The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
1 Timothy 1:5-7

The purpose of Christian teaching is genuine love. The love that God is talking about here is the kind that issues naturally from a combination of three things: a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.

A sincere faith simply takes God at His Word, starting with His promise of forgiveness for Jesus’ sake, trusting in it wholeheartedly.

The way to keep a good conscience is to form the habit of confessing my sin and receiving God’s forgiveness, because as long as I live in this flesh I will sin. I can only maintain a good conscience by keeping “short accounts” with God.

Since God has declared me pure of heart for Jesus’ sake, my struggle is not so much to develop a pure heart as to maintain the purity that has been granted to me by God’s grace. That mostly means not putting impure things into my heart, from within or without: as computer programmers would say, “Garbage in, garbage out.” I struggle to keep my heart input clean.

If I focus on these three things, the kind of love that God is talking about will issue forth; God’s love is able to move through me. But losing my focus on these three things will result in defeat.

Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion…
1 Timothy 1:6

Lord, help me to keep a pure heart, a clean conscience, and a sincere faith today. I want your kind of love to flow through my life in my home, in my work, and in my relationships. Amen.

Pastor Dan Giles