1 Timothy 1-2

Paul left Timothy, a young man at this time, to pastor the church in Ephesus on his way to Macedonia. If I had to put them in chronological order, I would put the Ephesian church ahead of the church in Thessalonica in the order of difficulty to handle. A riot once broke out in this city after Paul preached and taught in there for two years and people began to burn their magic spell books, destroyed their idols of the Greek goddess Artemis and stopped worshipping her altogether. Paul had to be sneaked out of the city because the riot was violent. It was to this church that Timothy was being put in charge of. His age was obviously also a problem, he was a young man pastoring a church of older mean and and women. And so, Paul writes to him like a son and gives him various advises to help him pastor and lead his flock. "The purpose of my instruction is that all believers would be filled with love that comes from a pure hear, a clear conscience, and genuine faith." 1Tim 1:5. Paul gave Timothy the three sole purpose for the work that he is doing preaching the gospel; it is so that believers will be filled with love that comes from sincerity, a clear conscience and genuine faith. And so Paul advises him; "Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked." 1Tim 1:19. Cling to, hold on to, your faith in God, why? Because it was going to be tested. Timothy's faith was tested, ours will be too. Many things will come to question whether your faith in God is genuine or even if it is a first-hand experience of God; is your faith walk towards God yours or someone told you? Paul says, cling to your faith. He also says to keep our consciences clear because someone people, whether unwittingly or deliberately, violate their conscience. Your conscience is the voice of your own spirit. The Lord will usually speak to your spirit and your conscience is how you hear him. It might simply be a prompt, a nudge in the right direction or a prompt for us to do something. The conscience is violated when it is deliberately and consistently disregarded. Paul says; don't do it, keep a clear conscience at all times.