Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned. 1 Timothy 1:5
Try to imagine yourself as an Israelite standing on the shores of the Red Sea, watching the bodies of the Egyptian enemies washing up on the sand. Your heart would be filled with thanksgiving for the deliverance from those enemies. And yet, your heart would also be filled with dread, to consider the awful consequences of being on the wrong side of God. Later, as you would stand beside the quaking and thundering Mount Sinai, you would feel those same emotions as you pledged allegiance to that same God, and obedience to His commandments. As you considered those commandments, you would see how they would produce fear and reverence, along with the thanksgiving for what you had been delivered from. Now, consider how different is the product of the commandment that we as Christians have been given, as we stand by faith around a different Mount Golgotha. The fear is gone, because we appreciate that the occupant of Golgotha’s middle tree endured the quaking and thundering of God’s wrath against sin, and there remains for us reverence and thanksgiving. And the product of that is love: a love to the One Who first loved us, a love to those of like precious faith, and a love to the lost souls who need to hear the Gospel.
As we consider the Love of God that is shed abroad in our hearts (Romans 5:5), we note how our text declares the three things that this love produces in us: a pure heart, a good conscience, and faith unfeigned. We can look at these three things in two ways. Firstly, in our standing before God, these three things are true of us. Our hearts have been made pure in the righteousness of His Son. Our consciences have been cleared of the guilt of sin forever, and our faith has been firmly established as the bond between ourselves and our Lord. Secondly, in our state before God, these three things are true of what God desires our lives should be before Him and before the world. We should keep our hearts pure from the world as we feed on the Word of God. We should keep our consciences clear as we seek to obey the Word and to confess our sins. And we should keep our faith sincere as we trust in the Lord and not in ourselves.
A pure heart is not something that comes easily to us. Dwelling in sinful flesh, residing in a sinful world, and targeted by an evil foe, we must put an effort into purity. It is only by learning of God’s purity that we can become pure ourselves. A good conscience is also not natural to us, given our history of disobedience and rebellion. And yet, prayer remains an avenue to us at every moment, enabling us to keep short accounts with God and a sweet relationship with Him. Our faith is not naturally sincere because we are by nature selfish creatures, looking out for our own interests before those of others. And yet, our Lord longs that we would be true to Him in our devotion, and that we would be willing to let the love of Christ shine forth toward those around us.
What does God’s commandment mean to us today? How are we different because of it? -Jim MacIntosh