Another text of scripture that contains the phrase, “good conscience” is 1 Timothy 1:5. It reads, “Now the end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.” All three of these, heart, conscience, and faith modify the command to love and have appended to them adjectives that describe genuineness, honesty, and sincerity. This allows for no pretense, hypocrisy, or ulterior motives. True love is out of a pure heart, good conscience, and unfeigned faith. Anything less is not agape love.
This verse, along with 1 Timothy 3:15 are purpose statements. Both are designed for Timothy to implement in his daily life. His chief aim is love and one description that we will take up is love out of a good conscience. Our viewpoint of love should be shaped by God’s word and then live consistently with it so that our lives is a living replica of the God’s will.
Conversely, there were those in Ephesus who had turned aside from the faith and while Timothy could combat error by being grounded in the truth, the chances of its acceptance is the manner of the admonishment. There’s a saying that makes sense just here. It says, “No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.” Being a young man, Paul anticipates that some would not listen to Timothy. He warns Timothy not to let that happen, when he writes, “Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conscience, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity” (1 Tim. 4:12). Paul’s own example of this very thing is described in 2 Corinthians 1:12, where we read, “For our proud confidence is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world and especially toward you.” Paul’s conscience was a witness toward the saints and in the world. Similarly, he writes, “We have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God”(2 Cor. 4:2).
In order for this to work, we must be men and women of great discipline. Be true to our convictions and do not allow anything to detour your path unless it is God, Himself. Our conscience must not be hindered from functioning when tempted to stray. Second, if we do stray, a good conscience will not lie and without the truth to save face, maintain control and assure financial gain. The good conscience will acknowledge the sin that we have committed. It will own it, confess it for what it is and repent. Furthermore, not only will it work toward staying on path, and getting on path when we faulter, but it will address any guilt of ommission or commission by seeking God’s forgiveness, favor, and strength.
Because he was rooted in the faith, he could teach with confidence the truths of the Word, knowing what he believed and why he believed it. He had a sincere faith and his conscience set him out to live out that faith. There are things in life that could not exist if he wanted to remain faithful (cf. 1 Tim. 6:11) and therefore, must be set on “fighting the good fight of faith (cf. 1 Tim. 4:12). Through his faith, purity of faith, and a resolve to keep a good (functioning, unviolated) conscience, Timothy could demonstrate in his teaching a spirit of love.