1 Timothy 1:3–7:
“As I urged you when I was leaving for Macedonia, stay on in Ephesus to instruct certain people not to spread false teachings, not to occupy themselves with myths and interminable genealogies. Such things promote useless speculations rather than God’s redemptive plan that operates by faith. But the aim of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, good conscience, and sincere faith. Some have strayed from this and turned away to empty discussion. They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not understand what they are saying or the things they insist on so confidently.”
James wrote that we all stumble in many ways, and “if someone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect individual” (James 3:2). But he also said, “Not many of you should become teachers, because you know that we will be judged more strictly” (James 3:1). That lines up with what Paul is saying here.
My focus, which I have been on for a few days now, exploring this passage, is verse 5: “But the aim of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.”
He is saying, “This is what we are aiming for.” We are focused on love from a pure heart. We are focused on a good conscience. We are focused on a sincere faith.
The opposite of a pure heart is a corrupted heart. The opposite of a good conscience is a hardened conscience. And the opposite of sincere faith is hypocrisy—professing something different from who you really are on the inside.
The focus is to help us to go on in our journey of transformation, so that who we are is really who we are; that our life is truly our life.
Look at what Paul said about our thoughts: “Think about these things” (Philippians 4:8). The gospel is not only about where we will go after we die or where we go on a Sunday morning. The gospel also aims to transform us on the inside, so that we are not just people who profess faith but have sincere faith—meaning there is a root of genuineness within us. That is what he is talking about with “sincere faith.”
Paul is talking about a pattern of life. In Romans 12, he wrote, “Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2). If our transformation has not reached the way we think, we have a challenge. There is a lack of sincerity there. There is something we are expressing in front of people, but something else is going on within us.
God told Samuel, “People look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). That is what God told Samuel. Do you see that? Do you understand what God is saying?
When you look at Jesus Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, a lot of it has to do with what is going on in your heart.
So we cannot push the Sermon on the Mount aside and try to explain away its components, saying, “Jesus did not really mean what He said,” or try to take another passage of Scripture and say, “This passage now overrules that passage.”
For example, Jesus said, “Everyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment,” and He equates anger with murder (Matthew 5:21–22). He also says, in effect, “Do not be angry at all” in that context. Paul wrote, “Be angry and do not sin” (Ephesians 4:26), and some have said, “You are under obligation to be angry.” But that seems far from the overall testimony of Scripture, which says “anger resides in the lap of fools” (Ecclesiastes 7:9), and from Jesus’ clear word about anger.
The right way to understand Paul’s “Be angry and do not sin” is to see it in context: he is talking about expressing opposition to sin and its festering in yourself and in the church community (Ephesians 4:25–27). He is saying: have a visceral reaction to sin, reject it, stand against it. You cannot be neutral toward it. You are either flowing along with it or standing against it.
Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “Do not be partakers with them… but rather expose them” (Ephesians 5:7, 11). There is no middle way, no point of neutrality. There is no “standing in the middle of the road.” It is either you are joining them, or you are opposed to it. He is saying, “Be opposed to it.”
And here, back to this verse, he is saying the aim is “sincere faith.”
God bless you.