If It Don’t Help
1 Timothy 1:3-6 NLT
3 When I left for Macedonia, I urged you to stay there in Ephesus and stop those whose teaching is contrary to the truth. 4 Don’t let them waste their time in endless discussion of myths and spiritual pedigrees. These things only lead to meaningless speculations, which don’t help people live a life of faith in God.
5 The purpose of my instruction is that all believers would be filled with love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and genuine faith. 6 But some people have missed this whole point. They have turned away from these things and spend their time in meaningless discussions.
Paul is writing to his “son in the faith” Timothy. Timothy has been tasked with staying to lead the church at Ephesus. And Paul starts his letter with an immediateadmonishment for Timothy to lean in to the people who are teaching things contrary to the truth.
These teachers were responsible for getting the people involved in myths and discussions about spiritual pedigrees. And Paul was not having it. Wrong teaching leads to wrong thinking and believing. And these teachers were not helping people live a life of faith in God. Paul was not up for a bunch of discourse on topics that steered people away from the truth. He wanted people to live a life of faith. That is a very simplistic purpose, and Paul elaborates some in his next sentence.
The purpose of Paul’s teaching was so that believers would be filled with love from a pure heart. That they would have a clear conscience and a genuine faith. I find it interesting that Paul emphasized love first. But it shouldn’t be surprising. Paul wrote the church at Corinth and told them that the greatest of faith, hope and love, was love. A clear conscience comes with a life that is following the Lord and His ways. When we get off track, our conscience can be offended. We know when we have missed it and when we are confident before the Lord. John would later write that when our heart, we could say conscience, does not condemn us, then we have confidence before God. So a clear conscience is important.
And of course, we recognize that we live this life by faith. A faith that is genuine, not a display, so that people would think we are big in faith. Our faith is before God, not meant for other people. I have seen people brag about their faith, and it doesn’t ring true. The only reason we have faith is because of what God has done and because of His word that causes faith to rise in our hearts—no room for bragging.
Paul wanted Timothy to make these corrections so that the believers in Ephesus would not waste their time on things that don’t matter.
Application
If Paul were in our church today, what would he find? Hopefully, he would find teachings that help people live a life of faith in God, grow in love, and stay clear in their hearts. Paul is not here, but the Lord Jesus is, and our purpose is to please Him. If what we teach and preach does not help people live for God, grow stronger, and make a difference, then we need to recalibrate.
I am grateful for Paul’s words. They create a great template to go by.