What does it mean to have a good conscience (1 Timothy 1:5)?

1 Timothy 1:5. How very perfect this statement as to the result! In what an atmosphere of blessing it puts us, in contrast with the idle speculations of man's mind! The object of the commission is not idle speculation, but love (God's own nature) enjoyed and active, purity in the affections, a pure heart which sees God - the conscience, with nothing on it, happy in God's presence; and then faith, the spirit of dependence on, and confidence in God. How bright a state in God's presence!

But when heaven is opened, I find something else. I find that I had been in Paradise, surrounded with blessing and goodness, and that I had lost it, and been driven out of it, and that I never can get back; that there is no going back there; that Satan had come in, and I had trusted him, and hearkened to him, and distrusted the God who had put me there, that the evil had triumphed over the good, and that I never can be innocent again; there is no going back to that state, no unlearning the knowledge of good and evil. Shall I then remain in that wretched place, far away from the God who is perfect, and goodness, and love, and blessedness? Ah! that will not do for my soul. How then am I to get there, to leave the condition I am in, and to be fit for that God who is perfect in good? To be it, and to enjoy it now? I must have "a good conscience" — a conscience so perfect that it can charge me with nothing in the presence of that God who dwells in light. And to this end I must for myself learn the triumph of good over evil; I must learn what the apostle speaks of in verse 5 of our chapter, "The end of the commandment (or, charge) is charity (love) out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned." He speaks then of love out of a pure heart — a heart from which every motive and thought comes by the Holy Ghost from a nature within capable of enjoying God in light; which loves to think the thoughts of God, to walk in His ways, to look forward to be with Him, and to enjoy Him even now; and, having such a hope, to purify itself even as He is pure. He speaks of a good conscience — a conscience that can know God in the unsullied purity of light and holiness in which He dwells; and, knowing Him thus, to have the answer of a good conscience in His presence, and that it stands on an unclouded title to be there. And he adds, lastly, "faith unfeigned;" full and perfect trust and confidence in God Himself, as One who is for him, come what will, One who knows no change, and that nothing can move Him from His love.

The charge has in view an end of purest moral blessing - "love out of a pure heart" first. The law actually required this, but furnished no power for it. In Christ that love is perfectly seen, and has been shed abroad in the believer's heart by the Spirit of God so that, being so blessed, he has no excuse for failing to manifest this love in his ways. "Out of a pure heart" too surely requires that we should not allow the intrusion of impure motives.

Secondly, a good conscience. This of course, is very personal, while the first is inclusive of others. To maintain a good conscience we must be obedient to what we have learned from God. "Faith unfeigned" completes this triplet, and, of course, connects the soul directly with God: it is the bringing of God into everything, in simple, unaffected confidence that He is supreme and at the same time vitally interested in all that concerns my path, His will perfect and good and acceptable. If these three things were always in vital, active exercise, how precious would be the testimony to the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ!

The manifestation of love is the evidence of the possession of the divine nature. Love is to be shown to all in the family of God, and in divine compassion to those who as yet have not known love. A pure heart can only be found in one who has purified his soul "by obedience to the truth" (1 Peter 1:22); and who lives before God in self-judgment and in holiness. Only as we learn love in Christ in whom it was perfectly manifested, and only as we live in communion with Him, can there be this love out of a pure heart.

But we cannot be in communion with Christ without a good conscience, and so far as the Christian is concerned it means that the heart is to be exercised before God in the light of His word. Saul of Tarsus could persecute the church with a good conscience, thinking he was rendering service to God; but it was very different when the light of the glorified Christ shone upon him, enlightening him as to who He was, and exposing the evil nature of his course. To have a good conscience the Christian must walk before God in the light of His word, testing all his motives and actions by the word. Without this there is ever the danger of getting astray, and making "shipwreck as to faith," like Hymenaeus and Alexander.

Second, that only by holding faith and a good conscience could the faith of God be preserved in its integrity, and with the preservation of that faith the charge was concerned. Have we all digested this fact? We all recognize the doctrine of "justification by faith" but do we equally recognize the doctrine of "faith-preservation by faith"? Our little barque is launched upon the ocean of truth by faith, but do we now successfully navigate that ocean by intellect, by reason, by scientific deductions? Not so, but rather by faith and the maintenance of a good conscience. The Scriptures are the chart by which we navigate but the discerning and understanding eye which alone reads the chart aright is not intellect nor reason but FAITH, though when faith has done its work the chart discloses to us things which satisfy and overpower the highest intellects. Conscience is our compass, but a conscience that has been dulled and tampered with is as useless as a compass which has been demagnetized.

How do we maintain a good conscience? By honestly obeying that which we see to be the will of God as revealed in His Word. Disobedience will immediately give us a bad conscience. If we let go faith which enables to discern the truth, and a good conscience which keeps us in practical conformity to it, we soon make shipwreck of the faith.

(V. 5). Having warned against false doctrine, the Apostle passes on to speak of the end of the charge. The end he has in view is a right spiritual condition which alone will enable us to maintain the truth and escape error. We shall only be kept as we hold the truth in conjunction with “love out of a pure heart, a good conscience, and faith unfeigned”. Sound doctrine can only be maintained with a right moral condition.

Speculative questions can be raised and discussed by the human mind apart from a right moral condition of soul, for they leave the conscience and affections untouched, and therefore do not bring the soul into the presence of God. In contrast with man's speculations, the truth of God can only be apprehended by faith. Acting upon the conscience and the heart, the truth leads to the strengthening of the moral relations of the soul with God. Thus the truth edifies by leading to love out of a pure heart, a good conscience, and faith unfeigned. To exhort to these practical results was the great end of the charge to the Ephesian believers. The charge was not to do some great service or make some great sacrifice. It was not doing great things before men, but being in a right condition before God. Love in the heart, “a good conscience”, and “faith unfeigned” are qualities which God alone can see, though others may see the effect they produce in the life.

The apostle is setting the face of Timothy against those who would put the Christian under law. He does not allow their motives to be good in guarding souls from evil ways, nor does he fear their outcries against his teaching as antinomian. He maintains that the end of the charge he is giving is love out of a pure heart and a good conscience and unfeigned faith. These are the effects of the gospel brought home to the believers; of which things the law is essentially incapable. It may convict of the enmity and impurity of the heart; it may prove that the conscience is evil; and it is not of faith in any way, as we are told expressly in Gal. 3:12. The law works out wrath, not grace, and thus becomes death, not life; not because it is not good and holy, but because man is evil, ungodly, and powerless. It is by faith that the heart is purified (Acts 15:9) in virtue of obeying the truth unto unfeigned brotherly kindness that we may love one another out of a pure heart fervently (1 Peter 1:22); and so it is through the word of God; but it is the word that is evangelized, not the law, but the gospel contrasted with it.

Those whom the apostle characterizes were Judaizing adversaries; and he tells them plainly that they had missed their aim. Could they really pretend to a pure heart, or a good conscience, or unfeigned faith? They were manifesting not love but vain talk. Through Christ the feeblest Christian walks in truth and love. Being loved perfectly we love: the heart is purged according to the efficacy of Christ's sacrifice, as the conscience is made good by it; and faith, knowing that all the evil and ruin are fully met in Christ's death and resurrection, now rests at ease without feigning anything, because all good is truly given of God and secured in His Son.

When the apostle used the word "commandment" he does not mean the Ten Commandments. It is the charge the apostle is putting upon his son and fellow-laborer Timothy. What he enjoins is, love out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and unfeigned faith. And this is produced not by the law, nor by human imaginations and questionings, but solely by the gospel of grace. Speculative questions or anything else do not act upon the conscience nor bring into the presence of God. An unfeigned faith in Christ clears the conscience from guilt and produces love out of a pure heart. Some had swerved from this, by turning aside from the dispensation of the grace of God unto the vain talk about the law, fables and genealogies. They gave heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men (Tit. 1:14) and were consequently turned from the truth of the gospel. They aimed at being law-teachers, but they did not understand what they said and what they so strenuously affirmed. They were evidently the same Judaizers, ever insisting upon law-keeping and its ordinances, the false teachers who perverted the gospel, who continually dogged the steps of the apostle and tried to injure the work he was doing.

But condition of soul has much to do with warring the good warfare. Faith must be kept up, bright and simple and exercised, the eyes of the heart ever on the things unseen and eternal. Withal a good conscience is imperative. For if faith bring God in, a good conscience judges self so as it keep sin out. This, of all moment for every Christian, is pre-eminently needful for him who is devoted to the service of Christ. There is nothing which so hardens the heart as the continual giving out of truth apart from one's own communion and walk. Take the extreme case of Judas falling under the power of the devil; but look also at Peter, who was far from a traitor, himself betrayed into the denial of his Master. Here, however, it is the maintenance not only of faith, but also of a good conscience, "which some having thrust away made shipwreck concerning the faith."

He then commits a very solemn charge to Timothy. The charge is "holding faith, and a good conscience." Some put it away, that is the good conscience, and then concerning faith make shipwreck The faith is sound doctrine, the gospel of grace, the truth of Christianity. A good conscience must be maintained in order to hold that faith in sincerity and truth. Daily self-judgment, even as to the smallest things, is absolutely necessary to keep the believer from the dangerous rocks on which his faith may be wrecked. It may be a very little sin that is allowed and not confessed and put away; but this unjudged sin becomes the starting point of something worse and may lead to terrible results. If a good conscience is put away the believer begins to drift.