You know how sometimes you read Scripture at different times over the course of your life and you get something completely different each time? That happened to me recently on a reread of 1st Timothy. This time around, it was verse 5 of chapter 1 that really stood out to me:
“The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”
This has the same energy as 1st Corinthians 13 where Paul declares that all of our gifts and faith and doctrine falls apart if we don’t have love. He emphasizes that here, too! Throughout the rest of the chapter, and indeed the rest of 1st Timothy, Paul warns against false teaching and staying true to obeying the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Three foundational pieces of that obedience are 1) a pure heart, 2) a good conscience, and 3) a sincere faith.
Reading this made me realize two things. The first is that I’m making life a little too complicated for myself. The second is I have a lot to work on when it comes to loving others with those facets. Jesus wants our hearts, and He wants our love to be genuine. To that end, I ask: is your heart pure? Do you have a good conscience? Can you say that your faith is sincere? Finally, does our love stem from these three facets? At the end of the day, our goal is to live purely, blamelessly, and sincerely, all for the sake of Jesus. So what are we waiting for??