The Aim of Our Charge Is Love

In one paragraph

Pastor Ray opened 1 Timothy 1:3-20 as part of the church's long-running chronological study of scripture. He returned briefly to last week's ground before pressing through to the end of the chapter, tracing Paul's argument about the right use of the law, the nature of the gospel, and what it costs a teacher to stay faithful to it. Pastor Ray set up the whole message with a crosshairs image. He...

Read together

1. Isaiah 1:18 though our sins be as crimson, they shall be as white as snow, used in the opening prayer
2. 1 Timothy 1:3-20 the passage being preached through in this sermon
3. Acts 20:17-38 background passage read at length, Paul's farewell address to the Ephesian elders at Miletus
4. James 3:1 let not many of you be teachers because you will incur a harsher judgment
5. 1 Timothy 1:5 the aim of our charge is love from a pure heart, good conscience, and sincere faith
6. 1 Timothy 1:6-7 certain persons have wandered into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law without understanding
7. 1 Timothy 1:8-10 the law is good if used lawfully, laid down for the lawless and disobedient, list of sinners mapped against the Ten Commandments
8. Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, used to show everyone falls into the category of sinner
9. Galatians 5:19-23 works of the flesh and fruit of the Spirit listed as a parallel vice list
10. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 vice list including sexual immorality, adultery, homosexual activity, idolatry, thievery, greed, drunkenness, reviling, swindling
11. Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, connected to Paul's testimony of being given strength
12. 1 Timothy 1:15 this saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners
13. 1 Corinthians 1:18-19 the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but the power of God to those being saved
14. 1 Timothy 1:17 doxology to the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, honor and glory forever
15. 1 Timothy 1:18-20 charge repeated to Timothy to fight the good fight, holding faith and good conscience, and Hymenaeus and Alexander handed over to Satan
16. Luke 22:31 Satan has asked to sift you like wheat, referenced when discussing handing Hymenaeus and Alexander over to Satan
17. Romans 12:2 be transformed by the renewing of your mind, used in closing prayer

Talk about it

1. Pastor Ray described the aim of the charge in 1 Timothy 5 as love issuing from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. What is the difference between walking that out sincerely and walking it out simply because you know that is how you are supposed to behave?
2. Paul told the Ephesian elders that fierce wolves would come from outside, but also that men speaking twisted things would arise from among their own number. What does it look like in a real church community to stay alert to both of those dangers without becoming suspicious of everyone around you?
3. Pastor Ray read through several lengthy lists of sins from scripture and said that if you did not see yourself somewhere in those lists, you were not looking. What makes it easy to read a list like that and apply it to someone else rather than to yourself?
4. Paul described himself as the foremost of sinners and said he received mercy because he had acted ignorantly in unbelief. How does holding onto an honest sense of your own sinfulness, the way Paul did, actually become something that produces joy rather than shame?
5. The sermon ended with Hymenaeus and Alexander being handed over to Satan, yet Pastor Ray pointed out that Paul was still hoping they would learn not to blaspheme. What does it look like to hold firm to the gospel and refuse to compromise it, while still genuinely hoping for the restoration of someone who has wandered from it?