Now the end. — The Greek word should be translated But the end. Though Timothy must resist and oppose these false teachers with all courage and firmness, still he must not forget what was the real end, the aim, the purpose of all Christian teaching, which, the Apostle reminds him, is Love.
Of the commandment. — There is no reference here to the famous commandments of the Law of Moses. “Commandment” may be paraphrased in this place by “practical teaching.”
With the false teachers’ sickly “fables,” which only led to disputing, St. Paul contrasts that “healthy practical teaching,” the end and aim of which was love, or charity.
Charity. — That love, or broad, comprehensive charity, towards men, so nobly described in 1 Corinthians 13.
Out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned. — This broad all-embracing love, or charity, emanates only from “a pure heart:” i.e., a heart free from selfish desires and evil passions. The “pure in heart” alone, said the Lord, in the sermon on the mount (Matthew 5:8), shall enjoy the beatific vision of God.
And of a good conscience. — This “charity” must also spring from a conscience unburthened of its load of guilt, from a conscience sprinkled with the precious blood, and so reconciled to God.
And of faith unfeigned. — And, lastly, the root of this “charity” — the end and aim of the practical teaching of the gospel preached by the Apostles — must be sought in “a faith unfeigned,” in a faith that consists in something more than in a few high-sounding words, which lay claim to a sure confidence that is not felt. The “unfeigned faith” of St. Paul is a faith rich in works rather than in words.
Without this faith, so real that its fruits are ever manifest, there can be no good conscience; without this conscience, washed by the precious blood, there can be no pure heart.
The error of the teachers of whom Timothy was warned, we see from the next verse, consisted not so much in false doctrines as in an utter neglect of inculcating the necessity of a pure, self-denying life. They preferred curious questions and speculative inquiries to the grave, simple gospel teaching which led men to live an earnest, loving life.