CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
1 Timothy 1:5. The end of the commandment.—The end is not the same thing as the fulfilment of the law. It is the goal towards which, with strenuous endeavour, each Christian must press on. “Commandment” (R.V. “charge”) is the monitory teaching—a touch of severity clings to the word from the old “economy.” Unfeigned.—So of “love” (Romans 12:9); of “wisdom from above” (James 3:17) (without hypocrisy).
1 Timothy 1:6. Some having swerved.—Margin, “not aiming at.” R.V. margin, “Gr. missed the mark.” This metaphor was suggested, probably, by the word for “end” in 1 Timothy 1:5. Compare St. Paul’s graphic word to the Galatians, “You were running gallantly: what sudden spell has been laid upon you?” Have turned aside.—The figure is that of the racer who breaks away from the prescribed course. Unto vain jangling.—R.V. “vain talking.” The Pastoral epistles more than once warn against this fault (Titus 1:10; Titus 3:9).
1 Timothy 1:7. Desiring to be teachers of the law.—The R.V. also gives the same rendering. Perhaps we might note that it is not so much a wish as a determination. They would be legalists. Understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.—They neither see the significance of the words they use, nor do they know anything of the subjects they profess to teach. St. Paul knew too much of Judaism to be imposed on by a parade of phrases. Here, as so often, loud and positive assertion makes up for the lack of profounder knowledge.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— 1 Timothy 1:5-7
The Grand Moral Aim of the Gospel—
I. Is to elicit the exercise of Christian love.—“Now the end of the commandment is charity”—love (1 Timothy 1:5).
1. This love emanates from a purified heart. “Charity out of a pure heart” (1 Timothy 1:5). The word “commandment” may here be taken in the larger sense as comprehending the gospel—the latest expression of the will and commandment of God. The great burden of the gospel theme is love, which is the sum and end of the law and of the gospel alike. The gospel is a development and fulfilment of the law in all its essential demands, and expresses its spirit in gentler and more winning terms. Love springs from the heart as from a fountain, but it is a fountain cleansed and purified by faith. There is little taste for jangling and the strife of words when the heart is sanctified. When Archbishop Ussher was urged by a friend to write on sanctification, and had begun to do so, he confessed he could not proceed, as he found so little of that grace in himself; and when his friend expressed amazement to hear such an admission from so grave and holy a person, the prelate added: “I must tell you we do not well understand what sanctification and the new creature are. It is no less than for a man to be brought to an entire resignation of his own will to the will of God, and to live in the offering up of his soul continually in the flames of love, as a whole burnt offering to Christ. And oh! how many who profess Christianity are unacquainted experimentally with this work upon their souls!” Love is rare, but a truly sanctified nature is rarer.
2. This love is regulated by a good conscience. “And of a good conscience” (1 Timothy 1:5). A pure heart and good conscience go together. Bengel says: “In Paul the understanding is the seat of conscience, the heart the seat of love.” In the work of sanctification the conscience benefits with every other faculty of our nature. A Christianised and sanctified conscience governs the exercise of love, and saves it from degenerating into a mere sensual passion or weak sentimentality.
3. The exercise of a love like this is made possible by a genuine faith. “And of faith unfeigned” (1 Timothy 1:5). Not a hypocritical, dead, and unfruitful faith, but faith working by love. The false teachers drew men off from such a loving, working, real faith, to profitless speculative questions and jangling. A good conscience is joined with sound faith, a bad conscience with unsoundness in the faith (Fausset). To be a power in the Christian life, stimulating the growth of every Christian grace, faith must be active and sincere. Conscience is warped and love is feeble when faith is feigned and a mere make-believe.
II. Is utterly missed by pretentious teachers.—“From which some having swerved … desiring to be teachers of the law” (1 Timothy 1:6-7). They would fain be teachers of the law, but were utterly incompetent for the task. They swerved from or missed the mark at which even an honest teacher of the law aimed—to produce uprightness of conduct and life.
1. They are foolish talkers. “Have turned aside to vain jangling” (1 Timothy 1:6)—silly, empty talk. Their utterances were waste words, containing no rational sense, no unity of reasoning, no depth and reality of conviction. A friend admiring the eloquence of a certain preacher said to Archbishop Whately, “What a fine command of language!” “Nay,” said the prelate, “the language has the command of him.”
2. They are grossly ignorant. “Understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm” (1 Timothy 1:7). Says the old proverb, “Ignorance is rash.” Some men speak with the greater confidence of that which they know least about. Ignorance is both coarse and dogmatic. The more a man knows he is not the less certain about truth, but he is the more circumspect in dogmatising about it. “The Judaisers here meant seem to be distinct from those impugned in the epistles to the Galatians and Romans, who made the works of the law necessary to justification in opposition to gospel grace. The Judaisers here referred to corrupted the law with fables which they pretended to found on it, subversive of morals as well as of truth. Their error was not in maintaining the obligation of the law, but in abusing it by fabulous and immoral interpretations of and additions to it. They neither understood their own assertions nor the object itself about which they made them. They understood as little about the one as the other” (Fausset, Alford).
Lessons.—
1. The gospel is a message of love.
2. Christian love is based on the righteousness of faith.
3. False teachers are unloving and unlovable.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
1 Timothy 1:5. The Genuine Sources of Christian Charity.
I. The apostle’s declaration of the excellence of charity as the end of the commandment.—
1. The commandment may signify the moral law.
2. May also signify the gospel of Christ, or in general the whole of God’s revealed will.
3. May mean the charge the apostle gave to Timothy as a Christian minister (1 Timothy 1:18). That the great design of the gospel Timothy was to preach as worthy of men’s acceptation and of the law he was to inculcate as the rule of their duty was simply and supremely this: “Charity, or love, out of a pure heart.”
II. The principles from which true charity must spring and by which it must be upheld.—
1. From a pure heart. A heart purified by the power of Divine truth from the love of sin and the dominion of evil passions. In proportion as the heart is purified it is filled with charity; and charity is genuine in proportion only as it springs from the heart thus made pure by the Spirit and truth of God
2. From a good conscience. A conscience well informed as to the will of God, purged from guilty fears by the blood of Christ, and preserved tender by the influence of Divine grace.
3. From faith unfeigned. A sincere belief of the truths revealed in sacred Scripture; a reliance on the Son of God and the promises of God through Him for salvation.
Lessons.—
1. Search earnestly how far you have this Divine principle of charity dwelling in your hearts.
2. Examine and prove the nature of those inward principles from which your love of God and man proceeds. Look to the state of your heart—consult your conscience—examine your faith.—J. Brewster.
1 Timothy 1:6-7. A Corrupt Conscience—
I. Is a prey to useless controversy.
II. Is ambitious to pose as a teacher and guardian of consciences.
III. Is misled and confused by utter ignorance.