The Local Body of Christ - Part 1 (1 Tim 5:1-16)

Daniel L. Arter

Pastoral Epistles • Sermon • Submitted a year ago

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1 Timothy 5-6:2

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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.

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Preaching of God’s Word (1 Tim 5:1-16)

Introduction

If you have your Bible, please turn to 1 Timothy 5:1-16.

Paul is getting towards the end of this letter to Timothy—he really only has chs. 5-6 to wrap it all up (and really, ch. 6 includes a lot of personal statements specific to Timothy). So, what we’re looking at over the next few weeks are a few sections of the Scripture that almost gives several commands in a rapid-fire sort of way. Because of this, it could be easy to neglect or even just miss a lot of the details that Paul gives here, but if we look at it in a way similar to how someone would read a letter, it gives us a little help in dealing with the rapid-fire commands.

So, think with me, if you were to receive a handwritten letter today—after being shocked that someone would still write you a hand-written letter in a world in which texting and emailing is so much more convenient, what would you do? Of course, you would read it, but would you just read it and then throw it in the garbage? Maybe, but more than likely not—you would read it and then re-read it, and maybe even mark certain parts so that you could remember where exactly it was and remind yourself of what it said (especially if the letter came from someone that you greatly respected and admired).

In a case where someone rapid-fires multiple commands, you wouldn’t just read it and then throw the letter away—you’d read it much slower so that you could gain as much information from the letter as possible and that’s precisely what we’re seeking to do as we work through the rest of 1 Timothy. Especially since the rest of the text gives multiple commands to how the individuals within the church ought to treat one another.

Keep this in mind as we read 1 Timothy 5:1-16 together.

1 Timothy 5:1–16 ESV

1 Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, 2 older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity. 3 Honor widows who are truly widows. 4 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. 5 She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day, 6 but she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives. 7 Command these things as well, so that they may be without reproach. 8 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. 9 Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, having been the wife of one husband, 10 and having a reputation for good works: if she has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work. 11 But refuse to enroll younger widows, for when their passions draw them away from Christ, they desire to marry 12 and so incur condemnation for having abandoned their former faith. 13 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. 14 So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander. 15 For some have already strayed after Satan. 16 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.

As we study this passage, we’re going to break it into two sections (1) Interpersonal Relationships (1-2) and (2) The Treatment of Widows (3-16). These two sections start a series of commands concerning how relationships within the local church ought to be. So, of course, the text starts in the most basic of ways—how do you treat men and women that are older or younger than you—before he almost goes on a rabbit trail about how the church ought to handle widows within the church. I say a rabbit trail because he goes on at length about it before returning to how relationships within the local church ought to be, so we’ll do precisely what Paul does.

Prayer for Illumination

Interpersonal Relationships (1-2)

Paul starts this section of Scripture with a single sentence that has wide implication to how we do just about everything within a church—and it answers an important question, how do you treat others within the church? This question provides the basis for not just today’s message, but next week, and really just about everything Paul says until the very end of 1 Timothy.

For today’s text, He divides his answer into two, (1) this is how you treat other men in the church and (2) this is how you treat the women in the church. Let’s break that down:

This is how you treat men— “Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers.”

He divides men into two categories—men that are older than Timothy and men that are younger than Timothy and the reasoning for this is rather simple—people have a tendency to look at others who are much older or much younger and treat them differently than people their own age.

Instead, Paul tells him that when it comes to men that are older than him, he ought to treat them like he treats his father—he says that Timothy ought not rebuke an older man.

Now, let me clarify this—rebuking is the idea of sharply correcting someone, but here’s the thing, Paul is not saying that Timothy should never correct an older man. In fact, part of the purpose of pastors within the local church is to correct people and steer them towards Jesus.

Rather, what Paul is speaking of is that Timothy shouldn’t correct an older man like he would a child—there’s a certain amount of respect that Timothy ought to treat those who are older than him with.

When Paul says that Timothy should “encourage him as you would a father,” the concept of encouraging here, in this context, is to implore or to urge or to maybe even convince him.

Or in other words, when dealing with men older than himself, Timothy ought to treat them with respect like he would treat his own father and when correcting an older man, Timothy ought to do it in a way that he doesn’t sharply critique him like he would a child, but rather he should appeal or exhort the man towards the truth. He’s still to correct or critique, he just has to do it with respect and honor.

Thomas Lea and Hayne Griffin, “In dealing with the older men Paul urged Timothy to avoid a harsh, insensitive treatment which would not appreciate their age. The term “rebuke,” mentioned here only in the New Testament, describes a severe verbal pounding. Such treatment would show no appreciation for age. The youthful Timothy faced a ticklish situation in appealing to older men, but differences of age did not make admonition to these men any less necessary.” (Thomas D. Lea and Hayne P. Griffin, 1, 2 Timothy, Titus, The New American Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 145.)

For men who are younger and what Paul means by this is really, men that are Timothy’s age and younger, Timothy ought to treat them as he would treat his brother.

That means that he’s not to lord his position over younger men, he ought to treat them like they were his equals.

Again, that doesn’t mean that Timothy ought not correct error in their thinking or their religious thoughts, it’s that he is to do it in a way in which he’s not coming to them as a pompous know-it-all, but rather as a brother correcting a brother.

Now, of course, we all know that when you’re young, siblings tend to bicker and fight, what Paul has in mind is when siblings age and they start treating each other as peers, as friends, as those individuals who genuinely care for one another and know each other.

So, essentially, Paul is stating that while correcting men older, younger, and the same age as him, he ought to do it not as a know-it-all, not too sharply, not with disdain, but with genuine care and respect for the men.

This is how you treat women— “older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.” Paul directs Timothy to treat women in different age groups with the respect, honor, and care that are owed them.

When it comes to older women within the church, Timothy needs to treat them respectfully as if they were his own mother.

He needs to have a personal respect for the older women in the church, which let me be abundantly clear, during this time in history, this is completely counter-cultural.

Paul is showing Timothy that just like older men are to be treated with utter respect, so should older women. With the parallelism in the text, you could rightfully assume that the same statement concerning older men, not to rebuke them sharply would also apply to older women.

Again, not that he ought never correct an older woman within the church, he just has to do it with grace and mercy and respect.

When it comes to younger women, he is to treat them as sisters and then he adds a phrase, “in all purity.”

The concept of purity in this context refers to a moral purity based on his profession of faith in Jesus Christ—or in other words, unlike the world around them that practices abhorrent and aberrant views of the relationship between men and women, Timothy is to treat women with pure ethical motives.

You must remember that Ephesus was a city with several temples to false gods, the biggest of which is the Temple to Artemis, who was the supposed goddess of not just hunting and wild animals, but of childbirth; and in Ephesus, she wasn’t really worshiped as a goddess of hunting, but rather a goddess of fertility. You can only imagine then that those who adhered to Artemis, which was a massive group of people, had a very wild and debauchery-filled way of worshiping Artemis

And in a city in which that was the norm, you have to imagine then that just about everyone has a warped understanding of what it means for a younger man to treat a younger woman.

Timothy is to treat all younger women as if they were his sister—he is to care for them, protect them, and be there for them with all grace, mercy, respect, and purity.

So, essentially, Paul is stating that even though the culture around them has a warped understanding of how men are to treat women, he is to treat all the women around him with grace, mercy, respect, and in purity.

Really, what Paul shows us in the first two verses in 1 Timothy 5, is that when it comes to interpersonal relationships within the local body of Christ, there are certain ways that you treat other people and it’s epitomized as a family. Older men are to be treated as if they were your fathers, older women are to be treated as if they were your mothers, younger men are to be treated as if they were your brothers, and younger women are to be treated as if they were your sisters.

Now, in the next fourteen verses, we then see how exactly this concept of the local church being a family plays out in one specific instance. Again, it’s almost a rabbit trail, but it is an example of what is to be done when caring for the people of the church.

Let’s look at vv. 3-16.

The Treatment of Widows (3-16)

1 Timothy 5:3–16 ESV

3 Honor widows who are truly widows. 4 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. 5 She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day, 6 but she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives. 7 Command these things as well, so that they may be without reproach. 8 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. 9 Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, having been the wife of one husband, 10 and having a reputation for good works: if she has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work. 11 But refuse to enroll younger widows, for when their passions draw them away from Christ, they desire to marry 12 and so incur condemnation for having abandoned their former faith. 13 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. 14 So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander. 15 For some have already strayed after Satan. 16 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.

Paul gives us an example of how a church ought to treat older women in the church and the reason why he does this is probably because it was and still is an oft debated question—what responsibility does the church have to those who are widowed?

But note, that Paul’s definition of a widow is a little different than most people today:

Most people today just consider anyone who lost their spouse a widow, but in Paul’s thinking, there is a difference between those who are truly widows and those who aren’t, and the primary difference is that those who are truly widowed have no other family whatsoever.

We see in v. 4, that “if a widow has children or grandchildren,” that the responsibility to take care of that person is actually on the children and the grandchildren; and not the church.

Or put differently, though the church does care for widows, Paul differentiates between those who are widowed and have literally no one who can take care of them and those who are widowed and have family that ought to take care of them.

In fact, Paul’s thinking is rather simple, that if a widowed person has children or grandchildren, their children or grandchildren reveal their godliness by taking in their parents or grandparents, Paul says that this is pleasing in the sight of God.

And for those who refuse to take in their parents and really, for those who refuse to care for the members of their household, “he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”

The idea at hand is that if you’re genuinely a believer, you’ll want to care for the members of your household; and Paul’s understanding is that even unbelievers do this, which is why if you’re a believer and you refuse to even care for your family, he says you’re worse than an unbeliever and you might not even be a believer.

The reality is that those who take in their parents or their grandparents to care for them when they need help, this action pleases the Lord and it reveals your godliness or in other words, it reveals the fact that you believe in Jesus.

The idea at hand is that if believers act and react the way that they’re supposed to, then when their parents or grandparents are widowed, they ought to step up, take them in, and care for them “to make some return to their parents.”

Now, of course, this looks different depending on the situation—for instance, if your widowed mom needs medical attention—whether that’s daily dialysis or specialized treatment, then it might mean that you help her get into a nursing home or hospice care.

Your widowed dad might still be able to mostly function on his own, but maybe you just take him dinner every night to make sure he eats and has some company.

In some cases, it might involve moving your widowed family member into your home and being there for them whenever they need help.

The key is that when your family needs help, they should be able to turn to you—of course, this would be different if the relationship within the family wasn’t healthy or if there was some sort of abuse or something along those lines.

Now in vv. 9-16, Paul gives prerequisites for widows that don’t have family to care for them—and the idea is that for those that don’t have family to care for them (or if the family absolutely refuses to care for them), then the church is supposed to step in to help.

And in this, he essentially explains this to be almost like a list of widows within the church that is almost on the list of responsibilities for the church.

Meaning, if the person has no family or the family has chosen to be worse than unbelievers and refuse to aid their widowed parent or grandparents, then the church is to step in and help that believing widow who is a member of the local church.

In particular, they are to help with the ones that meet these requirements:

According to v. 9, she is to be enrolled, “if she is not less than sixty years of age.” — the reason for this is given later in the passage, so we’ll come back to it.

She had to have been “the wife of one husband.” — now note, that this isn’t speaking of someone who had experienced divorce and remarried or someone who had a husband, that husband passed, and got remarried and then that husband passed. Like the requirements for elders and deacons, this is actually speaking about faithfulness to one’s spouse—meaning, if the widowed woman was faithful to her husband, then she can be enrolled as a widow.

She needs to have a reputation for doing good works—she has a track record for doing good deeds, which makes sense because what it tells us is that this widowed woman took seriously her faith and her role within the church. Some of the specific works that Paul has in mind are as follows:

If she had children, she brought them up in the love and admonition of the Lord—note that this doesn’t preclude women who didn’t have children, it only emphasizes that if she did have children, she did her best to raise them properly.

Paul says that she has a track record of showing hospitality—meaning, she needs to have been willing to help others in their times of need.

The idea of “[washing] the feet of the saints” ties in with that hospitality and shows a willingness to serve others—even to the extent that she would get on her knees and wash the feet of others.

The Bible says that this widow needs to have cared for the afflicted and had devoted herself to every good work.

And then there are some that ought to be denied, presumably, those who had not been faithful in their marriage, those that didn’t have a reputation of doing good works, those that were inhospitable, unwilling to serve, and without care for others. But Paul really emphasizes the age issue:

If the widow is under the age of sixty, they are to be refused from the enrollment of widows. Meaning that the church isn’t responsible for widows that are under sixty—and you might think that that’s such a terrible thing, but the reason for it is simple.

Paul’s concern isn’t for widows that can take care of themselves—his concern is for widows that are of an age that they can no longer care for themselves and they don’t have anyone willing to help them.

In addition, Paul’s thinking is for widows that are younger, there’s a possibility of them getting remarried and he does express a concern in v. 11 that their desire of getting remarried might take them away from their faith.

Or in other words, they’ll stop caring so much for the church and God and renounce their faith if they no longer have a reason to take care of themselves and get to know other people—you know, if the church stepped in to provide for them and help them when they really should help themselves.

In v. 13, he explains that when younger widows stop fending for themselves and stop looking to get remarried, they tend to fall into sin.

They become idlers or put a different way, they start to get lazy and they no longer want to work or do anything useful.

Instead, they’ll start going around with all their friends gossiping and being a busybody, which is a word that really just means they start meddling in other people’s lives and saying things that they shouldn’t.

No, Paul’s idea is that if they’re younger, they should fend for themselves and maybe get remarried, have children, manage their homes, and be sure to live in such a way that Satan can’t accuse them of sin, but unfortunately, some younger widows have already found their way into sin.

Paul ends this section of the passage with a simple statement, “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.”

Now in hearing all these ideas from Paul concerning widows, you might get a false impression that he doesn’t care for those who are widowed, but let me be abundantly clear, that’s not at all the case.

What he’s stating is that his definition of widow is not only that the person has lost their spouse, but that the person doesn’t have anyone in their family to take care of them; and are thus actually needful of the church’s assistance.

Or put differently, it’s not that he doesn’t want to help those who are widowed, it’s that he only wants the church to help those that literally have nowhere else to turn.

And you might hear that and think, why would that be the case, but let me assure you the reason is simpler than what you think it is:

Every local church has very limited resources—that’s true today and that’s been true since the very beginning of the church in Acts 2. Most churches barely have the financial means, the food, the volunteer power, and the leadership to keep going and when there are people who can get help from their families, then they don’t actually need help from the church and its very limited resources.

What that means is that when families actually act like families, then only the widows who have no family left can actually take part in the limited resources of the church for food, finances, and volunteer power.

When families act like families, those who are desperate and in actual need can ask the church for help.

And really, when you’re thinking of this passage in light of the first two verses of ch. 5, you get an understanding of what it’s like to actually treat older women like you would treat your own mother.

The idea at hand is that when someone is a true widow—without their spouse, without children or grandchildren that can help them, and with no means to fend for themselves, then the church is to step in and help and provide for that person. Otherwise, families need to act like families and care for their parents and grandparents. Those with no one to help rely on God to help them, and thus, the church needs to step in to help.

George Knight, “Believers . . . should care for widows in their own families so that the church can be free to care for those widows who have no one to care for them. Thus both family and church between them will care for widows, the family its own, and the church those with no family.” (George W. Knight, The Pastoral Epistles: A Commentary on the Greek Text, New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1992), 231)

Now, in the remaining few minutes, I want us to look at specific application and despite the fact that we did spend some time discussing the issue of widows within the church, the bulk of our application comes from the very first two verses of the text, “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.”

Application

What we see in vv. 1-2 is a framework for how we are are to treat those within the church around us—people who also are in the church as believers, who aren’t necessarily part of our nuclear family (who are younger and older and male and female). How should we relate with each other and develop our interpersonal relationships and just like Timothy, our answers are the same:

Friends, it’s simple, when you’re dealing with people older than you, though you are still both fellow-heirs with them and with Jesus Christ, you need to treat them with the same honor, respect, and care that you treat your parents.

This means that you don’t talk to them like they’re children, you don’t treat them like they’re children, and you don’t think of them like they’re children.

This also means, that in the instances when you’re teaching someone older than you or you’re helping someone older than you and you realize that they’re incorrect on something, you don’t scoff at them and sharply rebuke them, but rather you reason with them and you help them see the error of their way and you help them correct the problem, much like you would your parents.

When you speak with your parents and you find yourself disagreeing with them, is your first response to say:

“Pfft, you just don’t get it!” or “You’re just old, that’s why you don’t understand!” — unless you’re a teenager (and even then you still shouldn’t do this), you wouldn’t respond in this way.

No, you’d sit down and chat with them—and you would explain your perspective kindly, respectfully, and honorably, and you would do it lovingly.

This is precisely how you should act, respond to, and interact with those within the church that are older than you for no other reason than they’ve lived life longer than you.

Which means that they probably have been around the block a few times more than you and they think things differently than you.

That doesn’t mean that they still can’t be wrong, it simply means that you should respect them simply because they’ve been around the block more than you.

Friends, when you’re dealing with people your age or younger, your peers, your colleagues, and even those much younger than you, though you are a fellow-heir with them and with Jesus Christ, you need to treat them as a fellow-heir or in other words, you need to treat them like you would treat your brother or sister.

Now, if you have a rocky relationship with your brothers or sisters, maybe don’t treat them in the same way; this is implying that your relationship with your siblings is what it ought to be.

Thus, when you see the men and women around you that are your age and younger, you don’t just see them as random people that attend the same church that you do—you don’t see them as people that just happen to like the same things that you do.

You see them as your family—and its clear in this passage of Scripture that family is supposed to care for one another.

How should you treat your brothers and sisters? With love, care, respect, honor; you should strive to help them as often as you’re able.

Or put differently, when considering how you are to act, react, and interact with those around you:

You should treat those older than you as you would treat your parents; those younger than you as a brother or sister.

That means men who are acting, reacting, and interacting with those of the opposite gender should treat them as they would treat their mother or their sister.

And that means women who are acting, reacting, and interacting with those of the opposite gender should treat them like they would treat their father or their brother.

Having this mindset, that those around you within the church are to be treated as you would treat your parents or your siblings, ought to radically change the way that you treat one another:

Men ought not view the women around them as conquests (as much as the men of the world seem to); women are not to view the men around them as stupid or wastes of space.

When those within the church are viewed as your sibling or like your parent, your way of interacting with them is vastly different and it ought to be.

You need to remember that your fellow believers are fellow-heirs with you—they are your brothers and sisters, thus, treat them how you would treat your family.

Part of that framework gives us insight in how we ought to treat those who are widowed within the church and what we learn from Paul’s statements in vv. 3-16 is actually rather simple:

The church is only responsible to help widows who are over the age of 60 and literally have no one left to help them.

That doesn’t mean that we won’t offer help when we can to those who are under the age of 60 or has some family around, that’s just to say that if they’re under the age of 60, we expect them to fend for themselves if they’re able and if they have family, we expect their family to actually help them.

Thus, what that means is, as a local church, we’ll do our absolute best to help anyone, but our primary focus when it comes to widows would be those who cannot fend for themselves and those who have no one around to help them.

This also means, that as individuals within the local church, you and I need to be both prepared to help our own families whenever we can.

If your parents need help, it is your responsibility as part of their family to help whenever you can—if you need help, it is your adult children’s responsibility as part of your extended family to help you whenever they can. You should take care of your family.

But if you don’t have anyone that will help you, then don’t hesitate to ask the church to help and the church will do everything it possibly can to help.

You need to remember that it is your responsibility to help your family, but if you’re unable to or if you’re the one in need of help and don’t have anyone that will help, please don’t hesitate to talk with a deacon or elder in the church.

Put simply, what we learn from 1 Timothy 5:1-16 is rather simple: (1) when considering how to treat those around you in church, think of them like family—older men and women are to be treated as you would treat your father and mother; younger men and women are to be treated as you would treat your siblings; and (2) concerning older women that need help as a widow (or really anyone that needs help), families ought to help one another, but if the family cannot or will not help, the church is obligated to help to the best of its ability.

Pastoral Prayer

Prayer Requests

Melissa Bush — Melissa was diagnosed with COVID this past weekend (her father was also diagnosed with COVID). Please pray for a quick recovery for both of them.

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.

Tom and Raenelle Medzie — They are mostly back to normal after their bout with COVID and are back to regular church attendance—we want to simply give thanks that they made it through COVID without any significant complications.

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 The Fellowship Church (State College, PA), their pastor Jordan Alturas and his family. They already had several children when they found out that they were going to have triplets—pray for them as they navigate the challenge of having a large family. In addition, their church is seeking to lease a storefront near the Benner Pike Walmart, they’re just waiting for the landlord of that shopping center to give them their next steps.

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