God Cares for His Elders

The elders who are good leaders are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says: Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain, and, The worker is worthy of his wages. Don’t accept an accusation against an elder unless it is supported by two or three witnesses. Publicly rebuke those who sin, so that the rest will be afraid. I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels to observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing out of favoritism. Don’t be too quick to appoint anyone as an elder, and don’t share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure. Don’t continue drinking only water, but use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses. Some people’s sins are obvious, preceding them to judgment, but the sins of others surface later. Likewise, good works are obvious, and those that are not obvious cannot remain hidden.

Pray

As we have been making our way through this book, and the as we read much of the New Testament, we see that the early experienced explosive growth by the power of the Holy Spirit and was having such an impact that even Paul’s opponents said that the Christians were turning the world upside-down. And yet, the early church had its problems - which was often the occasion for Paul to write. We see with the Corinthian church that there was factions developing around preferred leaders, the tolerance of sexual sin, pride in spiritual gifts, and a lack of love for one another. In the case of the Galatian church, a false gospel had crept in, as some were teaching that one must become a Jew keeping the whole law in order to become a Christian - namely through circumcision. And as we have been working our way through 1 Timothy, we see another church that has its issues. At Ephesus, Timothy is supposed to be leading this church troubled by false teachers who use God’s law incorrectly and devote themselves to myths and speculation. There have been some who have shipwrecked their faith. There have been issues with attitudes toward prayer and government officials. The women were flaunting their beauty and wealth, and being unruly in the church. The church did not understand the qualifications for elders and deacons - and likely the ones that had been installed embodied the exact opposite of the qualifications Paul laid out. And that is only recapping up to chapter 3! The church at Ephesus, though God’s people, his bride, was certainly going through great difficulty.

Beginning in Chapter 5, Paul has begun to discuss how people within the church should be treated, first older men and women, then widows. Now Paul turns his attention back to the elders. He has already disucssed what an elder must be, but now he addresses how an elder must be treated. This leads us to the main point of this text:

Main Point: God Cares for His Elders

Paul’s instructions to Timothy here, as in the rest of the book, are to be shared with the church. And based on what we see, and the need for instruction before, the church at Ephesus needed some reminders about how Elders should be treated.

Roadmap:

The text essentially breaks down into 3 sections:

Elders are worthy of honor for their work

Elders are to be treated according to just standards

The Purity of the Elders and the Church

Elders are worthy of honor for their work

Let’s read verses 17 and 18 of our text:

1 Timothy 5:17–18 CSB

Alternate Translation: “Rule Well”

Considered worthy of “Double Honor”

What is honor (τιμή):

Wide range: honor, price, proceeds, value, money, respect

Respect

1 Timothy 1:17 “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”

John 4:44 “(Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.)”

Romans 9:21 “Or has the potter no right over the clay, to make from the same lump one piece of pottery for honor and another for dishonor?”

Hebrews 2:7–9 “You made him lower than the angels for a short time; you crowned him with glory and honor and subjected everything under his feet. For in subjecting everything to him, he left nothing that is not subject to him. As it is, we do not yet see everything subjected to him. But we do see Jesus—made lower than the angels for a short time so that by God’s grace he might taste death for everyone—crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death.”

Another Translation = “price”

Matthew 27:29 “They twisted together a crown of thorns, put it on his head, and placed a staff in his right hand. And they knelt down before him and mocked him: “Hail, king of the Jews!””

1 Corinthians 6:20 “for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body.”

1 Corinthians 7:23 “You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of people.”

I think that the heavy usage of this word to mean respect, or reverence should lead us to understand it that way, but Paul says “double honor” and as such it seems to me that he is using this with double meaning. Just as elderly men and good leaders need to be treated with respect, the double aspect of this is the honor of payment, price, or compensation. This double meaning becomes even more clear as he says, finishes his thought:

1 Timothy 5:17–18 CSB

There are essentially 3 reasons for this double honor:

The elders are working for the Church (17b)

The Scriptures have principles to apply to this (18a)

Jesus himself laid out this principle (18b)

Working for the Church

The first reason is based on what elders do in their leadership: preach and teach. As we can see in this statement is that Paul is saying this is work. This is something that takes time and effort. If anyone in here is a teacher or has worked on writing lessons, sermons, any other form of teaching knows the time and effort that it takes. It is not a quick process. Caring for the souls of church members comes with early mornings, late nights, hospital visits, lunch meetings, and more. And for many, including Pastor Kyle, this is on top of being a husband, father, and full-time employee. These things, while a joy, and a labor of love for Jesus and his Church, are work. This work takes focus. In Acts 6, the Apostles recognized that meeting the practical needs of church members would take away from their ability to pray and preach, so the church selected a group of men, essentially deacons, to carry out the practical labor so that the Apostles could devote themselves to preaching and teaching.

The next reason for that elders are worthy of the honor of pay is because the Scriptures have given us this principle. Here, Paul quotes a law from the Old Testament regarding how the people were to treat their animals. The command, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain” comes from Deuteronomy 25:4. While all Scripture is God-Breathed, and Paul spoke as he was carried along by the Holy Spirit, I find this to be a particularly ingenius quotation of the Old Testament. It is significant because of the backdrop of the ancient world and the problems occurring within the church at Ephesus. Concerning the backdrop, we must remember that a much greater portion of the population in ancient times were farmers and owned farm animals. So when he starts to talk about animal laws from the Old Testament, it is something they can relate to. They understand farm animals, they understand their behaviors. They understand how to treat the animals. So God says, “Do not muzzle an on while it is treading out the grain.” In other words, “When your animal is working, don’t keep it from eating, especially when it is working so that you can eat.” If not fed, the ox would certainly grow tired and perhaps distracted and disobedient to its master because its needs are not being met. This brings us to the other reason why this quotation is amazing: The Church at Ephesus had been steered in the wrong direction by teachers who did not know how to handle the Law! As he said in chapter 1 verses 3-8

1 Timothy 1:3–8 CSB

As I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach false doctrine or to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies. These promote empty speculations rather than God’s plan, which operates by faith. Now the goal of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. Some have departed from these and turned aside to fruitless discussion. They want to be teachers of the law, although they don’t understand what they are saying or what they are insisting on. But we know that the law is good, provided one uses it legitimately.

What Paul is doing here is using the law legitimately! He is essentially saying “The elders who labor in the preaching and teaching are, through their study and presentation of the word treading out the grain, preparing a meal for you that you may feed on the wisdom of God, that through the ministry of the Word, a great love for Jesus would be stirred up within you! Do not deny them food and their other physical needs by denying them pay for their work! Do not even think about treating an ox better than your elders!” Jesus even brings up this point in Matthew 12 that the pharisees would allow a man to pull his sheep out of a hole on the Sabbath, but protested a man being healed because it was the Sabbath. God desires that

And this brings us to Paul’s final reason for this instruction: Jesus gave us the same principle. In the CSB and the ESV, you will see the phrase “the laborer is worthy of his wages” in red. If your Bible has cross references, you will see that Jesus said this in Luke 10:7 and was rephrasing Old Testament Commands from Leviticus 19 and Deuteronomy 24 that if a man works for you, he is to be paid! He earned it, in fact the poor men in this passage need their wages in order to eat and to feed their families!

So, perhaps I will find a slightly more modern comparison for this: Women Giving Birth. Today, our medical system, because of a few rare cases, has essentially forbidden women from eating while in labor. While she is laboring hard to deliver that baby, she is growing tired, hungry, and thirsty. And my wife was no exception, particularly with our first child. That labor was long. She was tired, and somewhat hungry, but it wasn’t like she wanted a three course meal or anything, but after she gave birth to our boy, SHE WAS HUNGRY. She wanted the sausage breakfast sandwiches I had brought for us. Who was I to deny her that? I would be crazy to deny her that! SHE EARNED THAT SANDWICH! And aside from the cheese burning her mouth, she REALLY enjoyed that sandwhich. And you fathers know what I mean. So, just as our wives have physical needs during and after labor, so do our elders have physical needs, and we as God’s church need to look after their needs as they labor for ours.

Now, I do want address the fact that though Paul is advocating for paying elders - particularly those that labor in preaching or teaching - he does not tell us an amount or give us an exact model. Paul, for example, in 1 Corinthians 9 says that he would be fully within his rights to be finiancially supported by the Church for his ministry, though he was not OBLIGATED to accept payment, and in fact worked as a tent-maker to support himself. So while the standard is to pay your elders, or at least make the offer, there is room, based on what we see here, for what a church is able to offer their elders, and whether elders choose to accept payment or not. This, is a blessing from God, because there are so many small churches, or churches in poor places, that the elders support their families with work outside of the church. The main point here is that Elders are to be considered WORTHY of double honor. So please, do not misunderstand me - this is not a rebuke of any kind to this church - in fact, I know this church is generous, this church does consider their pastors and elders as worthy of double honor, and this pleases the LORD. You please the Lord by caring for your pastor as he cares for you!

Elders are to be treated according to just standards

The second way that the Lord expresses his care for the elders is by reminding the Timothy and the Church at Ephesus about God’s law regarding standards of justice. Lets read verses 19-22:

1 Timothy 5:19–22 CSB

Don’t accept an accusation against an elder unless it is supported by two or three witnesses. Publicly rebuke those who sin, so that the rest will be afraid. I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels to observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing out of favoritism. Don’t be too quick to appoint anyone as an elder, and don’t share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure.

As Paul has mentioned earlier in this letter, there have been bad leaders, improper handling of God’s law, possibly even efforts to drive out Godly leaders. So Paul is addressing standards of Justice here. He begins with the the command, “Don’t accept an accusation against an elder unless it is supported by two or three witnesses.” This is a reference, again, to Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 19:15 CSB

“One witness cannot establish any iniquity or sin against a person, whatever that person has done. A fact must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

As we have seen in many cases in recent years, there have been many accusations made of judges, political leaders, athletes, coaches, and pastors have been accused of lying, spying, sexual sin, and more. Some of these accusations have been well founded and the sin of these men and women have been exposed. Some accusations fell flat, but because of the sinfulness of these people overall, it became the occasion for other true accusations to be investigated and validated. And some, have been nothing short of malicious lies that the public has believed. And even though they may have been exposed as lies, it has cost our country a great deal of money and has permanently affected the reputation of innocent people. What God says here in Deuteronomy is specifically regarding crime, but Paul’s application in 1 Timothy 6 is not just in the matter of crimes, but is more broad. Again, given that Paul is reminding the church of this Old Testament command, likely, accusations had been heard and acted on against elders in a way that violated God’s Law. But God calls for multiple witnesses to even hear the accusation. That does not make the accusation true or false, that just means that it should not be heard without 2-3 independent lines of witness. And perhaps the accusations sounded convincing. But that does not meet God’s standards. Further, we are told in Proverbs 18:17 “The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.”

While God requires the elders to be beyond reproach, that does not mean that evil men will not accuse the elders of the church of sin. The question is whether those accusations rise to the level of investigation and whether the accusation has been accepted without cross-examination, per Proverbs 18:17. This is extremely important, as we see that this has happened in Scripture and history. Queen Jezebel rounded up false accusers to have a man killed so her husband could have the man’s vinyard. Jesus was falsely accused by many witnesses on the night before his crucifixion. Jesus says that his followers will be victims of false accusations. We, as God’s people are not to entertain these kinds of accusations, especially against the elders of His Church.

In Verse 20 Paul does deal with the case in which the accusations have been established and are true. He says:

1 Timothy 5:20–21 CSB

Publicly rebuke those who sin, so that the rest will be afraid. I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels to observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing out of favoritism.

Sin is never to be winked at or swept under the rug, no matter who the person is. God calls us to avoid favoritism in the application of his standards of receiving accusations, deciding the merits of a case, and as mentioned her in verse 20, if elders are found in sin, and are unrepentant, unwilling to be reconciled to their brothers and sisters, per Matthew 18, they are to be rebuked publicly. And the reason he states for this is “So that the rest will be afraid.” This is another instance of Holy Spirit inspired genius, in my view, because the standard regarding the acceptance of an accusation is found in Deuteronomy 19:15 and in the following verses, we see the principle of godly justice applied equally causes a holy fear among the people, for God says in the case of false accusation:

Deuteronomy 19:16–21 CSB

“If a malicious witness testifies against someone accusing him of a crime, the two people in the dispute are to stand in the presence of the Lord before the priests and judges in authority at that time. The judges are to make a careful investigation, and if the witness turns out to be a liar who has falsely accused his brother, you must do to him as he intended to do to his brother. You must purge the evil from you. Then everyone else will hear and be afraid, and they will never again do anything evil like this among you. Do not show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.

Ultimately, the demonstration of the fact that God cares about justice, whether it is applied to elders, political leaders, or just plain “normal” people helps us understand that God takes sin seriously. So this is a call to carefulness in the church: be careful not to unjustly admit accusations against anyone, especially elders. And always treat unrepentant sin according to God’s standards, no matter who commits it.

The Purity of the elders of the Church

The final portion of this segment essentially can be boiled down to the subject of the purity of the elders.

1 Timothy 5:21–25 CSB

I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels to observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing out of favoritism. Don’t be too quick to appoint anyone as an elder, and don’t share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure. Don’t continue drinking only water, but use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses. Some people’s sins are obvious, preceding them to judgment, but the sins of others surface later. Likewise, good works are obvious, and those that are not obvious cannot remain hidden.

As you noticed, I backed up to verse 21, and the reason for that is the last part of that verse: “doing nothing out of favoritism”. Of course, the first application is making sure that there is no favoritism when dealing with accusations against elders and the public rebuke of those in unrepentant sin. But the warning to guard against favoritism certainly applies to verse 22 and command not to apponts elders too quickly. Of course, as humans with our own distinct personalities, preferences, hobbies, and limited time, we have closer relationships with some people than we do others. That is not wrong. But the tempation is to smuggle along with that closeness a favoritism. Paul is warning Timothy that he ought not appoint someone an elder too quickly. No matter how much Timothy might have liked a man, there still needed to be a time of patient waiting and proving of God’s calling of that man to eldership. Too many men have been commissioned as pastors too quickly, without extensive vetting, without time for character to be exposed, without time to see how he is discipling his family, without time to see sanctification or sin issues. In fact, as Paul gives this warning, he adds on the phrase “and dont share in the sins of others.” Multiple commentators I consulted on this verse said that Paul is telling Timothy that if he installs a man as an elder, and that man is in sin, Timothy, and anyone else who lays hands on him to commission him as an elder participate or sanction that man’s sin. So, for the sake of purity, God instructs us to be slow in selecting leaders for the church. This is so important for the shepherds of the church to be pure, so that they can say with Paul, “immitate me, as I immitate Christ” and not bring shame upon the name of Jesus on account of their sin.

Now, if you have another translation, such as the ESV, you may see that verse 23 is slightly different than what is on the screen - namely that there are parentheses around the directive, “Don’t continue drinking only water, but use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.” This is because of the difficulty or appearance of unrelatedness in the commands Paul is giving. First, show no favorites. Then, don’t be too quick to lay hands on an elder. Then don’t share in the sins of others. Then Keep yourself pure. and Finally, don’t continue drinking water only. If we do not see the theme of the purity of the elder through here, of course it feels disjointed. But when we consider the theme of purity, Paul has taught that all of these things lead to impurity. So what is Paul getting at? Well, as Paul laid out in the qualifications for elder in Chapter 3, an elder is not to be an excessive drinker. As Paul discusses in Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 10 different people have different convictions regarding food and drink and are still within the boundaries of obedience to God. There is another possibility for Timothy’s abstention from wine: a practice called asceticism. This was a practice that tended toward legalism which called for people to abandon comforts and perceived indulgences, which could certainly include abstaining from wine. Whether Timothy was desiring not to be a stumbling block or to be a man who could not be accused of excessive drinking, or if he was tended toward a kind of self-denial called asceticism, his drinking of water only was not doing him any favors.

Much of the water supply in ancient times was not pure water that was safe for drinking. If you have watched any survival tv shows, you know one of the first rules of survival is “don’t drink the water until you boil it.” Water, though needed for survival can make people sick, and this is likely what is going on with Timothy.

So Paul is correcting a false understanding of Purity for Timothy and letting him know that God is not expecting him to swear off wine, when it can be used medicinally for his stomach. Ultimately, God is showing his concern for Timothy by correcting his incorrect understanding of purity which is actually damaging his health.

This ought to be an encouraging thing to us today, because we can see that God cares for our needs, both spiritual and physical. He cares when we are sick, and does not forbid us from reasonable treatment simply for the sake of appearances.

Paul wraps up this section on purity with this: “Some people’s sins are obvious, preceding them to judgment, but the sins of others surface later. Likewise, good works are obvious, and those that are not obvious cannot remain hidden.”

This is such a fitting end to this text. Sinfulness will be exposed, and so will good works and righteousness. Patience is required in the appointing of elders, because a man’s sin or righteousness will come to light. Those who are righteous and demonstrate good leadership and labor for the church well are obvious and are worthy of double honor. Those who are truly righteous will be exhonerated when falsely accused. Those who are sinful will be found out and rebuked. Those who are righteous leaders will strive to live in true purity.

And there is no greater example of the pure worthy elder than Jesus himself. He selflessly came to earth. He lived a perfectly righteous life. He loved God the father and people perfectly and when he was arrested and taken before the high priest, they brought false charges against him and nothing would stick. So, finally they had to get him to incriminate himself by admiting that he is the Son of God. And for that the Jewish leadership handed him over to the Romans to be crucified. But as the Son of God, he the power to lay down his life and bear the wrath of God on our behalf and then take up his life again so that all who trust in him as the only way of escape for our rebellion against God will also be raised from the dead to spend eternity with Jesus.

Conclusion:

Though this passage and this book is filled with many commands, corrections, and warnings, there is hope: According to what Jesus says, they did make some progress, according to Revelation 2:1-7

Revelation 2:1–7 CSB

“Write to the angel of the church in Ephesus: Thus says the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and who walks among the seven golden lampstands: I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate evil people. You have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and you have found them to be liars. I know that you have persevered and endured hardships for the sake of my name, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you: You have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. Yet you do have this: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Timothy and the elders did clean house regarding false teachers. They did make sure the elders were not men marked by sin. They even endured hardships, persecution! This church really did take Paul’s corrections to heart. So when we see churches, or if you see any of these pitfalls in yourself, be encouraged, that in time these things can be left behind, with the help of the Holy Spirit.

However, there is also the warning that Jesus gives. Do not abandon the love you first had. It can be so easy to treat following Jesus like a checklist. We can think, “Well, I read my Bible this week, I went to church, and I know what good teaching is. I give my money to the church. I am a good Christian.” But the reality is that we, just like the Ephesian church can do it without the love God wants from us. Obedience, not motivated from love is not pleasing to God. So let us never lose sight of the fact that we need to obey God because we love him. And when we slip into that checklist mentality, as soon as we realize it, we need to come to God, ask him for forgiveness and that he would stir up that love in us once again.

Lets Pray.

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