First Timothy 1:5 refers to “the end of the commandment.” It is perhaps better translated, “the end of what is enjoined.” Unlike the law, we do not have specific commandments in the New Testament, but it is simply, as in John 15, abiding in Him and His words abiding in us.
This grand summing up specifies three things which are to claim our attention. Let us look at them in the order given. “Charity [love] out of a pure heart.” Perhaps it may be asked, What is a pure heart in the light of Scripture? We have instruction in 2 Timothy 2:2222Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. (2 Timothy 2:22): “Follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” Then in 1 Peter 1:2222Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: (1 Peter 1:22) we are exhorted, “See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.” I believe that the mind and heart of the new man are closely connected, and the exhortations as to each are similar in character. The heart is looked at as the seat of the affections, and the mind as where the intelligence of the new man is stored.
The Mind and Heart of Christ
In Philippians 2:55Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: (Philippians 2:5) we are told, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” Then we have in Romans 12:22And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. (Romans 12:2): “Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.”
In the prayer of Ephesians 3, the desire is that “Christ may dwell in your hearts.” Then in chapter 4 we read: “If ye have heard Him and been instructed in Him according as the truth is in Jesus; namely your having put off according to the former conversation the old man...and being renewed in the spirit of your mind; and your having put on the new man, which according to God is created in truthful righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:21-2421If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 23And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. (Ephesians 4:21‑24) JND).
It seems from these scriptures, then, that “love out of a pure heart” can spring only from one who is born again and that all thoughts and desires of the old man are put in the place of death, so that it is only the thoughts and desires of the new man that are in evidence, and hence it comes from a pure heart. All the selfishness and ambition which characterize the present age are not given a place in the heart and mind of the new man. It is not a state reached once and for all practically, but it is a matter of being before the Lord constantly in self-judgment.
The Lord passes us through a school of training here in our wilderness journey, similar to Israel of old as brought before us in Deuteronomy 8: “To humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart ... that He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord” (Deut. 8:2-32And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. 3And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. (Deuteronomy 8:2‑3)).
This “love out of a pure heart” would be that love which Christ always manifested down here, proceeding out of the hearts of His people. One is reminded of what is said in John 13: “Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end.”
J. L. Erisman