“having faith and a good moral conscience. Those who cast this aside have shipwrecked their faith.”

(1 Timothy 1:19)

What are the qualities of a good soldier of Jesus Christ? While we might list many attributes that Christians are to strive to have, Paul focuses on two here in this verse and combines them with a warning. What are those two attributes? The first is faith and the second is to have a “good conscience.” 

Faith ought to be obvious. One cannot please God apart from faith (Hebrews 11:6) and likewise, all that is done without faith is sin (Romans 14:23). Further, this faith is not something we generate within ourselves, but we must be born again from above (John 3:3), it is the means that guides the way the believer lives and walks (Hebrews 11:1; 2 Corinthians 5:7) and it is not only how we are saved on this side of the Cross of Jesus, but it is the way the saints of old also walked (Romans 4:12; Hebrews 11:2). If you would be a good soldier of Christ, saving faith is the starting point and it is God’s doing.

Yet, there is an aspect of this “good soldiering” that also speaks to our participation. We are called to have a “good conscience.” Paul uses the word συνείδησις (suneidesis) in this context, which primarily speaks of the question of morality, or that of a moral conscience (hence the translation above). In other words, Paul is speaking about a person who chooses right over wrong, life over death, and God’s way over the ways of man (Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Romans 12:1-2). The one who knows what is right and yet refuses to do it is not a good soldier; indeed, he is one from whom we must separate ourselves (2 Thessalonians 3:6). And those ignorant of the ways of God must be taught (Matthew 28:20).

The challenge (to preserve the analogy) is that many in the church are not good soldiers and many churches are not interested in training good soldiers. People are often lax when it comes to growing in their faith and obedience to Christ’s commands and are often content with the idea that they are destined for heaven while they go about living worldly lives. If you have ever served in the military, you understand that obedience to the commands of your leaders is not an option and contentment in mediocrity is never an acceptable option. It isn’t in the church either. At least, it isn’t in Christ’s true church.

While it is certainly true that a true conversion (which is God’s work in us) does often supernaturally produce a change in the moral conscience. Indeed, it must! One is being transformed from death to life! Nevertheless, the true believer also seeks to mature his or her moral conscience every day of their life. We seek to discern what is the good and acceptable will of God and as we mature in the faith God has given to us, we grow more like Christ and less like the world. We grow to hate the things that God hates and to love the things that God loves in every aspect of our lives. In other words, we participate in maturing our “good moral conscience” so we may become a better soldier.

What happens if we do not? Therein lies the warning (and even examples in the following verse!). When you do not seek to be that good soldier, you make a shipwreck out of your faith. Does that mean you will lose your faith? No, God loses none of His own. But it does mean that your spiritual life will be tossed and battered by every wave and storm of human invention. And folks, if you have ever been aboard a ship that has been in danger of shipwreck, you understand that it is not a voyage that you would enjoy. A life such as that is filled with misery and guilt rather than with the satisfaction that comes with the fact that God is using you to build Christ’s Kingdom.

So be that good soldier and build on the faith that God has instilled in you (Jude 20).