The end is love

Monday, February 16, 2009

Daily Office Bible readings

The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (1 Tim. 1:5)

The goal or end (telos), Paul writes, of their charge (command, instruction) is love. There is an imperative to Paul's gospel. In Romans he calls it the "obedience of faith" (1:5; 16:26). He speaks in this passage of the goodness of the law, and of his preeminence as a sinner.

Paul's message about "another king, Jesus" (Acts 17:7) obviously is a call to a faith that obeys and an obedience that trusts. As Bonhoeffer writes in The Cost of Discipleship, "only he who believes obeys, and only he who obeys believes."

But Paul well knows that the aim, end, and goal of the good news of the kingdom of God in the Messiah Jesus is love, not observance of commands. It is inner transformation, not outward conformity.

He says in verse 14, "the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus." The very aim of the gospel, love from a pure heart, good conscience, and sincere faith, is somehow conveyed in the receiving of the gospel. Grace overflowing with the faith and love that are in Messiah Jesus. However, even overflowing grace (a gospel that will not be contained!) is attended by a "charge," by directives given by the apostle to live and speak this way and not this way.

This morning I was thinking about a Jewish concept of prayer that I find helpful and I think connected to what I'm aiming at here. "Kavanah," or intention. It simply means to intend what you pray. I often hear people say something about the liturgy, or wrote prayers, getting boring, or them being distracted because the prayers are so familiar. That sentiment is absolutely understandable. And the antidote is not to beat ourselves up or just "fake it till you make it." It is simply to call one's heart into alignment with what you are praying, perhaps even starting over if you find you've been drifting off and thinking of other things.

The Greek word here in 1 Timothy 1:5 connected to faith, a "sincere" faith, has this definition "pertaining to being genuine and sincere, and hence lacking in pretense or show." Perhaps part of what Paul is getting at here is that the overflowing grace of faith and love we receive in Messiah Jesus while abundant, generous and free, still must be attended by intention, by a directedness, by a cooperation ("Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed... work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you to will and work for his good pleasure," Philippians 2:12-13).

I want to say our part is like river banks making sure the river doesn't just spill off and dissipate and is wasted... but that is not a good analogy, for we can't guide or contain God's overflowing grace, but perhaps it is like intentionally getting in the middle of that strong current, when we find ourselves pulling off to the side, to a calm little pool or inlet or the shallows where we can stand safely. That strong current is the love of God, and will culminate in the full and perfect love of God.

A pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincer faith at least includes the rightly ordered loves St. Augustine spoke of...