1 Timothy 3:8-13

All right, thanks for joining us.
Sorry, we have no video today,
so it’ll be an audio only.
Take some of the pressure off, I guess.
But we are continuing through the third chapter
of the first book of Timothy.
The last couple days,
we’ve looked at the qualifications that
Paul has given Timothy in regard to bishops or overseers.
Today, we follow up with the next
class of church leader,
that which is called Deacon.
The word Deacon means like a table servant.
The idea is that these are people who care for people in the congregation.
They probably have a more functional role,
maybe a little bit less leadership and a little bit more pastoral ministry.
They probably have to do with the caregiving stuff that happens in these church communities.
But Paul gives advice on the kind of qualities that Timothy should look for in the people
who are going to serve in that regard.
I think we’ll get through this quicker,
Michael, because in many ways,
it’s a restatement of some of what we’ve seen before.
But let me read a couple of verses here,
and we’ll talk about it.
Deacons likewise must be serious,
not double-tongued,
not indulging in much wine,
not greedy for money.
They must hold fast to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.
Let them be first tested.
Then if they prove themselves blameless,
let them serve as deacons.
So we have some of the same things that are said about them.
The word double-tongued means
double-speaking.
In other words,
they shouldn’t either say two different things to different people,
or they shouldn’t say one thing and do another thing.
So they shouldn’t be hypocrites.
They shouldn’t be greedy.
Again, we talked
a little bit over the last few days.
Money has gotten a lot of church leadership in trouble through the years.
Access to money,
the abuse of money,
not using funds well,
soliciting funds from people,
dishonestly.
There is a temptation that greed brings that is really incompatible
with church leadership and has been the downfall of many a church leader.
And so Paul speaks to that here.
And then an interesting phrase,
Michael, they must hold fast to the
faith with a clear conscience.
In other words, they must not only believe, they must live
in accordance with that belief.
And Paul has said things like this before.
We’ve seen this before.
The idea for Paul is that one’s professed belief and one’s lived beliefs really ought to be the
same thing.
There should not be significant differences between them.
I also was drawn to that.
So if you’re studying with us,
we’re in 1 Timothy 3.
And we’re looking here, verse nine.
And I find this idea,
the mystery of the faith, particularly interesting.
We’re going to actually see that defined Clint in verse 16 here in a
probably a couple of days.
We’ll get to this where Paul actually gives the exact kind of definition
of what he means by the mystery of the faith.
But I just want to
take a moment to zoom out
for a second and suggest that I think that there is great wisdom in the idea of being
very focused on the mystery of the faith.
The folks who look at the faith and see it as a
clear, defined and never complicated kind of reality are,
I think, in my estimation, those who are going to struggle in church leadership.
And quite frankly, they’re going to struggle with the faith in general,
because the reality is the faith is always meeting humans
in the midst of our point of greatest need.
And we are always living in some very interesting
combination of both faith and unbelief.
And so the idea of the mystery of the faith,
I think, is a compelling one for me,
the idea that we never get our mind around God.
God is always revealing
God’s self to us,
and we’re discovering that.
But if we don’t have a little bit of mystery in our faith,
then that’s probably not a great sign of our maturity of faith.
Pete It’s an interesting phrase.
And for Paul,
mystery is not quite synonymous with Jesus,
but certainly anchored in Jesus.
And so,
unlike
the warnings we saw Paul give early in this book about those who chase after mysteries,
that’s not what he has in mind here.
He has in mind
our very specific faith in Jesus Christ
and the mystery that there are some things that we can’t solve.
I think you bring up a great point,
Michael, that the faith is not a puzzle that can be understood,
that can be solved.
The faith is a living challenge for all of us,
and on this side of the kingdom,
we will not find ourselves
with all the answers,
nor, I think, should we trust those who say that they do.
And so,
again, I find that a really interesting phrase,
the mystery of our faith,
and that we hold fast to it with a clear conscience.
Because what is our conscience?
Our conscience is whatever we do know about the faith,
our life should match up with that.
There should not be a gap between what we understand and the way that we live.
So, that’s a great challenge for us.
So, we’ve seen some of these words before,
serious,
not double speaking,
not a drunk, not indulging in too much wine.
And then we get to this next verse,
verse 11.
There’s some translation stuff here.
I’ll read a couple of verses.
“Women likewise must be serious,
not slanderers, but temperate,
faithful in all things.
Let deacons be married only once,
let them manage their children and their household well,
for those who serve well as deacons gain a
good standing for themselves,
and great boldness in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.”
So,
there have been translations.
There are really three things that you can do with this word, women.
And two of them probably are better than the other.
Women is, I think, a solid translation.
Remember, we said the other day,
women can also be translated as wives.
There are some who have argued that the word female here could be taken as deaconess.
But given what Paul has said about women speaking in church and the male language of officers,
we’ve had lots of that conversation.
If you missed it,
go back a couple of days,
you’ll come up to speed on that.
I think it’s very unlikely that Paul has in mind here the
idea of a deaconess,
very much more likely that this is women or wives,
but that the women
connected to the deacons ought also to be honorable,
temperate.
They ought to not cause
trouble.
They ought to, if they have partners,
those partners ought to be a strength to them
and not a source of controversy or conflict within the church.
We saw this with the elders,
married only once.
We talked about what that might mean.
Manage their children well,
almost literal restatement of what we saw in the qualifications for bishops.
And then finally, this commendation at the end,
“Those who serve well as deacons
gain a good standing and great boldness in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.”
You know, it’s interesting, Michael, to kind of look at the meta of this.
The idea of you have structural leadership and you have compassionate
caregiving.
And really, those two arms of the church, I think,
have always been the foundation
for congregations, for Christian community.
There is a demand for leadership and wise judgment and making decisions,
but then there is also this need for caring for one another,
for reaching out and for treating one another with care,
particularly those who are struggling or suffering.
I think verse 10 is a helpful sort of rubric that we can apply to Christian leadership,
the idea of let them be first be tested.
And, you know, the worst place for someone’s faith
and certainly someone’s character to be tested is in the middle of an extreme situation in a
congregation.
If that’s the moment,
it’s too late and it’s likely what you will find will not be pleasant.
I think the idea that one should apply forethought to that selection is deeply wise.
And I think to some extent,
maybe verse 11 here is less interesting than some of the words that
have been spoken before,
if only for the fact that as Paul talks about women here,
he’s really not departing from any of the instruction that he’s given previous.
I mean, ultimately, he commanded this same thing for elders.
So,
you know, I think there’s a kind of equal sort of treatment maybe in that,
if not equal of like kind.
I will say, though,
it’s worth noting
that while it is unlikely in this letter,
Paul means deaconess in verse 11,
there are examples,
say, Romans chapter 16, verse one, where Paul actually names a female deaconess.
So,
another Pauline letter,
but in that letter,
he actually names a woman who serves as a deaconess in a
letter. So, it’s worth noting that these letters are snapshots of a time in the congregation and
they are our scripture.
So, we sit under them.
We seek to hear them humbly,
but we’re aware that
there’s more happening in all of the New Testament than what’s happening right here.
So, just to not to restate our conversation about what Paul had to say about women previous,
but it is worth noting
that there’s more complexity in the New Testament than what we just find right here,
as it applies to women serving in the role of deacon,
and that’s worth noting.
Right.
I think the general caution we’ve always given is be very,
very careful when you are taking
one verse and trying to say that it is what the rest of the scripture says,
because it is rarely
that simple.
And so, that’s good.
I want to point out just one other word here.
There’s an interesting translation in verse 11.
The word “slanderers” literally means,
it literally says “deopolis,”
which is one of the words for “devil,” and it’s made into a form of speech.
So, it probably could literally be translated something like “devilish.” And what I think is interesting about that,
Michael, is irrespective of the male-female stuff,
I think that’s a great challenge to those of us
who are tempted to slander others,
to speak ill of something.
Paul literally envisions that when
we participate in that,
when we label others,
when we call names,
when we spread poor reports,
when we insult others, we are being devilish.
We are participating in the work of the devil.
That’s a very strong challenge.
It’s a very strong word.
And I think that’s a very convicting reminder of
the power of our speech that can be used for God’s purpose or against God’s purpose.
And I think that
translation piece is interesting,
certainly a challenge that I hear loud and clear.
Don’t make a mistake misordering this text.
This is not about putting people down.
It’s not about a rubric for judging others.
It is ultimately, verse 13 makes very clear,
“geekens should gain a good standing for themselves and great boldness in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.” Good character,
Christian discipleship,
that constant encounter with the risen Christ that demands
re-awareness of our salvation and a new kind of transformation into the image of Christ every day
is for the purpose of more closely resembling His image in the world.
And deacons are called
in their leadership to be fixated not on the standing for their own sake,
not for their own
kind of arrogance or prideful pointing at self,
but rather for the sake of true service to others to be upright,
to be good people,
to live with a kind of stability and constancy.
And that does not happen overnight.
I think that goes back to that
commendation we had previous.
I believe it was yesterday that the elder shouldn’t be a new believer.
There’s wisdom to allow a person to have time to grow in the faith and for that faith to take root.
And I think these are beautiful words,
a reminder for us that if as our faith grows,
so should our great boldness in the faith.
And namely,
I want to be clear here,
not propositional faith, not just like your ability to talk someone into the faith,
but rather boldness in the faith
that is in Christ Jesus.
It is beautiful when a Christian has come to the full awareness,
“I can trust Jesus.
I may not know all the theological words.
I may not know exactly how
I could ‘evangelize’ another person,
but I am willing to trust the one who has come and reveals
God’s will for the world.
And if one can continue to grow in that confidence, then friends,
I think we’re living into the very thing that Paul’s calling the deacons to embody.
So in this last phrase
here, the word ‘in’ is doing a lot of heavy lifting.
Great boldness in the faith that is in Christ
Jesus.
We can read that word boldness and think that it’s about us.
Think that it’s about us being
strong and standing up.
But boldness in the faith looks like the courage to forgive,
the courage to love, the courage to reach out to people who are different,
the courage to embrace truth,
the courage to take a stand against something that is harmful to people.
And we do that in the faith that is in
Christ Jesus.
So the idea that Paul gives us two circles to sort of locate our boldness within,
I think is really helpful.
Because as in all things, Paul,
this is never about us.
This is about Jesus Christ.
And so he helps us get there even with the way that he writes this final thought.
Well, friends, I think we’re glad that you would spend time with us today.
Sorry for the technical
difficulties we’ll have that worked on over the course of today.
But we look forward to seeing
you as we continue on in this study.
I think some really interesting words to come,
Clint, and I hope that those who join us will be with us as we continue on.
Yeah.
Thanks for your time today,
and we hope to – well,
we will be with you tomorrow.
Hope to
see you.
Have you see us tomorrow?
Something along those lines.
Yeah, something along those lines.
Have a good night.
Bye.