1 Timothy 5
McGeeCHAPTER 5THEME: Duties of officers in the churchesBoth chapters 5 and 6 will deal with this very practical matter of the duties of officers in the church. This gets right down to the nitty-gritty of church life today. There is nothing romantic in this, but it is very realistic and meaningful for us.
1 Timothy 5:1
RELATIONSHIP OF MINISTERS TO DIFFERENT GROUPS IN THE LOCAL CHURCH"An elder"the first relationship discussed is Timothy’s relationship to elders. There has been some difference of opinion as to whether Paul is referring to the office of elder or to an elder person, someone who was older than Timothy. In the early church the “elder” was an office, but the word used here refers to the individual. I think Paul had both aspects in mind: he is speaking of a mature child of God, and a man who occupied a certain office. Paul means both for the simple fact that an elder was an elderan older man. “Rebuke not an elder, but entreat [exhort] him as a father.” Timothy was not to rebuke an elder publicly, but he was to entreat him privately. Timothy was a young man, and he needed to be very tactful in his relationship with these older men in the church. In other words, he was not to take the position of a know-it-all or of a dictator over these older men. He was to encourage them and have a word privately with them if he thought it was necessary. “And the younger men as brethren.” A sweet relationship should exist between Timothy and the older men and also with those of his own age.
1 Timothy 5:2
“With all purity.” A minister of a church should be very careful in his relationships with the opposite sex. Nothing hurts a church more or has more frequently wrecked the ministry of a church than sin in this area. When a minister must leave a church because of such a problem, the spiritual deadness in the church is very noticeable. Nothing can destroy the spiritual life of a church more than this kind of an experience. The “new morality” cannot and will not work in the church. Paul has discussed Timothy’s relationship with the men in the churcholder and younger, and then the womenolder and younger. He comes now to his relationship with a third group
1 Timothy 5:3
“Honour” is a very interesting word, and in the Greek it is the same word from which we get our English word honorarium. It has in it the thought of value being attached to something. Sometimes when I speak at a church on a Sunday or for a week of special services I receive a check that says on it, “Honorarium.” In other words, they have attached value to what I have done. The early church took care of their widows, and they were very careful about it. The care of widows was the problem that arose in Acts 6. The Greeks (who were Jews from outside of Israel) felt that their widows were being neglected in favor of the others. The apostles had men appointed to handle the care of the widows so that they themselves could continue to concentrate on the preaching of the Word. Paul is giving instruction here as to how the care of the widows is to be carried out. “Honour widows that are widows indeed.” The instruction given in the Word of God is very practical. It uses a whole lot of common sense and is not moved by sentimentality. Christians are known to be tenderhearted, and there are a lot of people today who have their hands out to us. We need to be very careful. The early church took care of widows, but they didn’t do it in some haphazard, sentimental way. The deacons were to make an investigation to see who were truly widows, where the need was, and how much need there was. There are not many liberal or even conservative churches who are taking care of the widows in their midst. This is a much neglected area today. Paul is going to go into this in very specific detail:
1 Timothy 5:4
“Nephews” here are grandchildren. The investigation should determine whether the widow in question has children. Why aren’t they supporting her? Does she have grandchildren? They have a responsibility toward her. This was God’s method, and I think it still is God’s method.
1 Timothy 5:5
Now this widow is “a widow indeed"a real widow. She is “desolate,” that is, she is in need. She is a godly woman, and she prays. She not only prays for the church and the pastor, but she prays for herself and for her need. She has a right to do that. And I want to say that God uses us to help answer such prayers. He makes it clear that when we find a widow like this we are to help her. It is quite lovely when we do things God’s way.
1 Timothy 5:6
But if you go over to a widow’s house and find that she is having a cocktail party, I would say that she is not the widow to help. It does not matter how prominent her son, or her sister, or her brother might be in the church, she is not to be helped.
1 Timothy 5:7
Paul is saying, “Timothy, you make this very clear to the church in order that they might act in an honorable way in these matters.”
1 Timothy 5:8
My friend, I don’t know how I could make this any stronger than it’s made right here: the widow is to be taken care of by her own flesh and blood. It does not matter what type of testimony a man may give at a businessmen’s meeting, or what kind of a testimony a woman may give to the missionary society, if they are not taking care of their own, they have no testimony for God. They are worse than infidels. Scripture is very clear hereyou might miss some things in Scripture, but you cannot miss this.
1 Timothy 5:9
“Into the number” refers to the group of widows which were to be helped. Why did they have this age limit? Because if she was under that age she could still work and take care of herself.
1 Timothy 5:10
“Well reported of for good works.” Paul is saying that it is good to consider what kind of person the widow has been in the past. Check back in her life. Don’t help everyone who comes along. But if she is the kind of person he has described and she is in need, you are to help her. I wish that the church could get back to these very basic and simple principles and get away from the sentimental and emotional appeals that we hear instead. We respond to sentimental pleas from unworthy causes which are appealing to our soft hearts and neglect those in our very midst who have real need. We overlook the wonderful widow in our own church who is lonely and seldom visited. Her children have moved away or have died, and she may have physical need. Too often the church ignores such need. But if a church took care of its widows, its testimony would not go unnoticed by the world. I believe that these widows who are helped by the church ought to be deaconesses in the churchthey should render some service to the church. For example, several years ago I called a widow in my church and asked her to visit a lady whose husband’s funeral service I had just conducted. The death had left the lady without family or friends, and I asked the widow to visit her because she would understand the woman’s needshe had been through it herself. They became warm friends and grew in their relationship to God because of it. A widow can and should serve in some way in the church.
1 Timothy 5:11
The younger widow is likely to want to remarryand that’s all right, as I see it. But notice that there is the danger of remarrying for the wrong reasons. There is the danger that she will forget all about her faith. The church is to be very careful and test the young widows also.
1 Timothy 5:13
In other words, they carry garbage from one place to another, and the garbage is gossip. They go about, “speaking things which they ought not.” There is the danger for the young widow, who has been relieved of the responsibility of being a wife and homemaker (perhaps having no children), that she will become a regular gadabout.
1 Timothy 5:14
The woman is the homemaker. In this whole section Paul is giving instructions about the behavior of men and women who are in the church. He is stressing that these relationships should be on the highest level as a testimony before the worldthat they “give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.”
1 Timothy 5:15
They were not genuine believers, of course.
1 Timothy 5:16
Each family should support its own widows, so that the church can concentrate on the widows who are without family and are in real need.
1 Timothy 5:17
The early church paid their teachers, and a good teacher, I think, was paid a little bit more.
1 Timothy 5:18
Paul is quoting here from Deu_25:4 and Luk_10:7. I have known very few preachers who I thought were money-lovers; most men are in the ministry for a different motive than that. You are not going to hurt the preacher if you give him a generous offering. Be generous also to a visiting Bible teacher if his ministry is a blessing to you.
1 Timothy 5:19
If this procedure were observed it would cut down a great deal on the gossip and misunderstanding and the strife that goes on in our churches today. Paul says that the pastor and every member of the church should refuse to let anyone whisper into his ear any gossip about the pastor or a church officer. People should be able to prove their accusations before witnesses. The important thing is that you should have the facts before you talk. And if you have the facts, rather than scatter the scandal abroad, you should seek to correct the problem by going to the proper authorities. Any accusation should be given before more than one witness.
1 Timothy 5:20
If the facts are known that a church leader has sinned, he is to be rebuked. The question arises, Is this to be done publicly? I believe that when a member of a church sins and it does not concern the congregation it should never be brought out into the open, nor should it be confessed publicly. However, when a leader of the church, an officer in the church, sins, and it has hurt the church, then I think it is time to call names. It may also be time to drop his name from the roll of membership. Great harm can be done to a church by sin in the life of its leaders, and this is the way Paul says it should be dealt with.
1 Timothy 5:21
Timothy is to treat everyone in the church alike. There may be an officer in the church who is a wealthy man and who has been good to the pastor. Perhaps he has bought the pastor a suit of clothes or helped him buy a new car. A pastor will often brag that such a man is a member of his church, and he may not feel inclined to bring any charges against him even though it is evident the man is guilty. Paul says that we are not to show partiality in the church. James said the same thing in James 2.
1 Timothy 5:22
We read earlier that the officers were to be installed by the laying on of hands (see 1Ti_4:14). We saw that the laying on of hands indicates partnership in the ministry. The thought here is that this is not to be done “suddenly,” not to a neophyte, someone who has been recently converted. If we exalt a young Christian to the position of a teacher before he is thoroughly grounded in the Word, the theology he teaches is apt to be weird theology. The church ought to be a place of instruction where the Word of God is taught and men and women are built up in the faith. Instead, today we often develop what I call Alka-Seltzer Christians and Alka-Seltzer churchesit’s all fizz, foam, and froth, a lot of emotion, and a lot of talk about love, love, love. It is important that love be displayed in a church, but it needs to be anchored in the Word of God. Our mistake is that we often interpret some sort of experience as being the test of spiritual maturity. We’ve got the cart before the horse.
The Word of God is the test, and experience can prove the truth of it. We can be certain that an experience which contradicts the clear teaching of the Bible is not from God at all. There were many young converts in the Ephesus area, and they needed teaching. It was a serious business for young Timothy to select the teachers and appoint them to teach the Word of God. “Neither be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure.” In other words, “Don’t compromise, Timothy. Don’t let someone talk you into letting a young convert teach. You will be a partner in sin if you do. Make sure the teachers are anchored in the Word of God.”
1 Timothy 5:23
I have to smile when I read this verse. It has certainly been abused in its many interpretations. Obviously the wine is not being used as a beverage but as a medicine.
1 Timothy 5:24
Sometimes God will judge a Christian’s sins right here and now, but if He doesn’t judge him immediately it does not mean that He is not going to judge. I have observed this over many years and have seen that eventually God will move in judgment. Paul wrote about this to the Corinthians because there were some who were not commemorating the Lord’s Supper in the proper manner. He said, “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep” (1Co_11:30). Paul said that some were already being judged by God. Some were actually sick; others had died as a judgment of God. Paul went on in 1 Corinthians to say, “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged” (1Co_11:31). When a Christian sins, he can judge himself. That doesn’t mean he is just to feel sorry for his sin. He is to deal with it: that is, if it has hurt somebody, he’s to make it right; and he is to turn from that sin. If he doesn’t do these things, he has not judged himself. First Corinthians continues: “But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world” (1Co_11:32). The world commits these sins, and God judges. Neither is a Christian going to get by with them: either you will judge yourself, or God will judge you. If you judge yourself, the matter is settled. If not, He will judge. Sometimes that judgment will occur here and now. If not, it will be dealt with when you appear before the judgment seat of Christ.
1 Timothy 5:25
The same principle applies to good works. Sometimes God blesses a believer down here for something he’s done for which God can reward him. Others are going to have to wait until they are in His presence to receive their reward, which will be the case of a great many Christians.