holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.
in a pure conscience: Vine says, pure" means "pure, as being clean" (228). Thus, the writer emphasizes the necessity of conscientious purity and sincerity. In 1 Timothy 4:2, Paul uses the phrase, "having their conscience seared with a hot iron." Vincent makes this comment: "They (deacons) express conscientious purity and sincerity in contrast with those who are described as branded in their own conscience, and thus causing their followers to fall away from the faith" (234). Wuest puts it, "It is as if the pure conscience were the vessel in which the mystery of the faith is preserved" (60). The word "conscience" is defined by Vine as "a knowing with, a co-knowledge (with oneself), the witness borne to one’s conduct by conscience, that faculty by which we apprehend the will of God, as that which is designed to govern our lives." So, with a pure conscience one distinguishes between good and bad, commending the good and condemning the bad. Therefore, "in pure conscience" would require that a deacon not only be firm in doctrine but pure in heart.