What Are You Aiming For?

Rob Kaczmarek
Written By Jeff Rybacki
 

“The goal of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.”

1 Timothy 1:5

Timothy was left behind in Ephesus to instruct the people there in the Lord and to correct false teachings that had sprung up in the body. We can get caught up in the mission of the church or in our ministry’s work and forget the goal to which we work. The people of God, the Church, have been given a great mission. We are to baptize all nations in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that Christ had taught. To be caught up in the mission would mean we begin trying to just make converts to for Christ and not really worrying about the quality of those converts.

When we are sharing Jesus with others we must keep in mind that what God wants is for our lives to be genuinely transformed and not just conformed to some prescribed set of doctrines. We read in the Scriptures about the Pharisees who were living in accordance to the Law but their hearts were like unclean tombs. There was no love coming out of their lives for others, just prideful self-righteousness. 

We are not just trying to have men and women pray to receive Jesus, but we are looking to instruct and encourage them to be like Christ Himself with a real faith! We want our hearts and theirs changed so that the actions and words that come out are rooted in the Love of God. We are wanting to see lives submitted to God in a sincere relationship, so that the life lived is free from guilt and shame. We want the faith we hold in the Son to be true, abiding faith. A faith that continues to grow and continues to produce more fruit in our lives the longer we journey with Christ in this world.

As a pastor I often hear that the church needs to look a certain way or act a certain way or have certain programs in place. Paul’s letter to Timothy reminds me to ask the question, “For what purpose?” whenever I hear these statements made. If my goal is not to see men and women become disciples with a sincere faith in Christ, having a good conscience, a pure heart, and manifested in the Fruit of the Spirit—Love, then I have taken aim at the wrong goal.

I have heard it said, “If you aim at nothing you will hit it every time!” We are to take aim at the target of genuine faith with the bullseye being the fruit of the Spirit. So the questions to ask ourselves is, “What is the goal of my discipleship? What am I setting my aim and goal upon?” It’s always a great feeling to reach a goal. But if it’s the wrong goal then we are like the soccer player who in the heat of the game gets turned around, out maneuvers the opposing team with great skill to reach and shoot on the goal scoring with a magnificent strike, only to have made the goal against himself. 

The goal of our instruction is love. Love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.

Jeff Rybacki
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