What Does 1 Timothy 1:5 Mean?
Now the aim of the charge is love from a clean heart, and from a good shared sight, and from trust without a mask.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:THE KEY
The command reaches its telos, its intended outcome, in love arising from a clear heart, good conscience, and trust without pretense.
THE MEANING
The command’s aim in you is love, arising from a clear heart, a good conscience, and trust without pretense. Its purpose comes into view as these inward realities converge in the way love is lived now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a command matters only as an external requirement. Here the command reaches its goal through love born of a clear heart, a good conscience, and sincere trust.
THE ROOT
τέλος
telos
GROWS FROM
τελ-
Aim, outcome, completion, or end.
“aim” in this verse is telos. Telos can name an intended outcome as well as an ending. Love is the outcome the command is directed toward: its purpose arrives in a clear heart, a good conscience, and sincere trust.
ALSO GROWS
teleō: To complete or bring to an end.
τελέω
The command reaches completion as the love named in the verse takes shape.
teleios: Complete, mature, or brought to its intended fullness.
τέλειος
This related word carries the sense of reaching the fullness toward which something is directed.
ἀγάπη
agapē
GROWS FROM
ἀγαπ-
Love, care, or regard for another.
The verse places love at the center of the command’s intended outcome and traces it to the heart, conscience, and trust. Love here belongs with the inward life from which it arises.
ALSO GROWS
agapaō: To love or regard with care.
ἀγαπάω
This verb gives the same love a lived expression.
agapētos: Beloved or dearly loved.
ἀγαπητός
This related word shows the same family expressing love as a relationship of being cherished.
πίστις
pistis
GROWS FROM
πειθ-
To persuade or be persuaded; to trust and place confidence.
Pistis here is trust, and “unfeigned” makes its sincerity part of the verse’s meaning. Its word family reaches from being persuaded to placing trust, describing confidence that is actually relied on rather than performed for appearance.
ALSO GROWS
peithō: To persuade, win confidence, or trust.
πείθω
It links trust with a confidence that takes hold within a person.
pisteuō: To believe, trust, or rely on.
πιστεύω
This verb expresses trust as reliance, illuminating what makes this faith unfeigned.
THE PATTERN
The command reaches its aim as love flows from an inward life made clear and sincere.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steady breath within me.And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your living soul, and with all your might.Beloved, let us love one another, for love comes out of God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.THE THREAD
Love does not work evil on the neighbor. So love is the fullness of the instruction.The same Greek noun, ἀγάπη (agapē, love), appears in both verses. Romans makes the relation explicit: love fulfills the law, opening “the end of the commandment” as the purpose the command reaches.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us