Guest Posted February 12, 2013 Share Posted February 12, 2013 1Tim 1:5 "Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith" What commandment? It was Paul's command for Timothy to stop Christians from preaching deviant doctrines or those that are highly speculative. Why? Because they do no lead to godly edification in the faith. And in particular they do not lead to being edified in love in three areas. First of all godly edification results in a purifying of one's heart, which is the seat of one's desires, the basis of one's motivations. Good doctrine deals with issues of hypocrisy and right desires. Secondly is the issue of the conscience. Edifying doctrine results in a healthy conscience - which is not to say a conscience which is guilt-free, but a conscience that feels guilty when one sins, and feels good when it does what is right. That's a healthy conscience. Whereas deviant doctrines often either avoid issues of guilt or place guilt on the wrong thing, or otherwise get things out of balance with respect to the conscience. And thirdly edifying doctrine results in a sincere faith, being solidly based upon the Word of God, as opposed to mere opinions based upon highly speculative stories. Furthermore a sincere faith is a faith which is applied. This as opposed to those who obsess over issues of armchair theology or fables or other highly speculative ideas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts