Skeptic

1 Timothy 1:3-5

"As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine, Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do. Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:

Sunday I spent a whole hour focused on on only 3 verses. I never thought I would get frustrated reading the bible, but alas, I got pretty close yesterday. Reading these verses got me all confused at what Paul meant by them. I know they may be pretty simple, however like I mentioned in the title, I am a skeptic. Reading a few commentaries, I got the same idea from all of them. My main question was when Paul refers to the "commandment" in verse 5, what commandment was he referring to?? All the commentaries I was able to find associated that commandment to the divinely given "Greatest Commandments." (Matthew 22:37-40) However, when I read it, I automatically associated the commandment in verse 5 with the command (or charge) he told Timothy to give in verse 3. I found an awesome relatively literal greek to english translation of 1 Timothy, and in both instances, Paul uses the same root, just a different conjugation. So I just can't convince myself that he was referring to a different commandment. Like I mentioned earlier, I spent quite a while struggling over this, just trying to find and explanation of how he could mean the "Greatest commandments."

Now if Paul did mean the "Greatest Commandments," then verse 5 would be easy to understand. The purpose of the "Greatest Commandments" now is to have a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith. And through those three things, love.

On the contrary however, if Paul referred to the charge he wants Timothy to give those who are teaching false doctrines, this passage has a different application. In both scenarios, Paul instructs us that we should have love, and this love should sprout from a particular state in which we are in. 

Despite what Paul was referring to, we are still to desire the purity,goodness, and sincerity and Paul speaks of. The different interpretations in no way take away the ultimate point Paul was attempting to make. However, since I am a skeptic, I often get caught up in whether the interpretation is accurate. I suppose if Paul referred to points of the faith which were not necessarily in context, then it would be rather accurate to assume he did so again here. Unfortunately I am not that observant when reading through Paul's letters, so I am not able to speak of one way or the other. 

This is an instance where I don't simply want to except what other theologians have come up with, and want to find out for myself. Unfortunately, in this passage, along with my inadequate knowledge of the scriptures, I don't think I can really know at this time..