'Now, the end of the commandment is love, out of a
pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith
unfeigned.'--1 TIM. 1. 6.
The Apostle has just said that he left Timothy in Ephesus, in order to
check some tendencies there which were giving anxiety. Certain teachers
had appeared, the effect of whose activity was to create parties, to
foster useless speculations, and to turn the minds of the Ephesian
Christians away from the practical and moral side of Christianity. In
opposition to these, the Apostle here lays down the broad principle that
God has spoken, not in order to make acute theologians, or to provide
materials for controversy, but in order to help us to love. The whole of
these latest letters of the Apostle breathe the mellow wisdom of old
age, which has learned to rate brilliant intellectualism, agility,
incontroversial fence and the like, far lower than homely goodness. And
so, says Paul, 'the end of the commandment is love.'
Now he here states, not only the purpose of the divine revelation, but
gives us a summary, but yet sufficient, outline of the method by which
God works towards that purpose. The commandment is the beginning, love
is the end or aim. And between these two there are inserted three
things, a 'pure heart,' a 'good conscience,' 'faith unfeigned.' Now of
these three the two former are closely connected, and the third is the
cause, or condition, of both of them. It is, therefore, properly named
last as being first in order, and therefore last reached in analysis.
When you track a stream from its mouth to its source, the fountain-head
is the last thing that you come to. And here we have, as in these great
lakes in Central Africa--out of which finally the Nile issues--the
stages of the flow. There are the twin lakes, a 'good conscience' and a
'pure heart.' These come from 'unfeigned faith,' which lies higher up in
the hills of God; and they run down into the love which is the 'end of
the commandment.' The faith lays hold on the commandment, and so the
process is complete. Or, if you begin at the top, instead of at the
bottom, God gives the word; faith grasps the word, and thereby nourishes
a 'pure heart' and a 'good conscience,' and thereby produces a universal
love. So, then, we have three steps to look at here.