The two Epistles to Timothy were written by the apostle Paul during a time of the church’s degradation. Because Christianity today is under degradation, what is covered in these two Epistles fits our present situation. There are some crucial points in these two books, which are not covered thoroughly anywhere else in the Bible.
The crucial point in the Epistles to Timothy that we will cover in this chapter is God’s economy. The way Paul presents this matter is very impressive and full of revelation. He presents God’s economy in a practical way, not in a doctrinal way. To teach a doctrine is one thing, but to practice something real is another thing. Paul did not teach the doctrine of God’s economy; rather, he practiced it.
Paul writes to Timothy, “Even as I exhorted you, when I was going into Macedonia, to remain in Ephesus in order that you might charge certain ones not to teach different things” (1 Tim. 1:3). Paul does not exhort Timothy to charge certain ones not to teach wrong teachings or heresies; on the contrary, he exhorts Timothy to charge them not to teach different things. In verse 4 Paul continues, “Nor to give heed to myths and unending genealogies, which produce questionings rather than God’s economy, which is in faith.” The myths Paul speaks of probably include stories of the children of Israel from ancient times. Genealogies were the records of the Old Testament. Some of the teachings among Christians today minister not the riches of Christ but questions. God’s economy is a matter not in the mind but in faith. Anything that is in faith does not arouse questions.
In verse 5 Paul writes, “The end of the charge is love out of a pure heart and out of a good conscience and out of unfeigned faith.” Here we can see three subjective things related to God’s economy—a pure heart, a good conscience, and unfeigned faith. Our heart needs to be pure, our conscience needs to be good, and our faith needs to be unfeigned. We need to have these three things within us for the practice of God’s economy. If our heart is impure, if our conscience has some offense, or if our faith is not true but hypocritical, we cannot practice God’s economy.
God’s economy requires us first to have a pure heart. We all need to consider if our heart is pure. This is a basic question. To care for God’s economy, we must have a pure heart, which is a heart that seeks nothing but God Himself. Matthew 5:8 says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” When God is the unique goal of our seeking, and we fix our heart only on God, we have a pure heart. A pure heart is a sincere heart seeking after God and having no other goal.
To practice God’s economy, we also need a good conscience. According to Paul, a good conscience is a conscience without offense (Acts 24:16). If we do not have any accusation or condemnation against our conscience, it is a good conscience. We can keep our conscience without offense by confessing in order to be cleansed by the precious blood of Jesus. Anytime we have the sense that we are wrong in something, there is an offense on our conscience. A good conscience is one that is void of offense. Perhaps when a brother comes home for dinner, he does not feel that his wife’s cooking is good and becomes somewhat unhappy, although he does not lose his temper. He thinks that after he has worked hard all day, his wife should have cooked something that would make him happy, but it is just the opposite. Because he is somewhat unhappy, when his wife tries to talk to him, he does not answer but only has a sullen countenance. After such an instance, the brother will have an offense on his conscience, and this offense will bother him.
It does not require a great offense for our conscience to have a problem. As soon as we sense the smallest offense on our conscience, we should confess to the Lord in a simple way and ask for forgiveness. After a sincere confession, the Lord applies the blood to us and cleanses us. In this way the offense on our conscience is washed away.
Unfeigned in Greek means “not hypocritical.” We should not perform or pretend but should have genuine faith. A pure heart, a good conscience, and unfeigned faith are required for our practice of God’s economy.