The Aim of Our Charge - 1 Timothy 1:5

"5The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 6Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, 7desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions."

It seems like the first thing that the Lord did in me when I arrived in Honduras was set my aim right.

In my first quiet time on Friday morning in La Ceiba, what convicted me was verse 5. In the context of the book, Paul is warning Timothy about certain teachers who had "swerved away" from teaching out of love from a pure heart, good conscience, and sincere faith, and had swerved to teaching on genealogies and myths; thus promoting speculation rather that stewardship. What was so convicting about this scripture was that I had done this very thing. Rather than making my aim love, my aim was information exchange, and so I became a clanging cymbal rather than an instrument of the beautiful message of the Gospel. I repented and was determined to have my aim be love from the appropriate charge, and I sought the Lord daily in light of this scripture; this set the tone for how I would serve the rest of the trip.

In Lemon, the first town we served at, I saw this scripture in action. John Edmonds, whom I have grown to love deeply in the Lord as though he was my own blood brother, had planned a sermon to preach that night to the company in the Baptist Church in Lemon. But after worship, as he got up to preach, he instead told the people that he would address them as brothers and sisters rather than a congregation to be preached at - that he would encourage them in love. He talked to them like a father and a brother, encouraging them from the book of James to resist temptation, and explained what temptation is. When it was done, I was greatly encouraged myself because I saw practically how someone looks when they speak with the aim of love from a pure heart, clean conscience, and sincere faith.

With the conviction of scripture and the physical example laid before me, my heart changed from desiring to merely exchange good information, to desiring to see those whom I shared with to be conformed to Jesus, reproved of sin, and taught the truth of the Word of God. I addressed the congregation at the Church ouside of Lemon pastored by a wonderful brother in the Lord, Modesto (whom I will write of soon), as my mothers, elders, brothers, and sisters as I expounded on Isaiah 6 and the majesty of the Lord as revealed to Isaiah. My aim was love, and although there was a bit of work to be done concerning the way I communicated (another post coming soon), that is what I delivered to them, with the help of Frank Monteroso who translated for me (and bless his heart, I gave him a time that night). The difference wasn't the information, but the aim of my heart, and that is the point of this post.

2 Timothy 2:15 tells us that we are to seek to be approved workmen who aren't ashamed and who handle the word of truth accurately. The apostle Paul said elswhere that if he knew all mysteries but lacked love, he'd be nothing more than a resounding gong, a clanging cymbal, much like I was for awhile there. If the aim of our charge is simply to convey information, the only thing we'll strike at is the mind, and while the mind DOES need to be renewed, only filling the mind will puff us up and make us arrogant. But when the aim of our charge is Godly love, given from a pure heart - made pure by the Lord, because He is the ONLY one able to purify the heart - a good conscience yeilded to Christ, and a sincere faith in the Lord, we may manage to strike at the heart by the ministry of the Spirit of God through that Word we preach. And isn't that what makes a workman approved - to seek the will of His master over his own will?

Oh, and here's a freebie: notice the series in 1 Timothy 1:5 - love from a pure heart (begins at the seat of the will), good conscience (since only God is good, a conscience that is good has been submissive to the will of God, which begins in a man's heart as the man's will is conformed to God's will), and a sincere faith (the heart, mind, and soul working in one accord, humbly submitted to the Lord Jesus Christ).