The Local Body of Christ - Part 2 (1 Tim 5:17-25)

Welcome & Announcements

“SOUP”erbowl Watch Party on February 12, 2023. We’re encouraging everyone to bring a homemade soup, we’ll vote on the best soup, and the winner wins a $50 gift card to Brown Dog Catering in Philipsburg. Kickoff is at 6:30pm.

Please prepare for the Lord’s Supper on February 19th, 2023.

Josh Dickson will be preaching February 26th, 2023, during the Sunday AM Service; he will also be teaching Discipleship Groups on February 5th, 2023.

Pastor Daniel will be out of town February 28th – March 1st until the evening service. In addition, Pastor Daniel and Natalie will be out of town March 8th – 11th. In case of emergency, please contact a deacon.

Pastor Jordan Alturas of The Fellowship Church (State College, PA) will be preaching March 12th, 2023, during the Sunday AM Service.

Reminder of Giving

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Preaching of God’s Word (1 Tim 5:17-25)

Introduction

If you have your Bible this morning, please turn it to 1 Timothy 5:17-25.

As you’re turning there, let me just remind you of what’s going on in the text—Paul has written this letter to Timothy and in this letter, he’s reminding Timothy of certain key ideas that he needs to keep in mind as he, as a young pastor, pastors an established church in the city of Ephesus. So, of course, there’s a large portion of 1 Timothy dedicated to this idea that Timothy needs to firmly stop any sort of false teaching from being taught within the church before we’re told of some qualifications that Timothy needs to look for in men that seek to serve as elders and deacons. In between the section concerning qualifications and where we’re at now, we see some other concerns being dealt with—such as the mystery of the Gospel, the fact that many people will reject the Christian faith, but if Timothy wants to be a good servant of Jesus Christ, then he simply needs to teach the truth, live his life as an example to all, and keep the teaching in the church correct, accurate, and proper.

Last week, we started in on this section of the letter and this section has to do with interpersonal relationships within the church—in particular, since Timothy in a younger man, how should he act and react to men older than him or women older than him? How should he act and react to men that are his age or younger and women who are his age or younger? And because of that focus on interpersonal relationships, we see a section devoted to those who are genuinely widows—or in other words, how should the church act and respond to those who are older that need additional help?

This week’s section continues in speaking about interpersonal relationship within the church—in particular, now that you know what to look for in elders for your church, how should you treat your elders concerning three specific areas.

Keep this in mind as we read 1 Timothy 5:17-25 together:

1 Timothy 5:17–25 ESV

17 Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. 18 For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.” 19 Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 20 As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear. 21 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality. 22 Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others; keep yourself pure. 23 (No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.) 24 The sins of some people are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later. 25 So also good works are conspicuous, and even those that are not cannot remain hidden.

As we study this passage, we’re going to look at the passage in three divisions: (1) the Compensation for Elders (17-18), (2) Accusations Against Elders (19-21), and (3) the Ordination of Elders (22-25). All of this stems from our previous study in 1 Timothy 3 concerning the qualifications for elders—except this time, instead of just telling us what we’re to look for in our elders, Paul now tells us how we ought to act and react concerning our elders. Meaning, when it comes to interpersonal relationships with elders within the church, how should we respond. Now, note, that this is not comprehensive, just like his previous statements concerning how we act and react with others last week weren’t comprehensive, these are just a handful of statement concerning specific issues within the church at Ephesus. In this evening’s passage, we’re looking at three specific issues—how ought we view compensation for our elders or in other words, should elders be paid?, we’re looking at what we’re supposed to do when someone accuses an elder of sin, and we’re reminded of the need to be slow and careful when we choose new elders for the church. All issues that need to be considered just to make sure that we treat the elders of our church the way Scripture tells us to treat them.

Prayer for Illumination

Compensation for Elders (17-18)

Our text starts by speaking of compensation for the elders or the pastors within the church.

And honestly, it is my least favorite topic to talk about or preach about or teach about and the reasoning for that is simple—it seems awfully self-serving that the pastor of the church would talk about how the church that he pastors needs to pay him, but nonetheless, Scripture says what it says.

And in this case, the passage tells us that “the elders who rule well [should] be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.”

Based on the idea that these people are to rule well and labor in preaching and teaching, it shows us that this indeed speaks of those who are leading the church officially as pastors.

And really, in the way that this verse is worded, it informs us of certain details:

First, all elders are required to rule the church or really to lead the church. The CSB translates this verse like this, “The elders who are good leaders are to be considered worthy of double honor.” So, all elders are required to lead the church, but this implies that not all elders are actually good at leading the church, which reminds us of the need to select only biblically qualified and called men to be elders—you can’t just pick a random person to be an elder because not every person who wants to be an elder are called and not every person who desires the office can lead well.

Second, it tells us that though all elders are required to be able to teach according to 1 Timothy 3, not every elder is required to preach and teach all the time. We see that laid out at the end of the verse that “those who labor in preaching and teaching” are especially worth this double honor. Meaning, you can be an elder and only preach and teach occasionally.

Now, you might hear that idea of elders being worthy of double honor and you might wonder what exactly that means. What is double honor?

And that idea actually stems from the culture of the Jewish people. In the culture of the Jewish people, whenever you had a family of multiple siblings and parents that are older in years; and say, the parents pass and there’s an inheritance for the children—that’s normal.

In our modern culture, most inheritances are split pretty evening amongst all the children, but in the Ancient Near Eastern culture, the oldest son received a double portion of everything—what that would look like is this: if there were three children, the inheritance would actually be split into four, one for the middle child, one for the youngest, and two for the oldest son.

The reasoning for this is simple, part of the responsibility of being the oldest in that culture was perpetuating the family name—meaning, the oldest had the responsibility to lead the household and thus, is worth receiving extra from the inheritance because of his responsibility.

Likewise, elders within the church have the responsibility of directing and leading the church; and thus, because of the responsibility, they’re worth double honor.

The implication being they’re worth honor or respect, but the double concept is taken to mean financial renumeration or compensation—or in other words, elders who lead the church well ought to expect financial support from the church particularly the elders who work to teach and preach.

The idea being that because teaching and preaching takes a significant amount of time in preparation, because it is genuinely hard work according to the construction of the text, then those who spend a lot of their time preaching and teaching in the church ought to be cared for financially by the church.

And there’s multiple reasons for this—pastors need to survive as well as anyone else in the church; and we live in a world that requires money to survive. Thus, Paul’s thinking is that it’s only right to provide for pastors within the church so they can focus on meeting the spiritual needs of the church instead of needing to get another job to provide for their families.

Or in other words, though most pastors in the US today are what we call bi-vocational (they’re pastoring and they’re working another job simultaneously), what Paul states here, is that those who are focused on preaching and teaching really ought to be taken care of so that there is no need for them to split their time between multiple jobs—they can just work to lead the church well and teach and preach.

Paul gives us an illustration in v. 18 to drive home that point, “For the Scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,’ and, ‘The laborer deserves his wages.’”

The first illustration given is from Deuteronomy 25:4 and the idea is actually rather simple, but it might be missed in a culture like ours in which we don’t typically own oxen and we aren’t treading out our own grain.

The idea is that oxen were utilized to tread or to press out wheat—wheat has an inner and outer part to it, you don’t really want the outer part, but the only way to the inner part is by breaking through the outer part. Farmers in the ancient near east realized that the easiest way to do this is by having really heavy animals step on it repeatedly.

Of course, if you’re an ox being forced to walk around stomping on wheat all day, you’re going to get hungry—so, the idea is, it’s better for you to let the ox eat some of the wheat as he’s working than to make him go hungry all day.

The second idea comes from multiple passages of Scripture:

We see that idea presented in Deuteronomy 24:15, Leviticus 19:13, Matthew 10:10, Luke 10:7, and 1 Corinthians 9:4-14.

And the idea is rather simple—if someone does the work, he deserves to be paid for his work—throughout the Bible, that’s primarily speaking about the employer and employee relationship, that if you hire someone to do something you should pay him or if you were hired to do something, you ought to be paid.

In this instance, the idea is that those who lead the church are doing a hard job; and those who regularly preach and teach are doing an even harder job, they ought to be paid.

That’s Paul’s first statement concerning treatment of elders/pastors within the local church of Jesus Christ—elders do a hard job, thus, they ought to be compensated for it. And then he continues and it almost seems like he’s completely going a different direction, but let me get you to think of it a certain way before we re-read those verses.

Local churches can sometimes have interpersonal strife because, let’s be abundantly clear, even as Christian people, we still sin and we still struggle with our sinful desires. That interpersonal strife sometimes becomes explosive and if the people don’t deal with their sin properly, they start making accusations against other people within the church. Occasionally, that explosive interpersonal strife gets directed at whoever is leading the church and these people will start lobbing accusations at the church’s leadership—they’ll accuse the pastors of being unloving or liars, they’re attempt to paint the leadership in a very negative light. Now, don’t get me wrong, if there’s sin within the leadership of the church, then it needs to be dealt with, but what Paul’s referring to here, isn’t sin within the leadership, but sinful accusations being thrown at the leadership.

And the reason why people do this is because they’re hoping that people will believe them so that they can oust whoever is in leadership because remember, elders are to be above reproach. So, what Paul’s teaching in vv. 19-21 is rather simple—elders will have accusations thrown at them, what should we do about it? Let’s look at vv. 19-21 again:

Accusations Against Elders (19-21)

1 Timothy 5:19–21 ESV

19 Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 20 As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear. 21 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality.

V. 19 starts will a very simple principle, “Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses.” It’s simple, but it’s not often taken seriously.

Meaning, most churches work more off hearsay and slander when it comes to ousting a pastor than they do truth and evidence.

And we all know situations like this—for instance, I have a friend in Louisiana who has pastored his church for almost 30 years, he preaches the Gospel, he cares for the people, but there’s currently a minority within the church that has decided that they no longer want him to be their pastor.

But since he hasn’t done anything sinful, they’re making false accusations and they’re slandering him. Instead of looking at the evidence, they’re doing whatever they can to turn the people against him.

What’s the problem with all this? It is sin to gossip and slander and these people within his church are resorting to sinful means to try and remove him from ministry.

To prevent this, Paul makes this simple principle, when elders are accused, there has to be evidence and there needs to be at least two or three witnesses to this.

And what Paul asserts is simple—any accusation against an elder needs to be ignored unless there’s proof and there are multiple reliable people who saw the proof.

So, practically, what this would look like is this (and this is intentionally an absurd example)—if someone comes within our church and claims that they saw me beating up a homeless man to steal his drugs, the church needs to think through this issue like this:

Is there evidence? Is there an actual homeless person who claims I beat him up and is there physical proof that I beat him up? Do I have drugs in my home or in my car?

Ok, well, maybe its been a few weeks and the homeless man has healed from his injuries and the drugs are no longer here. So, the next question would be, did anyone else who is reliable see this happen?

And I’m using that word reliable on purpose because it really doesn’t matter if the person who witnessed it was also on drugs at the time and can’t really remember anything. Or if that person has a reputation for being a liar, his testimony about all this wouldn’t really be trustworthy.

But did someone who can be trusted see the event happen and how do they describe the event? If there is no other witness and there really isn’t any evidence, Paul says that any such accusation needs to automatically be rejected.

Now, I used an absurd illustration, but this applies to any accusation against an elder:

If an elder is accused of sin, then the first question has to be, is there any proof of this?

The second question has to be, are there any other witnesses to this?

And, honestly, when you consider other passages of Scripture, Scripture makes it abundantly clear that if you’re going to accuse someone of anything, there’s a proper way to do it—so I would add a third question, did the person making the accusations attempt to reconcile with the elder before making the accusations?

Or in other words, did that person at least try to sit down with the elder, ask for clarity concerning the issue, seek to understand the whole situation?

Or did that person just start accusing the elder of sin through text messaging and social media and absolutely refuse to come and talk to the elder?

Or did that person just stop coming to the local church and hasn’t even bothered to reach out and try to rectify the situation?

And let me be abundantly clear, only the first of those three options is the right and biblical thing to do.

In any issue like this, the first and right thing to do is simply sit down with the elder, ask for clarity concerning the issue, and seek to understand the whole situation before making accusations.

Only when that is done can a person then decide if their accusation is even true or not.

Now, don’t misunderstand, if the person does actually try to sit down and talk with the elder and the person seeks clarity from the elder, and actually understands the situation; and he still thinks that the elder is in sin, then that’s a completely different issue, but if the person never even bothers to do this, then they’re actually the one in sin.

Paul says that any accusation against an elder needs to be backed up with evidence and there needs to be more than one witness and when taken in conjunction with the rest of Scripture, the one making the accusations needs to first speak with that elder personally before making the accusations.

But if all that’s done and they’re still convinced that the elder is in sin and there are multiple witnesses accusing the elder of sin, then what’s the next step? Paul tells us what it is in v. 20, if there is genuine sin and they’re choosing to persist in sin, “rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear.”

If the accusation has evidence and there are multiple witnesses and the accusers tried to rectify the issue before making the accusation, then the next step is to call the pastor or elder out for his sin.

Paul says that Timothy is to rebuke them, which is the concept of reprimanding or admonishing or to sharply criticize someone and in the case of an elder, this is to be done in public in front of the whole church.

And the reasoning for this is really two-fold: (1) an elder is in a position within the church that is very public—people know that the individual leads the church; thus, when an elder sins, the local church, the surrounding community, and sometimes beyond knows that he sinned. And (2) by calling out the pastor’s sin publically and officially, Paul says that it makes it abundantly clear to the people that no one is above being held accountable for their sins.

But this only happens, if the accusations were done properly—if the individual sought to rectify the issue privately beforehand, if the elder’s accusation has evidence and multiple witnesses, and if the elder chooses not to repent when confronted with his sin.

Only when this is all true does the church confront the pastor publically and rebukes him for his sin.

And if and when this happens, Paul makes it abundantly clear that this is to be done purely without prejudging or what we would say, without partiality.

Meaning, these sorts of judgments need to be done without bias, they can’t be done just because you don’t like him, they can’t be done because you want to replace him with someone you like more.

If this happens, it needs to happen with right judgment, no partiality, and no bias. It needs to be done simply because the church thinks the pastor has sinned and there’s evidence for this and witnesses to that extent.

Anything less than this, is absolutely sinful—and should be completely rejected. For instance:

If the accuser never bothered to rectify the issue privately, then the church shouldn’t entertain the accusation and the accuser is in sin because they’re disobeying other passages of Scripture.

If there is no evidence for the accusation, then the church shouldn’t entertain the accusation.

If there aren’t reliable witnesses for the accusation, then the church shouldn’t entertain the accusation. If the church chooses to entertain these accusations without evidence and no reliable witnesses, then the church is in sin.

If it becomes clear that the only reason any of this is done is because the accuser just doesn’t like the pastor or the accuse doesn’t like the way he smiles—then unless there is actual evidence or reliable witnesses, the whole issue needs to be thrown out or the church is in sin.

You can’t just remove an elder because you don’t like him or because someone slandered him without evidence and without reliable witnesses. You can’t remove an elder based on someone’s accusation if that person refused to try and rectify the problem privately first.

Just keeping these principles in mind would eliminate a lot of interpersonal issues with the body of Christ, in particular, when it comes to people who try to accuse elders of sin. Again, don’t misunderstand and think that you should never make those accusations, all Paul is saying is that when these sorts of accusations are made, the church needs to take seriously whether there’s any evidence, whether there are witnesses, and whether or not the individual making the accusations actually followed the proper procedures when making the accusations.

Now, he has one last section of this text devoted to how we act and react to elders and it’s actually more of a reminder to Timothy to be slow when it comes to selecting new elders—don’t haphazardly select them. And it’s this last reminder or even warning that ends our text today. Look at vv. 22-25 again.

Ordination of Elders (22-25)

1 Timothy 5:22–25 ESV

22 Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others; keep yourself pure. 23 (No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.) 24 The sins of some people are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later. 25 So also good works are conspicuous, and even those that are not cannot remain hidden.

The warning that Paul makes abundantly clear here is found in v. 22, “Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others; keep yourself pure.” There are two implications here: don’t be to quick to ordain new elders and be aware that if you do, you make take part in the sins that they commit. Of course, these two ideas are more geared toward current elders that have the authority to add new elders, but the warnings are important for all Christians, so let’s look at both statements closer:

First, it is foolish to hastily ordain new elders—that’s what it means to lay hands on a person.

Of course, that’s primarily a statement towards current elders looking to add more elders, but the warning ought to help the average congregant see that eldership is not something to take lightly—you don’t choose for yourself whether you ought to be an elder.

It is a calling of God to be an elder that is affirmed by those who are already elders—meaning you can’t just wake up one day and decide that you want to be an elder—God works within you to develop that desire and that calling; and those who are already elders confirm whether they think you’re called to be an elder.

This is intentionally a slow process and the reason for that is made apparent in both 1 Timothy 3, which tells us that elders cannot be new converts because new converts get puffed up and fall into sin.and 1 Timothy 5:24-25, but we’ll get back to those reasons.

Paul tells Timothy to be slow when it comes to selecting elders—and really what he means by that is simple, Timothy needs to be absolutely careful when he selects new elders.

And second, that if he does lay hands on a person to hastily, then he takes part in the sins that they might commit.

This emphasizes the importance of selecting men for eldership because by selecting someone to be an elder the then current elders are essentially telling the church that this man is trustworthy, that they ought to follow his teaching and his preaching, and that they needn’t be as discerning as they might otherwise be—because the then current elders trust him.

Thus, if that person teaches false things immediately or that person commits atrocious sins after the elders had just told everyone to trust him, they share in the blame

Vv. 24-25 reiterate this by telling us of the reason for being slow when selecting elders, “The sins of some people are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later. So also good works are conspicuous, and even those that are not cannot remain hidden.”

Meaning, and this is rather simple—people can hide who they really are when you first meet them.

It isn’t until you actually get to know them that you can see their sins and you can see whether they have good works or not.

So, if you think of this clearly—Paul’s encouragement and warning to Timothy is that he takes his time when selecting new elders because you won’t actually know if that person’s suitable for eldership until you get to know him a little more.

He could be completely engulfed in sin and you wouldn’t know it because you don’t know him—or he could be someone who is genuinely faithful and has the good works to back it up, but you don’t really know it because you don’t really know him.

Now, tehere is one other verse here, and the ESV is right to have it in a parenthesis because its a side-note to everything else in the text, it’s really just a personal statement to Timothy.

Timothy had abstained from alcohol, but Paul’s encouragement to him is to drink a little wine in his water for his stomach and frequent ailments.

Some have gone off the deep-end making huge theological points about this one verse, but let me encourage you to read as it is.

It is a statement from Paul, that Timothy needs to utilize a little alcohol for his own health; there’s nothing more to be said here.

It isn’t a blanket statement that all people need to drink, it isn’t a statement that we only should drink if there are health benefits to it.

It is simply Paul’s encouragement as Timothy’s friend, spiritual mentor, and even spiritual father that Timothy needs to take care of himself physically.

Now, we’re short on time and I’ve intentionally given application throughout the text, but I do want us to take the remaining few minutes for me to sum up this whole sermon into a bite-sized application for you taking the whole text into account. There are essentially three main points being made by Paul concerning elders to Timothy and it is those three main points that make up the application:

When we choose elders, we need to be very slow and careful with it

When our elders serve, we need to do whatever we can to support them and provide for them (even financially)

When people accuse our elders, we need to take the accusation seriously and we have to use the principles that Paul mentions to determine the proper course of action.

Let’s break that down:

Application

First, when we choose elders, we need to be slow and careful (22-25) — again, we can’t just pick any random person who claims that he should be an elder simply because he wants to be an elder and we can’t allow someone to be an elder that isn’t called by God to be an elder.

Now, you might hear all that and think, “well yes, that’s all relatively obviously; why would we think that it would be acceptable to do something else?”

But let me just simply point out that most churches in the United States mess this up all the time—churches hire pastors that don’t fit the qualifications listed in 1 Timothy 3 simply because the person has a degree or is a really good speaker, so they overlook the fact that the person isn’t qualified to actually lead God’s church.

Or churches will realize that they need a new pastor, but instead of taking their time finding someone that is suitable, they hire essentially the first person that claims they know the Bible and can teach.

There are plenty of people serving as pastors in plenty of churches that quite frankly ought never have stepped foot behind a pulpit and yet, the church hired him to not just preach but to lead them.

Paul’s statement to Timothy is that Timothy needs to be as careful as possible with selecting new elders because elders lead the church.

And if the person isn’t qualified, if the person isn’t called, or if the person is hiding sin then they shouldn’t be an elder and if the elders of a local church choose to make that person an elder anyways, they will hurt the church in ways that they don’t even realize.

Now, as a regular congregation member and not an elder, you might hear this and think, “ok, well that’s the elder’s job, to make sure any new elders are fit and qualified for it.”

That’s true, but there’s still something that you’re supposed to do as well—you’re supposed to be watching those who are considered elder trainees or candidates and you’re supposed to be checking to see if they actually fit the qualifications and meet the requirements.

And here’s why, you might notice something about the person that disqualifies the person and in these instances, what you ought to do is this:

Confront the elder candidate or trainee, try to rectify the problem, but if there’s indeed a sin issue.

Then you need to make the rest of the elders know so that they can make a better decision concerning the trainee or candidate.

We as a church, need to be slow and careful when choosing new elders because of how important of a role it is within the church.

Second, when our elders serve, we need to do whatever we can to support them and provide for them (even financially).

Now, I know that sounds like something that ought to be really obvious or at least it should sound like it’s really obvious, but let’s look at it from a different perspective:

You might claim that you support your elders in your local church, but do your actions actually support that claim?

Meaning, your elders are trying to lead you a certain way—to follow Jesus closer. Are you actually following them to Jesus or are you kicking and screaming?

Are you actually submitting to their leadership or are you bickering, undermining, and rebelling against their leadership in word or deed?

Now, obviously, you shouldn’t follow your elders blindly and you should use discernment, but once you determine that your elders are actually teaching you the right way to go, the goal is for you to actually go.

Now, again much like Paul’s original meaning included the idea of financially supporting your elders, the same remains true today. Churches are supposed to financially support their pastors.

And you might sit there and think, “yeah, I absolutely 100% believe this,” but the question is, do your actions actually support that claim?

Our church is a completely faith-based church when it comes to our financial standing. What that means is that unless God’s people give financially, the church has no income. This is why we don’t do fund-raising, this is why we don’t have stocks and bonds, this is why we don’t own rental properties as a church.

Every dollar that our church has is given by faith by those within the church—thus, if you aren’t actually giving anything, then even if you absolutely think your elders, your pastors absolutely deserve to be financially supported, you aren’t actually supporting them financially.

You’re saying that you agree that your pastor should be financially supported but then your actions aren’t in line with what you’re saying.

Not every pastor gets a salary from the church, but the primary preachers and teachers of the local church should be able to rely on the church to meet their needs.

You as a congregant of Grace & Peace ought to support your elder (hopefully soon to be elders) by submitting to their leadership and by giving to help meet their needs financially.

Third and lastly, when people accuse our elders, we need to take the accusation seriously and we have to use the principles that Paul mentions to determine the proper course of action.

Accusing an elder of sin is something that needs to be taken seriously because all sin needs to be taken seriously and when the church takes these accusations seriously, they need to apply the principles that Paul gives here to determine whether the person is actually guilty. So, if an accusation comes against me, this is what the church needs to do:

See if the accuser actually tried to privately rectify the situation first. This is in line with the process for church discipline according to Matthew 18. If the accuser didn’t bother to privately rectify the situation, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the accusation is false, it just means that the accuser is in sin and needs to repent.

If the accuser did try to privately rectify the situation, then the accuser would need to have evidence and witnesses that whatever the issue was certainly did happen—if the accuser doesn’t have evidence or witnesses, then the accusation is to be ignored.

Only if the accuser has evidence and witnesses and has already sought to sort out the issue privately should the church then publically rebuke and reprimand a pastor for sin.

Because no one is above being held accountable for their sins.

You as a member of Grace & Peace have an obligation to be sure that our elders aren’t sinning, but you need to do it in the right way, according to Scripture.

Put simply, what we learn from 1 Timothy 5:17-25 (though it isn’t comprehensive) is that there are proper ways of acting and reacting towards the elders of the church: (1) you need to choose them carefully, (2) you need to support them with honor and financially, and (3) you need to call them out for their sins, but do this how Scripture tells you to do it.

Pastoral Prayer

Prayer Requests

Our prayer requests this week include:

Melissa Bush — Melissa is still dealing with the symptoms of Covid, pray that she recovers quickly.

The Bubb Family — Continue praying for the family as they grieve the loss of their son. In addition, please pray for Alice and Neil Miller as they are friends of the family and are practicing a ministry of presence to support them as best as they can.

Sean Herbst — Addiction

Pray for Alexus (Tom and Raenelle’s great niece) — Alexus is being sent to Pittsburgh this month to determine if she is a candidate for brain surgery that could potentially help her. Be in prayer through all this.

Caleb Miller — Medical Issues

Reagan N. — Diagnosed with a tumor of the brain. Pray for doctors to have wisdom as they look at next steps.

Pray for the family of Janice Sine, who passed almost a week ago. Her son is Veronica Sampson’s son-in-law.

Alan Wisor — Medical Issues

Pray for the church’s building fund

Pray for Halfmoon Christian Fellowship Church of Port Matilda, PA and their pastor Clayton Kessling. Pray that they continue to be a witness of Jesus Christ in and around Port Matilda and pray for them as they continue making disciples of Jesus Christ.