The Title vs The Task of Teaching

1 Tim 1.5-7: "The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good consciecne and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions."

My friend made two observations about this passage First, the drift into dubious theological disuccion is here describe as moral in origin: these characters have swerved from a pure heart, a good consciene, and a sincere faithl that is why their theology is so dreadful. Second, their desire is not to teach but to be teachers. There is an important difference here: their focus is on their own status, not on the words they proclaim. At most, the latter are merely instrumental to getting them status and boosting their careers.

Thus, what concerns me most is that students may simply desire to be teachers. If that is their motivation, then they have already abandoned a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith, and their theology, no matter how orthodox, is just a means to an end and no sound thing.

-Trueman, Fools Rush In: Where Monkeys Fear To Tread, 32.