It is certainly evident that we are living in uncertain economic times. At such times, certain industries fare better than others. For instance, there will always be a need for people to work in the food industry, for people will always need to eat. There will also always be a need for health care workers, since people will also continue to get sick and need health care.

It is equally evident that we are living in uncertain spiritual times. At such times, there will always be a need for Christians who are willing to work to bring the gospel to the lost. There will always be “certain” among the lost who will actively seek salvation (Luke 18:18), but “certain” others will trust in themselves that they are righteous (Luke 18:9), so God’s people will need to reach out to them.

It is also certain that some will continue to oppose Paul’s gospel, “certain” of them opposing it on philosophical grounds (Acts 17:18), “certain” others because they are set in their ways and so naturally resist the new truth that Paul set forth (Acts 15:1).

Who will step up to meet these challenges? In Paul’s day, “a certain disciple… named Timotheus” answered the call (Acts 16:1). How about you, man of God? Why not consider enrolling in our Berean Bible Institute, “that thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed” (Luke 1:4). Then go out and “preach the word” and “do the work of an evangelist” as the Lord would have you do (II Tim. 4:1-5).

When Paul preached in Athens, “certain men clave unto him” (Acts 17:34), just as grace believers have today. But just as “a certain young man named Eutychus” fell asleep when “Paul was long preaching” (Acts 20:9), many long-time grace believers have fallen asleep under the ministry of Pauline teaching. If you fear that describes you, why not wake up and follow the example of “a certain man…named Justus” (Acts 18:7) and “a certain woman named Lydia” (Acts 16:14) who opened their homes to the ministry of Pauline truth and helped establish grace churches in their respective cities.

Many Christians are at a complete loss as to knowing what to do in these uncertain spiritual times, but that doesn’t apply to those who know the certainty of Paul’s gospel. We have the answer to the religious confusion all about us! If you’re not part of the movement that is bringing the solution to these poor confused people, you’re part of the problem.

One thing is sure. “We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out” (I Tim. 6:7). With that in mind, why not begin today to live with eternity in view?

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

Two Minutes with the Bible is now available on Alexa devices. Full instructions here.

“Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm” (I Timothy 1:7).

Since “we are not under law, but under grace” (Rom. 6:15), what possible motive could someone have to teach the law? Well, in Paul’s day, the men most likely to desire to cling to the law were Jews (Acts 15:1). Speaking of them, Paul told Titus:

“…there are many unruly and vain talkers…of the circumcision…who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake” (Titus 1:10,11).

The thing that these circumcision Jews “ought not” to have been teaching was the law, which they taught for the same reason men teach the law today—because there is money in it. Satan always makes sure that undispensational truth is popular, and teaching what is popular is always a lucrative endeavor!

For instance, in time past, God’s message to Israel was that He was going to use Nebuchadnezzar to conquer the nation to chasten her for her iniquities (Jer. 25:9). But false prophets in Israel were assuring God’s people it would never happen, that they would continue to enjoy peace (Jer. 23:17). Which of those two messages do you think was more popular, and thus more lucrative?

Of course, when Israel was obedient to God’s law, His message to them was a message of peace, but when they rebelled against His law, that message became one dispensation too late. Well, today the law is one dispensation too late, but it is as popular and as profitable as undispensational teaching has always been. People are religious by nature, and the law appeals to their religious “flesh” (Gal. 3:3). And that which appeals to a man’s religious flesh is always going to be as popular and as lucrative a business as that which appeals to his carnal flesh (II Cor. 11:20).

When Paul added that those teachers of the law understood “neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm,” that was a polite way of saying they didn’t know what they were talking about! All because they were one dispensation too late in their teaching. What’s that say about all those “desiring to be teachers of the law” in our own day?

Maybe you are thinking, “If the goal of the law is to get us to love God and our neighbor (I Tim. 1:5), and we’re not under the law, does that mean God doesn’t want us to love God and our neighbor?” Of course He does! But now such loving charity is the goal of a new commandment. You see, when Paul said that “the end of the commandment is charity” (I Tim. 1:5), he wasn’t just referring to the goal of the ten commandments.

Remember, Paul opened this epistle by insisting that he was an apostle “by the commandment of God” (I Tim. 1:1), and in the dispensation of grace, the goal of that commandment is charity out of a pure heart. The goal of Paul’s God-ordained apostleship is to get people saved and loving God and their neighbor, just as it was under the law. The difference is, in this dispensation, “the love of Christ constraineth us” to serve Him (II Cor. 5:14), not the fear of what will happen to us if we disobey Him, as was the case under the law. That’s the motivation of love, not law! That’s the motivation of grace.

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

Two Minutes with the Bible is now available on Alexa devices. Full instructions here.

“Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.

“From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling” (I Timothy 1:5,6).

In football, a player scores a goal when he reaches “the end zone.” God’s “end” or goal in giving the ten commandments was “charity.” That is, His purpose was to get men to love God and their neighbor by telling them how to behave toward God and their neighbor. But some in the Ephesian church that Timothy pastored had swerved from that goal and “turned aside.”

The apostle did not choose that phrase at random, for three times we are told that Israel “turned aside” when they “made them a molten calf” (Ex. 32:8; Deut. 9:12,16). God gave the Jews a Law that said they must make no graven images, and they turned aside from it! So I suspect when Timothy began to preach that “we are not under law, but under grace” (Rom. 6:15) that some in Ephesus claimed, “Timothy is turning aside from the Law.” This prompted Paul to counter by using that same phrase to tell Timothy, “They’re right, we are turning aside from the Law, we’re under grace! (Rom. 6:15). But they’re turning aside from the goal of the Law,” unto something he calls “vain jangling.” So what’s that?

The word “vain” means empty, and “jangling” is an overly loud form of jingling. Jingle bells sound very festive; jangle bells, not so much! Whatever these Ephesians had turned aside to, it was empty, and evidently very jarring. And we don’t have to guess as to what it was, for Paul goes on to say,

“Desiring to be teachers of the law…” (I Timothy 1:7).

Some in Ephesus were turning aside from the goal of the law to focus on the law itself! They were swerving and turning aside from loving charity and focusing on the law that was supposed to produce loving charity. And when the law is taught to members of the Body of Christ who are not under the law, it always leads to the very opposite of loving charity. When some legalists put the Galatians under the law, it caused them to “bite and devour one another” (Gal. 5:15). Interestingly enough, another definition of the word “jangling” is quarreling or bickering. As you know, when men quarrel and bicker it sounds more like jangle bells than jingle bells!

Paul had to write to Titus about the same problem:

“…there are many vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision…” (Titus 1:10).

What do you think those vain talkers of the circumcision were talking about? I’ll give you a hint. The Greek word for “vain talkers” is a form of the same word translated “vain jangling” in our text. Yes, that’s right, the vain talkers in Crete, where Titus was stationed, were talking about the same thing as the vain janglers in Ephesus, the law. The law was once pleasant jingling, but when it is levied on people who are not under the law it becomes vain jangling.

What do you say we all focus on the goal of the law rather than on the law itself? Jangle bells never sound good, but the pleasant jingle bells of love and grace are always in season!

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

Two Minutes with the Bible is now available on Alexa devices. Full instructions here.

“Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned” (I Timothy 1:5).

“The commandment” here is a reference to the ten commandments, commandments which God sees as one (James 2:10,11). The “end” of the commandment refers to the goal or intent of the ten commandments. We use the word “end” that way when we ask, “To what end are you doing what you are doing?” God’s goal in giving the ten commandments was charity, a Bible word for love. God’s goal in giving the commandments was to get men to love God and their neighbor. If you love God, you won’t take His name in vain, and if you love your neighbor, you certainly won’t bear false witness to him or steal his stuff!

But the intent of the ten commandments wasn’t just to get people to love God and their neighbor. It was to get them to love “out of a pure heart,” and the only people who have a pure heart are saved people (Ps. 24:3,4). That’s why the Lord said, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” (Mt. 5:8). So God’s goal in giving the ten commandments was to get everyone saved and obeying them out of a pure (saved) heart.

Now don’t get me wrong, God approves when unsaved people obey His commandments. We know this because that’s what will happen in the millennial kingdom! The kingdom will begin with the deaths of all of earth’s unbelievers at the battle of Armageddon. No one but the pure in heart will enter the kingdom that Christ will then establish on earth. But the saved people who enter the kingdom will then bear children who must themselves choose to be saved.

And the majority of children in the millennial kingdom will choose not to be saved, just as has always been the case with the children of men. This will eventually result in the Lord ruling in the midst of His “enemies” (Ps. 110:2), “with a rod of iron” (Rev. 19:15) “in righteousness” (Isa. 32:1), the righteousness of the ten commandments. In that day, everyone on the planet will obey the ten commandments, including the unsaved, who will obey the commandment out of an impure heart.

The problem with obeying the commandment out of an impure heart is that it doesn’t change a man’s heart. We know this because after the millennial kingdom, the enemies that God will have to defeat at the battle of Gog and Magog will number “as the sand of the sea” (Rev. 20:7-9). Clearly, 1,000 years of obeying the ten commandments with an impure heart will not have changed the hearts of the vast majority of men!

That’s why God’s goal in giving the ten commandments was never to have men obey them outwardly while inwardly seething, just waiting for their chance to rebel against Him, as will be the case in the millennial kingdom. No, God’s goal in giving the commandments was to get people saved and obeying them out of a pure heart. That was the intent of the ten.

The process starts when the unbeliever hears the commandments and gains “the knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:20; 7:7). He then can see his need of a Savior and believe the gospel. This then enables him to obey the ten commandments out of a pure heart and out of “a good conscience.” Unbelievers cannot obey the ten commandments out of a good conscience, for “even their mind and conscience is defiled” (Tit. 1:15).

But when a saved man obeys God’s commandments, he does so out of “faith unfeigned.” The word “feign” means to pretend (I Sam. 21:13), so unfeigned faith was genuine faith, the kind Timothy himself had! (II Tim. 1:5). In the millennial kingdom, the unsaved will have to feign faith, but the goal of the commandment in the dispensation of grace is “charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.” Are you living up to God’s intent?

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

Two Minutes with the Bible is now available on Alexa devices. Full instructions here.

Perhaps you heard about the Sunday School teacher who was teaching her class the ten commandments. After discussing the command to “honour thy father and thy mother,” she asked the class, “Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?” To which one boy replied, “Thou shalt not kill?”

If you are wondering why we’ve entitled this article “the end of the ten commandments,” the answer to that question has to do with the Apostle Paul’s words in I Timothy 1:5:

“Now the end of the commandment is charity…”

If you are thinking, “But that verse speaks about the end of the commandment, not the end of the ten commandments,” consider what James wrote about the ten commandments:

“…whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For He that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill…” (James 2:10,11).

You see, as far as God is concerned, the ten commandments are one commandment. You break one, you break them all! So in speaking of “the commandment,” Paul is talking about the ten commandments.

But in speaking of the end of the ten commandments, Paul isn’t thinking of a time when it would ever be acceptable to kill someone or dishonor your parents. He is rather talking about the purpose or the goal of the ten commandments. We use the word “end” that way when we ask someone, “To what end are you doing what you are doing?” That is, we are inquiring about the purpose of what’s being done.

So in speaking about “the end of the commandment,” Paul is addressing the purpose or goal of the ten commandments, a goal that he identifies as “charity,” one of the Bible’s words for love. And that makes sense, if you think about it. If you love God, are you going to take His name in vain, or have some other God before Him? If you love your neighbor, are you going to lie to him, steal from him, commit adultery with his wife, kill him or covet his things? I don’t think I have to tell you, that is not the way love behaves!

This explains why Paul says that “he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law” (Rom. 13:8 cf. 9,10), and that “all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Gal. 5:14). You see, “the end of the commandment,” the purpose or goal of the law, “is charity.”

In closing, we have to add that while it is true that “charity” is a Bible word for love, don’t change the word charity here to love. Love is a feeling. Charity is an action. Charity is the action that expresses the feeling of love. So when Paul says that the end or goal of the commandment is charity, he’s not saying that God’s goal in giving the ten commandments was to get you to have some warm fuzzy feelings of love for others. He’s saying that the goal of the ten commandments was to get you to put those feelings in action by treating God and your neighbor with the respect that the ten commandments were designed to bring out in us.

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

Two Minutes with the Bible is now available on Alexa devices. Full instructions here.

“Pray not for this people…” (Jeremiah 14:11).

“Pray without ceasing” (I Thessalonians 5:17).

Here we go again! Another contradiction in the Word of God. One of the many incongruities in Scripture that make us wonder how to serve God when His Word gives conflicting instructions. Its easy to understand why we should pray without ceasing, but why did God instruct Jeremiah to “pray not” for His people?

To answer, a quick look at the preceding verse will reveal that in Jeremiah’s day God’s people “loved to wander” from Him, and had “not refrained their feet” (v. 10) from so doing. Little wonder their Father deemed them unworthy of the prayers of His prophet!

But aren’t God’s people today just as prone to wander? Don’t we sing that old hymn, “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love”? Why then does God tell us to pray without ceasing?

The answer lies, as it so often does, in “rightly dividing the Word of truth” (II Tim. 2:15). You see, God’s people in Jeremiah’s day had a contract with Him, a covenant called the Law of Moses. Under that Law, if His people walked contrary to Him, He vowed to walk contrary to them (Lev. 26:23,24; 27,28). And in Jeremiah’s day, God’s people had not refrained their feet from wandering and walking away from Him. They left God no choice but to walk contrary to them, and no amount of praying on the part of His prophet could change what He was contractually obligated by His covenant to do (Jer. 15:1).

How different things are for God’s people today! We are not under the Law, we are under grace! (Rom. 6:15). In “the dispensation of the grace of God” (Eph. 3:2), God is not obligated by the old covenant of the Law to walk away from His people when they walk away from Him, He is obligated by the new covenant of His grace “to dwell in them, and walk in them” and “be their God” no matter what (II Cor. 6:16 cf. Jer. 31:33).

So there you have it! Yet another contradiction in the Word of God explained, another puzzle solved, by rightly dividing the Word of truth.

But don’t just sit there reveling in the riches of God’s grace. Now that you know that God will hear your prayers for His people, pray! When you see your brother stumble in his walk, pray! When you find that you yourself have wandered from God, pray! God will never walk contrary to us, so pray that His people will respond to such amazing grace by choosing to “walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing” (Col. 1:10).

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

Two Minutes with the Bible is now available on Alexa devices. Full instructions here.