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5. τὸ δὲ τέλος. But (sc. in contrast with the irrelevant teaching of the ἑτεροδιδάσκαλοι) the aim, or final cause: cp. Rom 10:4.
τῆς παραγγελίας. Of the charge. The reference is not to the Mosaic law, but to the whole of the practical teaching bound up with the Gospel; the word is suggested by παραγγείλῃς of 1Ti 1:3 (where see note). This is the charge with which Timothy was entrusted (1Ti 1:18).
ἐστὶν ἀγάπη. Is love, sc. to men, not to God, which is not here in question. On the other hand, the fanciful ζητήσεις of the false teachers bred strife (2Ti 2:23). As “love is the fulfilling of the Law” (Rom 13:10), so it is the aim and purpose of the Gospel ethics, as the greatest Christian grace (1Co 13:13). The word ἀγάπη has been described as “foreign to profane Greek” and as an ecclesiastical word, first appearing in literature in the LXX. But we find it in Egyptian Greek, in a letter, e.g., of the second century B.C.; and it is probable that the LXX. only took over and consecrated to high uses a word already current in the popular speech of Greek Egypt[514].
[514] See Deissmann, Bibelstudien, p. 81.
ἐκ καθαρᾶς καρδίας κ.τ.λ. The source of this ἀγάπη is threefold:—(i.) a pure heart, for which the Psalmist prayed (Psa 51:6); cp. Mat 5:8. καρδία stands in Scripture for the moral affections and emotions, the pathological, as contrasted with the intellectual, element of the moral faculty. Where this is corrupted (as was the case with the false teachers at Ephesus, 1Ti 6:5), the springs of moral action and spiritual insight (Mat 5:8) are poisoned, cp. 2Ti 2:22;—(ii.) a good conscience. The συνείδησις represents the self sitting in judgement on self; it stands for the self-conscious and rational element in the man. Emphasis is specially laid on a good conscience in the Pastorals, e.g. 1Ti 1:19, 1Ti 3:9, 2Ti 1:3; in sharp contrast with one who has a good conscience, the false teachers are κεκαυστηριασμένοι τὴν ἰδίαν συνείδησιν (1Ti 4:2); cp. 1Pe 3:16; Heb 13:18[515];—(iii.) faith unfeigned. This brings in a reference to God, as the source and spring of love. Love is indeed for man the outward and appropriate manifestation of faith; cp. πίστις διʼ ἀγάπης ἐνεργουμένη (Gal 5:6). The juxtaposition of a good conscience and faith is significant; all through the Pastorals the intimate connexion of the two, the close relation between creed and life, is a prominent thought (see on Tit 1:15). Again, we find this test of faith unfeigned lacking in the false teachers; they are ἀδόκιμοι περὶ τὴν πίστιν (2Ti 3:8). The word ἀνυπόκριτος is applied to faith here and at 2Ti 1:5; it is applied to love, Rom 12:9; 2Co 6:6.
[515] The necessity of a ‘pure conscience,’ if prayer is to be acceptable and effective, is frequently alluded to in the early liturgies, and also by Clement of Rome. See, for references, Lightfoot Clement I. 389 n. Cp. also the strong expression [2 Clem.] § 16 προσευχὴ δὲ καλῆς συνειδήσεως ἐκ θανάτου ῥύεται.