1 Timothy 1:5 Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:

In the End

In the end, Christianity is about having charity, a pure heart, a good conscience, and a real faith.  That is the end of the commandment, the last thing.  That seems kind of simple but is pretty hard to live.  You can take all the commandments and sum them all up in the great commandment of our Lord; to love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.  We tend to make the Christian life complicated, but in the end, it is simple.  Keeping the conscience and heart right, while having charity towards others and faith toward God, is what pleases him.

Charity With a Pure Heart

The Christian life first starts with charity out of a pure heart.  There are many that practice “charity”, but what they are really doing is giving to get.  They give money to some organization so they can soothe their conscience or look good in front of others.  They rarely sacrifice when they give their few trinkets.  They are like the Pharisee that blows his horn before he enters the temple and lets everyone know how much he is giving.  In the end, it costs him little to nothing.  That is not charity out of a pure heart.  That is satisfying the flesh out of a corrupt heart.  We need to give, and expect nothing in return, just like our Lord did when he saved us.

A Clean Conscience

Next, we need to have a clean conscience.  We need to have a short sin account.  We need to get right and try to stay right.  The conscience can bring guilt to the sinner.  The way to get rid of guilt is to confess your sin.  The wrong way is to blame others for your sin. That is the way most people deal with guilt, however.  Pride is, ultimately, what keeps you from a clean conscience.

A Real Faith

Last of all, we need an unfeigned, or real, faith.  When there is hypocrisy in our faith, we doubt God and what he can really do in our lives.  We limit the Holy One of Israel when we do this.  We need to figure out what God wants us to do and then step out and do it, doubting nothing. That is not always easy.  First orders are always from headquarters, as the saying goes.  When God reveals himself to us, we just need to trust the Word of God and what he has spoken to our heart.  That is real faith.  In the end, it is pretty simple.  It is just hard to live up to.

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