The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart… 1 Timothy 1.5
 

The first facet of the jewel of sound doctrine is right understanding of the Word of God. Knowing God’s Law is absolutely crucial to achieving this first facet.

So also with the second: a pure heart. Since the Law of God both defines and exposes sin, and is a primary resource of the Holy Spirit for reforming our hearts (Ezek. 36.26, 27), we can readily understand that it is lawful to use the Law to aid in achieving this second facet of sound doctrine. The Law guides is in loving God and our neighbors with the mind and from the heart.

The heart is the seat of the affections, the wellspring of all that issues from our lives (cf. Prov. 4.23). In its natural state, unredeemed by the grace of the Lord, the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked (Jer. 17.9). We may expect that the law of sin, still at work within even the redeemed, is powerful to engage aspects of the sinful residue in our hearts to adversely affect or even impair our walk with the Lord.

We will neither know nor be able to practice sound doctrine as long as our affections are not what they should be. We must call upon the Spirit of God to search our hearts, in the light of God’s Law and all His Word, so that we might recognize and confess our sins and repent of them as He directs and enables (Ps. 139.23, 24; 1 Jn. 1.8-10; Phil. 2.13).

Thus, the Law of God contributes to the promotion of sound doctrine by illuminating the sin in our hearts and, under the influence of the Spirit, teaching us to desire the way of righteousness it presents. If we would have pure hearts to go along with sound minds, then we must have recourse to the Law of God.

T. M. Moore

For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the life of faith, get The Ground for Christian Ethicsfrom our online store.