1 Timothy 1:5

August 1, 2021

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

Introduction

Through today’s sermon, I pray that we would all remember our charge as disciples of Christ, to be growing into greater Christlikeness, which includes the work of discipling others. We come to Christ, we are being conformed to Christ, we should commit to helping others do the same.

Part of the challenge is that the language is familiar. We just wouldn’t give much time to those who professed to be Christians but not disciples, or to those who say the Great Commission is to make disciples doesn’t apply to us. Being disciples and making disciples is common church language, as common as seeing the sun in the sky.

But as with most things there is a way to use the same words and get to a different destination.

So when we come to Christ, as we are conformed into His image, and as we seek to help others do the same, what does it look like? There’s not a singular answer in the New Testament, but it can be summarized. Here’s one summary that Paul told Timothy:

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)

In context Paul contrasts his charge with other teachers who were getting stuck in “vain discussions” (verse 6), stuck in the swamp of subjects that promote speculations (verse 4). Paul’s ministry had something more profitable in mind. And the assertion in verse 5 also works as a positive statement, general enough for all ministry and discipleship. The telos (ultimate object or aim) of the charge is specific: love. That love is qualified as clean (from a pure heart) and fitting (so leaving a good conscience) and without any pretense or hypocrisy of faith (faith is sincere).

Consider the kind of person who nears the telos level of love.

Telos love is the fulfillment of the Great Commandment, and the second, and actually a fulfillment of the “royal law” (James 2:8). Telos love means we would be like Christ, whose love for the Father is without fail. Telos love means we’d be filled with the Spirit, whose first fruit in us is love. Telos love means the end of anxiousness; perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). Telos love means great joy, partly because love of the lovely is its own satisfaction, and for that matter, so is loving the unlovely into greater loveliness. Telos love means that we would have perfect hatred for evil (see Psalm 97:10), and a full heart, courage (which means full-heartedness), for fighting the wicked. Telos love also means we would have compassionate bowels/hearts for the lost and broken and weak. Telos love means we would know the way forward as certainly as gravity teaches a rock the way down; abounding love approves the excellent (Philippians 1:9-10). Telos love would make us lovely, it would give us gravity, it would make us jealous-able. Telos love reflects and glorifies the God of love.

Telos level love means that there wouldn’t be satisfaction with sin, or succumbing to people pleasing and fear of man. Being full of such love keeps people from being manipulated, from being unhopeful or irritated or resentful (as 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 clarifies). Love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8), so it is not easily offended. Love is big, it has big concerns, not petty complaints. Love doesn’t obey grudgingly. Love doesn’t run out.

A loving parent knows when to help and when to lay back, let it go, or at least can be patient while figuring it out. A soldier with true and proper loves knows who the enemy is, and the cost of battle, and the need for it to defend his love. A loving shepherd protects against wolves and guides the sheep. A loving farmer weeds and prunes for more fruit.

There are obstacles to the telos, of course. In the last days Paul prophesied that people will be lovers of self (2 Timothy 3:1), and half-hearted lovers. We are sentimental lovers. We are cheap lovers. So a preacher and p[...]