THE HEART OF THE GOSPEL

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Some have departed from these and have turned to meaningless talk.

1 Timothy 1:5-6

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As we began our study of 1 Timothy yesterday, we found the Paul writing his missionary partner who was ministering to the Ephesian church. In his opening, the Apostle expressed a concern over “false doctrines” that were being taught by “certain people”. These shared untruths included “myths and endless genealogies” that spawned “controversial speculations” instead of “advancing God’s work” through faith.

In essence, Paul’s message to Timothy to share with the believers in Ephesus was to “keep the main thing, the main thing” and the main thing would always be the Gospel. The same holds true today.  

With this in place, let’s look at verses 5 and 6 of this first chapter of 1 Timothy as Paul continues to reinforce his call to stop any and all false teaching in the Ephesian church. We wrote:

The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Some have departed from these and have turned to meaningless talk.

Look to the heart of the Gospel and who do you find?

Jesus, right?

Without Him and what He did in obedience to the calling of His Father God, we would have no “good news” to share with anyone because there would be no Christ to identify with (i.e. no one who would be called Christian) and, therefore, no Christianity.

Thankfully, Jesus did everything His Father called Him to do and so everyone who believes in Him will not perish but gain everlasting life. Jesus said so Himself:

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

This is the Gospel message that was and is to be shared, not the “meaningless talk” that had infiltrated the church in Ephesus. The enemy will always try to move the focus away from Jesus and toward the world. Christians need to always have their eyes fixed upon the cross of Calvary.

This is what Paul wanted for his Ephesian brothers and sisters, and he sent his command, not out of malice but out of love. He wasn’t demanding a turning from false doctrines because he somehow cared less for the believers in Ephesus. Rather, it was because he cared all the more. It was a love that all Christians should have for others, a love that mimicked the love of Jesus for while He is the heart of the Gospel, in His heart we find nothing but love. Consider His words found in the Gospel of John:

“As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Now remain in My love. If you keep My commands, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commands and remain in His love. I have told you this so that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are My friends if you do what I command.” John 15:9-14

Friends, at the heart of the Gospel is Jesus and at the heart of Jesus is love. He was loved perfectly by His Father and, in turn, He loves us perfectly because He and God are one (John 10:30). Then, we in turn get the great privilege and responsibility to love others as Jesus has loved us.

Love begets love and when we allow this to happen, we can make Jesus’ joy complete just as we will find our own.

Turn your eyes, your heart, and your mind to Jesus, the One who is at the heart of the Gospel, centered on His redeeming, saving work on the cross, and then invest your time every day to share this good news with others. For Jesus called us to action when it comes to making disciples (Matthew 28:18-20), telling others about Him and all He commanded out of the love we find in and through Him, the love that is found at His heart.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.