Love from a pure heart

Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith,  - 1 Timothy 1.5

The song says 'love changes everything.' I am not sure how the song goes, but those words are true when we are talking about real love. Paul defines real love for us here as he does in other places. Here is definition is short and to the point. This definition deals not so much with the outplaying of love, but with its source. Love must be:

From a pure heart

From a good conscience

From sincere faith

Love from a pure heart means that it is pure and selfless. It is not mixed with any wrong motives. It is not mixed with anything else. Love from a pure heart is the kind of love that Paul wrote about the Corinthians with words like patient and kind and long-suffering and belief and hope and endurance. Love from a pure heart loves no matter what.

Love from a good conscience reflects that purity of heart. It is a guiltless love. That means that it is love without hypocrisy. Love never does anything that makes us feel guilty. It means our conscience is always clear because we do nothing that gives us that guilty feeling.

Love requires sincere faith. To love with the love of God requires faith because love requires an opening up of self to the possibility of hurt. Love believes all things because a key part of loving is trust.

How does our love measure up? True love does indeed change everything. The question is whether our love proceeds from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and with sincere faith.