1 Timothy 5:1-16

Hey, welcome back everybody as we close out a week.
Thanks for being with us.
And we are in the fifth chapter,
just starting the fifth chapter of Timothy today.
We’re going to move
quickly today after we get through the initial couple of verses,
which I think are great.
Maybe we should have lumped them into yesterday.
This is kind of an odd place to break a chapter in
some ways.
Maybe they could have left these with the preceding stuff.
But let’s look at the first
two verses.
Paul continues to give general advice to Timothy,
and then he moves on to something very, very specific.
So verse 1, chapter 5,
“Do not speak harshly to an older man,
but speak to him as to a father,
to younger men as brothers,
to older women as mothers,
to younger women as sisters,
with absolute purity.” So a couple of interesting things here,
as Paul has anticipated a moment in which Timothy may have to in the course of leadership
rebuke or instruct or confront people,
he now gives some words on how that should be done.
Don’t speak harshly to an older man.
This is partly cultural.
This is somewhat biblical.
But Paul says, “If you have to speak to an older person,
even about something difficult,
speak to them as a father.
Treat them well.
Treat them with respect.
To the younger men
as brothers.
As an older brother would give advice.
To older women with respect,
you would give your own mother.” And then very interestingly,
to younger women as sisters,
and this is really the only one he adds a caveat with absolute purity,
because in Paul’s day,
as in our day,
the relationships with the opposite sex in church leadership could at best
look poorly and at worse not go well and cause much trouble.
And so Paul here gives some just
general guidelines for how Timothy ought to treat other people.
I think given that we’ve been
talking about correcting them,
we have to keep that in mind.
But even so, these are just general
good ideas in terms of your relationship with people that are in the community he’s trying to lead.
Part of this is a commitment to transparency.
It’s just to say that Christian
community should be one where leadership is lived out at the highest standard.
And that remains today a important leadership principle.
And however that gets enshrined,
both in what we
say about our policies,
about how we treat one another,
but also in some of those non-policy
things, just the character of our conduct,
the way that we address one another,
the words that we choose to use over other words.
There is a little bit of an intangible in this as well.
When you come into a context in which you are the novice or you’re the young person,
treat with respect your elder.
On the other hand,
when you’re dealing with folks who may have less
power, maybe they’re younger or maybe they don’t have the same leadership position in a congregation,
you need to treat them with utmost care and transparency.
And these are principles we
still live by today.
Yeah, so great advice.
I think assuming Timothy followed it,
I think it would serve him well.
This next part of the chapter,
easily the next half of the chapter,
is going to sound in some ways outdated,
in some ways perhaps sexist.
It’s going to sound probably
outside of our experience and hopefully not uninteresting because I do think there are some
interesting aspects to it.
But here’s what we think is happening.
In this early church community,
the reality is that widowed women are very vulnerable.
They generally wouldn’t have
recourse to income.
They often would not have much in the way of prospects to go and secure a future,
particularly if they don’t have a family or children.
It puts them in a very vulnerable
state.
And the church,
from its very early evolution,
embraces that challenge and embraces
that people group.
And so this early church community kept a “role of widows.” We’re going
to see that phrase.
And what that means is that the church literally cared for them,
that the church took some of its resources and bought food,
helped them find housing,
maybe had them move in with people.
And the church maintained this caregiving ministry to
this specific group of people.
Now,
there were, of course,
the potential for abuses.
There was the potential for people to put themselves on the list who were widows but
didn’t really want to go pursue other things.
They just thought it would be easier.
There were other opportunities for people on that widow list,
women on that widow list,
to cause trouble, to complain, to gossip, to do various other things that are going to be mentioned here.
That’s not a knock against women.
It is to say that that’s happening in this place with some of
these women.
And so we’re going to read this section that is deeply concerned with this
widow’s list.
And the fact that Paul gives this a half a chapter,
I think probably says to us
that this is causing issues.
This is something that is
creating some dissension, creating some problems in this community.
And Paul knows that Timothy is going to have to deal with it
if this church is going to make progress,
and he gives him his thoughts on what that should look like.
Michael, did I miss anything?
No, let’s jump in.
Okay,
let me read this here.
And I’ll just read for quite a bit here.
I’ll try to get through it quickly.
“On are widows who are really widows.
If a widow has children or grandchildren,
they should first learn their religious duty to their own family and make some repayment to their parents,
for this is pleasing in God’s sight.
The real widow is left alone,
has set her hope on God,
and continues in supplication and prayers night and day.
But the widow who lives for pleasure
is dead even while she lives.
Give these commands as well so that they may be above reproach,
and whoever does not provide for relatives and especially for family members has denied the faith
and is worse than an unbeliever.
Let a widow be put on the list if she is not less than 60
and has been married only once.
She must be well attested for her good works,
and as one who has brought up children,
shown hospitality, washed the saints’ feet,
helped the afflicted, and devoted herself to doing good in every way.
But refuse to put younger
widows on the list,
for when their sensual desires alienate them from Christ,
they want to marry,
and they incur condemnation for having violated their first pledge.
Besides that,
they learn to be idle,
gadding about from house to house,
and then not merely idle,
but also gossips and busy
bodies saying what they should not say.
So I would have younger widows marry,
bear children, and manage their households so as to give the adversary no occasion to revile us,
for some have already turned away to follow Satan.
If any believing woman has relatives who are really widows,
let her assist them.
Let the church not be burdened so that it can assist those
who are real widows.
So a lot there.
This is a big chunk,
and it’s an odd chunk for us.
Some biblical scholars think that part of the issue here is that remember Paul started this
letter with an appeal to Timothy about false leaders,
about people who were going house to
house and misleading people.
And one of the theories is that these people were praying
particularly on widows and single women,
and hence some of the language in this list
about the role of women,
the place of women,
the conduct of women.
In this instance, that turns to a very specific subset,
these widows.
And interestingly, Michael, as we start,
Paul draws a distinction between real widows and other kind of widows.
And that may sound very strange to us,
but what he means is widows who have other recourses,
widows who have other forms of support,
and widows who don’t.
And for Paul,
that is a vital distinction in the context of this ministry.
Yeah, there’s contextual and historical realities here about
who in the family can have the source of income,
dowries, and things of the sort that would take us a little while to get sorted out.
I think what’s worth knowing for the substance of our conversation is that all of the scriptures
including the Old Testament emphasizes the care as a religious duty of the religious community
for the widow as one of those who is in need of particular care.
The fact that that is enumerated
here is not surprising.
What is interesting here and probably challenging to our sensibilities
is how concretely Paul is going to want to draw the sort of markers of that status.
In other words, Paul’s not going to say if a woman is without a husband,
then she’s included in these ministries.
He has some very strict ideas about what that means.
What’s the conduct of that woman?
What’s her history in the midst of that Christian community?
And in fact, as we saw towards the end,
expectations about how old that woman is and his expectation about what that would mean
as to their life choices.
Whether or not we would,
if we weighed all of these things out,
find them
helpful.
It’s a different conversation.
I think the point here is that Paul,
as he has been
specific about church leadership,
particularly we just had the section about church leaders themselves,
whether that be the elders or whether that be the deacons,
he makes it very clear this
is what a life should look like.
As he now turns to a very practical ministry of this congregation,
he is therefore being practical.
And Clint,
I wonder if you would agree with this.
The reality is this is a specific congregation with a specific need of which you’ve already said
biblical scholars can only guess at.
If we have that in our minds and we’re willing to hold that
as we look at a text like this,
what you see happening that is of direct impact is not
necessarily a one-to-one correlation for what a church in the 21st century should do with ministries
for those who have lost their significant other,
but rather exactly how Paul understands our
commitment to our families,
our understanding of how that weighs into our commitment to our church.
The basic idea here is,
hey, if you can support a person so that that person doesn’t need to be
cared for by the entire congregation,
then that’s a ministry that you should take upon yourself.
Or if there’s a person who can sustain themselves and then the church’s resources could be used to bless someone else,
then do that to the best of your ability.
There’s a kind of common sense ministry
kind of idea in this,
but you have to be willing to look a little under the surface to see
what Paul may have been saying to a context that we don’t understand if we’re going to see it.
Michael, chime in here, but I can’t think of another scene in the entire New Testament where
we get a behind-the-curtain look at a church ministry.
I mean, Paul’s given us some ideas
on leadership.
There are other places in the New Testament we see what the church is doing,
but this balancing act here that Paul and Timothy are trying to navigate of people
who are taking liberties or possibly even abusing church generosity,
church outreach,
the idea of people on a list who don’t need to be on a list,
I can’t think of anything else
like that.
It’s a fascinating conversation.
When I served the church in Texas,
we during my time there started a food ministry,
and it was just anybody could come and eat lunch
for free.
We were not far from the downtown area,
and the food was good,
and it was kind of a
neat atmosphere.
There were some neat things going on and people there.
We had a couple of local
business people.
They were either employed or ran businesses in the kind of downtown area,
and they would come for lunch.
Of course, there were some people who recognized them,
and the comment was,
“Well, why do they need to come and eat a free lunch?” You could argue
whether they should or shouldn’t,
and we had to have some of those arguments,
but that’s the idea
here, is that are the people who really need the help,
and are the reason we’re doing this,
the people who are actually on this list?
There would be lots to pick apart in this.
There’s some very dated cultural assumptions.
There’s some kind of,
maybe even borderline offensive language
about widows and widowhood and age,
but I think if we can get past some of that,
we see an older pastor and a younger pastor trying to navigate how
do we put the church in
position to do its best work to
the people who need it most,
and what are some of the difficulties
and challenges of that?
I don’t know.
I can’t think of another issue where we look behind
the scenes like this.
I think this is unique,
at least in what I can call the mind right now in
the New Testament, and it’s really
interesting.
It’s fascinating that Paul feels compelled to
direct Timothy, to try and help him fix whatever it is that is broken about this,
and we may not understand all those details,
but again,
for this to get a half of chapter
in a six-chapter book,
something is going on here.
Timothy probably knows exactly who Paul
is talking about.
We read this as very generic advice,
and that’s part of what makes it problematic.
Timothy probably hears it attached to actual names and knows,
“Yeah, their family should be doing that,” or “That woman certainly doesn’t need it.” It’s just a very interesting
look at the early church life.
A few quick things to add in to that,
Clint.
First of all, remember that this letter was read publicly and was intended to be read publicly,
so you have to remember as
you read a text like this,
there’s not only instruction to Timothy,
there’s also instruction to the community.
There’s a teaching that’s happening here,
a kind of expectation setting,
so I would encourage you to not think of this as two guys just talking behind the curtain about
who they’re going to let in and not let in to the church’s ministries.
There’s a kind of public
nature to this sort of discourse,
and don’t forget it’s in our Bible.
The Christians of the ancient church put it in our public holy scripture,
so they obviously understood this to
have in it far more substance than just a particular kind of thing that needed to be
dealt with in one particular time or place,
so that was bound to one particular culture.
And that leads me to my second point,
is I think sometimes Clint,
we fail to recognize
that the church is always a group of people doing our best to be faithful to the Savior Jesus Christ,
and one thing that we see here is that
there are just logistics that need worked out
by people trying to do their best to do the work,
recognizing that there are limited resources,
and before the study we were talking about this funny thing where we’re trying to get
some presents wrapped up for Sunday.
I’ve spent the last couple days working out the rules
of what Sunday school kids can be entered into this drawing so that it’s fair for everybody.
Some kids are going to be on this list,
and some kids are going to be on another list,
and we have to know why they’re on one list over the other.
On one hand, that just seems like a
struggle or an administrative red herring almost,
but in reality,
that’s part of doing ministry, is being people,
being humans,
trying to work out,
well, how are we going to respond in this
circumstance?
What is fair?
What is going to lift up the most number of people?
What’s going to be
the best use of our resources?
And there is a little bit of the just practical administrative
form of ministry represented here,
and so while I suspect that most of us won’t find this devotional
in the sense that,
well, we’re going to put that to practice today,
and we are certainly not going
to take this back and make it a church policy because it doesn’t fit the tenor or nature of
what ministry looks like in this place,
I do think it instructs and informs a little bit of how the
church is always conditionally trying to do the best with what we have,
and we need to have some
grace and understanding and discernment as we do that.
Yeah, I think maybe three quick things,
Michael.
One is that this is an example of what it looks like to try and balance in a church
graciousness and responsibility,
graciousness and opportunity, you know, in the same way that
we try to help those who are in need,
but if the person comes in and says,
you know, I don’t want to get a job and I’m not interested in paying bills,
that kind of thing,
then we have to think, well, this isn’t the best place we can invest church resources in trying to help.
We’re ultimately not going to be helpful,
and sometimes in spite of trying to be gracious,
those decisions have to be made.
The second thing is,
it’s very interesting, he says here,
these women could go
on with their lives not to give the adversary an occasion to revile us,
and it’s somewhat out of
character and very interesting in this letter the way that Paul looks to the outside of the church
context and the ways in which they may reflect and evaluate the church.
So the way that we live
ought to look like ministry and ought to look like the work of Christ,
and if it just looks
like a bunch of people who don’t need to be on a list getting free stuff,
then that makes us look
bad, and it seems that that worries Paul.
And then the third thing is,
this is very meta, and
this I think is a wonderful example of the ways in which Scripture says different things to us.
I’m not aware, Michael, maybe you are,
I’m not aware of anybody across the family of Christianity
who reads this section as literal instruction.
I don’t know of any church that tries to maintain
a widow’s list and tries to put these things into practice.
I don’t think we read
these as binding in the same way we read other parts of Scripture.
I think we read them as interesting,
I think we try to infer from them.
I don’t think we can read this and just take first-order
instruction out of them.
I think we read them and say,
“Is there anything here we can learn?”
Not
in the literal sense,
but in the broader sense of a church trying to do ministry and a couple of
leaders trying to be involved in helping it go well.
And, you know,
there are Christians who
have this idea that we just read all of Scripture the same,
and I think this is a clear,
at least in my mind,
this is one of those passages that is clear evidence.
We really don’t.
That’s really helpful, Clint.
I certainly haven’t been in every church,
but I have been in a wide
variety of churches, and I’ve never been in one that functioned with this,
even though some of
those churches would consider themselves as having a very literalist interpretation of the Scripture.
So I think that’s really helpful.
The only last thing I want to add is actually now going to be an emphasis,
because you stole the thunder.
I did want to point out this letter—I’m going to
just pull it up here—this section,
so as to give the adversary no occasion to revivalist.
I did not realize—I’ve just got to admit to you,
before this study of going through this book this
time, I think the thing that has jumped out at me over and over again is how concerned this letter
is about what the world sees when they look at the church,
how the church should have transparent
walls, that it does matter how we function,
because that has a way of being either the
proof of the gospel or,
quite frankly, the exposing of it.
How many times have we seen
already that we need to root out hypocrisy and that we need to demand good character of
every person in the chain?
I mean,
clearly that’s always been in the letter,
and that’s my new awareness of it,
but that is striking.
And the fact is,
I don’t think that a modern reader
would have gotten there if we hadn’t had it written here.
I don’t think our first thought would have been,
well, that this may have had some impact on what the community would have seen when looking
into the church, but clearly that’s at least one component
of Paul and Timothy’s conversation.
And I think that’s instructive.
I think that there’s a lot there in the meta-conversation of
this book.
Yeah, I think that’s helpful.
I think one of the great guiding questions for the church is,
what do we show the world?
And what does the world learn about us by watching us?
And that’s a challenge that is ever before us.
So, full confession,
this is probably not
going to be on your list of favorite verses.
You’re probably thinking, “Whoa, yeah, this was great.”
Hang in there with us next week,
though.
I promise you some outstanding verses,
some great content, some challenging discipleship kind of stuff.
We didn’t have maybe a lot of that
today, but I promise you it is coming and hope you’ll be with us next week.
Have a great weekend.
We’ll see you on Monday.