Charity the Object of the Law

TEXT.—"Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling;" 1Tim. 1:5-6.

THE word "end" is used here as in other places in the Scriptures, as meaning purpose, as in Jas. 5:11. In exhorting to patience unto the coming of the Lord, he says, "Ye have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord." That is, we see the purpose of the Lord in allowing Job to suffer affliction. Again the word is used in Rom. 10:4. "For Christ is the end of the law, for righteousness, to every one that believeth." That is, Christ is the purpose of the law for righteousness. Righteousness is in the law of God. Ps. 119:172. To maintain righteous character is one of its purposes. But that purpose has been frustrated by man in his transgression, and he has forfeited all opportunity of obtaining righteousness from the law. Now Christ steps in; through him we obtain righteousness, and he thus becomes the purpose of the law for righteousness. This is the point of Paul's argument in Rom. 8:3, "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us," &c. So then we may read the text, "The purpose of the commandment is charity," &c.

From the context, it appears that the word "commandment" also is used in an accommodated sense, as being synonymous with the word "law." It is used the same way by Paul in Rom. 7:8. "Sin taking occasion by the commandment. . . For without the law sin was dead." Verse 9: "I was alive without the law, . . . but when the commandment came." Now putting these definitions in the place of these two words, we get the real meaning of the text by reading it: "Now the purpose of the law is charity." And as charity means love, Prov. 10:12; 1 Pet. 4:8, we have this still further reading: "The purpose of the law is love;" and by it we discover that the purpose that God had in giving the ten commandments was love. This is further proven by Deut. 33:2, 3: "The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from Mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints; from his right hand went a fiery law for them. Yea he loved the people." And as God is love, 1 John 4:8, and as it was love which led him to give his law to the people, and as the very purpose of that law is love, it could be nothing but a law of love. And so we find it. Rom. 13:8. "He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." Verse 10, "Love is the fulfilling of the law." 2 John 6, "This is love, that we walk after his commandments." 1 John 5:3, "This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments," and Matt. 23:37-40. So then we see that the degree of love which is demanded by the law of God is measured only by the demands which are made upon us by the Lord himself, for the law is simply and only an exposition of the perfections of God. But this purpose of the law cannot be met by the natural man. Rom. 8:7. Therefore the apostle adds a phrase, "The purpose of the law is charity, out of a pure heart." "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked." Jer. 17:9; and the Saviour gives us a picture of the natural heart in Mark 7:21, 22, "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness." And this is what God finds in men, instead of the purpose of his law. Well indeed it is that Paul says that the purpose of the law can come only out of a pure heart. And blessed be God who has not only in love given us a law of love, but has given the Son of his love to redeem us from this iniquity, and to teach us the way of love. By faith in him the heart is purified. Acts 15:9. And by his Holy Spirit dwelling in the heart, making it spiritual and thus in harmony with the law, the purpose of the law can be met,—love out of a pure heart, for the fruit of the Spirit is love. Gal. 5:22.

There is another phrase added in the text. "The purpose of the law is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience." It is a point that has been much debated whether conscience be a sufficient guide; and it may always be answered in the negative, because the conscience itself must be guided. The phrase now under consideration shows that, because it says a good conscience, implying that there are consciences that are not good. And this is made sure by 1 Tim. 4:2, where we read of the "conscience seared with a hot iron." Surely such a conscience as that needs to be guided; for a bad conscience could be nothing but a bad guide, and needs itself to be guided to that which is good; in short, needs to be made good.

This "seared with a hot iron," of course is a figure, applied to the conscience, but if we understand the real searing with a hot iron, we may understand what the figure really means, applied to the conscience. If by accident your hand were struck upon a red-hot iron and held there a moment, it would be burned so much that the pain would be very severe. If the same hand were put a second time upon the same piece of hot iron, the pain would not be so great. And if it were put there the third time, there would be no pain at all. The tissue of the flesh would be so deadened that all sense of pain would be gone. Now carry the illustration to the conscience. Take, for instance, a young man, the son of pious parents, and he has been brought up in the fear of God. He leaves home and goes out into the world and falls in with evil associates, say with a class of persons who will steal, and who think that the one who can steal most expertly should be held in esteem among them. The young man is influenced finally to steal, for the first time; and his conscience will sting him to the quick. I once saw a young man steal a fine scarf, and go and put it away where it was perfectly safe; no one saw him but myself, and he did not know even that, but he was as restless as a person could be; and when he had stood it perhaps half an hour, I saw him go and get the scarf, and put it right back where he stole it from. Then he was easy.

Suppose now this young man resists the pleadings of his conscience, and keeps what he has stolen; when he steals the second time, his conscience will not affect him nearly so much; and when he has stolen the third or fourth time, he will have no conscience on that point at all. He has utterly deadened his conscience, "seared it with a hot iron." And so can he do under any commandment of the decalogue; and finally bring himself to that place where he will have no conscience at all on any of these points. Now suppose he by some means is induced to enter a church, where he, perhaps, hears read from the Bible the words his mother taught him, or he hears the words of a hymn which she sang to him, when a child, and he becomes a child again and listens to it all, until he falls on his knees before God, and cries for forgiveness; it is granted, and, like a child, again he starts into the world; he meets his old associates; they invite him to go with them in the old way, and he abhors it. Why, what is the matter? Ah! he is converted. The law of God is written anew upon his heart by the Holy Spirit, 2 Cor. 3:3, and now he has a good conscience, one which recognizes the claims of the command, "Thou shalt not steal."

Now I say that the law of God is the great regulator of the conscience, and so much of the law of God as is in the heart, just that much conscience a man has, and no more. Webster remarks on the word conscience that—"The English word implies a moral standard of action in the mind." What moral standard of action is there for the human mind? None other than the ten commandments, which show the whole duty of man. Eccl. 12:13. And Paul expresses it clearly in Rom. 7:25: "So then with the mind I serve the law of God." This is further confirmed by Rom. 2:14, 15: For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law are a law unto themselves; which show the work of the law written in their hearts, "their conscience also bearing witness," &c. So we see that when they show (by doing the law) the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bears witness. And it is only to the work of the law, that their conscience does bear witness. Therefore it is plain that where there is no work of the law, the conscience cannot bear witness, and consequently, virtually, there is no conscience. On the strength of these "proofs of Holy Writ," let me repeat, Just as much of the law of God as is in the heart, just so much conscience a man has.

However from the quotation before made from Mark 7:21, 22, it appears that there is hardly any of the law of God recognized in the natural heart. But God in his great love "wherewith he hath loved us," has made abundant provision for this lack. If we will repent, he will convert us, Acts 3:19; and write his law new in our hearts, 2 Cor. 3:3; Heb. 10:15, 16; Ps. 19:7; and thus, in writing his good law in our hearts, he gives us a good conscience, and the purpose of the law can be met.

There is yet another phrase that Paul has given us: "The purpose of the law is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned." James (chap. 2:14-26) sets before us fully the nature of a feigned faith, a faith that depends all upon believing without any doing—all faith and no works. But Paul in Gal. 5:6, shows us what he means by the phrase "faith unfeigned." "For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love." There it is, it is not alone a faith which works, but a faith which works by love. And thus in this, the "purpose of the law" is met. What a wondrous view of the law of God is here set before us! The purpose of the law is love. Love out of a heart from which love alone can flow. Love out of a conscience which witnesses to nothing but love. Love by a faith which works with nothing in view but love.

And this brings us to notice, for just a moment, the last part of our text, with the marginal reading. "From which some not aiming at, have turned aside to vain jangling." This shows that the purpose of the law, which is charity (love) must be our aim in the Christian life. What more painful thing do we see than a person who has no aim in life, having no controlling influence, no guiding star, but wholly and entirely the creature of circumstances, now here, now there, and finally nowhere. But the person who has an aim, it matters not what it may be, everything must be turned to helping him reach it. Circumstances may seemingly turn him from it, but in the outcome they have only helped him onward. Warren Hastings, one of the men to whom England owes the greatness of her dominion, when he was but a child playing in the fields, saw the castles and estates that had once belonged to the name of Hastings. And child though he was, he determined then that he would bring them back once more to the name. And though it was nearly at the end of a long life before he reached it, he did reach it. Through many vicissitudes, adversity and prosperity, his one aim in life was that, and he accomplished it. In the Christian life God has set before us this aim, charity. And we are to aim at nothing else; for he who aims at anything else, even though he should reach his aim, really aims at nothing and reaches nothing. For though I aim at the eloquence of the tongues of men and of angels, and reach it, I reach only the lifeless, sounding brass. Though I aim at the gift of prophecy and reach it, or the understanding of all mysteries and reach it; though I aim at all knowledge and reach it; though I aim at martyrdom and reach it; though I aim at any or all of these, and reach them, I have aimed at nothing and reached nothing. But if I aim at charity, I aim at that which God has set for my aim; and he will help me to reach it. And in reaching that, the highest, in the very nature of the case I reach all below it.

Here, then, is our aim. Let it be indeed our aim. Let nothing swerve us from charity. For as surely as we lose our aim, vain jangling is the inevitable consequence. The apostle Peter, after showing us how to reach charity, says: "For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." So means in this way, which shows that without charity we cannot obtain that entrance. Oh! we must aim at charity; we must reach it. And may the Lord help this people, who are set for the defense of the law of God in the earth, to aim at charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned, and so fulfill the purpose of that law.