THE ULTIMATE END OF THE COMMANDMENT IS LOVE FROM A
PURE
HEART AND A GOOD CONSCIENCE.
“Now the end
[ultimate object] of the commandment is love from a pure heart and a good
conscience, and an undissembled faith-which some, having failed [to
discern] have turned aside to foolish talking.”-1 Tim. 1:5,6.
NOT ONLY in the
Apostle’s day did many fail to get the true idea of religion-the Lord’s
commandments to his people, etc.-but many, probably an increasing number, have
since similarly failed. We may suppose that the method of the great Adversary
is to confuse the minds of those who are feeling after God and righteousness.
It is thus, as the Scriptures declare, that he deceives the whole world-putting
forms, ceremonies, theories and confessions instead of heart religion.
Those who teach the monstrous false doctrine that the present life decides
the fate of every human being, either for eternal misery or for eternal joy,
consider this doctrine the very bulwark of pure Christianity and of holiness;
consequently many who really do not believe it tacitly give it their consent
and approval, believing that in so doing they are forwarding the cause of
holiness. But this is a great mistake; this is one of the great Adversary’s delusions,
by which he would make the piety of God’s people serve his cause, (1) because
this doctrine dims the divine glory as respects love and justice, and (2)
because the doctrine, instead of cultivating or promoting holiness, cultivates
and promotes the reverse of this, as we shall show.
The theory that the present life is merely to decide who are worthy of
eternal joy, and who are worthy of eternal torments, resolves itself finally in
the general thought as signifying that all fiendish characters may perhaps be
worthy of some kind of ill-treatment to all eternity, provided they shall not
breathe a prayer of penitence at some time before they expire; but that all
half-way decent people are too respectable or too good to justly merit an
eternity of torture, and hence must be of the kind who will receive an eternity
of bliss. Thus this hell-fire doctrine, instead of promoting holiness, purity
of heart, promotes the reverse,-carelessness as respects anything except out
and out murder and general devilishness.
On the contrary, the Scriptural doctrine makes no threat of eternal
torment, and promises a full opportunity for every human creature to come to a
knowledge of the truth, either in the present life or in the next life, and
thus, under the terms of the New Covenant, to avail themselves of the
opportunity for eternal life through the great atonement sacrifice finished at
Calvary. This Scriptural doctrine is replete with the highest incentives to
holiness, purity of heart and of life; because, instead of holding forth a
general penalty of torture, it holds forth “a just recompense of
reward,” a reward of blessing or of stripes which will be proportionate to the
individual efforts of each to come into harmony with God and his holiness.
First we have the call of the Gospel Church to become heirs of God and
joint-heirs with Jesus Christ, in the Millennial Kingdom, upon the condition
of holiness of heart, and subsequently will come the offer of
restitution and everlasting life in human perfection, to those of the world who
similarly return to heart-harmony with the Lord. The Scriptures hold out no
suggestion anywhere that eternal life will ever be given to any creature on any
plane of existence, except upon this condition of full, complete heart-harmony
with the Lord. Anything contrary to, or even short of, this perfect harmony
with the Lord, will, from the Scriptural standpoint, mean the Second Death.
Here, then, in the divine offer, we have the highest inducement to strive for
our closest possible attainment to perfection; and we are assured that such
striving will ultimately, according to divine favor, be rewarded with perfect
conditions (in which absolute perfection will be possible)-in the resurrection.
Many there are who have very erroneous views of what is signified by the
expression, “pure in heart;” one class considers this impossible of attainment
in the present life; another class, no less mistakenly, considers this to mean
absolute perfection in every thought, word and deed; and in believing that they
fulfil these conditions, and in teaching others similarly, they are making a
grave mistake.
Answering the last error first, we remark that it is possible for one to
deceive himself respecting his own heart and his own condition, as for
instance, apparently, the Pharisees of our Lord’s day: claiming that they were
perfect, and that they kept the whole law, they were merely deceiving
themselves, but not the Lord; by their self-deception, a form of hypocrisy,
which blinding them to their own need of the robe of Christ’s righteousness,
left them in the filthy rags of their own righteousness, unfit for the
Kingdom. And so with some today, who claim perfection of thought, word and
deed. They have blinded themselves to their own weaknesses, imperfections and
errors, and are in a far worse condition than he who, tho outwardly less moral,
is at heart better in the Lord’s sight, because honest in confessing his
unworthiness, because for such the Lord has provided forgiveness of sins,-
covering with the robe of Christ’s righteousness.
Nevertheless, those who think that purity of heart is an impossibility in
the present life are likewise mistaken. Their mistake arises from not seeing a
wide distinction between a purity of heart and a perfection or righteousness of
all the words and deeds of life. The heart, as used in this text, refers to the
mind, the will, the actuating intentions or motives of the man. With this
thought before the mind, it is easy to see that one might be pure of heart, that
is of pure intentions, and yet confess himself unable to do and to be all that
his good intentions desire and endeavor. He whose heart is pure toward the
Lord in Christ is the same one whose eye is single, the same one who is not
double-minded but single-minded, whose mind, will, heart, seeks first, last and
always the will of God. Hence the exhortation of the Apostle, “Purify your
hearts, ye double-minded.”-Jas. 4:8.
But how can this condition of purity of heart be attained? Is this to be
our message to sinners-“purify your hearts”? No, the Gospel does not call
sinners to purify their hearts: on the contrary it declares it to be an
impossible thing for the sinner to purify his heart; a fuller’s soap, which the
sinner does not possess, is needed to cleanse the heart and bring it into that
attitude of relationship with God and his will which will be pure and
acceptable in his sight. On the contrary, sinners are called to
repentance-called upon to confess that not only their outward lives are
imperfect, short of the glory of God, but that their hearts also are
rebellious, impure and in sympathy with impurity. After the sinner is
repentant for sin, desiring to come into harmony with the Lord and his
righteousness, he is pointed to the great atonement for sin, and is drawn to
the great Redeemer, through a desire to be made free from sin and to come into
harmony with God. When this step has been taken-when the sinner having
repented of his sins, and having made restitution so far as possible, accepts
Christ and the pardon he offers, and seeks to walk in the way of righteousness,
then he is justified,-justified freely from all things, from which the
Law could not justify him-“justified by faith through the blood of
Christ”-brought nigh to God, into relationship with him, and caused to know the
joy and peace of his forgiving love.
When this is accomplished, when justification by faith has been
established, when the sinner is reckoned and treated as no longer a sinner, but
as reconciled to the Father, then his heart may be said to be pure, cleansed
from “the sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.” But now arises
a new question with the reformed one: while past sins are graciously covered,
weaknesses of the flesh are present, and temptations of the adversary are on
every hand. He starts to walk forward, but finds himself beset by the world,
the flesh and the devil: what shall he do? A heart searching probably begins
there: finding himself incapable of guiding himself, or of keeping himself, his
proper course is to accept another offer of divine grace, namely, the second
step in our great salvation. He hears the voice of the Lord, through the
Apostle, saying, “I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God
[manifested in the covering of your sins], that ye present your bodies living
sacrifices, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”
The reformed one, if rightly instructed, realizes his inability to stand in his
own strength, realizes that his only hope of maintaining justification
granted to him lies in getting the Lord to take charge of him. At first he may
think to go into partnership with the Lord, and to say, “Some of self and some
of thee,” some of my own will and some of the Lord’s will; but rightly
instructed he finds that this will not be satisfactory to the Lord; that the
Lord will accept him, and become responsible for him, and guarantee him
glorious victory and eternal reward, only upon this one condition, namely, a
full self-surrender, a full consecration of heart.
It is after the sinner has come through all this process and has made a
full consecration of his heart to the Lord, that he is of the class described
in our text, one of the pure in heart, under the law of love, the law of the
New Covenant. But notwithstanding the purity of his heart, his motives, his
intentions, his will, to fulfil the Lord’s great commandment, which is briefly
comprehended in one word, Love,-he will find that he has a battle to wage, that
the law of his members, depraved through heredity in sin, is a strong law of
selfishness, in opposition to the new law, to which he has pledged himself, the
law of his pure heart or new heart or will,-the law of Love.
Hence, as the Apostle suggests in our text, we must learn that the ultimate
end or object of the divine commandment or law, means LOVE,-even tho we do not
find ourselves thoroughly able to live up to every minute particular and
requirement of that law. Yet our inability to live up to the requirements of
that law must be through no lack of the will, or intentions of the loyal and
pure heart toward the law, and toward the Lord whose law it is: whatever
failure we make, however short we may come of the grand ultimate object before
us, it must be solely because of weaknesses of the flesh, and besetments of the
adversary, which our pure hearts, or wills failed to resist.
And here the Lord’s promises are helpful, assuring us that he knows our
weaknesses and frailties, and the wiles of our great adversary, the devil, and
the influence of the spirit of the world, which is contrary to the spirit of
love: he tells us that we may go freely to the throne of the heavenly grace,
and obtain mercy in respect to our failures to live up to the grand standards
which our hearts acknowledge, and seek to conform to; and that we may also find
grace to help us in every time of need. And, availing ourselves of these
mercies and privileges provided through our great High Priest, we are enabled
to fight a good fight against sin, to repulse its attacks upon our hearts, and
to drive it off if it shall succeed in invading our flesh. Thus, and thus
only, may the Christian keep himself pure in heart, preserving
his stand as one of the fighters of the good fight, one of the overcomers of
the world and its spirit.
There will be a tendency on the part of the flesh, and the mind of the
flesh, to deceive us in respect to this commandment of Love. The mind of the
flesh will seek to go into partnership with the new mind, and will be very
ready to recognize love as the rule and law of life, under certain
conditions. The mind of the flesh would recognize love in words, in
profession, in manners-a form of godliness, without its power. Gentle manners,
such as love would demand, may be exercised by a selfish heart deceiving
itself, and seeking to deceive others; on the lip may be the smile, the word of
praise, of kindness, of gentleness, while in the heart may be feelings of
selfishness, of grudge, of bitterness, of animosity, which, under favorable
conditions, may manifest themselves in more or less carefully worded slander,
or backbiting, or reproaches. Or these, continuing in the heart and rankling,
may, under favorable conditions, bring forth anger, hatred, malice, strife and
other wicked works of the flesh and of the devil, wholly contrary to the proper
course of a pure heart, and at utter variance with the commandment of the law
of the New Covenant-Love.
We are, therefore, to have clearly before our
minds the fact that the ultimate object of all the divine dealings for
us and with us, and the ultimate significance of all the divine promises made
to us, is the development of love, which is god-likeness, for God is love. And
to have this love developed in us, in the sense and to the degree intended by the
Lord, it is necessary that it shall come from a pure heart, in full
accord with the Lord, and his law of love, and wholly antagonistic to the
Adversary and his law of selfishness. To have this kind of love in its
proper development requires also a good conscience: for be it remembered that
there are bad consciences,-our consciences require
regulating, as do all the other features of our fallen nature. If our
consciences are to be regulated we must have some standard by which to set and
regulate them. The conscience is like a watch whose dial is properly marked
with the hours, but whose correctness as a time-keeper depends upon the proper
regulating of its mainspring, so that it may point out the hours truthfully: so
our consciences are ready to indicate right and wrong to us, but they can only
be relied upon to tell us truly what is right and what is wrong after being
regulated in connection with the new mainspring, the new heart, the pure will,
brought into full harmony with the law of love, as presented to us in the Word
of God.
Our text also points out the necessity for an undissembled faith. And
here, we believe, is one of the important difficulties besetting many who are
in the nominal churches: they are not honest; they are not conscientious in respect
to their faith. If they believe differently from the denomination they have
been connected with, they are willing to dissemble their faith, to misrepresent
it, because they fear a disturbance in the church; they fear to be thought
peculiar; they fear to lose the esteem of fellow-Christians (“wheat”) who might
understand them, and of fellow-associates (“tares”) who would be sure to
misunderstand them, and speak evil of them. They love the praise of men more
than they love the praise of God, else they would not risk the disfavor of God
through a violation of conscience, and a dissembling of their faith, in order
to maintain the friendship of the world and of the nominal church.
We urge that all our readers consider carefully, studiously, the words of
our text, remembering it is those who miss this true thought who are not only
missing the opportunity of the present time to be overcomers of the world, and
the opportunity of the future, to be “joint-heirs with Christ” in his Kingdom,
but who, additionally, are lending influence now in the wrong direction, and
are likely to be turned aside to foolish talking, preaching and teaching and
discussing matters which are illogical, irrational, nonsensical; because their
hearts have become darkened through neglect of the principles which the
Lord has set forth for the government of those who are new creatures in Christ
Jesus. And sometimes the matter goes beyond foolish talking, and the heart
becomes embittered and corrupted: love is cast out of the heart, and
selfishness takes its place, and from it flows words of bitterness, anger and
evil, instead of words of love, kindness, gentleness, mercy and goodness.
“Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of
life”-life or death. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see
God.”