Thoughts on 1 Timothy 1:5

"The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith."

Paul tells Timothy here that the goal of correcting these false teachers is not simply to get them to stop leading people astray but to show the false teachers the love that has been shown to them by Christ. This love should come from a pure heart with the other persons best interest in mind and without a desire for selfish gain or ulterior motives. This verse is central throughout the entire letter.

It’s interesting that Paul included this in his letter to Timothy. I think it says a lot about our nature. Often times when we see another person in error where we are not, we get puffed up and conceited. We may take the time to go and correct them but we should ask ourselves what our motive is for doing so. I think a lot of times we do it, not to help the other person, but because it makes us feel superior. Are we approaching them in a crowd with the intention of winning an argument so we look good in front of others or are we approaching them in private with their best interest in mind and doing it with an unselfish heart? Paul says we should correct with a pure heart rather than one filled with sinful desires, with a good conscience rather than one filled with guilt because of our motives, and with a sincere faith rather than with hypocrisy and selfish gain in mind.

The goal of correction is to show the person in error the love that has been shown to us. However, love is not only the goal but also the motivation behind correction. We have to love our brothers and sisters enough to confront them when we see them in error or sin. It is the easy thing to turn a blind eye to another Christian in sin but it is not the loving thing. This means being part of a community that is open and honest with each other about struggles and sins. This means caring enough to take a couple of hours out of your day to go and talk with a brother or sister about what is going on in their life and how you can help. This means loving your brothers and sisters enough to tell them what they need to hear, not what they want to hear. This means not only giving correction when needed but acknowledging when you are in need of correction.

This is much easier said than done and to be honest I have never seen it actually lived out in a Christian community. However I am a part of a growing community of believers where I do see these types of relationships developing and am very excited about it. So how do we learn how to have these types of relationships? The answer is always the same when we have questions like these: Jesus.

We are a people who are in error and sin every single day of our lives. We constantly turn our backs on God and make mistake after mistake. How does God deal with our errors and sins? Jesus. Jesus saw that we were in error and did not ignore it. He did not take the easy road. He left heaven and came to earth to confront us about our sin. Jesus is the ultimate model of correction by love. He spent his time correcting, rebuking, teaching, preaching, and confronting sin and sinners. He never excused it and never said it was ok. He called us to repent and follow him and then he did the unthinkable. He took our sin upon himself and bore our punishment on the cross. Jesus went where we deserved to go: the cross. Because of that we get to go where he deserved to be: heaven. He loved us enough to confront us in our sin and gave his life so that we could be free of it.