Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Aim of Apostolic Teaching: Love, Not Empty Talk (1 Timothy 1:5–7)

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The Aim of Apostolic Teaching: Love, Not Empty Talk (1 Timothy 1:5–7) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reformed thinking. Today we are looking at a
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  problem that I think haunts the modern church maybe more than
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  we're willing to admit. It's this confusion between
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  activity and and faithfulness. You know, the feeling, you walk
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  into a church service or maybe a conference and the volume is up,
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  the lights are moving, the preacher's sweating and, you
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  know, pacing the the calendar is just packed.
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  And your first reaction is, wow, the spirit is really moving
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  here. But is that the right metric?
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  That's the question, isn't it? It's the temptation for the
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  church. In every single age, we get
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  dazzled by the performance, by the sheer kinetic energy of a
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  ministry. We see all this motion and we
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  just assume it means progress. But we often forget to ask the
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  one question that really matters to God.
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  It isn't Was it interesting? It isn't even Was it bold or was
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  it technically accurate? The question the Apostle Paul
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  forces us to ask is what was it aiming at?
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  And what did it produce? And what did it produce in the
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  hearts of the people? That brings us right to our text
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  for today. We're opening up First Timothy
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  chapter 1, verses 5 through 7. This is a letter, of course,
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  from Paul to Timothy, who he calls his true child in the
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  faith. But before we even get into the
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  words, we have to set the scene. Timothy isn't, you know, sitting
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  in a quiet library somewhere. No, not at all.
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  He's an Ephesus, and to get this letter, you have to get Ephesus.
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  There's a loud, cosmopolitan hub.
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  I mean, this was the center of the cult of Artemis.
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  So you have Pagan idolatry on every corner, processions in the
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  streets, a really aggressive spiritual atmosphere.
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  But it's also a marketplace of ideas, a noisy, speculative
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  religious environment where everybody had a new philosophy,
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  a new angle to sell. So it's just.
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  Chaotic. Incredibly so.
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  And then inside the church, it's what you might call a
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  constitutional convention moment.
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  The apostles are starting to pass off the scene.
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  The leadership is transitioning to local elders.
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  This is a fragile time. Paul is writing to Timothy to
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  establish how God's household has to be managed before, you
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  know, the wheels fall. Off he's handing over the keys.
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  He's handing over the keys and telling him how to drive the
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  car. Yeah, and.
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  He doesn't ease into it either. Right away.
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  In the first few verses, he identifies this problem.
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  There are people teaching different doctrine, getting
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  obsessed with myths and genealogies.
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  And then Paul just cuts through all that noise with one of the
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  clearest sentences in the New Testament.
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  He says the aim of our charge is love.
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  And that's our premise for today.
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  We're looking at the telos, the God appointed goal of all
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  Christian instruction. It turns out theology isn't
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  meant to be a playground for clever minds to show off what
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  they know. It's not about winning arguments
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  on social media or crushing your opponent in the debate.
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  It's meant to produce a very specific kind of fruit.
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  OK, let's stop right there and unpack that word fruit.
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  Because when we hear the aim is love.
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  I think the modern ear, it hears something specific.
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  We think of something soft sentimentality.
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  Yeah, a warm feeling. A warm feeling, maybe a Hallmark
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  movie, or just generally being nice and affirming people no
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  matter what they do. Is Paul telling Timothy to just
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  make sure everyone gets along and feels good?
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  Not even close. This is where we have to be
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  really precise. The word Paul uses is agape and
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  biblical Love this agape. It's not a vague warmth or some
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  kind of sentimental permission slip that just affirms
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  everything. It's a volitional act.
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  It is the will to seek God's glory and your neighbor's good.
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  It involves work. It involves sacrifice, but it
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  also involves obedience. It's sturdy.
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  It has a backbone. So it's not passive, it's not
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  just live and let live. Far from it, as the sources
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  really layout love rejoices with the truth.
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  If you look at Romans 13, love is the fulfilment of the law.
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  So here's the metric Paul sets up.
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  If a message leaves your conscience untouched, if it
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  produces proud debaters rather than humble lovers of God, it
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  has failed. It doesn't matter how sound the
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  information is on paper. If the product isn't love, the
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  ministry has missed the target. That's a heavy statement.
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  If the product isn't love, the ministry has missed the target.
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  But I want to push on this a bit because it seems like there are
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  two ways to mess this up. You can miss the target by being
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  mean, sure, but can't you also miss it by being too soft?
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  Precisely. There are two ditches on either
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  side of this road. On one side you have what we
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  could call barren orthodoxy. This is the error of the person
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  who is technically accurate but is also harsh, proud and self
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  congratulatory. I think we've all met that
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  person. They treat theology like a blood
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  sport. It's a common trap, especially,
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  you know, in our circles. This person knows all the
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  propositions. They can parse Greek verbs, they
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  can recite the confessions backward and forward, but
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  they've forgotten the person to whom all those propositions
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  point. They major on being right, and
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  they minor on being Christ like. They use truth as a club to beat
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  people with, not as food to feed them And that is a failure of
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  the game. OK, so that's one ditch.
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  The jerks for Jesus ditch, basically.
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  What's the other ditch? The other ditch is liberal
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  softness, or maybe doctrinal minimalism.
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  This is the era that talks constantly about love but
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  refuses the truth that defines love.
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  This is the ministry that won't don't confront sin, it won't
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  call for repentance, it won't proclaim the exclusive
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  sufficiency of Christ because it doesn't want to offend anyone.
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  They. Think they're being loving by
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  just being affirming by not rocking the boat.
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  That's it. But Paul would say that's not
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  love. That's cowardice.
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  Or maybe it's just indifferent. Real love warns.
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  I mean, if you see a blind man walking toward a Cliff, the
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  loving thing isn't to whisper sweet nothings to him.
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  No, you shout. You shout.
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  Stop. True love tells the truth about
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  God, about judgment, and about the only way of salvation.
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  So Paul is threading a needle here.
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  He's saying that truth, when it's rightly taught, produces
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  love that's rightly lived. It's the visible evidence.
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  Love is the proof that the message was actually believed,
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  not just heard in the ears. Yes.
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  The world likes to say truth divides, love unites, but Paul
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  says no. Truth produces the love that
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  truly unites. I like that distinction.
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  Now let's get into the deeper mechanics here.
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  Paul doesn't just leave this idea of love floating in the
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  air. He gives us what you might call
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  its genealogy. He uses that Greek preposition,
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  eek, which means out of to show us the root system.
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  This is one of the most helpful parts of the text because it
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  moves us away from just behavior modification and into heart
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  renovation. He's implying you can't just
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  command people hey be more loving and expected to work if
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  the internal engine is broken, right?
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  So he traces love back to three specific roots, A pure heart, a
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  good conscience, and a sincere faith.
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  Let's take those one by one because these can sound like,
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  you know, nice religious terms, but I have a feeling they're
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  pretty technical. The first root is a pure heart
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  or Catharus cordius. What does heart mean here?
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  It's not about emotions, is it? Not primarily in biblical
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  thinking, the heart is the command center.
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  It includes your intellect, your will, your affections.
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  It's who you are at the core. Now here is where our theology
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  really shines a light on the text.
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  Paul calls for a pure heart. But we know from Jeremiah 17 the
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  human heart is deceitful above all things.
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  We know from the doctrine of total depravity that by nature
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  our hearts are what Calvin called factories of idols.
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  So we don't naturally have this pure heart we're not born with.
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  It no. We're born with impure hearts.
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  So when Paul says love comes out of a pure heart, he's implying
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  the absolute necessity of supernatural regeneration.
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  This connects directly to Ezekiel 36, where God promises I
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  will give you a new heart. You cannot produce holy love
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  from an unregenerate heart. It requires catharsis, a
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  cleansing by the blood of Christ.
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  That is a huge point. You can't just moralize people
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  into loving. You have to gospel eyes them.
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  They need a new heart first. Correct.
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  The false teachers in Ephesus. They might have had a lot of
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  rules, but they couldn't produce a single pure heart.
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  Only the Holy Spirit can do that.
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  OK, let's look at that second root.
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  A good conscience synadesis Agathes.
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  I've always found the idea of conscience fascinating.
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  It's that internal judge. It is.
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  It's that internal witness that either accuses us or excuses us.
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  But notice Paul specifies a good conscience because the
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  conscience can be quiet just because it's been seared.
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  You know, like scar tissue that doesn't feel anything anymore.
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  That's not a good conscience. That's a dead 1 so.
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  It's not just about a quiet conscience.
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  No, a good conscience is one that has been sprinkled by the
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  blood of Christ, as Hebrews 10 says, and is informed by the
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  word of God. So it's actually functioning
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  properly. It's calibrated to God's
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  standard. Right.
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  And this brings in that classic distinction between the law and
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  the gospel. The law guides the conscience on
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  what pleases God. That's the third use of the law
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  for those keeping score. But the gospel assures the
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  conscience that the penalty for failing to please God is paid in
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  full. But why is this so essential for
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  love? How does my conscience affect
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  how I treat my neighbor? Well, think about it
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  practically. If you have a guilty conscience,
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  if you're constantly worried about your own standing before
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  God, you become defensive, you become self absorbed, you're
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  paralyzed by your own insecurity and your own sin.
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  But a good conscience, A conscience that is clear because
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  of Christ, it frees you. You stop thinking about yourself
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  all the time, and you're actually free to look outward
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  and serve your neighbor. That makes a lot of sense.
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  Guilt makes us selfish. Grace makes us generous.
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  Spot on. OK, the third root a sincere
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  faith or pissed us. Any pocket 2?
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  That's a mouthful. It is, but the nuance here is
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  just wonderful. Any pocket 2 literally means UN
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  hypocritical or without a mask. A mask?
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  Yes. In the ancient Greek theatre, a
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  hippocratus was an actor. He would wear a large mask to
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  play a character on stage. He'd hold the mask up to portray
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  an emotion he didn't actually feel.
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  Paul is saying that the faith that produces real love is not a
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  costume. It's not just reciting Orthodox
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  phrases while your heart is far from God.
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  It is a sincere resting trust in the finished work of Jesus
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  Christ. It's real.
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  It's not a performance for an audience.
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  It is. Not a performance.
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  And these three roots, they form an organic unit.
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  You can't separate them. Without sincere faith, you can't
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  have a Ure heart. Without a Ure heart and sincere
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  faith you can't have a good conscience.
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  And without all three you simly cannot have love.
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  You might have olite behavior. You might have social niceties,
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  but you will not have the sacrificial agapea that
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  glorifies God. So if we see a lack of love in
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  the church, I mean if we see backbiting, arrogance,
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  harshness, we shouldn't just say, hey, you all need to be
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  nicer. We need to look at the root
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  system. Is there a pure heart?
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  Is there a good conscience? Is there sincere faith at work?
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  That is it exactly. It's a diagnostic tool.
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  Yeah. If the fruit is bad, the root is
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  unhealthy. This leads us naturally into the
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  next section, because Paul explains what happens when you
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  miss this target. The sources call this the
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  pathology of error based on verse 6, and the language here
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  is very specific, almost technical sounding.
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  It is. Paul uses 2 very vivid verbs to
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  describe this error. The first one is astrosi santis,
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  which is often translated as swerving or straying, but it's
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  actually an archery term. Archery, like shooting a bow and
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  arrow. Yes, it means missing the mark.
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  The implication is that these false teachers, they didn't
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  necessarily stop teaching. They were still firing arrows.
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  They are still. Active, still very active, but
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  they were not aiming at the target of love.
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  And in the Christian life, if you don't aim at love through
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  the gospel, you were just shooting arrows into the void.
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  You're just making noise, which ironically, is what a lot of
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  people think Christianity is today.
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  Just a lot of loud noise. And that leads to his second
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  term, exotropism, or turned aside.
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  This is a medical term. It refers to a dislocated joint.
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  Ouch, so bad. Theology isn't just different,
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  it's like a shoulder that's been pocked out of its socket.
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  That's the image. It's disjointed.
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  It's structurally compromised. Think about a dislocated arm.
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  It just hangs there. They can't bear any weight.
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  It causes pain in the same way a theology that is swerved from
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  love can't bear the weight of glory, and it certainly can't
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  bear the burden of a suffering neighbor.
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  It's useless for the actual work of ministry.
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  And what's the result of this, this dislocation?
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  Paul calls it vain discussion. Ideologian.
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  It's a great word. It can be translated vain
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  jangling or fruitless discussion.
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  It's noise that accomplishes nothing.
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  It generates a lot of heat but no holiness.
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  The sources bring up some really interesting modern applications
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  of this, because I think we can look at Ephesus and think, oh,
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  myths and genealogies, that's ancient history.
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  But we have our own versions of vain discussion today.
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  What does that look like in 2026?
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  We certainly do. The source material points to a
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  few specific areas where we see this.
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  This tribalism over Truth Dynamic 1 area mentioned is the
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  modern obsession with certain frameworks like critical theory
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  and intersectionality. OK, how does that fit the vain
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  discussion model? We'll think about the parallel
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  the sources are drawing. The ancient era was obsessing
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  over genealogies, dividing people up by their ancestry,
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  creating tears of spirituality based on your lineage.
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  The argument is that critical theory can function in a similar
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  way, by dividing everyone into tribes of oppressor and
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  oppressed, focusing almost entirely on power dynamics
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  rather than on what unites us in Christ.
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  It creates endless debate, endless accusation, but it
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  rarely produces the fruit of the Spirit, Lovejoy, peace,
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  patience. It generates strife, not godly
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  edification. That's a helpful parallel,
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  dividing into tribes instead of uniting in the gospel.
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  What about other areas? This isn't just a political
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  thing, is it? Oh no, It cuts right across the
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  spectrum. The sources also mentioned the
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  charismatic pursuit of novel revelations.
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  When you abandon the sufficiency of Scripture to chase after
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  subjective words from the Lord, you end up in a world of
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  confusion. It becomes vain jangling because
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  it's unverified, often contradictory, and it distracts
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  from the clear command to love God and neighbor.
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  It replaces the solid food of the word with like, cotton
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  candy. Exactly.
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  And we can also look at Protestant liberalism, the
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  endless speculation about the historical Jesus, this attempt
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  to find a Jesus who didn't do miracles or rise from the dead.
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  It's an intellectual game, game that leaves the soul completely
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  bankrupt. It's all vain discussion.
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  And the danger here is I'm getting it isn't usually some
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  sudden plunge into heresy, it's more of a drift.
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  Is a slow wandering. That's why Paul uses that word
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  swerving. It even masquerades as
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  seriousness. People think they're going
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  deeper. They think, oh, look at this new
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  insight, the secret knowledge. But what's actually happening is
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  they're just turning the church into a debating society.
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  They're becoming experts at opinions and novices at prayer.
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  That's a devastating way to put it, and it brings us right to
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  verse 7, where Paul gives us the anatomy of the false teacher.
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  He actually profiles these people.
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  It's like a criminal profile. OK, what's the motive here?
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  Why are they doing? This Paul says they desire to be
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  teachers of the law. The motive is ambition.
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  The Greek is dulantes. It's a hunger for status.
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  They want the influence. They want the title of rabbi or
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  expert. If it's narcissism, wearing a
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  theological cloak. It is, and this is a temptation
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  for anyone in ministry or frankly anyone with a social
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  media account. You have to ask yourself, do I
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  want to feed the sheep or do I want to be admired by the sheep?
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  These men wanted the platform. But here's the real irony, Paul
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  says. They don't actually know what
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  they're talking about. That's the defect.
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  Ignorance, he says. They understand neither what
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  they say nor the things about which they make confident
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  assertions. They lack the very confidence
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  they claim to possess. They are spiritually illiterate
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  when it comes to the text they claim to have mastered.
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  But they're loud about it. They sound so sure of
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  themselves. And that's the symptom.
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  Loud certainty. The Greek word is diabe biontai.
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  These confident assertions this. Reminds me of that psychological
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  concept, the Dunning Kruger effect.
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  Yes, absolutely. It's that cognitive bias where
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  with very low ability at a task dramatically overestimate their
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  ability, they lack the self-awareness to even know how
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  much they don't know. We see this all the time.
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  The person online who's read 1 blog post and suddenly thinks
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  they know more than 2000 years of church tradition.
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  And that boldness is a trap for the listener.
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  We often confuse certainty with truth.
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  We think while he sounds so sure of himself, he must be right.
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  But Paul warns us here that boldness can be a sign of deep
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  insecurity. You can be a mask for ignorance.
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  So what was their specific theological error?
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  Paul mentions they want to be teachers of the law, so they
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  were getting the law wrong. They were misusing the law
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  completely. They likely viewed it in one of
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  two wrong ways, either as a ladder for justification, which
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  is legalism, or as a code of secrets, which is mysticism.
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  They failed to distinguish between the law and the Gospel.
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  And the sources mention a dispensational or covenantal
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  error here too, yes. They failed to distinguish
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  properly between Israel and the Church.
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  They were trying to drag the New Covenant church back to Mount
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  Sinai, imposing administrative aspects of Mosaic covenant on
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  Gentile believers. They just didn't understand that
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  Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.
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  They were looking backward instead of looking to Jesus.
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  This brings us to the final piece of the puzzle, the
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  theological synthesis. We have to put all these pieces
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  together. How do doctrine, law, and gospel
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  fit together to produce this love?
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  Because if you get the order wrong, the whole machine breaks.
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  This is the architectural drawing, and the proper order is
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  critical. Doctrine reveals the truth, who
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  God is, who we are. Then the law has a very specific
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  role. And it's not a ladder.
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  It is not a ladder. It is a mirror.
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  It exposes our sin. It condemns us.
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  It shuts our mouths and says you are not holy.
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  But for the believer, after we are saved, it also guides our
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  gratitude. It shows us how to live a life
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  that pleases God. And the Gospels roll.
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  The gospel creates the power to obey.
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  The law says do this and live, but it gives you no strengths to
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  do it. The gospel says Christ has done
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  it. Now live.
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  That's the key difference. Legalism tries to use the law
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  for justification, but antinomianism, which means
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  against law, claims to have love while throwing out God's
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  commands. Right, Antinomianism says I love
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  God, but I don't need to obey him.
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  Paul rejects both. The solution is the gospel.
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  Christ fulfilled the law, and now the Spirit empowers us to
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  fulfill the law of love. So for our listener today, maybe
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  they're sitting in a Pew or listening to a sermon online or
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  even listening to us. We have some diagnostic tests
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  from the source material. How can they test the teaching
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  they're hearing to make sure it's aimed at the right target?
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  There are four tests we can pull directly from this text.
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  First is the goal test. Is this teaching driving you
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  toward love for God and your neighbor, or is it just making
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  you smarter and meaner? If you walk away from a sermon
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  feeling superior to everyone else, something went very.
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  Wrong. Exactly.
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  Second, is the root test OK? Is your inner life being dealt
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  with? Is the preaching aiming at your
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  heart, your conscience, your faith?
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  Or are you just learning behaviors and life hacks?
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  Is it behavior modification or is it heart renovation?
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  3rd is the speech test. Does the ministry produce vain
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  discussion? Does it generate quarrels,
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  tangents and tribalism? Or does it produce edification
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  and peace? If a ministry is constantly
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  embroiled in controversy over secondary issues, that is a
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  massive red flag. And finally, the motive test.
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  This is especially for leaders. Do you want the platform or do
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  you want to feed the sheep? Is this about ambition or is it
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  about service? These are searching questions.
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  They are, and they're meant to be.
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  Paul isn't writing a textbook here.
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  He is fighting for the very soul of the Church.
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  As we wrap up this deep dive, let's summarize.
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  The choice Paul presents is pretty stark.
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  It's between a ministry of vain jangling, just empty noise.
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  And a ministry. Of love.
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  And we have to remember that we don't possess this pure heart by
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  nature. We can't manufacture this love
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  on our own. If we try, we'll just end up
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  becoming hypocrites wearing a mask.
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  So what's the solution? Where do we go?
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  We have to look away from our own resources.
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  We have to look to Jesus Christ. He alone had a perfectly pure
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  heart. He alone had a good conscience
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  that was never stained by sin. He alone had a truly sincere
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  faith. And we are united to him by
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  faith. It's his life flowing through
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  us. That's it.
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  If the law has done its work today to expose your lack of
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  love, and I think it does that for all of us, then let the
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  gospel do its work to heal it. That's the hope we have.
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  Repent of studying theology just to win arguments.
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  Repent of the pride that comes with knowledge, and start
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  studying to worship. Start studying to love.
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  That is the aim. Thank you for joining us on this
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  deep dive into First Timothy. We hope this challenges you to
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  examine your own heart and the teaching you consume.
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  Until next time, keep thinking and keep loving.