1 Timothy 5:21-25

All right, welcome back.
Thanks for joining us as we continue through 1 Timothy.
Yesterday we left off in the fifth chapter.
We were through the 20th verse.
Today we try to finish this last bit of the fifth chapter.
Again, in this section here,
the context, if you weren’t with us,
no problem.
But Paul is giving increasingly specific and increasingly
personal instructions to Timothy who finds himself
as a young man in a position of church leadership.
And yesterday Paul shared some thoughts
on sort of managing other leaders.
And today I would say Paul narrows the focus specifically
to some of the things that are under Timothy’s input
and some of the things that he’ll call to do.
So we’ll read a few verses,
then we’ll stop and talk about them.
“In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus
and of the elect angels,
I warn you to keep these instructions without prejudice,
doing nothing on the basis of partiality.
Do not ordain anyone hastily and do not participate
in the sins of others.
Keep yourself pure.
No longer drink only water,
but take a little wine
for the sake of your stomach and frequent ailments.
The sins of some are conspicuous
and proceed them to judgment
while the sins of others follow them.
So also the good works are conspicuous.
And even when they are not,
they cannot remain hidden.”
So let’s stop there.
We may move on from there,
but we’ll see how far we get.
So very interesting,
as Paul, this is really the first kind of strong language
we’ve seen directed at Timothy.
We have seen Paul say strongly worded things
to Timothy about others or about the role of leadership.
But here he says,
“I warn you.” And this is an interesting phrase from Paul.
I urge you, I compel you.
It will not go well if you don’t listen to me.
I’m trying to keep you from disaster.
I warn you
to keep these instructions without prejudice.
And I think this is most clearly Paul speaking to Timothy
as a kind of equal,
as a leader.
He is sharing with Timothy the importance,
the absolute essentialness of being a leader
that is fair,
that is without prejudice.
And the one’s personal bias
is dangerous in leadership because it leads us astray.
It takes us to false conclusions.
And this is, I think for good reason,
the most
blatantly that Paul has talked to Timothy.
Yeah, it is highly individualized.
And in that, I think it’s also highly revealing.
And particularly some of the things
that follow verse 21 here,
verse 23, specifically as we look to that.
But before we get to that,
there are some moments in scripture
where biblical scholars who have spent their entire life,
their career reading the scriptures closely,
where they see connections between New Testament
and Old Testament, sometimes even within those books
themselves, the New Testament or the New Testament.
And
they point out, hey, this is at least a resonance if it’s not,
if Paul doesn’t have this in mind,
it certainly seems interesting.
And that happens actually here today.
So I wanna throw this up so that you can see it.
Notice verse 21, presence of God and of Christ Jesus
and of the elect angels has this idea of a heavenly court.
It’s a very popular idea that God sits on the throne
surrounded by all these celestial beings.
What I’ve thrown up here
comes from the book of Deuteronomy.
Here this is Moses talking to the people of Israel, verse 19,
I call heaven and earth to witness
against you today that I set before you life
and death, blessings and curse things.
Choose life so that you and your descendants may live.
Here you have a leader,
a leader in Israel,
making a point to the people of Israel.
Here’s this choice in front of this whole heavenly cohort.
Here’s this choice.
It’s interesting that the apostle Paul writing Timothy
frames it that way.
Paul was a person of the scripture.
So whether or not he had this direct passage in mind,
the commentator that I was looking at here pointed that out.
And I think that’s helpful to be reminded
that the Old Testament is living underneath
the surface of this text.
Whether that’s an explicit and intentional reference,
it’s certainly within the vein
that this is a kind of thing that would be shared.
So if the angels stuck out to you,
that may help you sort of get a sense for how that fits.
Maybe it’s less about our idea of angels
and more about this idea that this is really serious.
That I say to you in front of God
and all of those beings around him, this is important.
We saw that in the Deuteronomy text
and it’s interesting we see it here today.
Yeah, there’s a tough balance here.
I think from a leadership perspective,
even just from a discipleship perspective,
there’s a really tough balancing act here.
On the one hand,
Paul says,
do these things without prejudice,
doing nothing on the basis of partiality.
And so whenever we make an assumption about someone,
whether they belong to a different group,
a different race, a different political party,
whether we’ve had a bad experience and went the past
or we’ve heard that they’re this thing or that thing,
they’re lazy or whatever it is,
when we make an assumption,
we make it incredibly difficult to then be fair
to what the actual scenario is
because we have prejudged,
that’s what the word prejudice means.
We’ve prejudged that person,
not on the basis of their actual merit,
but on some other thing.
And the assumption in that really from the scripture
is this kind of idea that if we pay attention,
things can be somewhat obvious.
You know, fruit
speaks for itself.
And so one doesn’t need to be partial,
one doesn’t need prejudice.
In other words,
be the kind of leader
who makes judgments based on what really is
and not what you think is.
And that’s a strong call for pastors,
for others.
You know, there are times that whenever we jump to conclusion,
there are times that we’re going to miss significantly.
And it’s going to create issues instead of solving issues.
And so I think,
you know, I think this is a really helpful word,
Michael.
And again, I think it shows some of the wisdom
with which Paul broaches the subject of leadership.
Clint, I think it’s hard to not smile
when you read verse 22 as a Presbyterian.
Don’t ordain anyone hastily.
Because on one hand,
we are like,
yes,
preach it.
On the other hand,
Presbyterians have been called the frozen chosen.
And the truth is we often move very slowly
as a group of people.
So this is like a patron text for us,
but there are church traditions that do move very quickly.
And in fact, we’ve seen just previously in this book,
you know, the instruction,
don’t move someone up quickly,
you know, make sure that they’ve spent time in the faith.
And we talked about the importance
of letting someone experience the hills
and the valleys of faith,
that there’s something meaningful that comes
with the maturity of a Christian
who spent some time living out
the difficult complexity of the faith.
That said, I do think it is fascinating.
He pears that idea of,
you know, take it slowly,
make sure that you know the person,
take some stock of who they are before you ordain them,
before you lay hands on them.
But then adding to that,
just adding to the sentence,
and do not participate in the sins of other,
but keep yourself pure.
It’s striking how to us,
this may seem like the drunk drawer of advice,
but I think as a pastoral leader,
these things all blend together.
There’s a sense in which, hey,
slow down, don’t pick people hastily,
don’t be picking and choosing one person over another,
be fair in your assessments.
By the way, that takes time as well.
And then, you know, to say, hey,
when you see people going astray,
don’t add yourself to their number.
There’s gonna be times you need to take a different path.
And all of these are applicable.
They all are sort of on the ground,
kind of helpful words of advice from a wiser pastor.
But, you know,
if we were just quickly reading through this,
they may seem somewhat disconnected.
Yeah, I think, you know, these are the kind of words
that very much speak to a context of church leadership.
You know, a lot of damage can be done
by moving someone into a leadership position before they’re ready.
You don’t wanna be unduly slow in that.
But the reality is, moving too quick
generally will do more damage than taking too much time,
though you’d like to get it right in the middle.
And then, this is the back half of this verse, it’s really great.
“Do not participate in the sins of others.”
And you think about what that means.
So,
the person who wants to argue,
the person who wants to fight,
the person who slanders you
and you respond by slandering them,
or you defend yourself,
but you do so angrily and pointedly,
and you rush to judgment of someone else.
And I think, again, having lived sort of behind the scenes,
and this isn’t unique to pastors,
but it’s the seat that I sit in,
so I think that it’s the vantage point that I have.
You know,
it is difficult to keep oneself
out of the fray sometimes.
And this is true of all of us.
I think this is true in any leadership situation.
I think this is just true relationally.
And so,
I think these are really challenging words
and very wise words.
“Do not participate in the sins of others.”
“Keep yourselves pure.” You know,
I think very few of us think of others.
Because of the way Presbyterians talk about sin,
we sort of maybe have minimized the idea
that others really can drag us down.
And I don’t mean that it’s their fault.
We are always responsible for our own sin,
but the truth is that sometimes others provide an opportunity
for us to go the wrong path,
and we take it.
And I think these words reflect that.
Yeah, it’s interesting to Clint
as we look to verse 23 here.
Yeah.
How strange maybe this verse sounds to different people.
There’s some Christian traditions
that would forbid alcohol in any form.
They kind of, I think, quickly read past this
and say it’s an ancient thing,
it was a health thing,
that people didn’t drink water safely.
And then other people look to this,
and I think this is a more compelling case,
that fundamentally a part of the teachers
that Paul is rebuking here in Ephesus
are those who are claiming that wine is off limits.
It may be one of those things that they’ve said,
no, can’t be part of a diet.
If that’s the case,
the reason I find that so interesting
is because when you’re a young leader,
and you find yourself in the midst of a congregation,
it is very easy to get turned upside down,
especially when people are unhappy.
And if there are folks in the congregation saying,
you can’t be faithful as a Christian and drink any wine,
Paul here may be saying,
not only are they wrong,
drink in moderation,
but fundamentally,
that’s not a thing that you should let worry you
or give you anxiety.
And it is easy as a young person like Timothy
to become anxious about things that people are telling you
you should and shouldn’t do as a Christian leader.
And if that’s an accurate interpretation of the text,
which of course I don’t know if it is,
but if that is,
I think what I find compelling about it
is there’s an older, wiser leader saying
that’s not worth getting fussed about.
For your own sake,
do this thing, but that is not an issue of prime importance.
We have more important things to worry about.
Paul’s already talked about them in this letter,
but this isn’t one that you need to worry about.
And if that’s the case,
Clint, I find that kind of wisdom is refreshing.
And in the moments it’s happened in my own life,
I’ve been grateful for it.
Yeah, this is an interesting verse
for what it does and doesn’t say.
It would have been unusual for even a very young adult,
what we would call teenager in Paul’s day and age
not to drink wine.
Wine was safer than water.
It’s more available than water.
So how is it that Timothy is only drinking water?
Is that a religious commitment?
Is that a teaching that he’s found somewhere?
Is that just his own personal practice?
But why is it the case that he’s already not drinking wine
is a question that hangs over this little part
of the passage here?
And then it’s also clear that the answer,
and this would,
you know, Michael, I think this is one of those situations
when we try to make a verse speak something.
Paul clearly has in here a medicinal idea.
Your frequent ailments and your stomach,
and he believes that wine will be helpful.
He’s in no way,
shape, or form engaging in some conversation about alcohol
like we might in our day and age.
He thinks of this medicinally.
Now,
the other thing that’s sort of interesting
about that from a pastor’s standpoint,
maybe it’s just a personality standpoint,
’cause I bet it’s true of teachers and principals
and people who run businesses.
The first pastor I worked with carried a briefcase,
and whenever he would open the briefcase,
I would notice that there was a roll of Tums,
and there’s a bottle of aspirin,
and then there was all these sort of stress-related medicines.
And so when I read this,
I can’t help but smile and think,
“Oh, this young guy probably has an ulcer.
“He probably is so stressed by the people
“in this congregation that he’s trying to deal with
“and by the challenges that he faces
“and his sort of desire to get it right
“and his fear of getting it wrong
“and standing up to these people.”
It is probably literally eating at him,
and Paul is trying to speak to that and say,
“Hey, you gotta take care of yourself,”
which is an interesting piece of advice.
Yeah,
I don’t know if that’s true,
but I feel like that kind of personification
jumps off the page.
Yeah, I mean,
clearly Paul has an insight here
that is deeper than the text.
He knows something of Timothy’s health,
and he’s making a suggestion as to why
it’s wine and why he’s only drinking water.
That kind of stuff,
we can only guess at.
But this is what’s interesting about 23
as it leads into these other texts here,
Clint, is that in one moment,
he’s talking to Timothy almost,
as you say, with the idea of health in mind,
a very personal kind of conversation.
Look how quickly that shifts into a critique of others,
which I think is fascinating because it suggests
that some of that teaching that has come before,
though it has been an affirmation or encouragement
to Timothy,
may also be a critique to these other parties.
Because we don’t know the nature of these debates,
some of these things that we’ve seen here
about not being prejudiced,
about not ordaining hastily,
about not participating in the sins of others,
this may both be an encouragement to Timothy,
but also a critique or challenge of others in the community
who were advocating for the opposite position.
So here, this idea,
hey, the sins of some people are conspicuous.
Wouldn’t it be really,
really interesting to know
who the some people were?
‘Cause we don’t have their names,
that’s not in the scripture,
but clearly these two have some idea
of what they’re talking about.
And so I think that that is sort of coursing throughout the story.
There’s clearly more here than just, hey,
you may be a little anxious,
Timothy, take a little wine for your stomach.
There may be several layers of encouragement
and critique buried under this.
This is, I think, one of those places,
Michael and Timothy, that you don’t have to have church experience.
You don’t have to have leadership experience.
I think we all,
as Christians, live within the spectrum that this verse paints for us.
We could all in our life point to some people
who have very messy public sins.
They struggled with addiction.
They made terrible choices.
It blew up in a public way.
They handled themselves poorly.
They got caught doing something.
And we could say there are those moments
where our sin is sort of on the outside
and it is apparent.
And there’s a danger in that.
But Paul says, never forget,
the sins of other people follow them.
You don’t see them.
You only find out about them later.
And I suspect we all have that experience too.
We all know someone that we respected
and that we looked up to
and that people generally held to be a quote unquote good person.
And it turns out that they also had a struggle
that was perhaps less public.
It was not well known.
It was private.
And what I hear in this text,
and I’ll be honest that I think I’m probably pushing it
a little further than Paul does,
but I think what I hear in this text,
at least as I understand it from my vantage point,
is don’t forget we’re all broken.
And some of that brokenness is obvious
and some of it we keep hidden away.
But whoever you’re dealing with,
there is brokenness there because it lands on all of us.
And we all have an experience of it
and we all have to wrestle with it.
And it comes out in different ways,
but it is in there.
And then he takes it to the positive
and so also our good works are conspicuous.
You can see when good works are done.
And if you can’t see it,
they won’t remain hidden.
You can’t hide being good.
You can hide sin.
You can’t hide goodness.
Goodness comes out.
Just really interesting words.
I don’t know how Timothy received them,
but I find in them,
verse 24 is one of my,
just a personal verse that I have gained a lot
from that I’ve appreciated through the years.
I think there is a ton of depth in it.
If you pushed 24,
let me just push it just a tiny bit further,
Clint.
So Paul, I think textually seems to be pretty clearly
making a case here.
To the sins of others,
it’s likely he’s speaking of these opponents,
those who are hypocrites,
those who have been very clearly critiqued
throughout the course of this letter.
That’s who Paul is likely talking about.
But just as a matter of observation,
to your point,
our sins that are public are often those things
that for right or for wrong,
we’ve decided are the hot button things.
So these are the sins that we get worked up about.
These are the sins that when they’re found out,
they will transform the arc of a person’s life.
You get caught with
some other than your partner
and you get caught with money that you stole
and you get caught taking a thing
that didn’t belong to you,
however it might be.
But what’s interesting is some of the sins that we commit,
we do so for the sake of doing good.
In other words,
there are moments that I walked alongside
people who were put in unbearably difficult circumstances
and they stubbornly proceeded
to do what they thought was best.
And that thing,
maybe it was or maybe it wasn’t best,
but it left a tale of damage.
It hurt this relationship because they were unbending
in their goal or they
kept moving on a thing
and it actually started hurting the situation rather than helping.
But my point is to just further complexify
it, Clint,
that because we’re human and because our brokenness
is deeply embedded in our experience of the world,
it’s part of who we are.
It’s a thing that is inescapable.
It’s part of our own identities.
We sometimes find ourself with that sin trailing us
even with our best effort,
not the stuff that we would be ashamed
for other people to see,
but even some of the stuff we’re proud of
or that we worked hardest to achieve,
within them there is a kind of sinfulness
that if we’re willing to confess or able to see
is also incredibly damaging.
And so that’s a very
complicated way to land
at the same place you ended,
is just to say,
I think we construct for ourselves
this idea that we’re generally good people
trying to do good things.
And to whatever extent we hide behind that image,
I think we fail to see the true reality
of the sinfulness that lives inside us,
even at our best.
And that’s not to beat ourselves up,
Clint, it’s just to say that if we pursue goodness here,
it will do the rest of the work.
Instead of trying to hide behind an image of,
well,
as long as people don’t know them, it doesn’t matter.
Yeah, I think if you try to boil this down
to say a simple like children’s message type takeaway,
Michael, it’s this, that if you do good,
you don’t have to worry about hiding anything.
And Paul’s not quite that explicit with it,
but I think if you dig around in this passage,
I think you pull that out.
If you do good,
you have nothing to hide.
You don’t have to worry about that.
And I think that’s in there.
I think that’s, yeah, that’s a good catch.
Thanks for being with us here today.
It’s always good to spend time with you, friends.
We look forward to continuing the conversation tomorrow
as we turn into chapter six.
Yeah,
some challenging stuff tomorrow.
Be an interesting conversation.
Hope you can join us.
Thanks for being here today.