Love's parameters

“As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any long nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God’s work, which is by faith. The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” (1 Tim 1:3-5)


Paul asked Timothy not only to correct false teachers, but disclosed that the goal of the correction was to have teacher’s whose works would come from love. He mentioned three guidelines for love: a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. Today we will look into these three parameters by which our love, if it is guided correctly, will become fruitful.

For false teachers, failure to work in love caused controversies and hindered God’s work. All mankind has different beliefs about what love is. Rather than leave us to our own reasonings, the Lord cleanses our hearts daily by His Word and His Spirit (Eph 5:25-26). By submitting ourselves to the Lord’s cleansing, our heart becomes pure. Our self-interest gives way to His interests, and our service of Christ puts others first.

Because we are basically self-interested, Jesus patiently works with us, changing the motivation from which our works come. As we trust in God’s ways and let our own willful motivations die, our motivation then comes from God’s love joined with our own love. We then hold to the standard of pure love, from a pure heart, and leave behind the works of the flesh. There is an inner integrity built up in those who faithfully serve God from a pure heart, which develops a good conscience.

Though faith is intangible, it actually has substance. It not only reminds us of what we hope for and believe in, but causes us to take action. These actions become our works. Paul tells us that what counts is “faith expressing itself through love.” (Gal 5:6) When our hearts are pure and we have a godly standard for our love to follow, our faith will produce good works. Our sincerity comes from the agreement of a purified heart with the standard set in place by the Word and the Spirit.

The false teachers that Paul asked Timothy to confront could have gotten mislead by not following any of the three parameters of love. If they wanted to be the center of their lives, benefiting from all that they did, then these false teachers would have resisted the cleansing of the Word and the Spirit, for it would not serve their interests. For those who did not want the discipline of having a standard by which to live by, the freedom to serve Christ could have been abused and distorted into permission to serve themselves. And for those who wanted to believe that anything was possible to them, their minds would not have become molded by the Word of God nor guided by His Spirit; in the end, their faith would contain magical thinking and vain bits of knowledge contrived into false doctrines.

Our works will proceed from love and glorify God when we have a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith. All else hinders God’s work. He is looking at our willingness to be cleansed, our submission to the Word and the Spirit, and our sincere agreement that these steps should guide our works. When we do these things, our love will bear fruit for the Lord. Amen.