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Our first point of focus in these studies in 1 Timothy is on truth or doctrine. We have seen so far that truth matters and have considered two tests that allow us to distinguish truth from error. This week we look at the possibility of falling from the truth.
Can men and women who have embraced the gospel later abandon it or at least so seriously compromise it that they effectively fall from the faith? Indeed they can. This is what had happened in the case of two men in the church in Ephesus in Timothy's time, Hymenaeus and Alexander (1 Timothy 1:19,20). Paul speaks of them as having "shipwrecked their faith", and of needing to hand them over to Satan so that they might learn not to blaspheme.
They had made "shipwreck" of their faith - what a graphic image. It calls to mind the picture of a once proud ship now broken and shattered into pieces on an unforgiving reef. That's what had become of the faith of these men. They had once made a sound and sincere profession of belief. Something had happened, however, and they had wandered so far from their roots that Paul had found it necessary to excommunicate them from church fellowship.
What lay behind this? One thing was their rejection of a good conscience (v. 19). They had evidently stopped listening to their conscience. The truth had brought with it demands that they didn't like, and when their conscience condemned them, they shut their ears to its voice.
That's always a dangerous thing to do. "If we disregard the voice of conscience," John Stott writes, "allowing sin to remain unconfessed and unforsaken, our faith will not long survive. Anyone whose conscience has been so manipulated as to be rendered insensitive is in a very dangerous condition, wide open to the deceptions of the devil (1 Tim. 4:1-2)" (p. 57). John Calvin was of the same opinion. He once wrote, "a bad conscience is the mother of all heresies." "This may not be the invariable rule," Stott comments, "but it is often true" (p. 57).
How does it work? Conscience acts as a self-judge within us. It either condemns or excuses our behaviour (Rom. 2:15), and in doing so, keeps our conduct in line with our convictions. When we do something that breaches our beliefs, conscience smites us, calling us to turn about (repent) and get back on track. When we listen to its voice and respond to its judgment we keep a "good" conscience. We put ourselves back in the position of living in line with our beliefs. And in that case, we can say that conscience and convictions win out and we "hold on to faith" (1 Timothy 1:19).
But something else happens when we go against our conscience. We end up carrying on in a way that we know (according to conscience) is wrong. Eventually, one or more of three things results: we either totally ignore our conscience (it becomes "seared" or insensitive), we corrupt the truth to conform to our actions, or thirdly, we abandon our convictions altogether (see 1 Tim. 4:1-2).
That's what makes the conscience so very important. It may be weak and even mistaken. But whatever the case, it cannot be ignored without peril. To do so puts us on a path that threatens our beliefs. "I have myself known Christian leaders," Stott writes, "who once were faithful teachers, but who, as a result of some stubborn disobedience in their lives, turned aside from the truth and so ruined their ministry" (p. 57).
It's enough to make us tremble. Heed your conscience if you don't want to shipwreck your faith.