Shipwrecked Faith

Timothy 1-Part 11 Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck.    1 Timothy 1:19


LET IT GLOW

Shepherd's Notes, I, II Timothy, Titus has some good comments concerning verses 18-20:

Paul is about to instruct Timothy regarding the situation in Ephesus. He prefaces his instruction with three reminders-two positive and one negative.
1. Timothy will find strength for fighting the good fight by remembering the prophecies made at the time he
     was set apart for Christian ministry.
2. Two characteristics that will contribute to Timothy's strength as God's man in Ephesus are faith and a good
    conscience.
3. Paul reminds Timothy of what happens when Christians jettison faith and a good conscience. Hymenaeus
    and Alexander were "wreckers of faith" in Ephesus. As a result, Paul delivered them to Satan to teach
    them not to blaspheme.

Timothy was at the church at Ephesis by divine appointment; God had chosen and sent him. It was this fact that could give him assurance in difficult day. If you are God's servant, called by the Spirit, obeying His will, then you can "stay with it" and finish the work. These assurances enabled Timothy to war the good warfare.
(Wiersbe)

What was the only way Timothy was going to succeed? It was by holding fast to "faith and a good conscience." It's not enough to say we have faith, but we must daily practice faith in our lives.

The magazine editor H.L.Mencken defined conscience as "the inner voice which warns us that somebody may be looking."  A person with a good conscience will do the will of God in spite of who is watching or what people may say, don't you think?

David Guzik said, "Faith and a good conscience are essential when battling for the Lord; they protect against the spiritual attacks of doubt and condemnation. If we don't battle with these two tools, it's like going unarmed against the enemy!"

Here's some spiritual inventory: how's my conscience? Is it a good conscience? Is it a clear conscience? Is it a bad conscience? Is it cluttered with sin?


LET IT GROW

What is shipwrecked faith? I have never been shipwrecked, per say. Have you? The closest I've been was the time my family went on a  camp-out. We went fishing on a river below the dam. By the end of the day, the water was down. That was due to the gates on the dam being closed and no water entered our stream. We had to get out of the boat and pull it back to our campsite. If we hadn't, we would have been stranded, which is the definiton Webster's Dictionary gave for shipwreck.

So what is stranded faith?
"Those who reject what Jesus and the apostles taught are headed for ruin (shipwreck)," stated David Guzik.

Professed Christians who "make shipwreck" of their faith do so by sinning against their consciences. Bad doctrine usually starts with bad conduct, and ususally with secret sin.

The MacArthur Bible Commentary tells us more:

A good conscience serves as the rudder that steers the believer through the rocks and reefs of sin and error. The false teachers ignored their consciences and the truth, and as a result, suffered shipwreck of the Christian faith, which implies severe spiritual catastrophe. This does not imply loss of salvation of a true believer, but likely indicateds the tragic loss that comes to the apostate.

These two men that Paul named, deliberately rejected their good consciences in order to defend their ungoldly lives. We don't know exactly what they did, but Paul considered it blasphemy.

Many times a shipwreck begins with unconfessed small sins, as we call them.



LET IT GO

Fight the good fight of faith with a good conscience.

Prevent my faith from being shipwrecked by confessing my sins and staying in the Truth.