Is Sincerity Enough to Be Saved?

​Across the world, deeply religious people are sincere in the beliefs they profess. For them, what they believe is not rooted in hypocrisy, fakery, or impure motives, but rather in what they are convinced is right. Their conscience is assured that what they believe is acceptable before God. To some, this sincerity should not be questioned or challenged. It would be judgmental and unlike Christ to doubt someone’s sincerity. Often these thoughts are expressed in a situation where someone’s sincere convictions are scrutinized with Scripture. It is easy to dismiss concerns off-handedly about truth with claims of sincerity. Regardless, no matter how we feel, we should consider whether sincerity is enough to please God. What do the Scriptures teach us about sincerity and its role in our faith?
 
            We first acknowledge the importance of sincerity and a good conscience before God. To diminish these realities would take away from what the Bible says. In his final letter to Timothy, Paul remarked that he served God with “a pure conscience” (2 Timothy 1:3). He also expressed his conviction that Timothy had a genuine faith like his mother and grandmother (2 Timothy 1:5). Both passages refer to sincerity and a good conscience. These texts also show us that these traits can be passed down from generation to generation, which stresses the need to teach them. There should be no question, then, that God wills for His people to have a pure conscience and sincere faith in Him. These traits are necessary if we would serve God effectively. Still, we must return to our titular question: is sincerity enough to be saved? Perhaps we should think of it in another way: can sincerity overcome false beliefs, practices, and lifestyles? That requires us to dig deeper into Scripture.
 
            What Paul writes in 2 Timothy about sincerity and a pure conscience has built within it the expectation that these traits have been properly trained. That is, these traits have been passed down and are constructed on a solid foundation. Consider another text that shows us the need for a pure conscience. Paul writes that when we understand “the commandment,” which refers to the Old Testament law, it produces love from “a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith” (1 Timothy 1:5). False teachers in Ephesus had missed the point about the Old Testament law and sought to misapply it, which revealed their ignorance (1 Timothy 1:6-7). It also revealed a lack of the traits Paul commends, among them a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith. All this implies that when the Old Testament law is properly understood and applied, these are the traits it will develop. Taking that thought further, we realize that Paul shows us that these traits have as their foundation God’s word. When our sincerity and pure conscience are rooted in the Scriptures, then they have the power to produce and maintain salvation. When our sincerity and conscience are built on any other foundation, then their power is negated, because it is all subject to our whims. We could be sincere and have a pure conscience yet deny the physical resurrection of Christ. We could be sincere and have a pure conscience yet claim God does not exist. We could be sincere and have a pure conscience yet worship in ways contrary to the Bible. The problem ought to be a little clearer.
 
            An example will help us grasp how sincerity and a pure conscience are not in and of themselves enough to be saved. The centurion Cornelius was “devout,” donated financial means to others, and regularly engaged in prayer (Acts 10:1-2). Based on this description, it follows that we could call him sincere and conscientious. What happens next changes the situation, however. An angel of God appears and informs Cornelius that he must visit a man named Simon, who “will tell you what you must do” (Acts 10:3-6). If God was content with Cornelius’ sincerity and conscientiousness, then why would He send an angel to inform this man that he had something more to do? Friends, Cornelius was a devout man, but he was not a saved man because of his devout life. It would not be until he obeyed the command to be immersed in water that he would be forgiven of sin and therefore saved (Acts 10:47-48). While sincerity and a pure conscience defined Cornelius, neither were enough to produce salvation. Only obedience to Christ’s plan could do that.
 
            Sincerity alone is not enough to be saved from sin. While we recognize the necessity of sincerity and a pure conscience, we must realize that these traits cannot be founded on our feelings or whims but on the word of God. It is God’s design that when we obey what He teaches us, then He will declare us saved, and we can rejoice in that fact without any doubt of where we stand before Him. To rely on sincerity and conscientiousness while believing and practicing error is folly. Let us turn to Scripture to learn what God demands, obey Him, then live in sincerity and conscientiousness before Him because of what He has taught us.