1 Timothy Ch. 5
The Church and its ministry to itself
“We are family”
5:1-25 The Church and its ministry to itself
5:1-16 Ministry to the elderly and needy
5:17-20 Ministry to leaders
5:21-25 Ministry’s do’s and don’ts
Vs. 1-2 Friends, Foes or Family?
Vs. 3-16 Proper benevolence
Introduction
Paul established the way in which Timothy was to correct believers while pastoring in the established church in Ephesus, now moves to some of the things he needed to address. I wonder if Timothy wrote Paul a laundry list of “What do I do about this problem” type of questions. While in the Transkei area of South Africa the student’s favorite time was after our teaching through the book of Ephesians when they could just fire away questions at me. I got the sense that they didn’t get much opportunity to ask practical questions with regards to difficult subjects. What may be difficult in our culture and time may not be difficult for another culture and another time but one thing is for certain, when we allow the Word of God to transform our hearts God will direct us in the proper application of truth.
Vs. 1-2 Friends, Foes or Family?
Vs. 1-2 First Paul tells Timothy general words about how to address folks. This is a very profound truth for pastors as it suggests that, “The way you treat people depends entirely on how you see them!” In our society we tend to look at folks as either “friends” or “foes”. That’s because the world system in which we live tends to look at people as objects that are there to either help us get ahead of others, “friends” or keep us from getting ahead, “foes”. But Paul’s view of humanity is not a competition but rather a journey and because of the difference we are to view folks in the church as “FAMILY”.
- Older men: Are fathers who have more experience, those who have dealt with and survived more crises in their lives, who have developed a greater degree of understanding and wisdom that comes from life. This view would generate communication that was kind, humble and respectful which always has a better opportunity of being received.
- Younger men: Are brothers, they are not our rivals, our competitors! They are instead those that we are journeying through life with. We have their backs and they ours. They know all our faults and we theirs as we share the same battles and through Christ will gain the same victories. Because of this view there ought to be an openness in our communication and a compassion in our speech, as we also struggle in the same areas.
- Older women: Are mothers, we are to give them the kind of respect and care you would give your own mother. Men we need to view these precious saints not as “old ladies” but as “mothers” who have devoted their lives to making sure our bellies were fed, our shoes were tied and our hearts were warmed!
- Younger women: Are sisters therefore we are to treat them with all purity! Treat them with love, protect them from harm, keep your intentions pure, Paul says. I have noticed that in our society that sometimes this goes the other way as well so single gals these single men are your brothers. In Solomon’s book dedicated to romantic love in a marriage is a three time repeated phrase to the “Daughters of Jerusalem” that says to “Not stir up nor awaken love until it pleases”. Translation: Ladies do not artificially stimulate romantic involvement, don’t work at being sexy to lure men because that’s not what you want men to value you only as being sexy. There is a place for that and it’s called marriage!
Vs. 3-16 Proper benevolence
Vs. 3-16 Paul can now address the specific problem of benevolence and how to properly treat the “widows” of the fellowship. The first controversy that came up within the Church dealt with the distribution of food as the Greek speaking Jews felt that the Hebrew speaking Jews were getting a greater portion. At this time almost everyone married and most women were entirely dependent upon their husbands to financially provide for them. When a woman found herself without her husband she was in a grave situation fiscally. The church established a fund to care for those widows that meant the specific requirements to be placed in the church’s care as Paul lists five qualifications they must meet.
- Vs. 3-4 Real widows: They had to be women who had no family to help them. If they had children or grandchildren, then the responsibility to care for their mother or grandmother fell upon the family, not the church. That is one of the problems I see in our Westernized society as many families are not caring for their own members and are instead relying upon society, the government or the church to care for its members. Today, our society has life insurance, independent income and pensions as widows have the opportunity to continue to have their needs met. But in the rare cases where they have none of the above available widows are not to be the primary financial responsibility of the Church. Widows in the Church who had families are not to be put on the benevolence fund.
- Vs. 5-7 Spiritual characteristics: At the top of this list was their commitment to intercessory prayer day and night. In contrast Paul says that if a widow is only living for worldly pleasure she is dead while she lives, in other words she is missing out on what true living is. These older widows are to fulfill their calling by being other centered being a blessing to all. They are to live in such a manner that no accusation could stand because of their character.
- Vs.9-10 Physical characteristics: We are going to come back to verse 8 in a moment but in verses 9 and 10 Paul lists three physical characteristics:
- Vs. 9a At least 60 years old: This is an interesting requirement as most folks only lived to their 60’s which suggests that this was to be a select few that were willing to dedicate what short time they had left to full time ministry. I suppose today Paul would bump that age requirement up some as women live longer but the general idea here is that this wasn’t to be a long term ministry but a short term ministry.
- Vs. 9b A one man woman: This is the same word used for an elder and deacon and refers to their devotion to their husbands while they were living. We know this because Paul speaks in verse 14 of the younger women marrying and clearly he would not be disqualifying them for future consideration if their husbands were to pass away at a later date. She must have not been a lady who was involved in multiple relationships outside of marriage or inside of marriage but was devoted to her marriage.
- Vs. 10 A woman of good reputation: She needed to have good references where folks could look at four areas where she had excelled such as:
- Brought up her children well
- Shown hospitality as she opened up her home to others
- Washed the feet of the saints. In those days they wore sandals and when someone came into your house you would bring out a wash tub and mother would often perform this humble task to do whatever it took to make someone feel welcome.
- She had also been involved in relieving the afflicted, or cared for the sick and burdened.
- Generally this 60 year old lady had committed her Christian life to being a blessing, in every way possible.
Vs. 11-13 Not young widows: Paul points out several things that would disqualify widows. It is clear that Paul viewed this injunction to older widows as a full time ministry opportunity not something to fill the time up with until they found a man to remarry. The problem these younger widows had, according to Paul, was a sense of entitlement where they got on the payroll and it stunted their spiritual dependency upon the Lord. Their lack of maturity would cause a misuse of time which would lead to going from house to house wasting time becoming busybodies and gossips. Today I suppose we would say that some younger single women without children just love drama and get all caught up in other peoples’ business.
- Vs. 14-15 Learn to be home makers: The home has always been the foundation of society. This is not to say that women shouldn’t work outside of the home but that their primary work in the home has been a great blessing to societies. Our country has for far too long suffered from absentee fathers but now many children have become latch-key children because their mothers have abandoned them as they chase after materialism.
Vs. 8, 16 We left this verse until now as to deal with whose responsibility it is to care for all those who do not meet the Biblical understanding of widowhood. This responsibility is to be primarily met by their relatives as they are to “relieve them” and Paul continues to say, “and do not let the church be burdened, that it may relieve those who are really widows”. In verse 8 Paul said that to not do so was tantamount to “denying the faith” and that they were “worse than unbelievers”. It was a shocking and disgraceful thing not to meet the needs of your parents in biblical times. You could not hold public office if your parents had emotional and physical needs that you were unwilling to step up and meet.
No family action better reveals true Christian character than Christian children visiting and caring for their elderly parents. It is a wonderful ministry to go into some of these nursing homes where these precious saints because of health reasons now live as Mike and Trudy do to provide a church service. I’m blessed to spend weekly time with my children and grandchildren and we love to have them over and just spend time together. It is something that my children didn’t have the opportunity to do with their grandparents.
1 Timothy Ch. 5 (cont.)
“Take me to your leader”
Vs. 17-18 Compensating elders
Vs.19-21 Correcting elders
Vs. 22-25 Commissioning elders
Introduction
Hamilton airport recently had an antique fly-in and one of the planes on display was one that had removed some of the panels so you could see all the inner workings of the plane. I had no idea that all of that engineering lay behind the metal panels hidden out of sight. That’s what Paul is doing for us in this letter to his young “son in the faith” Timothy as he is writing about the hidden under workings of the church that most folks never see and some may not care too much about. No one enjoys chaos be that a cluttered store, a highway that has ground to a halt or an institution that doesn’t function.
Paul is dealing with church leadership that can become dysfunctional. The most important thing to correct in this world today, is not our government, our schools, our health care, or even our economy … .No, the most important thing that must be corrected in the world today is the operation of the church.
All of the things mentioned above were very dysfunctional in the first century but God didn’t go about fixing those things He made the establishment of His church the priority and maintaining its functionality is what most of the New Testament letters are about. We now have countless years of history that concur with this as we can see that a healthy functioning church regulates the society but a dysfunctional church is regulated by the society.
Vs. 17-18 Compensating elders
Paul has some words for Timothy in his relationships to elders in three areas:
- Vs. 17-18 Compensating elders
- Vs. 19-21 Correcting elders
- Vs. 22-25 Commissioning elders
Vs. 17-18 Compensating elders: The nature of the early church made it a necessity to have itinerant or traveling Bible teachers instead of each fellowship having one full time pastor/teacher. These men devoted themselves to full time service and had no time to earn a living. The “elders” Paul is referring to here are the same ones he mentioned in chapter 3 verses 1-7. The difference is that in chapter 3 Paul emphasized their “work” calling them “overseers” and here he emphasizes the “worker” calling them an “elder”! The word Paul uses to define their work is an unfortunate translation as, “RULE” makes it sound as if these individuals are “Bosses” over the people. The right translation would be “LEADS” and is the word translated elsewhere as “leadership”. The elder is not driving the church, he is “leading” the church and is worthy of “honor” Paul says. There were two types of leadership at this time and for sake of clarification they were:
- Leading elders
- Teaching elders!
Though according to Paul in chapter 3 verse 2 they all needed to be “able to teach” not all elders were called upon to teach all the time, their primary responsibility was to lead the church and most of them had full time jobs outside the church. Teaching elders were those that because of God’s call, gifting and the Holy Spirit’s clear anointing had been given the task of equipping the saints for the work of the ministry. The church needs both those who help keep it organized and those who help keep the church fed in the word of God.
To have those who are in leadership without the teaching is like trying to organize a room full of two year olds. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, thus the 2 work in tandem. If the teaching elder is faithful in feeding and leading the people Paul says they are worthy of “double honor” and the word honor is where we get the word “honorarium”. It is Jesus’ plan that the needs of His servants be met by their local fellowships and God blesses the churches that honor Him by doing so.
To show that this wasn’t just a New Testament idea Paul quotes an Old Testament passage out of Deut. 25:4 where Moses said that the ox that was being used to thresh the wheat were not permitted to be muzzled from eating while they worked. In 1 Corinthians chapter 9 verses 9-10 Paul interprets the meaning of that beyond just oxen to pastors and works in the church as well, because as far as we know oxen can’t read. Paul also quotes Jesus when He said something very similar to His disciples as He sent them out 2 by 2 into the villages in Luke chapter 10 verse 7 saying for them to “remain in the same house, eating and drinking such things as they give, for the laborer is worthy of his wages.” In 1 Corinthians chapter 9 verses 9-10 Paul interprets the meaning of that beyond just oxen to pastors and works in the church as well, because as far as we know oxen can’t read.
Paul also quotes Jesus when He said something very similar to His disciples as He sent them out 2 by 2 into the villages in Luke chapter 10 verse 7 saying for them to “remain in the same house, eating and drinking such things as they give, for the laborer is worthy of his wages.” That being said the teaching elder must never choose this as a way of making a living, this is not a career path it is a calling.
Vs.19-21 Correcting elders
Vs. 19-21 Correcting elders: Church discipline is a challenging situation and like many families usually goes on to two extremes:
- No discipline: Which cause the church like the family to be unruly and in disarray
- Extreme discipline: Which cause folks to be stifled in their creativity and bound in legalism instead of grace
The balance is what is needed and this is especially true with leadership. The lack of correcting the leaders causes many within the church to become disillusioned with the church. The purpose of all Christian discipline is restoration not revenge and this is true with the elder as well. The word restore is a medical term that means to set a fracture and this takes patience and tenderness to accomplish. To set any bone the first thing you will need to do is ascertain all the facts and this usually today requires an x-ray. Paul tells Timothy to make sure that he takes the time to do a thorough examination of the facts by hearing the offense from multiple credible witnesses and if that is not brought forward he is not to even hear the matter. Rumor, opinion and accusations are not enough unless supported by many witnesses. Some folks just like to have “shepherd’s pie” for lunch and those cases are not what Paul has in mind. The accused has the right to face their accusers in the court of law and the church as well.
You would handle this situation much as you would in Jesus’ admonition in dealing with sin found in Matthew 18. There Jesus says, “If your brother sins against you, go to him and tell him his fault, between you and him alone; if he repents, you have gained your brother..” End of story nothing else needs to be said it’s settled. Paul also says when dealing with correcting leadership that it needs to be open and aboveboard, no back allies or under the counter politics have any place in the church.
If the leader is guilty then he should be disciplined publically and his offense known. He should be given the opportunity to repent and if he does he should be forgiven and if forgiven the matter ought to be forgotten. If the matter requires removal then forgiveness doesn’t necessarily mean instant reinstatement, instead it means a process by which restoration needs to be applied and evaluated over time. Paul warns against prejudice and partiality in dealing with elders as there ought to be no sense of reading into the situation or offense. I know this to be true with regards to myself: “I’m never as good as people believe me to be and I’m always a great deal worse than people say that I am.” But thank God that His love never fails, His mercy is new every moment and His grace is always sufficient.
Vs.21-25
Commissioning elders: The challenge in selecting elders is that only God knows the thoughts and intents of the heart, so Paul tells Timothy to wait on the Lord to reveal where they truly are. The church must not make necessity the qualification in appointing people to positions of authority. It is dangerous to the health and wellbeing to place a new believer or a new member in a place of leadership in the church. Paul goes on to say that, “some people’s sins are clearly visible while others take time to see and the same can be said of their good works.” Investigation and patience aid in the appointment and placement of the right people in the right positions.
This doesn’t do any good after the fact but can sure save a church a lot of stress by applying it ahead of time. Small churches like ours can look for warm bodies to fill spots but when you do that without making sure the person is who the Lord wants you can cause a lot of damage as it is always easier to get a person into a position than it is to get them out. Oftentimes the leadership shares in the responsibility of a person’s sins as they were the ones that placed them into the position in the first place.
To not deal with an offending leader to share in their sins and to pass them on to another unsuspecting fellowship to multiply the sin. We humans have a way of putting our best foot forward when we meet people, trying to make a good impression but you can only really know a person over time and not just seeing them when they are trying to present themselves to you, that’s what Paul is saying with leadership, take your time observe them in many situations.
Personally I like to see how people serve to know how they will lead! In verse 23 Paul gives some personal advice to Timothy with regards to drinking of wine and we need to remember that the bible does not demand abstinence, it denounces drunkenness! “The very injunction of Paul implies that he regarded wine as a medicine for the sick, and not as a beverage for the well!”