murderer in the sight of God. The Sodomites were accused of gross brutality, too dark to mention. Kidnappers have depopulated poor Africa for ages indefinite, carrying away her people, and selling them into slavery, thus retarding her progress, baffling her civilization, and making her significantly the Dark Continent. If there is anything else contrary to hygienic teaching, or, as E.V. beautifully says, sound doctrine; the Greek word hygienic is very significant in this passage, since holiness has a hygienic meaning; i.e., soul soundness. In regeneration your dead soul receives the life of God. In sanctification your soul is healed of all hereditary ailments. Children must be born before they can be treated for hereditary diseases. So you must be born of God before you can he sanctified, as this glorious grace is only for Gods children. What a wonderful contrast between the New Testament and the popular creeds; the Pauline preaching and the metropolitan pulpits of the present day! I was brought up in a country rent and torn by sectarian wars. I would hear an announcement, Pastor A will preach a doctrinal sermon. We crowd his house, and listen two to four hours while he thoroughly ventilates and defends his creed; simultaneously so entrenching upon Pastor B that he must appoint a day for a doctrinal sermon. Then Pastors C and D are both bleeding from controversial bullet-holes, and must each in turn likewise give us a big doctrinal sermon. With all this the Pauline truth, Divine love out of a clean heart, good conscience, and unhypocritical faith had neither part nor lot. Now you see plainly from this Scripture that nothing but sin antagonizes the saving grace of God. So, when Paul tells us what is contrary to sound doctrine, he simply gives us this long black catalogue of soul-destroying vices. In your Holy Bible there is but one doctrine focalized from alpha to omega, and that doctrine is holiness. Nothing but sin antagonizes holiness. What a jubilee the devils in the pandemonium enjoyed at the expense of those four pastors I heard in my childhood, wearing themselves out and distracting the people over their doctrinal controversies, which had no more to do with salvation than the old dead issues between the Pharisees and Sadducees. There is but one issue in the Bible; that is personal salvation, which is antagonized by nothing but sin.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 5
The end of the commandment; the whole design and object of it.–Charity out of, &c.; kindness and good-will to man springing from, &c.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
1Ti 1:5. Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and [of] a good conscience, and [of] faith unfeigned:
Now I don’t know all that this verse is saying, but it certainly sounds important and probably kind of hard! As some would say – that is deeeeeeep stuff!
The NASB mentions “But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”
What commandment is in view? I would think in relation to the context that it is probably the instructions concerning false teachers.
Some suggest that the commandment is the command to love – they set forth Gal 5:14 “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, [even] in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” Rom 13:8-10 also supports this thought.
Others suggest that this is speaking of the Law of the Old Testament. However, verse seven seems to say that the Old testament law is what some of the false teachers are teaching.
I think that the thought of it being the instructions or love fit best, and I would opt for the specific context – instructions to deal with the false teachers.
Question: Do Christians practice verse five? Do we show love to one another as we are in the business of edification?
The idea of love has some very perverted results in some quarters of Christianity. I was in a session a number of years ago and the speaker was telling of an old man in Denver, CO that called himself Isaiah and dressed in a white robe. The man wondered the streets preaching a bit of everything. The speaker mentioned that one Sunday he was driving the Sunday school bus and he was tempted to run over Isaiah. He figured that when the police found “FORD stamped in Isaiah’s chest they would know what had happened. I trust that you do not find this attitude to be that of Christian love. Isaiah needed the Lord and quite possibly some mental treatment, not the disgust of God’s people.
Love should come from the three sources mentioned:
Love out of a PURE HEART
Question: What does this mean? Mat 5:8 mentions, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” This may relate to the motivation of the heart. We should act toward others with true spiritual, Christ like motivations. This is going to require spirit controlled people not self-controlled people. A holy heart – no unconfessed sin.
Two verses will give some further understanding to the term pure heart.
Psa 24:3-5 “Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? 4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart ; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. 5 He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.”
1Pe 1:22 “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, [see that ye] love one another with a pure heart fervently:”
All of these verses show a pure heart to be one that is regenerated by the Holy Spirit.
Only as we have a pure heart, can we ever love another properly. Without the pure heart we will love through clouded eyes – eyes clouded by material concerns, by personality concerns etc.
Barnes probably sums it up when he says “The commandment was not designed to secure merely the outward expressions of love, but that which had its seat in the heart.”
Scofield has a side reference to Eph 6:24 where Paul ends his book to the Ephesians with this comment and blessing. “Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen.”
Love out of a GOOD CONSCIENCE
This is going to take a person whose life is without sin. There is no way that a person with sin in their life can really have a good conscience.
This phrase goes to the motivations, as well as the truth of character of the individual. Things are to be done with a clear conscience – free of guilty feelings – nothing but the total truth in motivation and character.
I don’t want to get high brow on you but I ran across a quote that fits quite well here. Now, mind you I ran across it in my illustration database, not in the original writers book – I don’t want you to be mistaken on that!
“As two assassins stealthily crept into the sleeping Duke of Clarnence’s bedchamber one is suddenly stricken with pangs of conscience. “A man cannot steal, but it accuseth him; he cannot swear but it checks him; he cannot lie with his neighbor’s wife, but that it detects him. It is a blushing shamefast spirit that mutinies in a man’s bosom; it fills one full of obstacles; it made me once restore a purse of gold that I found; it beggared any man that keeps it; it is turned out of all towns and cities for a dangerous thing; and every man that means to live well endeavors to trust to himself and to live without it. . . . it is even now at my elbow, persuading me not to kill the duke.” William Shakespeare, King Richard III act 1, scene 4.
A good conscience will bring you to do right!
The book of Acts mentions Paul’s labor in this area as follows when he was appearing before Felix. “And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and [toward] men” Act 24:16
Love out of a FAITH UNFEIGNED or as the NASB puts it a sincere faith.
Sincere faith can come only from salvation. Any faith that we might have without salvation is going to be polluted with the sin nature!
It probably indicates also that the person is committed to Christ in their life in all areas of life as well.
A Sunday School teacher saw one of her little boys drawing furiously with a set of crayons. “What are you doing, Johnny?” she asked.
“I’m drawing a picture of God,” said Johnny.
“But Johnny,” said the teacher, “nobody knows what God looks like.”
Replied Johnny: “Well, they will by the time I’m through with THIS!”
That is sincere faith – faith that they know what is going to be!
Now, the import of the phrase relates to how we are to love. Imagine if you will, trying to love someone, without a sinless heart, a clear conscience and true faith in God. Any of the three lacking would make it very difficult to love, and impossible to love adequately.
When we confront the false teachers, we must be on this kind of footing! When we confront the lost, we also must be on this kind of footing! Anything less and we will most likely falter.
These should be our personal goals as well as our CHURCH GOALS! These are things that come naturally from the love of Christ that should flow through us.
“A rich Dutch merchant was seeking to buy a diamond of a certain kind to add to his collection. A famous dealer in New York found such a stone and called him to come and see it.
“The merchant flew immediately to New York, where the seller had assigned his best diamond expert to close the transaction. After hearing the assistant describe in perfect technical detail the diamond’s worth and beauty, the Dutchman decided not to buy it. Before he left, however, the owner of the store stepped forward and asked, “Do you mind if I show you that stone once more?” The customer agreed.
“The store owner didn’t repeat one thing that the salesman had said. He simply took the stone in his hand, stared at it, and described the beauty of the stone in a way that revealed why this stone stood out from all the others he had seen in his life. The customer bought it immediately.
“Tucking his new purchase into his breast pocket, the customer commented to the owner, “Sir, I wonder why you were able to sell me this stone when your salesman could not?”
“The owner replied, “That salesman is the best in the business. He knows more about diamonds than anyone, including myself, and I pay him a large salary for his knowledge and expertise. But I would gladly pay him twice as much if I could put into him something I have which he lacks. You see, he knows diamonds, but I love them.”
“God is not interested in how much we know but in how much we love. When we truly love Jesus, we love others as well, and that is how the good news of the Gospel is spread.” Hot Illustrations for Youth Talks by Wayne Rice.
We can know all about God, but not love Him – As we love Him we will love each other and be better equipped to do His work in and out of the church.
With this kind of love we can confront those that are in error. With this kind of love we have the best opportunity to bring them back into truth or release them from our midst. With this kind of love we can reach the lost.
In case you missed it in 1999 in October the six billionth baby was born. The report also mentioned that there are one billion young people of child bearing years. Thus, we will have another billion or two within years.
Point? Missionaries are on the drastic decrease while population is on the increase. I personally believe that the decrease in missionaries is directly tied to the lack of good solid teaching of doctrine in our churches over the past years. We have been losing the vision of a lost world out there. We have no vision, because we really don’t have God’s view of the lost!
Maybe in coming days as we start requiring of our preachers sound doctrine and love coming forth from the believers we well see the missionary effort revived.
Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson
1:5 {4} Now the end of the {c} commandment is {d} charity out of a pure heart, and [of] a good conscience, and [of] faith unfeigned:
(4) The second admonition is, that the right use and practice of the doctrine must be joined with the doctrine. And that consists in pure charity, and a good conscience, and true faith.
(c) Of the Law.
(d) There is neither love without a good conscience, nor a good conscience without faith, nor faith without the word of God.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The ultimate aim of a Bible teacher should not be to generate debate and controversy. It should be to cultivate the lives of his or her students so they manifest love in their daily living. This love should spring from a pure heart, a conscience void of shame, and a genuine trust in God. Faith and love often appear linked in the Pastoral Epistles (cf. 1Ti 1:14; 1Ti 2:15; 1Ti 4:12; 1Ti 6:11; 2Ti 1:13; 2Ti 2:22; 2Ti 3:10; Tit 2:2).
"For Paul and the ancient Mediterranean culture in general, conscience was the internal judgment of one’s actions by that one’s group-’pain one feels because others consider one’s actions inappropriate and dishonorable’ (Malina 1981:70). Honor and shame, rather than guilt, were the operative feelings. Therefore, Paul’s readers would perceive the conscience as sending internal signals evaluating the rightness or wrongness of behavior (past, present or future) as a member of a group. We, on the other hand, view the conscience as concerned with right and wrong on an individual basis, not necessarily taking into account what others think and expect about us." [Note: Towner, 1-2 Timothy . . ., p. 47. See Bruce J. Malina, The New Testament World: Insights from Cultural Anthropology, p. 70. See also Towner, The Letters . . ., pp. 117-19, for an excursus on conscience in the letters to Timothy and Titus.]
"It has been rightly said, that the idea of conscience, as we understand it, was unknown to heathenism. Absolute right did not exist. Might was right." [Note: Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, 1:259.]
We need to approach confrontation carefully (cf. Gal 6:1). Is our motivation to help or to hurt the other person? Is our attitude loving, and does this come through in our non-verbal as well as verbal communication? Loving confrontation expresses care and respect for the other person. It communicates that we want the other person to respect us and understand how we feel. The timing, location, and setting are all very important in confrontation. We need to be sensitive to other pressures that may be on the other person. We should also give help with an openness to accept confrontation from the other person as well.