God’s Word for You
2 Timothy 1:3 a clear conscience
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Friday, May 29, 2026
3 I thank God whom I serve with a clear conscience, just as my forefathers did, when I constantly remember you in my prayers.
Having begun the letter the way that he has, Paul has got to thinking about his friend, his “beloved child” and now a mature pastor, Timothy. Paul wanted to see his friend. Paul was not quite by himself. His old friend and physician Luke was with him, and he has either accompanied by others or had just been visited by them: Eubulus, Pudens, Linus, Claudia “and all the brothers” (4:21). As we will learn more about in chapter 4, several men had departed to proclaim Christ: Crescens to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia, Tychicus to Ephesus. But a few had deserted. A man named Demas had forsaken Paul and went away to Thessalonica (4:10), and a coppersmith called Alexander had done Paul “a great deal of harm” (4:14). But Paul wants Timothy to bring him some things, including Mark the Evangelist. Imagine a prison cell in which Paul, Luke and Mark were gathered—between them, the authors of at least sixteen of the books of the New Testament! Paul was constantly remembering Timothy and his other friends in his prayers.
He says that he has “a clear conscience, just as my forefathers did.” What does this mean? It does not mean, and we must stress this point, that one does not feel any guilt about one’s life or actions. Paul warns that many hardened sinners such a hypocritical liars have “consciences that have been seared as with a hot iron” (1 Timothy 4:2). This incudes those who follow “human traditions and the teaching of works (deeds) that obscure the righteousness of faith.” There are many who sin against their conscience, polluting themselves and condemning themselves by sinning even while they know that it is wrong. Some even boast that the thrill of doing such a thing brings them joy. They have earned an extra measure of punishment in eternity.
But Jesus also warns: “A time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering service to God” (John 16:2). So the conscience can be wrong before God while tricking the man into thinking he is right. How are we ever to know the difference? To the law and to the gospel! Trust that the Bible means what it says, with a single, simple sense according to the words, let it be supreme, the “rule that rules.” In all things, understand that the law of Moses has been fulfilled by Christ, and let the gospel predominate. Listen and ponder the lessons read in worship every week. Listen and learn the sermon that is preached. Then, because it is a proven tool, governed by Scripture and looking only to Scripture as its source, read and learn the Catechism, and take it to heart.
For a man can appear to be righteous and holy on the outside by avoiding murder, adultery, fornication, theft, gossip, and such. Those are commandments in the Second Table (fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth). But God looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7), and a pious-seeming man might be an unbeliever. The believer will want to watch his life, but more especially his heart. He puts his faith in God, repents of his sins, does not hide his sins or deny them, but lays them at the feet of Jesus. I have heard men rattle off their repentance so quickly that I wonder if even they are listening, or if it is just words to them? But I can’t read hearts, and we have to leave such things in God’s hands. Meanwhile, our baptism is our pledge of a clear conscience (1 Peter 3:21) because it is not done by us, but to us and for us, as a gift and a washing by the hands of God.
We come to God in prayer and in praise with his forgiveness clutched tightly to our chest, like a train ticket or a passport, so that all of our trust is in the cross of Jesus. This is how we come to God with a clear conscience, trusting in God like Noah, or Abraham, or Paul. We have Jesus, and Jesus is always enough, more than enough. He is everything we need. So we put our faith in him always, and that always will stretch out to the horizon forever.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.