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In resisting these false teachers, Timothy must remember the true scope and design of the practical teaching which sets forth the scheme of Divine salvation for man.

I. THE END OF THIS TEACHING IS LOVE.

1. The teaching, as opposed to "fables and genealogies," is of the nature of a solemn charge or practical exhortation. It is not

(1) the Mosaic Law, nor

(2) the evangelical law, but

(3) sound doctrine in its preceptive, and therefore practical form.

2. The end or aim of it is love. "The end of the charge is love." It is love to men, not to God; for the charge stands in contrast with "the questionings which minister strifes" (2 Timothy 2:23). Practical religious teaching has a tendency to unite men in love.

(1) It is hard to maintain brotherly love in presence of active differences of doctrine.

(2) It is impossible to edify without love; for "love edifieth" (1 Corinthians 8:1), as speculations and contentions cannot.

II. THE NATURE OF THE LOVE WHICH IS RELATED TO THIS GOSPEL CHARGE. It is "love out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned." This is the threefold foundation on which it rests.

1. It springs out of a pure heart as its inward seat.

(1) Such a heart is purified by faith (Acts 15:9).

(2) Sprinkled from an evil conscience by the blood of Christ.

(3) Directed into the love of God (2 Thessalonians 3:5).

(4) Inclined to God's testimonies (Psalm 119:36).

(5) Therefore it is a heart pure from selfish desires, ignoble aims, and sinister policy.

The love springing from such a heart must be "without dissimulation;" for it is loving with a pure heart fervently.

2. It springs from a good conscience.

(1) Such a conscience is made good by the sprinkling of the blood of Christ, which reconciles us to God. Thus we have the answer of a good conscience before God.

(2) It is purged from dead works to serve the living God.

(3) Therefore a man is enabled to keep a conscience void of offence toward God and man; to be true to his convictions of truth and duty, and to respond faithfully to every moral obligation. Love springing from such a source will have its actings wisely determined.

3. It springs from faith unfeigned.

(1) This is its true origin; for "faith worketh by love," and must therefore be in existence before love.

(2) It gives reality and power to love, because it is itself not the pretence of faith, but faith in real existence and power. There was thus a marked contrast with the life of the false teachers - corrupted in mind (1 Timothy 6:5), seared in conscience (1 Timothy 4:2), and "reprobate concerning the faith" (2 Timothy 3:8).

4. Mark the order of grace here followed. In the order of nature, faith must be placed first. The apostle follows the order of practical working. Furthest down in man's inner nature is the deep well of a purified heart; then the love, as it comes forth into exercise, must be arrested on its way by a good conscience, to receive restraint and regulation; then, to sustain the vigor of love in its continuous exercise, there must be faith unfeigned, grasping the promises of God, and in intimate relation to things not seen.

III. THE EVIL EFFECTS OF SWERVING FROM THIS THREEFOLD FOUNDATION OF LOVE. "From which things some having swerved have turned aside to vain talking.

1. The persons referred to had evidently belonged, if they did not still belong to, the Church at Ephesus. Timothy could not otherwise have exercised authority over them.

2. The swerve was moral in its nature, but it would have intellectual effects of an injurious character. How often does the heart determine the bias of the mind!

3. Its actual result was a persistent habit of vain talking. It was empty babbling, without sense or profit - about mere trifles, to the neglect of weightier matters of doctrine.

IV. THE PRESUMPTUOUS IGNORANCE OF THIS PARTY, "Desiring to be teachers of the Law, not understanding either what they say, or concerning what things they confidently affirm."

1. It is no new fact in life to find the least qualified the most ready to undertake the task of instruction. They were ignorant and unlearned men, who were only able to wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction.

2. Their ignorance was of the most unquestionable character; for they neither understood their own averments or arguments, as to their nature and drift, nor did they comprehend the things concerning which they were so ready to give their foolish but deliberate judgment.

(1) It is evident they did not reject and disparage the Mosaic Law, but rather exalted it by their interpretations.

(2) They were not mere Judaists such as the apostle contended with in Galatia and elsewhere; for they are not charged with any attempt, either to maintain the ancient customs or to bring in legal observances out of their proper place.

(3) They rather, as misunderstanding the true nature and design of the Law, tried to work up a compost of Judaic and Gnostic elements, which explained the Law according to the philosophic views of the East. Therefore their theology was marred by fanciful allegorizings of the Law, which eliminated its moral element, and thus robbed it of all power to touch the heart or conscience of men.

(4) The case in hand illustrates the progress of error in the Church. The incipient Gnosticism of Ephesus gradually developed into the more pronounced Gnosticism so pointedly condemned by the Apostle John in his First Epistle. - T.C.

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KJV: Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:

WEB: but the goal of this command is love, out of a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith;