Focus on The Goal

Introduction

It is easy to get so busy doing what we do that we forget why we do it.

My normal week can get so busy:

Meeting people

Grading papers

Research

I can so easily forget why I am doing what I am doing and get focus on just finishing.

Paul wrote a letter to a young pastor named Timothy who was facing a version of this same problem. People in the Ephesian church had gotten fascinated with genealogies and speculative myths (1 Tim 1:4). They were, in a sense, obsessing over the details and losing sight of the point

1 Timothy 1:5 NA28

5 τὸ δὲ τέλος τῆς παραγγελίας ἐστὶν ἀγάπη ἐκ καθαρᾶς καρδίας καὶ συνειδήσεως ἀγαθῆς καὶ πίστεως ἀνυποκρίτου,

Τέλος

The goal, the culmination, the intended outcome of our instruction to you is supposed to produce something. τέλος refers to the finish line a runner has been sprinting toward the whole race — not an arbitrary place where the race happens to stop, but the very reason the race was run.

I was once preaching and one of the congregants who was new to the faith kept interrupting and asking questions. I could tell sometimes I would get upset. I had forgotten that the whole point I was preaching was so she understands and she had the courage to ask.

Paul clarifies that the whole goal of his instruction is to love.

Love is the point

The other three genitives only explain that love governed by the preposition ἐκ.

Naleli came up to me when preaching showing me her dress. I had to stop and complement her. She still comes when I’m talking to random people to curl up on my leg.

1 Timothy 1:5 NA28

5 τὸ δὲ τέλος τῆς παραγγελίας ἐστὶν ἀγάπη ἐκ καθαρᾶς καρδίας καὶ συνειδήσεως ἀγαθῆς καὶ πίστεως ἀνυποκρίτου,

The goal of the instruction in one thing not three things

This reminds me of Jesus:

John 13:35 NA28

35 ἐν τούτῳ γνώσονται πάντες ὅτι ἐμοὶ μαθηταί ἐστε, ἐὰν ἀγάπην ἔχητε ἐν ἀλλήλοις.

John 13:35 “35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.””

Not miracles; not church doctrine;

Paul doesn’t only say love though; he clarifies what kind of love with three modifiers:

1 Timothy 1:5 NA28

ἐκ καθαρᾶς καρδίας καὶ ἐκ συνειδήσεως ἀγαθῆς καὶ ἐκ πίστεως ἀνυποκρίτου,

ἐκ καθαρᾶς καρδίας

From a pure heart

A pure heart does not manipulate; it is the בַר לֵבָב of the OT.

Th

ἐκ συνειδήσεως ἀγαθῆς

ἐκ πίστεως ἀνυποκρίτου