1 Timothy 1:5-7 ESV
The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.
PERSONAL COMMENTARY
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Love, pure heart, good conscience = good
Vain discussions, teacher of law, no understanding = bad
Yep, I still fall short every day.
My discussion falls outside of my original focus of Hope, Faith, and Love as I try to understand and test and confirm my own faith – and as I encounter those concerns and stumbling blocks that are placed before me.
I find some of my study not just focused on this gospel of the Good News, but in diving into this Word, in mediating on this Word, applying it to my life as a renewed and growing child of God that is hungry and eager and zealous.
But I shouldn’t forget there is a call to spread the Good News of the gospel, not to just feed myself and eat with the 99 – but to go out and find the lost with this Good News.
But isn’t this Holy Spirit teaching and guiding me? So how can I determine whether it will serve me with fire that burns and refines, or with water that refreshes and restores?
How much control do I have over the message received? And how could I pick and choose what is shared and what is “just for me”?
Oh well, I’m trying. I’m learning.
Thank God for His amazing grace.
Harold J. Ballinger 