The Church, Part One -- 1 Timothy 5:1-6
The Church, Part One -- 1 Timothy 5:1-6
by Pastor Lee Hemen
May 18, 2008 AM
What should the ekklesia, the Body of Christ, His church be doing in the world? Some think that it is to get as many people through its front doors as possible. This seems like a good idea, if you are Wal-Mart, but that is not the New Testament concept of the church. The idea of the local church changed dramatically in the early 1900s in America. It went from small intimate family groups of individuals evangelizing and discipling the lost, to a big box concept of the mass weekend revivals every Sunday morning. The Billy Sunday-Dwight L. Moody concept of Sunday morning worship! However, if we take a biblical look at Scripture, we discover that the Apostles nor Jesus did not teach this! Contrary to some opinions the multiple feeding of the multitudes and Pentecost are not examples for the local ekklesia. What then is the church supposed to be?
We find Paul exhorting Timothy, a new pastor who was kind of timid in his leadership, to get some backbone and confront some ungodly issues in his church at Ephesus. The first were the false teachers, but the rest dealt with how the church was not being the local church it should have been. As we look at Paul’s letter to Timothy, we discover what the church for today should be…
READ: 1 Timothy 5:1-6
Going from instructions about how Timothy was to conduct his personal life and ministry, the choosing of pastors and deacons, Paul then turned to advice on how to relate effectively to individuals who make up various groups in the church. Paul’s overall advice about how to treat various age-groups was that Timothy handle different people as he would corresponding members of his own family. Paul tells Timothy that the Church should…
I. Treat one another as family! (vv. 1-2)
1. A family is relative, but a church family is forever! In order to help him set a good example, Paul gave Timothy a principle, recorded here, that would help him with relationships inside the church. The apostle encouraged Timothy to treat members of the church as he would treat members of his own family. Demonstrating the honor and respect to fellow church members that he showed to members of his own family would help Timothy form good relationships with others in the church. Notice, Paul tells him to not “rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father.” Why? Paul knew that Timothy had a great family relationship. His mother and grandmother had set for him a wonderful example, and I believe his father had as well. Paul uses Timothy’s remembrance and fondness for his own father as an example in how to treat older men in his church. Godly men were to be held in high regard. Timothy was also to “treat younger men as brothers,” just like his own siblings he loved! And Timothy was to care for “older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.” Timothy was to be above reproach in his interaction with the opposite sex. He loved and honored his own family, he should give careful attention to the godly men and women of all ages in the church he pastored and treat them as family and with complete wholesomeness. Isn’t this the way an church should be? A family? Paul would teach the Corinthians “As it is, there are many parts, but one body…. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” (1 Corinthians 12:19, 27) Older and younger Christian men, older and younger Christian women were part of the body of Christ, a family under the leadership of Jesus, but the ministry of Timothy. A church is the called out of Christ, His ekkle?sia, His family doing His work and will in this world. We are to treat one another as family in the body of Christ.
EXAMPLE: You don't have to meet parents face to face to know what kind of parents they are. I just listen to the way their children refer to them. The respect that children have for their parents can be a good indicator of how much respect the parents deserve. But isn’t this true of our families as well? What about your church family? I cannot think of a greater tragedy in life than a parent to lose the respect of their children. I would be humiliated if my daughter were ashamed of me. But nothing makes my heart happier than when she tells someone proudly, "That's my dad!" Shouldn’t this be true of the church we are members of as well? How many of us willingly and proudly tell others, “That’s my church family!” and not simply, “That’s where I go to church.” A good test of whether you are a father who is respected by his children is to ask yourself, “Do I want my son to be what I am, to do what I do, to go where I go?” A good test for a church is to ask itself is, “Would I want my family, my friends, and even strangers to attend and be a part of my church home?” Does your church treat one another as family? Do you treat fellow members in your church as family?
How we treat one another as a church family says a lot about who we are and what we truly believe, doesn’t it? Paul knew this to be true as well and he continues to instruct Timothy in how a church family should treat its members. Paul told Timothy that a church should…
II. Take care of its family members! (vv. 3-6)
1. Church members that are wrapped up in themselves, make small packages! Next, Paul offered instruction on how Timothy must deal with the widows in the congregation. Throughout the Old and New Testaments widows, along with foreigners and orphans, are viewed as special people of God’s mercy. As such they are to be taken under the wing of the congregation. A good family gives “proper recognition to those widows who are really in need.” As early as in Jerusalem where the Grecian Jews “complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food,” (Acts 6:1) the church had established a charitable outreach to widows. Now, about 30 years later, the ministry to widows showed signs of being a major inconvenience to the congregation. It should not have been so! Here is why: Paul related to the Corinthians, “God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.” (1 Corinthians 12:24-25) Paul was therefore eager in this passage to identify those who did not truly need help in order to leave enough for those who did. He encouraged the church as a family to support those whose husbands had died. The children or grandchildren of a widow had the first obligation to care for the widow. Paul stated three reasons why: First, these descendants needed to practice their religion. A second reason for children and grandchildren ministering to widows in their own families is to repay their parents for the care they received growing up! And, a final reason to meet widows’ needs is because such behavior pleases God. The widow who trusted God stood in contrast to the self-indulgent widow. Paul described this kind of widow as physically alive but spiritually dead. Those who do not practice their faith are! A church family, like a regular family, should take care of its members who cannot!
EXAMPLE: Far too many churches in our day and age think that they are ministering to their congregation by providing things for them to do, but this is not the biblical example we find in the pages of God’s Word. The church was never meant to be a social club offering a bored populace safe entertainment. Nor is it supposed to be investing its finances in bait that lures in the unsuspecting world, in order for them to be caught. Certainly the church is supposed to train up fisher folk for going after the lost and dying world, but the use of the church as the lure is not to be. What happens is that there becomes a focus on meeting the needs of the unsaved instead of strengthening those who need it within the church family. Paul will later tell Timothy, “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” (1 Timothy 5:8) this applies well to the church family. A church should take care of its family members.
Conclusion:
Paul teaches us how we as a church are treat one another, and he teaches us how we as a church should take care of our members. Now, let’s make sure we, in our church family, are doing what Paul taught Timothy.
---
NOTE: This article is copyrighted by Pastor Lee Hemen © 2008 and the property of Pastor Lee Hemen. You are welcome to copy it, email it, or use it but please if you copy it, email it, or use it you must do so in its entirety.
by Pastor Lee Hemen
May 18, 2008 AM
What should the ekklesia, the Body of Christ, His church be doing in the world? Some think that it is to get as many people through its front doors as possible. This seems like a good idea, if you are Wal-Mart, but that is not the New Testament concept of the church. The idea of the local church changed dramatically in the early 1900s in America. It went from small intimate family groups of individuals evangelizing and discipling the lost, to a big box concept of the mass weekend revivals every Sunday morning. The Billy Sunday-Dwight L. Moody concept of Sunday morning worship! However, if we take a biblical look at Scripture, we discover that the Apostles nor Jesus did not teach this! Contrary to some opinions the multiple feeding of the multitudes and Pentecost are not examples for the local ekklesia. What then is the church supposed to be?
We find Paul exhorting Timothy, a new pastor who was kind of timid in his leadership, to get some backbone and confront some ungodly issues in his church at Ephesus. The first were the false teachers, but the rest dealt with how the church was not being the local church it should have been. As we look at Paul’s letter to Timothy, we discover what the church for today should be…
READ: 1 Timothy 5:1-6
Going from instructions about how Timothy was to conduct his personal life and ministry, the choosing of pastors and deacons, Paul then turned to advice on how to relate effectively to individuals who make up various groups in the church. Paul’s overall advice about how to treat various age-groups was that Timothy handle different people as he would corresponding members of his own family. Paul tells Timothy that the Church should…
I. Treat one another as family! (vv. 1-2)
1. A family is relative, but a church family is forever! In order to help him set a good example, Paul gave Timothy a principle, recorded here, that would help him with relationships inside the church. The apostle encouraged Timothy to treat members of the church as he would treat members of his own family. Demonstrating the honor and respect to fellow church members that he showed to members of his own family would help Timothy form good relationships with others in the church. Notice, Paul tells him to not “rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father.” Why? Paul knew that Timothy had a great family relationship. His mother and grandmother had set for him a wonderful example, and I believe his father had as well. Paul uses Timothy’s remembrance and fondness for his own father as an example in how to treat older men in his church. Godly men were to be held in high regard. Timothy was also to “treat younger men as brothers,” just like his own siblings he loved! And Timothy was to care for “older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.” Timothy was to be above reproach in his interaction with the opposite sex. He loved and honored his own family, he should give careful attention to the godly men and women of all ages in the church he pastored and treat them as family and with complete wholesomeness. Isn’t this the way an church should be? A family? Paul would teach the Corinthians “As it is, there are many parts, but one body…. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” (1 Corinthians 12:19, 27) Older and younger Christian men, older and younger Christian women were part of the body of Christ, a family under the leadership of Jesus, but the ministry of Timothy. A church is the called out of Christ, His ekkle?sia, His family doing His work and will in this world. We are to treat one another as family in the body of Christ.
EXAMPLE: You don't have to meet parents face to face to know what kind of parents they are. I just listen to the way their children refer to them. The respect that children have for their parents can be a good indicator of how much respect the parents deserve. But isn’t this true of our families as well? What about your church family? I cannot think of a greater tragedy in life than a parent to lose the respect of their children. I would be humiliated if my daughter were ashamed of me. But nothing makes my heart happier than when she tells someone proudly, "That's my dad!" Shouldn’t this be true of the church we are members of as well? How many of us willingly and proudly tell others, “That’s my church family!” and not simply, “That’s where I go to church.” A good test of whether you are a father who is respected by his children is to ask yourself, “Do I want my son to be what I am, to do what I do, to go where I go?” A good test for a church is to ask itself is, “Would I want my family, my friends, and even strangers to attend and be a part of my church home?” Does your church treat one another as family? Do you treat fellow members in your church as family?
How we treat one another as a church family says a lot about who we are and what we truly believe, doesn’t it? Paul knew this to be true as well and he continues to instruct Timothy in how a church family should treat its members. Paul told Timothy that a church should…
II. Take care of its family members! (vv. 3-6)
1. Church members that are wrapped up in themselves, make small packages! Next, Paul offered instruction on how Timothy must deal with the widows in the congregation. Throughout the Old and New Testaments widows, along with foreigners and orphans, are viewed as special people of God’s mercy. As such they are to be taken under the wing of the congregation. A good family gives “proper recognition to those widows who are really in need.” As early as in Jerusalem where the Grecian Jews “complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food,” (Acts 6:1) the church had established a charitable outreach to widows. Now, about 30 years later, the ministry to widows showed signs of being a major inconvenience to the congregation. It should not have been so! Here is why: Paul related to the Corinthians, “God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.” (1 Corinthians 12:24-25) Paul was therefore eager in this passage to identify those who did not truly need help in order to leave enough for those who did. He encouraged the church as a family to support those whose husbands had died. The children or grandchildren of a widow had the first obligation to care for the widow. Paul stated three reasons why: First, these descendants needed to practice their religion. A second reason for children and grandchildren ministering to widows in their own families is to repay their parents for the care they received growing up! And, a final reason to meet widows’ needs is because such behavior pleases God. The widow who trusted God stood in contrast to the self-indulgent widow. Paul described this kind of widow as physically alive but spiritually dead. Those who do not practice their faith are! A church family, like a regular family, should take care of its members who cannot!
EXAMPLE: Far too many churches in our day and age think that they are ministering to their congregation by providing things for them to do, but this is not the biblical example we find in the pages of God’s Word. The church was never meant to be a social club offering a bored populace safe entertainment. Nor is it supposed to be investing its finances in bait that lures in the unsuspecting world, in order for them to be caught. Certainly the church is supposed to train up fisher folk for going after the lost and dying world, but the use of the church as the lure is not to be. What happens is that there becomes a focus on meeting the needs of the unsaved instead of strengthening those who need it within the church family. Paul will later tell Timothy, “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” (1 Timothy 5:8) this applies well to the church family. A church should take care of its family members.
Conclusion:
Paul teaches us how we as a church are treat one another, and he teaches us how we as a church should take care of our members. Now, let’s make sure we, in our church family, are doing what Paul taught Timothy.
---
NOTE: This article is copyrighted by Pastor Lee Hemen © 2008 and the property of Pastor Lee Hemen. You are welcome to copy it, email it, or use it but please if you copy it, email it, or use it you must do so in its entirety.
Comments