Verse 5
5. The end, or purpose, of the commandment, or injunction contained in the law, and presupposed in the gospel. Is Not an imaginary wisdom made up from these fables and allegories, but charity.
Charity Love. See Introductory Note to 1 Corinthians 13:0. The commandment prohibits sins and enjoins duties; but its intrinsic purpose is to reach deep into the heart and find its complete fulfilment in love.
Out of a pure heart From a heart instructed by the gospel and sanctified by the divine Spirit would flow the outgoings of love. Omitting the of inserted by the translators, the good conscience and the faith are second and third elements of the end of the commandment. Love not only produces goodness in action, but guards against wrong, and so preserves a good conscience. And by establishing a sympathy between the heart and Christ it results in relying faith; a faith not feigned, like that of the teachers of other doctrines, in order to win the Church to error, but unfeigned and true to Christ.
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