Jesus’ vision of the proximity of the Kingdom was a threefold vision.

Are you the finest Christian you know?

What about us? Are we worthy of Christ?

The British Royal Society is greatly concerned about climate change.

A Sincere Faith--A “sincere faith” is, literally, a faith without hypocrisy, a faith informed by true teaching, motivated by a pure heart, and freely chosen as the path on which we choose to walk. A sincere faith reflects the sincere truth of God and the work of His Spirit, bringing these to expression in our lives in the form of love.

Uses of the Law: To Promote Sound Doctrine (7)

T. M. Moore

The aim of our charge is love that issues in a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 1 Timothy 1.5

A “sincere faith” is, literally, a faith without hypocrisy, a faith informed by true teaching, motivated by a pure heart, and freely chosen as the path on which we choose to walk. A sincere faith reflects the sincere truth of God and the work of His Spirit, bringing these to expression in our lives in the form of love.

Sound doctrine is not complete until it is lived doctrine. While teaching and professing sound doctrine are important, they are incomplete unless doctrine is also lived. We have been redeemed unto good works, as Paul explains (Eph. 2.10). And the specific good works for which we have been redeemed are those which were before ordained by God and encoded in His Law.

The Law of God, which reveals the righteousness of God, fulfilled in Jesus Christ, thus provides the template through which we should expect Jesus to bring His righteousness to expression in our lives (Rom. 3.31). The better we know the Law, the better able we will be to walk in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and thus to show ourselves to be His disciples indeed (1 Jn. 2.1-6) by completing the jewel of sound doctrine in lives of love for God and men.

The Law of God is thus indispensable for sound doctrine, doctrine that keeps us in the way for which we have been redeemed and guards us against swerving into vain speculations and self-serving ways.

For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the life of faith, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Book Store.

A Good Conscience--The third facet of sound doctrine is a good conscience. The conscience is that aspect of the soul that nurtures and houses our values and priorities. It is thus the seat of the will. If our values, priorities, and will are good, then it follows that our walk will express that which is pleasing to the Lord, Who is good.

Uses of the Law: To Engage God’s Spirit (6)

T. M. Moore

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

The third facet of sound doctrine is a good conscience. The conscience is that aspect of the soul that nurtures and houses our values and priorities. It is thus the seat of the will. If our values, priorities, and will are good, then it follows that our walk will express that which is pleasing to the Lord, Who is good.

The Law of God, being holy and righteous and good (Rom. 7.12), is thus a valuable resource for the reformation and nurture of our consciences. By an abundance of examples, promises, and warnings, the Law teaches us to value what God values and to make obedience to His will the priority of our lives. We would not be able to know that God deplores coveting – or even what it is to covet – without the Law of God to instruct us (Rom. 7.7). The same is true with everything else that is necessary to foster sound doctrine in the form of love for God and neighbor.

We will not be likely to bring love to expression – no matter how well we understand it nor how pure our motives and desires may be – if our will is not shaped for goodness as God intends. Exposure to the Law of God, by which we learn the character of God and understand the magnitude of Christ’s mercy and grace, can help to ensure that our values will be the same as God’s, so that, mind, heart, and conscience working together, the fourth facet of the jewel of sound doctrine can be achieved, and we will be firmly established in the true teaching of our Lord.

That fourth facet is a sincere and unhypocritical walk of faith.

For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the life of faith, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Book Store.

A Pure Heart--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, we can readily understand that it is lawful to use the Law to aid in achieving this second facet of sound doctrine.

Aimed at Love--Jesus taught that all the Law and the Prophets found their proper expression in the two-fold commandment of love for God and neighbor (Matt. 22.34-30). Thus, is it inconceivable that we could study the Law of God, read it through the filter of the Prophets and our Lord Jesus Christ, and expect that the Apostles would come to any other applications of the Law than these. At the same time, we should also be able to see that it will not be possible to fulfill the “aim of our charge” apart from careful reading and study of the Law of God.

Uses of the Law: To Promote Sound Doctrine (4)

T. M. Moore

The aim of our charge is love… 1 Timothy 1.5

Jesus taught that all the Law and the Prophets found their proper expression in the two-fold commandment of love for God and neighbor (Matt. 22.34-30). Thus, is it inconceivable that we could study the Law of God, read it through the filter of the Prophets and our Lord Jesus Christ, and expect that the Apostles would come to any other applications of the Law than these. At the same time, we should also be able to see that it will not be possible to fulfill the “aim of our charge” apart from careful reading and study of the Law of God.

Sound doctrine is not just a matter of abstract theology reduced to arcane definitions and mind-boggling terms. Doctrine is only sound when it issues in love on the part of those who are learning it. And such doctrine, to be sound, must come to expression in the form of good works set forth in the Law of God. The Law thus contributes to our understanding of sound doctrine by providing an abundance of concrete examples to guide our thinking concerning how we should love God and our neighbor.

We shall return to this theme on Sunday. Sound doctrine is, as Paul explains it, is a jewel with four facets. The first facet consists of achieving a right understanding of the teaching of God’s Word, and we have been addressing this during the first four installments in this current series. We must have our minds rightly grounded in the Word of God if we are to be able to keep from swerving away from sound doctrine. The Law of God, as we have seen, provides the intellectual cornerstone for the rest of Scripture. We will not have a mind for sound doctrine if we neglect the study of God’s Law.

For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the life of faith, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Book Store.

Guided by Faith--If we would be good stewards of God’s Word, able to understand and practice its teaching as God intends, we must be students of His Law, for the Law provides the cornerstone of all Scripture.

Stewarding the Word--We need to enlarge on the subject broached yesterday, namely, that of understanding, teaching, and practicing sound doctrine according to the teaching of the Apostles. Paul told the elders at Ephesus that he had been careful among them to teach them everything that was useful, all the counsel of God in Scripture and its bearing on the task of seeking the Kingdom of God (Acts 20.20, 25, 26). In these brief comments lies a wealth of guidance in the practice of Biblical interpretation.

Uses of the Law: To Promote Sound Doctrine (2)

T. M. Moore

As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. 1 Timothy. 1.3, 4

We need to enlarge on the subject broached yesterday, namely, that of understanding, teaching, and practicing sound doctrine according to the teaching of the Apostles. Paul told the elders at Ephesus that he had been careful among them to teach them everything that was useful, all the counsel of God in Scripture and its bearing on the task of seeking the Kingdom of God (Acts 20.20, 25, 26). In these brief comments lies a wealth of guidance in the practice of Biblical interpretation.

The cornerstone of Scripture is the Law of God. That is, the shape of the Law – its content, purpose, themes, thrusts, and principles of interpretation – provide the shape of all the rest of Scripture. Trying to understand Scripture apart from a clear understanding of the law of God is like trying to build a house with setting a solid and reliable cornerstone in place.

What kind of interpretive guidance does the Law provide? It tells us many things concerning how we must understand the rest of Scripture and its doctrines. Primarily, as we have seen, the Law reveals God and His will. All of Scripture is about God, His will, and how we may glorify Him by knowing Him and obeying His will. Anything that swerves from this is not sound doctrine.

Second, the Law teaches our need for grace. We are sinners, as we have seen, and we are unable to please God apart from His gracious, redeeming work on our behalf. We do not look to ourselves for salvation and righteousness, but to God only, and to His Law.

Third, the Law points to the saving work of Jesus Christ and of the coming of His Kingdom. From the beginning of the Law, in the book of Genesis, through all its detailed outworking, in the laws concerning religious practices and those guiding us in how to love our neighbors, the character of Christ is revealed and the work of Christ is foreshadowed. All the Law, as all the Scriptures, point to Jesus, and must be read in this light (Jn. 5.39).

Finally, the Law establishes the path of good works – as we will see in a subsequent series. Without the Law, those “before ordained works of God,” we cannot fulfill the purpose of our redemption, for we will not be able to discern which works are truly good.

So we are being good stewards of the Word of God, and thus, less likely to swerve into unsound teaching, when, grounded in the Law of God, we allow its themes and content to guide us in understanding all the rest of the Scripture as the Apostles did, and as God intends.

For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the life of faith, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Book Store.

Biblical and Apostolic--We are continuing to examine the proper use of the Law of God in the life of faith. Paul says that “the law is good, if one uses it lawfully” (v. 8), and our desire is to consider just what such lawful uses of the Law might involve.

Seeking the Kingdom is to be the driving force of everything we do.

A Framework for Faith/Spiritual Disciplines

We should strive then for the kingdom of heaven...It is a bright flower in its great purity, it is an open sea in its great beauty, it a heaven full of candles in its true brilliance, it is the eye's delight in its great loveliness and pleasantness, it is a flame in its fairness, it is a harp in its melodiousness, it is a feast in its abundance of wine, it is a true radiance.

  - Anonymous, An Old Irish Homily (Irish, 9th century)

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.

  - Romans 14.17, 18

Doubtless every Christian knows that the Lord Jesus has assigned to us, as our highest priority, seeking the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matt. 6.33). We know this. But we are only blessed if we do it.

Seeking the Kingdom is not simply the first thing we should do each day, before we get on with all the other things we have to do. Seeking the Kingdom is to be the driving force, the goal, and the purpose of everything we do at every moment. We want the rule of Jesus Christ to become the dominant presence in all our relationships, roles, and responsibilities.

That's right, isn't it? We do want that? Or do we just know that this is what we're supposed to want?

We will not seek the Kingdom in this way - striving after it, laying hold of it with violence, as it were (Matt. 11.12) - until we see the Kingdom in all its magnificence, beauty, power, goodness, and uprightness and desire it as our highest goal. This is the way Celtic Christians saw the Kingdom, and it was this understanding, this vision, of the Kingdom that led them to strive by every means, often at great sacrifice, to attain it.

But I rather suspect that most of us don't really understand the Kingdom of God. And, if we don't understand it, it's going to be hard to make it the driving force of all our lives. We cannot seek what we do not know.

The parables of Jesus, together with the teaching of the Psalms and prophets, are rich resources for understanding the Kingdom of God. Meditate on what you see there. Believe it to be as Jesus says - a pearl of great price, a seed fraught with fruit-bearing potential - then go to serve Christ in every aspect of your life, that His Kingdom might prevail and He might reign there through you.

Seeking the Kingdom is the Lord's calling to us, every day, in everything we do. How will you strive to attain this glorious objective today?

T. M. Moore, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.