1 Timothy 1:5

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.

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Ti 1:5-7. Now the end — The scope, design, or substance; of the commandment — Or charge, rather, as παραγγελια 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 αστοχησαντες, thus rendered, signifies to err from the mark at which a person shoots or aims; and is elegantly used in this place, as τελος, 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, νομοδιδασκαλοι, 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 περι τινων διαβεβαιουνται properly signify.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 teaching—a 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. Paul’s 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 charity”—love (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 gospel—the 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 aimed—to 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 apostle’s 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 God’s 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 men’s 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 heart—consult your conscience—examine 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.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

1:5 The purpose of my instruction: Paul seeks godliness that flows out of sound faith and renewal (see Titus 3:5; see also 1 Cor 13:1-13; Col 3:14). • In 1 Timothy and Titus, all allusions to a clear conscience are in contrast to the false teachers’ dead consciences (e.g., 1 Tim 1:19; 4:2; Titus 1:15).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Now

This word is used here to mark a break in the main teaching. Here Paul explains the purpose of what he is commanding Timothy.

the commandment

Here this does not mean the Old Testament or the Ten Commandments but rather the instructions that Paul gives in 1 Timothy 1:3-4.

is love

Possible meanings are 1) "is to love God" or 2) "is to love people."

from a pure heart

Here "pure" means the person does not have hidden motives to do wrong. Here "heart" refers to a person's mind and thoughts. AT: "from a mind that is honest" (See: Metonymy)

good conscience

"a conscience that chooses right instead wrong"

sincere faith

"genuine faith" or "a faith without hypocrisy"

Some people have missed the mark

Paul speaks of faith in Christ as if it were a target at which to aim. Paul means that some people are not fulfilling the purpose of their faith, which is to love as he just explained in 1Ti 1:5. (See: Metaphor)

have turned away from these things

Here "turned away" is an idiom that means they have stopped doing what God has commanded. (See: Idiom)

teachers of the law

Here "law" refers to the law of Moses.

but they do not understand

"even though they do not understand" or "and yet they do not understand"

what they so confidently affirm

"what they so confidently state is true"

we know that the law is good

"we understand that the law is useful" or "we understand that the law is beneficial"

if one uses it lawfully

"if a person uses it correctly" or "if a person uses it the way God intended"

translationWords

command

love

pure

heart

good

conscience

faith

turn

teacher

law

lawful

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

1Ti 1:5. Τὸ τέλος, 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.—τῆς παραγγελίας, of the commandment) which you ought to urge upon men at Ephesus, 1Ti 1:3; 1Ti 1:18.—ἀγάπη, love) The foundation is faith, 1Ti 1:4: the end is love, 1Ti 1:14; Tit 3:15. Contentions are unfavourable to this love.—καθαρᾶς, pure) 2Ti 2:22; Tit 1:15.—συνειδήσεως ἀγαθῆς, 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]—πίστεως, 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 one’s 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 συνείδησις, conscience. John uses καρδία instead.—ED.

[4] Joh. Jam. Sirbius says, “there are three foundations of all that is found in man, Idea, Desire, Motion.”

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Ti_1:5. Τὸ δὲ τέλος τῆς παραγγελίας ἐστὶν κ.τ.λ.] It cannot be denied that in παραγγελίας we have an echo of παραγγείλῃς 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 ἑτεροδιδασκαλία just mentioned, and denotes the command which is serviceable to the οἰκονομία Θεοῦ (1Ti_1:4). It is equivalent to the ἐντολή 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 παραγγελία 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 ἐστιν. 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 τὸ εὐαγγέλιον, ἡ ὅδος (often in Acts), τὸ κήρυγμα, and others.

τέλος] 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 παραγγελία (Koppe, Wegscheider, de Wette, Wiesinger, and others[50]).

While the ἑτεροδιδασκαλία only causes ζητήσεις, which serve to engender divisions (γεννῶσι μάχας, 2Ti_2:23), the aim of the command of the gospel is love.

ἀγάπη ἐκ καθαρᾶς καρδίας κ.τ.λ.] The gospel proclaims to the believer one divine act, the reconciliation through Christ grounded in Gods love, and it demands also one human act, viz. love, for πλήρωμα νόμου ἡ ἀγάπη (Rom_13:10). Leo and Matthies wrongly explain ἀγάπη here of love to God and to ones neighbour. Here and elsewhere in the N. T., where no other genitive of the object is added, we should understand by it love to ones neighbour. The words following declare of what nature this love should be.

ἐκ καθαρᾶς καρδίας] καρδία 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 καρδία (comp. Mat_12:37), and from a heart that is pure, i.e. free from all self-seeking; 1Pe_1:22 : ἐκ καθαρᾶς καρδίας ἀλλήλους ἀλαπήσατε ἐκτενῶς; comp. 1Co_13:5 : ἡ ἀγάπη … οὐ ζητεῖ τὰ ἑαυτῆς.

The two additions that follow: καὶ συνειδήσεως ἀγαθῆς καὶ πίστεως ἀνυποκρίτου (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.

συνείδησις ἀγαθή (1Ti_1:19; 1Pe_3:16; καλή, Heb_13:18; καθαρά, 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 ones 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]

πίστις] is not confidence towards ones 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.

ἀνυπόκριτος (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: τέλος ἐστὶ τὸ ἕπεσθαι θεοῖς.

[51] Otto on 2Ti_1:3 (pp. 302 f.) explains the expression καθαρὰ συνείδησις 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 ἀγαθὴ συνείδ. as the conscience innocent and expectant of all salvation, the consciousness of divine grace supporting itself by daily putting to death the old nature.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5. τὸ δὲ τέλος. But (sc. in contrast with the irrelevant teaching of the ἑτεροδιδάσκαλοι) the aim, or final cause: cp. Rom 10:4.

τῆς παραγγελίας. Of the charge. The reference is not to the Mosaic law, but to the whole of the practical teaching bound up with the Gospel; the word is suggested by παραγγείλῃς of 1Ti 1:3 (where see note). This is the charge with which Timothy was entrusted (1Ti 1:18).

ἐστὶν ἀγάπη. Is love, sc. to men, not to God, which is not here in question. On the other hand, the fanciful ζητήσεις of the false teachers bred strife (2Ti 2:23). As “love is the fulfilling of the Law” (Rom 13:10), so it is the aim and purpose of the Gospel ethics, as the greatest Christian grace (1Co 13:13). The word ἀγάπη has been described as “foreign to profane Greek” and as an ecclesiastical word, first appearing in literature in the LXX. But we find it in Egyptian Greek, in a letter, e.g., of the second century B.C.; and it is probable that the LXX. only took over and consecrated to high uses a word already current in the popular speech of Greek Egypt[514].

[514] See Deissmann, Bibelstudien, p. 81.

ἐκ καθαρᾶς καρδίας κ.τ.λ. The source of this ἀγάπη is threefold:—(i.) a pure heart, for which the Psalmist prayed (Psa 51:6); cp. Mat 5:8. καρδία stands in Scripture for the moral affections and emotions, the pathological, as contrasted with the intellectual, element of the moral faculty. Where this is corrupted (as was the case with the false teachers at Ephesus, 1Ti 6:5), the springs of moral action and spiritual insight (Mat 5:8) are poisoned, cp. 2Ti 2:22;—(ii.) a good conscience. The συνείδησις represents the self sitting in judgement on self; it stands for the self-conscious and rational element in the man. Emphasis is specially laid on a good conscience in the Pastorals, e.g. 1Ti 1:19, 1Ti 3:9, 2Ti 1:3; in sharp contrast with one who has a good conscience, the false teachers are κεκαυστηριασμένοι τὴν ἰδίαν συνείδησιν (1Ti 4:2); cp. 1Pe 3:16; Heb 13:18[515];—(iii.) faith unfeigned. This brings in a reference to God, as the source and spring of love. Love is indeed for man the outward and appropriate manifestation of faith; cp. πίστις διʼ ἀγάπης ἐνεργουμένη (Gal 5:6). The juxtaposition of a good conscience and faith is significant; all through the Pastorals the intimate connexion of the two, the close relation between creed and life, is a prominent thought (see on Tit 1:15). Again, we find this test of faith unfeigned lacking in the false teachers; they are ἀδόκιμοι περὶ τὴν πίστιν (2Ti 3:8). The word ἀνυπόκριτος is applied to faith here and at 2Ti 1:5; it is applied to love, Rom 12:9; 2Co 6:6.

[515] The necessity of a ‘pure conscience,’ if prayer is to be acceptable and effective, is frequently alluded to in the early liturgies, and also by Clement of Rome. See, for references, Lightfoot Clement I. 389 n. Cp. also the strong expression [2 Clem.] § 16 προσευχὴ δὲ καλῆς συνειδήσεως ἐκ θανάτου ῥύεται.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5. τὸ δὲ τέλος] τούτεστι τὸ συνπλήρωμα, cf. Rom 10:4, Chrys.; but here the metaphor is of “the way” (cf. ἀστοχησάντες . . . ἐξετράπησαν εἰς). “The goal,” “the true end to be reached”; cf. Ign. Eph. 14, ἀρχὴ μὲν πίστις, τέλος δὲ ἀγάπη.

τῆς παραγγελίας] i.e., primarily, the charge which Timothy has to give (παραγγείλῃς, 3; παραγγελίαν, 18): but the last words, οἰκοδ. θεοῦ τῆν ἐν πίστει, have carried the mind on to the whole scheme of salvation, and perhaps extend the meaning more widely—the end of all Christian moral preaching, the whole moral charge which is given to God’s stewards; cf. ἡ διδασκαλία, 6:1: ἡ ἐντολή, 6:14: τὸ κήρυγμα, 1Co 1:21.

ἀγάπη] Cf. Gal 5:6 πίστις διʼ ἀγάπης ἐνεργουμένη, inf. 1:14, 2:15, 4:12, 6:11.

ἐκ καθαρᾶς κ.] Cf. 2Ti 2:22, 2Ti 2:1 P 1:22 (Si v.l.), Mat 5:8. It is an O.T. conception, Gen 20:5, Gen 20:6, Job 11:13, Job 33:3, Psa 23:4, Psa 50:12.

συνειδήσεως ἀγ.] 1:19, 1 P 3:16, 21; καλή, Heb 13:18; contrast συνειδ. πονηπά, Heb 10:22. For the history of the word, which is of Greek philosophic origin, cf. S.-H. on Rom 2:15; Bonhoffer, Epiktet und das NT, p. 156.

ἀνυποκρίτου] 2Ti 1:5 “a word chiefly Christian” (but used in Wisd 5:19, 18:6), “as might be expected from Our Lord’s warnings against ὑπόκρισις and ὑποκριταί, partly from the high standard of veracity set up by the Apostles; cf. Jas 3:17 (σοφία), Rom 12:9, 2Co 6:6 (ἀγάπη), 1 P 1:22 (φιλαδελφία)”; Hort ad Ja. l.c. The words are in an ascending scale, simplicity of aim, which is always ready to listen to truth (cf. Luk 8:15 ἐν καρδίᾳ καλῇ καὶ ἀγυθῇ), a constant desire to do right, and a faith which accepts Christ as its guide with sincerity and consistency (cf. Gal 2:13), resulting in love for God and man.

All these qualities can be re-created in the penitent sinner; cf. Psa 50:12, Heb 10:22, Heb 3:12.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The second admonition is, that the right use and practice of the doctrine must be joined with the doctrine. And that consisteth in pure charity, and a good conscience, and true faith.

Of the Law.

There is neither love without a good conscience, nor a good conscience without faith, nor faith without the word of God.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

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 13:10.

1. The end of the commandment is charity, or love, Rom 13:8. 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 (Mat 5:44) 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, Co1 13:1. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you love one another, Joh 13:35. 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, Act 24:16. (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 (Ti1 1:8): 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 3:21): 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, Ti1 1:9, Ti1 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 (Ti1 1:11), 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, Co1 4:1. (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!

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

But--in contrast to the doctrine of the false teachers.

the end--the aim.

the commandment--Greek, "of the charge" which you ought to urge on your flock. Referring to the same Greek word as in Ti1 1:3, Ti1 1:18; here, however, in a larger sense, as including the Gospel "dispensation of God" (see on Ti1 1:4; Ti1 1:11), which was the sum and substance of the "charge" committed to Timothy wherewith he should "charge" his flock.

charity--LOVE; the sum and end of the law and of the Gospel alike, and that wherein the Gospel is the fulfilment of the spirit of the law in its every essential jot and tittle (Rom 13:10). The foundation is faith (Ti1 1:4), the "end" is love (Ti1 1:14; Tit 3:15).

out of--springing as from a fountain.

pure heart--a heart purified by faith (Act 15:9; Ti2 2:22; Tit 1:15).

good conscience--a conscience cleared from guilt by the effect of sound faith in Christ (Ti1 1:19; Ti1 3:9; Ti2 1:3; Pe1 3:21). Contrast Ti1 4:2; Tit 1:15; compare Act 23:1. John uses "heart," where Paul would use "conscience." In Paul the understanding is the seat of conscience; the heart is the seat of love [BENGEL]. A good conscience is joined with sound faith; a bad conscience with unsoundness in the faith (compare Heb 9:14).

faith unfeigned--not a hypocritical, dead, and unfruitful faith, but faith working by love (Gal 5:6). The false teachers drew men off from such a loving, working, real faith, to profitless, speculative "questions" (Ti1 1:4) and jangling (Ti1 1:6).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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 παραγγελια 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, ινα παραγγειλνς, that thou mightest charge some: here he tells him what the scope of this charge was to be."

Of faith unfeigned] πιστεως ανυποκριτου. 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.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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, 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.

“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.” (Acts 15:9.) As to a good conscience, Peter declares that it is founded on the resurrection of Christ. (1 Peter 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; 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.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(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 “charity”—the end and aim of the practical teaching of the gospel preached by the Apostles—must 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.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 agapè 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.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 Ti1 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, Ti1 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, Rom 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 Mat 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.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The end of the commandment. By the precept many understand, as it were by way of a parenthesis, all that is here contained from the 3rd to the 18th verse, were precept is again repeated. We may understand by the commandment, the law of Moses in general, comprehending both the ceremonial part and the moral precepts, which are also the law of nature. The ceremonial part was designed to bring us to Christ by types and figures; and the moral precepts, which were also of the law of nature, or natural reason, were to bring men to observe them by punishments, and so were delivered against wicked criminals, ungodly, who worshipped[5] not God; against the unjust,[6] (in the Greek, lawless men) Sodomites, &c. (Witham)

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Impiis, Greek: asebesi, indevotis, non colentibus Deum.

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Injustis, Greek: anomois, sine lege.

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George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Now the end of the commandment is charity: the word translated commandment here is παραγγελια, 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 men’s 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 soul’s 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 people’s attendance to such discourses, for they can only fill people’s 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, ων); from which commandment, and from the end of which commandment, from which pure heart, good conscience, and faith unfeigned.

Some having swerved: αστοχησαντες, 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.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But for now, A.V; charge for commandment, A.V; love for charity, A.V; a good for of a good, and faith for of faith, A.V But the end of the charge. Before proceeding with his sentence, in which he was about solemnly to commit the trust of the episcopate of the Church of Ephesus to Timothy, he breaks off abruptly to show the beneficent character of the charge, viz. the furtherance of that brotherly love and purity of heart and life which are the true fruit of the gospel dispensation, but which some, by their false doctrine, were so ruthlessly impeding. Each of these phrases, "a pure heart" and "a good conscience" and "faith unfeigned," seems to rebuke by contrast the merely ceremonial cleanness and the defiled conscience and the merely nominal Christianity of these heretical Judaizers. (comp. Tit_1:10-16)

Vers. 5-7.

Nature of the charge connected with the fulfillment of God"s dispensation.

In resisting these false teachers, Timothy must remember the true scope and design of the practical teaching which sets forth the scheme of Divine salvation for man.

I THE END OF THIS TEACHING IS LOVE.

1. The teaching, as opposed to fables and genealogies," is of the nature of a solemn charge or practical exhortation. It is not

1. the Mosaic Law, nor

2. the evangelical law, but

3. sound doctrine in its preceptive, and therefore practical form.

4. The end or aim of it is love. "The end of the charge is love." It is love to men, not to God; for the charge stands in contrast with "the questionings which minister strifes". (2Ti_2:23) Practical religious teaching has a tendency to unite men in love.

(1) It is hard to maintain brotherly love in presence of active differences of doctrine.

(2) It is impossible to edify without love; for "love edifieth", (1Co_8:1) as speculations and contentions cannot.

II THE NATURE OF THE LOVE WHICH IS RELATED TO THIS GOSPEL CHARGE. It is "love out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned." This is the threefold foundation on which it rests.

1. It springs out of a pure heart as its inward seat.

(1) Such a heart is purified by faith. (Act_15:9)

(2) Sprinkled from an evil conscience by the blood of Christ.

(3) Directed into the love of God. (2Th_3:5)

(4) Inclined to God"s testimonies. (Psa_119:36)

(5) Therefore it is a heart pure from selfish desires, ignoble aims, and sinister policy.

The love springing from such a heart must be "without dissimulation;" for it is loving with a pure heart fervently.

2. It springs from a good conscience.

(1) Such a conscience is made good by the sprinkling of the blood of Christ, which reconciles us to God. Thus we have the answer of a good conscience before God.

(2) It is purged from dead works to serve the living God.

(3) Therefore a man is enabled to keep a conscience void of offence toward God and man; to be true to his convictions of truth and duty, and to respond faithfully to every moral obligation. Love springing from such a source will have its actings wisely determined.

3. It springs from faith unfeigned.

(1) This is its true origin; for "faith worketh by love," and must therefore be in existence before love.

(2) It gives reality and power to love, because it is itself not the pretence of faith, but faith in real existence and power. There was thus a marked contrast with the life of the false teachers corrupted in mind, (1Ti_6:5) seared in conscience, (1Ti_4:2) and "reprobate concerning the faith". (2Ti_3:8)

4. Mark the order of grace here followed. In the order of nature, faith must be placed first. The apostle follows the order of practical working. Furthest down in man"s inner nature is the deep well of a purified heart; then the love, as it comes forth into exercise, must be arrested on its way by a good conscience, to receive restraint and regulation; then, to sustain the vigor of love in its continuous exercise, there must be faith unfeigned, grasping the promises of God, and in intimate relation to things not seen.

III THE EVIL EFFECTS OF SWERVING FROM THIS THREEFOLD FOUNDATION OF LOVE. "From which things some having swerved have turned aside to vain talking.

1. The persons referred to had evidently belonged, if they did not still belong to, the Church at Ephesus. Timothy could not otherwise have exercised authority over them.

2. The swerve was moral in its nature, but it would have intellectual effects of an injurious character. How often does the heart determine the bias of the mind!

3. Its actual result was a persistent habit of vain talking. It was empty babbling, without sense or profit about mere trifles, to the neglect of weightier matters of doctrine.

IV THE PRESUMPTUOUS IGNORANCE OF THIS PARTY, "Desiring to be teachers of the Law, not understanding either what they say, or concerning what things they confidently affirm.

1. It is no new fact in life to find the least qualified the most ready to undertake the task of instruction. They were ignorant and unlearned men, who were only able to wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction.

2. Their ignorance was of the most unquestionable character; for they neither understood their own averments or arguments, as to their nature and drift, nor did they comprehend the things concerning which they were so ready to give their foolish but deliberate judgment.

(1) It is evident they did not reject and disparage the Mosaic Law, but rather exalted it by their interpretations.

(2) They were not mere Judaists such as the apostle contended with in Galatia and elsewhere; for they are not charged with any attempt, either to maintain the ancient customs or to bring in legal observances out of their proper place.

(3) They rather, as misunderstanding the true nature and design of the Law, tried to work up a compost of Judaic and Gnostic elements, which explained the Law according to the philosophic views of the East. Therefore their theology was marred by fanciful allegorizings of the Law, which eliminated its moral element, and thus robbed it of all power to touch the heart or conscience of men.

(4) The case in hand illustrates the progress of error in the Church. The incipient Gnosticism of Ephesus gradually developed into the more pronounced Gnosticism so pointedly condemned by the Apostle John in his First Epistle. T.C.

The vital end of religion.

the end of the commandment is charity." When we know the Divine end or purpose, we get light on all that leads to that end. Charity, or love that is like God"s own love, is the end of all. Religious principle in its root and stem is to blossom into the beauty of Christ-like character. Christianity is a truth, that it may be a life. It is not to be mere doctrine, or mere ritual. We may be fiery disputants without being faithful soldiers. We may even be workers in the vineyard, without the faith which worketh by love. Ecclesiasticism is not necessarily religion. There may be Church uniformity, Church harmony, and aesthetic ceremonial, and yet, so far as Divine life is concerned, there may be "no breath at all in the midst of it." Let us confine ourselves to the first word.

I CHARITY IS HIGHER THAN UNIFORMITY. With Constantine Christianity meant uniformity, with Hildebrand it meant supremacy. But in its spirituality and simplicity the gospel remains the same in all ages. We are to live Christ; and to live Christ is to live in love, as Christ also loved us, and gave himself for us. Ecclesiasticism is often a system of severe outward drill, an obedience to outward rite and cult. So the Romish Church in Spain, centuries ago, forcibly converted the Moors by dashing holy water in their faces, and so admitted them into the communion of the Church. The gospel cannot be spread by a rough-and-ready "multitudinism" like that. It must begin in personal faith, and work in the spirit of love.

II CHARITY FINDS ITS IMAGE IN GOD. We need not ask what this love is. For we have seen it incarnated in the words and deeds of the Christ, and in his sufferings for "our sakes" upon the cross.

1. It is not the selfish love which gives affection where it receives affection, and turns even a gift into barter and exchange.

2. It is not the costless love which will be an almoner of bounty where there is no personal self-denial and suffering; but it gives itself.

3. It is not the love of a passing mood, which ministers in affectionate ways in times of high-wrought emotion; but a love which is full of forbearance with our faults, and is triumphant over our faithlessness. So the end of the commandment is worthy of the God who gives the commandment. Like himself, it is charity. And we have reached the highest vision-point in Revelation, when we see in its sublime teachings, not were commandments which may be arbitrary, but an unfolding of the nature of God. W.M.S.

Life"s inner springs.

of a pure heart." This is the soil in which the heavenly grace grows, and this soil is essential to the purity and beauty of the grace. It is not enough to plant the seed; we must till and nourish the soil.

I THE HEART IS THE TESTING-PLACE OF WHAT WE LIKE. Here I would give emphasis to the fact that "the good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things." There must be passion in all true life. As Mr. Ruskin truly says, "The entire object of true education is to make people not merely do the right things, but enjoy the right things; not merely industrious, but to love industry; not merely learned, but to love learning; not merely pure, but to love purity; not merely just, but to hunger and thirst after righteousness. Taste is not only a part and index of morality; it is the only morality. The first and last and closest trial-question to any living creature is What do you like? Tell me what you like, and I"ll tell you what you are." Exactly! So says the gospel. "Out of the heart are the issues of life;" "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." This is a true teaching, and may open up a new view of moral and spiritual life to the thoughtful mind.

II THE HEART IS THE REVEALING PART OF THE TRUE MAN. You must watch life in its temper and spirit at all times and in all places. You may be deceived by good actions. Men may build almshouses and yet live so as to break hearts; they may be courageous in confronting tyrannies abroad, and yet live impure lives in the indulgence of besetting sins. Think of this. Good actions do not make a good man; it is the good man that makes the good actions. A man may be beneficent and give thousands to hospitals, or brave and rescue drowning men from death, or patriotic and save a nation in perilous times, and yet he may not have the mind of Christ, and his heart may be unrenewed. "A pure heart." We all love pure things the white marble, the rain-washed sky, the peerless alabaster, the silverwings of the dove. So Christ would have us all desire and seek the pure heart. W.M.S.

The sense of rectitude.

of a good conscience." We here come to the ethical region of rectitude, showing us how complete the gospel is, and how it stands related to the whole of our complex nature. We notice here the connection of "good" with conscience; let us see what it means. May there be another conscience that is not good?

I THERE MAY BE THE CASUIST"S CONSCIENCE. We see this in the ease of the scribes and Pharisees in the time of our Lord. The simple instincts of justice and mercy were perverted by ecclesiastical routine, and the minutiae of legal ordinations. They overlaid the Law, which appealed to the native instincts of conscience, by their traditions, which did not so appeal, and which were burdensome and troublesome. So in Luther"s time the consciences of men were in the keeping of the priests, and an artificial and Jesuitical morality made even immorality sometimes expedient and lawful. Men lost the native instincts of right and wrong in obedience to an artificial and ecclesiastical code of morals; they worried themselves about sins that were no sins, and they lost the consciousness that men may be sinners even when they are obedient sons of the Church.

II THERE MAY BE THE WORLDLY CONSCIENCE. This makes custom into a god. Conscience is ruled and regulated by what is expedient, or what society expects of men. They are pained at the sin which brings shame before men, but are not disconcerted at desires, emotions, and actions which are evil in the sight of God. It is a wonderful interesting study this the relation of society to sin. For there are fashionable vices and respectable sins which are heinous in the sight of God, but the conscience is at ease because the spirit of the age does not condemn them. How important, then, it is to keep conscience enlightened by the Word of God and invigorated by the Holy Ghost! The end of the commandment is in the best sense to make you a law unto yourself. It is important to have the Bible in our heads, but it is most important to have Christ enthroned in the tribunal of conscience within. W.M.S.

The absence of hypocrisy.

faith unfeigned." We all dislike shams. Led by Carlyle, the English nation has lately heard many prophetic voices against them. We insist, in art, in dress, in manners, and in religion, on sincerity. Without this nothing is beautiful, because nothing is real. We hate feigned learning, feigned skill, feigned culture, and feigned superiority. The apostle tells us here that faith must be unfeigned. Now, if the end of the commandment is love, the argument is this, that the faith which is to be worked by such a glorious inspiration of charity must be an honest, earnest, real faith.

I WE MUST BELIEVE IN HUMANITY BEFORE WE CAN LOVE MEN. Believe, that is, that there is an ideal of God in every man; that underneath his depravity and degradation there is a moral nature which may be renewed, and a life which may be transfigured into the glory of Christ. For man"s conscience was made to know the truth, his heart to feel it, and his will to be guided and energized by it. If we think of men cynically or contemptuously, then there will be no earnest efforts to save that which is lost.

II WE MUST BELIEVE IN THE POWER OF CHRIST AND HIS CROSS, OR WE SHALL NOT BE ENTHUSIASTIC IN PREACHING THEM. No doubter can be a good preacher. Men know and feel the power of ardent faith. The arrow will miss the mark if the hand of the archer shakes, or distrusts its weapon. The one great element of success is unfeigned faith a faith which says, "I believed, and therefore have I spoken." There may be a variable faith, like that of the Vicar of Bray"s, which believed anything Romanistic, Rationalistic, or Evangelical for the sake of position. But the mask soon drops, anti men, instead of receiving the truth, despise the raise teacher. "We believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God," is the essential basis of a true ministry. Such a faith will be touched with enthusiasm like unto his who said, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of Christ Jesus our Lord.

III WE MUST BELIEVE IN A VITAL SENSE SO AS TO LIVE OUR BELIEF. An unfeigned faith is one that we practice ourselves; one that fills every channel of our being our ethical life, our philanthropies, our missionary endeavors, our home joys and sanctities. There is a faith which is merely dogmatic which holds fast the Christian doctrines, but fails to translate them into life. The atonement itself, so august and awful, must ever stand alone as a Divine sacrifice; but its moral effect is to be lived. "We thus judge, that if One died for all, then were all dead; and that we who live should not henceforth live unto ourselves, but unto him who died for us and rose again." Faith is not to be a waxwork fruit something artificial and unreal but the living vine, of which Christ is the root. W.M.S.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Whereas the end of the commandment - of the whole Christian institution. Is love - And this was particularly the end of the commandment which Timotheus was to enforce at Ephesus, ver. 3, 18. The foundation is faith; the end, love. But this can only subsist in an heart purified by faith, and is always attended with a good conscience.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Ver. 5. Now the end of the charge is love out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned. The charge (παραγγελίας) here meant cannot be the law strictly so called —as if παραγ. were all one with νόμος or ἐντολή—for the word is never so used; but it indicates the charge lying upon those who have a part to do in connection with God’s dispensation—the obligation they have to fulfil in order to carry out its design. They are emphatically persons under charge (ὕπο παραγγελίας), being put in trust with the scheme of God for the wellbeing of men, and so having love for its grand aim (τέλος)—love in the fullest sense—love to God, the author of the dispensation, and love to mankind as the objects whose present and eternal good it contemplates. The possession and exercise of such love may be taken as the measure of one’s sympathy with the spirit of the dispensation, and preparedness for executing the charge which comes along with the knowledge and belief of its realities, and which rests especially upon those who are called to act as its more select instruments of working.—[The word παραγ. was probably suggested in this connection by the παραγγείλῃς in 1Ti 1:3, and only makes general what was there given with a special application. Timothy was to charge the teachers in the church at Ephesus, who seemed in danger of turning aside from the right path, to beware of giving heed to things which were quite alien to the proper aim and calling of the evangelical office. And proceeding now from the particular to the general, the apostle briefly describes the nature of the charge which lies upon all true evangelists—what, from the very nature of the gospel, is and must be the heart and spirit of their calling. Comp. also 1Ti 1:18, 1Ti 4:11, 1Ti 5:7, 1Ti 6:13, 1Th 4:2.]

But as the apostle has indicated the relation of the gospel charge to love, so, lest the nature of love itself might be mistaken, he shows its connection with the internal state and condition of the regenerated man: it is love out of a pure heart, hence incapable of working to ignoble ends, or the gratification of corrupt desires, but issuing like crystal streams from a pure fountain; also out of a good conscience, properly responsive to the claims of moral obligation, honestly bent on following out its convictions of truth and duty; finally, out of faith unfeigned (ἀνυποκρίτου),—a term frequently used to characterize the graces of the Christian character—love (Rom 12:9; 2Co 6:6), brotherly kindness (1Pe 1:22), spiritual wisdom (Jas 3:17); but when applied to faith, serving to indicate its reality and power as an internal principle, its living apprehension and firm grasp of the things presented to its view; hence widely different from that lazy assent to the doctrines of the gospel, that merely formal profession of adherence to them, which often goes by the name of faith. In specifying so many sources of Christian love, the apostle is not to be understood as giving a theoretical exposition of the matter, or presenting in strict philosophical order the relation of love to the heart, conscience, and faith respectively, or of these to each other. He is contemplating the subject in a practical point of view, and simply unfolding, in the order that seemed natural to him at the time, the several elements which must conspire to the production and exercise of genuine Christian love. In the order of nature, the unfeigned faith must undoubtedly be placed first; for in fallen men, laden with guilt and alienated from the life of God, there is no way of attaining to real purity of heart and a purged conscience but through faith in Christ. When through this faith entering, however, the soul is brought into fellowship with the realities of salvation, the bonds of its captivity are broken; it becomes re-united to the one source of life and blessing, and at once experiences and reciprocates a love which prompts it to a life of beneficence and worth. But considered with respect to practical working, the order adopted by the apostle is quite natural: furthest in, as the deep fountainhead of all the outgoings of Christian love, there is the purified heart; then, to regulate the actings of love, and determine their course and measure, there is the good conscience; and finally, to sustain and animate the soul in the varied works and labours proper to love, there is the faith unfeigned, embracing the glorious promises of God, and ministering strength from the things therein contained to its vital energy. Such, probably, is the order and relation in which these spiritual characteristics presented themselves to the mind of the apostle; and in the concurrent action and due subordination of them to each other will ever be found to consist the stability and progress of the Christian life.

Patrick Fairbairn — An Exposition of Ezekiel (1851), Jonah (1849), and The Pastoral Epistles (1874) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 God’s 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.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5–7. The end of the commandment. The purpose of the charge (Revision) entrusted to you (see verse 3) is love. You must show these teachers that instead of teaching foolish fables they must inculcate love. Out of a pure heart. The three things essential to a pure and holy love are: (1) A pure heart; (2) a good conscience; and (3) sincere faith.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

5.] But (contrast to the practice of these pretended teachers of the law) the end (purpose, aim: Chrys. quotes τέλος ἰατρικῆς ὑγιεία) of the commandment (viz. of the law of God in (ver. 11) the gospel: not, although in the word there may be a slight allusion to it,—of that which Timothy was παραγγέλλειν, ver. 3. This commandment is understood from the οἰκονομία 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 συνείδησις ἀγαθή, 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. 2Ti 1:152Ti_1:152Ti 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 τὴν ἐν πίστει above; it is faith, not the pretence of faith, the mere ‘Scheinglaube’ of the hypocrite, which, as in Act 15:9, καθαρίζει τὰς καρδίας, and as in Gal 5:6, διʼ ἀγάπης ἐνεργεῖαι: 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):

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The end of the commandment [τελος της παραγγελιας] . 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 [αγαπη] . 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 [εκ καθαρας καρδιας] . Comp. Luk 10:27, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God out of they whole heart [εξ ολης καρδιας σου] , and in or with [εν] 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 [συνειδησεως αγαθης] . Comp 2Ti 1:3. Suneidhsiv conscience is common in Paul. See on 1Pe 3:16.

Faith unfeigned [πιστεως ανυποκριτου] . 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.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.