1 Timothy 1:19

1 Timothy 1:19

Shipwreck of Faith.

I. Observe, there are two things which St. Paul tells Timothy, he must hold fast, "faith" and "a good conscience." By faith he means the articles of Christian doctrine, especially belief in the Lord Jesus Christ; and by a good conscience I suppose him to mean purity of life; so that to hold faith and a good conscience, to be steady in maintaining the faith once delivered to the saints from all errors and encroachments, and to adorn the doctrine by a life of piety and Christian love, may be said to be the course marked out for Timothy by his teacher, St. Paul, as the course worthy of a Christian bishop. So far all is clear. Now comes the difficulty "Which some, having put away concerning faith, have made shipwreck." The word whichapplies only to the good conscience, "some, having put away a good conscience, have made shipwreck concerning faith."

II. You have a Christian faith to hold and a Christian life to lead; do not look at them one apart from the other; your faith is the support of your life, but also your faith will dwindle and decay if you try to let it stand alone; some have tried the experiment of divorcing these from one another, they have pretended to hold the faith, but they have been careless concerning a pure conscience, and a terrible experiment it has proved: their faith has perished, they have been shipwrecked and ruined. The kind of shipwreck of faith which I should fear is the loss of faith in Christ as a living and active principle, the loss of the distinct feeling of love to Christ, the loss of that feeling of allegiance to Him as our personal living Lord and Master, which is of the very essence of Christian faith. The grand secret of Christian life and health is to hold together those things which God has joined, to hold faith and a good conscience, and to remember that carelessness about the one may probably lead to shipwreck concerning the other.

Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons,vol. ill., p. 289.

References: 1 Timothy 1:19. J. Thain Davidson, The City Youth, p.53; R. C. Trench, Shipwrecks of Faith,p. 3; A. Davies, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xiii., p. 245. 1 Timothy 2:1, H. W. Beecher, Ibid.,vol. iii., p. 156; W. M. Statham, Ibid.,p. 217; Ibid.,vol. iv., p. 332. 1 Timothy 2:3. F. W. Farrar, Ibid.,vol. xv., p. 145. 1 Timothy 2:3; 1 Timothy 2:4. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxvi., No. 1516. 1 Timothy 2:3. E. White, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxxiv., p. 145. 1 Timothy 2:4. J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons,9th series, p. 205.