LOVE FROM A PURE HEART; GOOD CONSCIENCE, SINCERE FAITH

1 Timothy 1:5-6 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.

Three things that are very important for every believer are listed in this passage of scripture. We are to love from a pure heart, have a good conscience, and sincere or real faith. The Bible is very clear that from our heart flows the issues of life. Jesus spent time teaching on the condition of the heart in what we call the Parable of the Sower. Your heart is the center of you and what comes out of your mouth tells everyone what is really in your heart, so we must guard our heart with all diligence. We must keep the weeds and the stones out, and we must keep the soil ready for the planting of the Word of God. We must also work at keeping our conscience clear. The Apostle Paul wrote quite a bit about our conscience. He said he worked at keeping his conscience clear before God and man. Your conscience is a big and important part of you. The Word tells us if we have a clear conscience, we will have confidence before God. If our conscience is not clear, we will feel condemned all the time. The Bible also warns us not to sear our conscience. What is that? It is from the word cauterize; it is where you cut the blood flow off. You don’t ever want to cut the blood flow off from the Lord. When we sin, we are to confess our sins and repent (still a good New Testament practice). The last thing this verse says about our walk with the Lord is to have unfeigned faith or real faith. Paul told Timothy that this real faith was in his grandmother, his mother, and in him also. If something is real, it can also be fake. For something to be an imitation, it must mostly resemble the original. I bought a fake Rolex in Thailand one time. I really liked it, and it looked good on my wrist. I took it into a watch place and asked them to put a new battery in it, and the man threw it back at me and said he wasn’t going to touch it. It was an imitation and, obviously, offensive to this watch guy. I think we should do that with fake or unreal faith, just throw it out.

What is interesting about this portion of scripture is that the second verse reminds me of where so many are today. They are in some vain jangling. What is a vain jangling? It is a fruitless conversation. It is discussions that have no real purpose to them. In 1 Timothy 1:4, we see another warning given to the Body of Christ, to stay away from fables, myths, speculations, and endless questionings. Questioning what? The doctrine in the Word of God. In Verse 3, we are warned to teach no other doctrine. We must be careful that we are not being slowly pulled away from the written Word of God and leaning on let’s call it “Biblical Entertainment.” If what you are hearing on a pod cast, or any social media platform, causes you to ask more questions and leaves you confused and at odds with the written Word of God, then you must know the devil himself is behind that. From the very first temptation the devil gave Eve, it came in a question, “Did God say?” I know Jesus asked a lot of questions, but His questions positioned people to receive truth. The devil’s questions are meant for you to doubt God, to question who He is and what He does. Let’s make up our mind that we will not listen to vain jangling!