Tag Archives: 1 Timothy 1

The Goal

October 1, 2025 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

“The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”
1 Timothy 1:5 (NIV)

I spent yesterday on-site with a client. It was an unexpected business trip that got added to my schedule. The primary Customer Support team I work with have been focused on a goal this past year. The goal is to help customers understand that leasing a necessary piece of equipment from the company will make their overall experience with the company’s service better in multiple ways. This is not just a sales pitch. It’s a fact. The team I work with has been doing a good job reaching and meeting the goal. However, it was discovered that colleagues on a different customer facing team in the company was undermining these efforts. They were telling customers that it was cheaper to purchase their own equipment. This left customers thinking that maybe the Customer Support team was just selling them a bill of goods to make the company more money.

Ouch.

To be fair, the associates of this other team have limited exposure to the bigger picture, the data we have regarding the customer experience, and the larger strategy that led to the goal. So, I got to do presentations yesterday to this other customer facing team. I explained the goal, the reason for the goal, and how important it was that they understand and support the initiative rather than undermining it. I’m glad to say it was a successful day.

Today our chapter-a-day journey steps into Paul’s letters to his young protégé, Timothy. Their relationship was very much a mentorship. Paul was a spiritual mentor and a surrogate father to young Timothy. In both my spiritual journey and my professional career I have many coaching and mentoring experiences, so it’s fascinating for me to read Paul’s letter from the perspective of Paul coaching Timothy regarding his leadership among the local gathering of believers in Ephesus. Paul left Timothy in Ephesus to help lead the gathering in his absence when Paul went on an extended business trip to visit the other gatherings he’d planted in other cities.

Ironically, the struggle Paul writes to address with his young charge is not that different than the one I had to address with my client yesterday. There was a team in the local gathering of believers in Ephesus who were undermining the faith. They were voicing a contrarian message that was creating division and wasn’t based on the truth of Jesus’ Message.

Paul addresses this right from the start and gives Timothy the goal. Goals are good. We need goals. In this case Paul tells his young charge that the goal is:

Love…
-from a pure heart
-from a good conscience
-from a sincere faith

The further I get in my spiritual journey, the more I’ve come to embrace the preeminence of love as the goal in all things.

This is not just in my personal life or my church life, but also in my professional life. My client yesterday has a goal of creating the best possible and most cost-effective experience for their customers. There’s a love for their customers in that goal. The team I addressed yesterday did not have all of the facts, and I know that the team members who were telling customers to take the cheaper route thought they were doing right by the customers. I believe they were sincerely motivated, and honestly mistaken. As I made my presentations yesterday, my goal was not to chastise, punish, or demean anyone. My goal was to with patience, kindness, and gentleness explain the facts, the strategy, and goal that creates a win-win for both the customer and the company. In other words, my goal was to deliver my message with love so that my client could better love both their colleagues and customers.

I’m back in the office today working on different things, but the goal remains the same in all things.

Love…
-from a pure heart
-from a good conscience
-from a sincere faith

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

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Chapter-a-Day

The Recipe of Stereotype

May 31, 2019 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.
1 Timothy 1:15 (NIV)

The other day I wrote about seeing through stereotypes, as it is very common for people to paint certain “other” people groups with a broad brush of generalization. I approached this notion from the perspective of being the perpetrator of the stereotype, but this morning I find myself thinking about it from the perspective of being stereotype’s casualty.

For the record, I have never suffered serious injury or been particularly harmed by another person’s stereotype. I have, however, experienced being labeled, misunderstood, falsely accused, and socially marginalized in specific situations because I have always been up-front about being a Jesus follower. I get that stereo-types are often rooted in partial-truths. The world is full of judgmental, condemning, narrow-minded groups and individuals who wear the label of Christian. When I have been causality of stereotype, I recognize that I am being lumped into one’s mental basket with them.

Here’s a thing that I’ve found to be true in my faith journey. The further I get in the journey the more clearly I see my own faults, the more important I find it to own my mistakes, and the more readily I feel the on-going need for God’s mercy, grace, and forgiveness. I find myself less concerned about the moral speck of dust in the eyes of non-believers because I’m blinded by the 2×6 of moral failure in my own. Whatever righteous anger I might feel is not stirred by sinners in need of Jesus’ grace, but by the legalistic, self-righteous religious types who sourced the stereotype with which I’ve occasionally been labeled.

Paul’s letters to Timothy are, chronologically, the final two of his surviving letters. They were written late in his life to the young protégé who traveled with him and became a leader among the groups of Jesus followers they founded. One of the interesting observations to be made in these two very personal and heart-felt letters is how different they are in spirit and tone from the fiery letters Paul wrote to the believers in Galatia and the Corinth earlier in his journey. Paul’s passion for Jesus’ message and his ministry have not abated in any way, but there is a tenderness and humility with which he is passing the baton. Paul is embracing Jesus’ mercy and his personal need of grace as he owns that of all sinners “I am the worst.”

Stereotype is made with just a few ingredients: a pinch of truth, a pound of ignorance, and a cup of passivity. I’ve been guilty of it more times than I’ve been a victim of it, and so this morning I find myself whispering a prayer of grace, forgiveness, and blessing over those who may have stereotyped me unfairly along the way.

Chapter-a-Day

The Goal

November 6, 2015 Tom Vander Well 1 Comment

The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
1 Timothy 1:5 (NIV)

I got an earful. The tirade was marked by anger and came from a place of disappointment and hurt. The object of the vehemence was unknowing and undeserving. The accusations were all about an “i” not dotted, a “t” not crossed which had been blown into outrageous proportions. The goal of the rant was, from what I discerned, to project the injured’s own hurt somewhere else.

Along life’s journey I’ve been involved with many different groups of Jesus followers. Among every group I’ve encountered those Paul describes to his young protegé Timothy. There are always those who major on the minors; Those who immerse themselves in things that don’t lead to the goal, which Paul reminds young Timothy, is love.

As I read Paul’s charge to Timothy this morning, I thought about the person who gave me an earful. If the goal had truly been love, how would they have handled themselves differently? They might have started by going directly to the person they were complaining about rather than others. They might have asked this person questions and sought to understand rather than demanding to be understood. They might have considered Jesus’ command to love and forgive others a greater priority than advancing their own rights and needs.

Even as I write these words I am looking back at a few past tirades of my own. I recognize myself in the person who gave me an earful. I have lounged in those loafers. I, too, have spewed righteous anger out of personal pain. Lord, have mercy on us both.

Today, I’m reminded of how simple and powerful love is, as Jesus exemplified it. Love is a goal to strive for. Love is also a litmus test for my own words and actions; A standard against which I can discern whether I am moving in the right direction. If my goal is truly love then it constantly forces me to choose words and actions that lead, not to places of personal right, justice, or satisfaction, but to places focused on others and marked by forgiveness, selflessness, and peace.

Chapter-a-Day

Articulating the “One Thing”

October 14, 2013 Tom Vander Well 5 Comments

Preparing my Next Sermon — (Photo credit: the tartanpodcast)

The purpose of my instruction is that all believers would be filled with love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and genuine faith. 1 Timothy 1:5 (NLT)

Whenever I prepare to deliver a message, whether it is in a classroom, stage, boardroom, or sanctuary, I always start by identifying and articulating the one thing I want to communicate. If I can nail that, then the rest of the message become much easier to prepare. If an idea, explanation or illustration does not serve to lead the hearers to the articulated purpose of my message, then I’m wasting my time and theirs. Without a clear purpose, a message will become lost as it meanders in different directions.

In today’s chapter, Paul is instructing his young protege Timothy whom he left behind in the city of Ephesus to teach the followers of Jesus there. Paul clearly articulates the purpose of his instruction: Love from a pure heart, clear conscience, and genuine faith. As I read this I thought of all the messages I have heard through the years that seemingly had little or no clear purpose. I thought of many messages I’ve heard in which the purpose seemed to be judgement, condemnation, and shame.

I’m taking Paul’s purpose with me into my day as I think about all that I think, and say, and do. Is my purpose today an increasing measure of love in my own heart, love that flows from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and a genuine faith in Jesus, the One whom I follow?