1 Timothy 5:1-18

Honor - Word carries our idea of Honoring, respecting, and also that of financial assistance, its also translated as “price” - Financially Honor/Take care of

At the time widows were particularly destitute, without much hope of being sustained outside of . . .

You: Care for Your Family

1 Timothy 5:4 ESV

But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God.

It pleases God when you SHOW GODLINESS to your own household

Godliness?

1 Timothy 5:8 ESV

But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Denied the Faith? Worse than an unbeliever?

“Godliness” - Put religion into practice

James 1:27 ESV

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

This is just a real life example of James 2:14-18

James 2:14–18 (ESV)

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

SHOW FAITH. SHOW GODLINESS.

You SHOW what is IN you when you have good works, when you care for your family at your expense - it is EVIDENCE that you are God’s

Conversely - 1 Tim 5:8

1 Timothy 5:8 ESV

But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

He HAS DENIED THE FAITH - not providing for your relatives is evidence of what is NOT in you.

NOTICE - subtlety - You dont care for your family so that God will save you, but because he Did.

The Pharisees asked Jesus which is the greatest command in the law - LOVE GOD, LOVE PEOPLE - Those commands aren’t entirely separate - VERY often the way you Love God is by loving people.

Also, this line here is also important (bold)

1 Timothy 5:4 (ESV)

But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God.

Again we are brought to the significance of Gratitude, not for a perfect momma, but a present momma, and the only right response is gratitude that looks like care.

Noone has laid up at night crying more tears for you than your mom, noone has worried more about you than your mom, noone outside of Jesus Himself HURT when you Hurt like your mom. “Well she wasnt the perfect mom,” yeah well if you were the perfect kid maybe she would have had a chance. . . no she wasn’t. Maybe your mom really was awful, maybe she really is undeserving of your love . . . welcome to Christianity. The worse your mom was, the more Christ-like and God-glorifying your caring for her becomes. Christ’s love shines so brightly because of how unworthy of it we are. The foundational story of the COSMOS is one of a Groom caring for a Bride even though she didn’t deserve it.

Every once in a while the Bible will give this line “for this is pleasing in the sight of God,” I love that line because the Bible writer thinks that this matters to us, and its such a familial relational loving line - I remember when I first went to college my dad had to set a limit on how many times mom could call me a day because she would just call non-stop. Everytime she called she would tell me she missed me and how much she looked forward to seeing me. I’ve always had a great relationship with my parents and always enjoyed being with them, but I didn’t go home much in college because I was involved in lots of things and lots of weekend events and responsibilities. My freshman year I hadn’t been home for a few months, and I remember Dad calling and saying, “Listen, your mom needs to see you, it would really make her happy if you came home for a day or two.” I cancelled my stuff and went the next day. Because I respect my dad, but because I love my mom, and so I want to please her.

Caring for your family PLEASES GOD! and it shows that you love him, even if you don’t really like that family member. (ESPECIALLY)

You’ve seen (1 Tim 5:8 Slide) those cartoons or commercials with the parent caring for the child, and then they grow and finally the adult child caring for the elderly parent. To break that cycle is to be ungodly, is to be worse than an unbeliever, is to deny the faith that calls for such love. If you have family that needs your care that you have failed to care for well, this is no little thing, you need to repent today for dishonoring them and for not loving your God, and rejoice at an opportunity to PLEASE THE GOD THAT MADE YOU AND THE UNIVERSE!

Church: Care for The Neglected

Now is the Church, meaning all Christians, called to serve the neglected? OF COURSE!

Bear One Anothers Burdens - Gal 6:2-

Love One Another - Jn 13:35, Col 3:13-14, 1 Pet 1:22, Jn 15:12, 17, 1 Th 3:12, 4:9, 2 Th 1:3, Heb 13:1, 1 Pet 2:17, 1 Jn 3:11, 23, 4:7, 21, 5:2

Poor - Deut 15:7-8, Prov 17:5, Rom 12:13, Ga 6:10, James 2:2-4, 15-16, 1 Jn 3:17, Ex 23:6, Deut 14:28-29, Ex 23:11, Le 19:9-10, 25:5-6, Prov 19:17, Ps 82:3-4, Job 29:11-17, Lk 3:11, Ac 9:36, Deut 15:9-11, 14:29, Ru 2:14, Ps 112:9, Je 39:10, Lk 19:8, Ac 10:2, 2 Cor 9:7, Mt 6:2, 15:32, Lk 4:18-19, Jn 13:29, Ac 10:38, Ac 2:44-45, 4:32-35, 11:29-30, 20:35, 24:17, Ro 15:25-27, 2 Cor 8:13-15, Ga 2:10, Ps 41:1, Pr 19:17, 28:27, Mt 19:21, 25:34-36, Mk 9:41, Heb 13:16, Deut 10:18, 14:28-29, Ps 10:14, 146:9, Is 10:2, Deut 16:11, Ru 4:5, 2 Ki 4:1, Job 22:9, Mal 3:5, Ac 6:1, 1 Ti 5:3, 9, 16, Jas 1:27

Matthew 25:42–43 ESV

For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’

SO YES CHRISTIANS INDIVIDUALLY ARE TO BE CARING FOR THE NEGLECTED! There are few things taught so clearly in Scripture . . . . but that’s not what is meant here primarily.

Here He is talking about the church in its official corporate capacity - that WE TOGETHER are supposed to care for the poor.

The point of the first part was to tell Timothy which widows the church should be caring for.

1 Timothy 5:16 ESV

If any believing woman has relatives who are widows, let her care for them. Let the church not be burdened, so that it may care for those who are truly widows.

IT may care

1 Timothy 5:9 ESV

Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, having been the wife of one husband,

ENROLLED

This early church had a list of the church’s widows that they cared for, and the means to care for them financially.

God is Pro-Organized Religion - seen as clearly in this book as anywhere - he wants us organizing, he wants us giving financially so that the church can have the means to fill these needs like that of the widows of the church’s membership (Christian widows who are part of this church - they are given qualifications. . . )

One of the main reasons you are called to give financially is things like this. This community is filled with needy people, halellujah, when people are in need, they think of the local churches and they come to us. They dont come to your front door, unless they are close friends, but they will come to OUR front door, and this church is involved deeply in helping the needy in this community, and we are working to increase that all the more. If a church went out of existence, the community around it should mourn, churches should make things better, as little outposts of God’s light. YES by proclaiming truth, but also by caring for the neglected. Your money given is one way that is accomplished.

Let’s pause just a moment and ask why we are called to care for the poor? Everyone, Christian or not, ASSUMES that we should take care of the poor, but that is only because Christianity has pervaded so deeply our culture and very selves. The Jews did that when no other nation did, they had laws to care for the poor. Christians invented organized care for the poor, Took babies that other families discarded and raised at their own expense, Christians were the ones that invented hospitals, Christians were the ones that invented orphanages, Christians were the ones that invented free education for the poor.

WHY???

Isaiah 61:1–2 (ESV)

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,

WHY??? Why care for the downtrodden? Why care for the needy? Why care for the underserving? Why care for those who are poor by their own decisions?

BECAUSE THAT’S THE ENTIRE STORY! THE WHOLE STORY FROM CREATION TO REVELATION IS GOD’S INCOMPREHENSIBLE LOVE FOR AND CARE FOR THE UNWORTHY AND THE LOWLY! FOR YOU AND ME! How could that spiritual Truth, not just a Truth but THE TRUTH, the Truest thing there is, how could that spiritual TRUTH not flow over into the Physical realities of poverty and lowliness?

You were created as a little Imago Dei, to IMAGE GOD, to Shine God’s Light, to proclaim what He is like, it is difficult to do that more clearly than when you care for the lowly.

In the darkest communities, churches still shine, because churches are like God, which AT LEAST means, they care for the lowly.

It is GOOD to care for the lowly because it is LIKE GOD to do so, as that is what he has been doing since creation.

You may think, well God would never save me, I have everything too screwed up, good news, that makes you qualified.In Truth, the only pathway into Christ is to recognize your poverty, and lean entirely on Him for His riches of grace.

Honor Widows

HONOR SHEPHERDS

1 Timothy 5:17–18 ESV

Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.”

I have been a minister here for 11 years, preaching at some volume most of that time, and I don’t think I have ever from the pulpit said anything about paying ministers/teachers, it makes me uncomfortable, but as often happens, preaching through books of the Bible like this brings me to passages that I would have otherwise avoided, and that is good, my insecurities shouldn’t keep you from hearing what God has to say in this regard - its also not in that Wayne and I won’t be your ministers for your whole lives, some of you at least - and there will be ministers that come after me…

This is actually an incredibly clear biblical teaching, which I think most of you will agree with readily.

1 Corinthians 9:9–12 ESV

For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Does he not certainly speak for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop. If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.

1 Corinthians 9:13–14 ESV

Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings? In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.

I’ve included some other passages on your outline if you want to look into this more (Luke 10:3-7, 2 Thess 3:7-9, Phil 4:16-18, 2 Cor 11:7-9, 9:6-15, Gal 6:6, 2 Tim 4:3, Heb 13:7, Ac 6:1-4)

In the Middle-East, Muslim Teachers, Imams, by and large get paid by the state- they are spokesmen for the state, the state sends them their message for the week

In Christianity, since the beginning, the local body of believers supports the teacher so that he can give himself entirely to the study and proclamation of the Word, as well as the care over the body, as well as supporting teachers who are missionaries that aren’t paid by who they are teaching.

Why do you pay me - The Church pays me - which is bigger than You, but you give and I get paid out of that giving - Why? Its Biblical - yes, but lets ask Why

Because you value the Word of God.

If the elders asked me to preach/teach without pay, I would of course be required to get a job - 5 kids - I would work at that job in a way that glorifies God, meaning work hard and giving myself to it, I would also still work hard at being a good Husband and Father, which . . . . takes time, and then with whatever time I had left, if any, I would give to you and the Word.

Instead, the church pays me so that I can give all of my self to the Word and to the ministering of that Word to you, whether it be through preaching, teaching, praying, counseling, visiting, evangelizing. . .

You value the Word of God too much to allow it to be the last thing on the list for your teacher each day.

If I stop feeding the Word sufficiently to you, fire me. You don’t pay for me, you pay for the Word.

Dever “If you want to make sure there is no Christianity in 60 years in your city and state, make every minister bi-vocational . . . The church is best fed and made healthy by men who can show a faithfulness to the calling that Christ gives them by giving the central portion of their time to studying the Bible instead of by neglecting their other responsibilities . . . If we are going to be stingy with providing for the word to be taught, we are dooming our children and grand-children. . . The Great Commission has and is largely being fulfilled by local Christians setting aside part of their money to pay someone to teach them God’s Word”

Philippians 4:17 ESV

Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit.

Gospel?

NEXT WEEK

Paul a bit all over the place as he begins closing his letter, I want to point out these things, but they aren’t central to the flow of his letter. So these points today may feel disconnected, and thats because largely they are, but they are there in the text.

Biblical Leadership is Condescension

1 Timothy 5:1–2 ESV

Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.

5:1-2 - Biblical Leadership is a Leadership of Love, it is Familial

This is how leadership is done well - Biblical leadership is not a call to exaltation but a call to condescension

Leadership DOES HAVE TO Admonish - Word for encourage mean to ask earnestly - but the manner and the reason. . . love, respect, genuine care

Self Indulgence is Death

1 Timothy 5:6 ESV

but she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives.

Idleness/Laziness & Gossip is Poison

1 Timothy 5:13–15 ESV

Besides that, they learn to be idlers, going about from house to house, and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not. So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander. For some have already strayed after Satan.

The Business of Marriage/Children is GOOD

The Letters to Timothy and Titus 4. Younger Widows (5:11–15)

First, be open to marriage. For Paul, marriage needs to be to another believer (1 Cor 7:39). Of course, he is not urging some immediate move to the first candidate encountered. He is speaking of the course of her life ahead. Rather than persist in frustrated desire, broken pledges, and undisciplined living (vv. 12–13), she should seek the solace and constructive possibilities offered by marriage in the Lord. This path will also confirm her in defiance of the antimarriage philosophy in the air at Ephesus (4:3).

Second, have children, if God grants, since they are God’s gift (see Ps 113:9; 115:15; 127:3; 128:3). They are also a great responsibility and decades-long burden; Calvin comments, “When he speaks of bearing children, he sums up in one phrase all the annoyances comprised in rearing offspring.” This is an honest assessment of an important dimension of married life even (and especially?) in Christ, where there is daily opportunity and indeed necessity to learn the hard lessons of serving others rather than indulging oneself. See 2:15 on the noun form (teknogonia, child-bearing) of the verb used here (“have children”); there is soteriological benefit to the pursuit of everyday activities (like rearing children, if we are parents) rendered unto God.

Third, “to manage their homes.” Verse 13 describes neglect if not abandonment of attention to domestic responsibilities. See discussion at Titus 1:5 on the household management implied there. The verb oikodespoteō used here refers to oversight of the household, not menial maintenance. This is the word’s only occurrence in the NT. The noun form oikodespotēs (master or manager of a household) is much more common. The classic biblical portrait is found in Prov 31. A woman was “in charge of what went on in the home.”

Fourth, “to give the enemy no opportunity [aphormē] for slander.” In Gal 5:13 Paul writes of giving “opportunity [aphormē] for the flesh” (ESV).713 There his prescription is, “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (5:16). In v. 14 his directive is for younger widows to live diligently as the (eventually) married women God calls them to be postwidowhood. Their preoccupation with the redemptive demands of living daily household life in a way pleasing to God will ensure a higher road than v. 13 (dissolute younger widows) depicted. It will also make them a creative partner in the creation mandate (Gen 1:28).

Otherwise “the enemy” will have an opening “for slander [loidoria].” Who is this enemy? Does it represent the person or party behind the opposition to marriage (4:3)? If so, they might spread word that younger widows in the church who are not marrying represent a victory for their party. Some see other human opponents here; still others see the devil.716 Evidence does not permit a decisive choice. Paul does not want to bring ill repute on the household of faith from any quarter. The strategy he outlines will prevent that.

Judge Rightly

1 Timothy 5:19–21 ESV

Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear. 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.

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