1 Timothy (Overview)

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1 Timothy (Overview)

In this overview of 1 Timothy, Steve Gregg explores the themes, teachings, and admonitions of the book. He emphasizes the importance of sound doctrine and practical teaching, urging believers to prioritize good behavior over a mere system of beliefs. Gregg discusses various topics including the role of women in the church, the qualifications of leaders, and the challenges of false teachings. He encourages believers to guard the trust they have in Christ and to remain faithful in their ministry.

Transcript

Well now we're going to go quickly through the book of 1 Timothy. And there's many things in this book that I would be detained and speak at length about because they're so interesting. But I'm going to have to do what I do on these nights where we try to take a whole book in a single session.

I'm going to have to move quickly so I'm not going to comment on everything. Of course we do have lectures on our website that are more slow going through the book and a little more detail in the teaching. But we're trying to get an overview of these books each time we get together here.

And so we will. On the back of the second page of your notes I actually have kind of a survey of the book of 1 Timothy that will be covered. Okay.

Chapter 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ our hope. To Timothy a true son in the faith. Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.

As I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in emphasis that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies and so forth. Now I want to talk about no other doctrine here. I could comment on some of the other things but I'll discipline myself for your sake.

But when he says you need to charge people they teach no other doctrine. Now what is doctrine? The word doctrine in the Greek simply means teaching. It does not clarify what the content of the teaching is but that they they teach no other teachings.

Meaning no other teachings than the Christian teachings that Paul would approve and other Christian preachers approve. There's certain teachings that belong to the faith. When we hear the word doctrine I think most of us think in terms of theology.

Like the doctrine of the Trinity, the doctrine of the deity of Christ, the doctrine of end times, the doctrine of hell, the doctrine of angels, the doctrine of the devil. You know it's informational teaching. What we call theological teaching.

And that's what we usually call doctrine. And we often might distinguish doctrine from practical teaching. For example it's common to say and I've even said this myself many times that in Ephesians for example the first three chapters are about doctrine and the last three chapters are about practical living.

Same thing with Colossians. The first two chapters we say is doctrine. By that we mean theology.

And the latter chapters are practical. As if teaching is somehow in contrast to practical. The truth is that Paul more often than not when he uses the word doctrine, meaning teaching, is talking about doctrines about practical living.

He's not talking most of the time about esoteric theological concepts such as are also known. You know there is such a thing as theological concepts and I'm very fascinated by them. I think most serious Christians are and of course Christians divide into different camps on certain theological controversies.

But I know that for example some churches have made it their goal to teach sound doctrine as they would call it. And by that they usually mean their own theological camps, set of theological beliefs about whether it's the end times or about you know the doctrines of grace as they call them which is Calvinism or other theological things like that they call sound doctrine. At least their view is sound doctrine.

Everything else is false doctrine. Now when they see a verse like this, charge people that they don't teach any other doctrine. Many readers will say okay make sure they're not teaching against the Trinity.

Make sure they're not teaching against you know our view of premillennialism or something like that. But those are not the kinds of things that Paul's referring to as doctrine. We can see it very clearly.

In the pastoral epistles for example a little further down in verse 8 through 10 he says, but we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully knowing this that the law is not made for a righteous person but for the lawless and insubordinate for the ungodly and for sinners for the unholy and profane for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers for manslayers fornicators sodomites kidnappers liars perjurers and if there's any other thing that's contrary to sound doctrine. Now what is contrary to sound doctrine? Bad behavior is contrary to sound. Murdering your father and mother is kind of bad.

Bad behavior. Being a kidnapper, an adulterer, you know. This is what's contrary to sound doctrine.

So what is sound doctrine? Teaching against that kind of stuff. Sound teaching is teaching about righteous behavior. Now I'm not saying that sound teaching doesn't also include at times good theology.

But what Paul's concerned about here is behavior. The way people behave. And he says this kind of bad behavior is contrary to sound doctrine.

Now let me show you something in Titus which is again one of these pastorals. He also uses the term in chapter 2 of Titus. Chapter 2 of Titus says in verse 1, but as for you speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine.

Okay, so he's got this interest in sound doctrine again. And he gives examples of what it means to teach sound doctrine. What do you teach? Well you teach that the elder men be sober, reverent, self-control, sound in faith, in love, in patience.

The older women likewise that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things. That they, the older women, may admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands. That the word of God may not be blasphemy.

Likewise exhort the young men to be sober minded. That's sound doctrine. How do I teach sound doctrine? I teach the old men to be reverent and not drink too much.

Teach the old women to be reverent, don't drink too much. And teach the older women to teach the younger women to be good housewives and good mothers and good wives and not gossips and so forth. In other words, sound doctrine is teaching people how to live.

Jesus gave the great commission at the end of Matthew chapter 28 and verses 19 and 20. He said you go and make disciples and teach them. Okay, what is the teachings? Teach them to observe all that I have commanded you.

So the commands of Christ are what the apostles were told to teach people to do. And this is no doubt why the early church was characterized by good behavior. And perhaps why the modern church is not so much.

In fact, if you talk about how people have to behave well, or they should be removed from the church, as Paul often said, they should be. And even Jesus said in Matthew 18. People today say, well, we can't expect people to behave well.

I mean, we all be kicked out of here. If we kick people out for sinning. No, well, Christians aren't supposed to sin, but when they do, they repent.

But the point is, a church today is more likely to kick you out if you don't believe in the pre-tribulation rapture than if you're living in fornication. They'll tolerate sin, but they don't tolerate differences of opinion about esoteric theology. Thus, the church is turned sound doctrine on its head.

Paul, of course, I believe what he did about things theological and he expected people to agree with him. But the sound doctrine that concerned him most was not that people would be denying this or that theological proposition, but that they would not be behaving in obedience to Jesus Christ. Because Christianity is not principally your system of beliefs.

It is your obedience to Christ as your king and your Lord. And if this was taught today, the churches would have more people who know they're supposed to obey Jesus. They're supposed to live a holy life.

They're not allowed to fornicate. They're not allowed to be drunk. They're not allowed to do the things that are forbidden.

In other words, the sound teaching, which Paul told Timothy to make sure was adhered to and Titus also, is teaching people how to live like Christians. And he doesn't mention much there about how to believe like Christians. Now, Paul, of course, is concerned about beliefs.

In fact, he actually quotes creeds in some of these letters. He'll say this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance. And he'll quote an early creed of the church, which is beliefs.

But they're very basic beliefs. Paul never said that to have sound doctrine, you had to hold this or that view of predestination or this or that view of the millennium or this or that view of, you know, when tongues would cease or anything like that. Those are those doctrines.

Our theological controversies today, and there were no doubt theological controversies in Paul's day, but he didn't list those as the things that he was worried about so much. And when he was worried about bad theology, it was usually because bad theology usually was antinomianism, which is the belief that it doesn't matter how you live. That was the more Gnostic and more Greek way of looking at things.

And when he had to battle bad theology, it was usually bad theology that gave people permission to live sinfully. Just like some of our modern denominations seem to. I don't know.

I don't think any of our modern denominations give people permission outright to live simply, but many of them act as if it doesn't matter that much if you live simply because you're saved by grace anyway. And in others, teaching that you're saved by grace alone, apart from works, is considered sound doctrine. Even if that belief leads some people to live disobediently to Christ.

In fact, it almost in many churches removes any way for the church to discipline people who disobey. Well, I believe in Christ. I'm not under the law.

I'm saved by grace through faith. Oh, I guess so. So I guess.

Okay, never mind. We were going to confront you about your mistress, but I guess now that you mention it, I guess you do believe the right doctrines. No, the right teachings that Paul's concerned are those teachings that lead people to live in obedience to God in the way they live day by day and in holiness and righteousness.

That's what he's talking about. What's contrary to that is bad behavior, disobedient behavior. Christianity is not we're not justified by works, but the call to be a Christian is a call to two good works.

Paul said that multiple times and in many of his epistles. And that's certainly true. It's like you don't have to do good works to be born into a family as a child.

The baby is born without doing any good works of its own. Someone else brings it into the world. But it is born into a family where it's expected to obey.

A child in a family is supposed to obey his parents. Obedience is not what makes him come into the family or what keeps him in the family. But it's his assignment.

He's in the family for that to be a cooperative member of the family under the authority of the parents. Until until he's old enough to be his own family starter. But the point here is that the obedience of the child is not optional just because obedience is not what made him become a child.

We're not because we don't become Christians by doing good works. We don't even stay Christians by doing good works. But we are Christians because that is a call to do to be obedient to God.

And that is how Christians are in fact required to behave just like children are required to obey their father. So so the teaching I very few Christians probably can process all the arcane doctrines and theology that the church councils and the creeds have laid out. I frankly don't even understand all of it myself and I've been studying for 53 years or more.

But most of those things the creeds said and most of the things that councils discern aren't even explained in the Bible as if they're not even treated as important subjects. But you know in many churches believing those creeds believe in those councils say which almost never had anything to do with the way you live your life. But what you know strange doctrines or what you know esoteric beliefs you hold those things are not the Bible focuses on what many modern churches do and that's what they call sound doctrine.

In the early churches sound doctrine that you're obeying Jesus that's what you teach people. Teach them to observe all things that have commanded you Jesus said. So Paul's concerned in both his letters to Timothy and to Titus this doctrine matter.

Now in verses five and six he says and this is a great verse here. Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart from a good conscience and from sincere faith from which some having strayed have turned aside to idle talk desiring to be teachers of the law understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm. Now he said the purpose of the commandment some translations say the goal of our instruction.

There's the reason I give instruction is I've got a goal. The reason for this these commandments I'm giving you is this that you will have love out of a pure heart you'll have a good conscience and you'll have an unpretended faith you'll have sincere faith. Now faith and love are very important things we hear a lot about in the Bible a little less frequently about the conscience though Paul does mention the conscience other places in the pastoral as an important thing and the conscience of course is mentioned again in verse 19 of the same chapter.

He says having faith and a good conscience which some having rejected concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck. Some people have shipwrecked their faith by not maintaining a good conscience. When I was much younger the first time I went to New Zealand to teach for a school over there which was in the early 80s I heard one of the leaders there say something I never heard anyone say before.

He said what we need to be teaching more of for these young people is clean conscience Christianity. What we need to hear more about is clean conscience Christianity and I thought that certainly is scriptural enough but how can we never hear about that? What is clean conscience Christianity? Well it's not a Christianity that spends all its time trying to figure out the mysteries of theology as much as that may be interesting once you've got other things important down. It's teaching how to live with a clean conscience.

Many people who have given up a clean conscience have had their faith shipwrecked Paul said. Well how do you maintain a good conscience? Well first of all by not doing bad things. Have you ever had a guilty conscience? How'd you get that? Usually because you did something that you recognized later was was wrong.

Maybe not. Sometimes people have a guilty conscience when they haven't done anything because the devil's the accuser of the brethren. The devil just try to bring condemnation make you feel guilty when you haven't done anything.

That's how you have to know the difference between what God cares about what he doesn't. I mean if someone's if a woman is raised in a church an old say a Pentecostal holiness church where they taught that women always have to wear dresses and shouldn't wear any jewelry. Well that the bible doesn't say that.

There's nothing wrong with a woman wearing jewelry or wearing pants but but if you were raised thinking that and then you move out into another realm where the women do wear jewelry and wear pants and and then the woman doesn't she might feel guilty even though it's not anything that she should feel guilty about. That's just her conditioning. The devil will sometimes try to make you feel guilty when you're not because if he can defile your conscience he can make you lose your confidence or your faith.

In first john chapter 3 john said brethren if our hearts condemn us great god is greater than our heart knows all things but he said if our hearts do not condemn us we have confidence toward god and whatsoever we ask we receive with him because we keep his commandments and do those things pleasing his side. We keep a clean conscience so that our heart doesn't condemn us. How do we do that? By obeying his commandments john said and doing the things that please him.

If you live obediently to god there's no reason your conscience shouldn't be clear. If you have disobeyed god and your conscience is not cleared that can be fixed too. In the book of hebrews it says the blood of jesus sprinkles your heart from an evil conscience.

That's just the point. It says in first john 1 9 if we confess our sins he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So yeah we do sin sometimes and we are to seek forgiveness we repent we confess our sins and we get cleansed and our conscience is clear the blood of christ cleanses us from an evil conscience but better not to get an evil conscience in the first place to live a clean conscious life is to consciously be aware that your conscience is telling you all the time that some things are right and some things are wrong.

Many people ignore their conscience for whatever reason and and that's you don't want to ignore a good conscience you want to maintain a good conscience. If a person stops listening to their conscience they stop caring about obeying. The conscience by the way is not an organ of your body the conscience just refers to the capacity it's a sense like like you have sense of music you have a sense of humor you have senses of sight you know and and sound and you have five senses you have another sense called a conscience.

It's just as your eyes give you the color of the walls your conscience is a sense of right and wrong. Now your conscience can be wrong Paul even warns about people who have a seared conscience because or cauterized conscience it's not telling them the truth anymore because they've gone against their conscience so many times it's calloused. It would normally tell them you're doing the wrong thing but they can't listen to it anymore because they've stopped listening to it and become calloused and so they just do wrong anymore.

That's a dangerous point to be at you don't want to get to that place. Maintain a clean conscience meaning that when your conscience says don't go there and if you do go there repent and go back and maintain a clean conscience because if you give up on your conscience you're basically saying I don't care anymore what's right or wrong because that's what your conscience is there for to make you care about what's right and wrong and give you a sense of Paul says no you the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart a good conscience and a sincere faith and they later says in verse 19 some people have given up that good conscience and it's shipwrecked their faith your Christian walk can be destroyed if you ignore your conscience Paul says. Okay now Paul does say in 1 Timothy 1.8 that the law is good if it's used lawfully it's not entirely clear how he means that and of course there's a lot of Torah observant people who think we should be keeping the law and they might quote this but actually what Paul's saying is this because he goes on says it he says here's how you use it lawfully the law was not made for a righteous man but for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers and bad people.

In other words the lawful way to use the law is to restrict the bad behavior of bad people it's not made for people who are already good like Christians the idea is if you're a Christian God's laws written in your heart you do from the heart what's righteous because you want to if you're one of those people you don't need the law the law wasn't made for people who are already behaving it's made for people who are misbehaving if someone wants to put you under law and you're not even sinning well that's not the use of the law the law is not there to to you know be your lord when you're not disobeying God it's there to correct sinful behavior to people who are living simply it's not the righteous but the sinners that the law is for and to use it any other way is to not use it lawfully not use it the way that Paul said it should be done. I find it interesting in chapter 1 in verse 12 Paul said I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me because he counted me faithful putting me into the ministry counted me faithful if Paul was a Calvinist you say God made me faithful God didn't see anything in you or me to make him trust us he knew we're totally depraved Calvinism says he can't find anything good in anyone there are no good people he doesn't find anyone faithfully doesn't count someone faithful and then you know entrust them with things but Paul said that I mean Paul could have said it differently but Paul just didn't know he'd never heard of Calvinism it wasn't invented yet Augustine hadn't written the first lines of Calvinism in the fifth century yet Paul wasn't a Calvinist now he did believe he was a sinner and it's even in these pistols he says I'm the chief of sinners he was not trying to deny that but there was something in him that God saw and counted in faith says I'm going to give this guy some responsibility because I count him to be reliable now Paul said being reliable didn't make him not a sinner he's a chief of sinners he says the worst sinner and he said he received mercy because God knew he was doing these things in ignorance but it doesn't mean that there was nothing in Paul that God took into consideration which is exactly what the Calvinists would argue he says no God counted me faithful although I was formerly a blasphemer a persecutor and an insolent man but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief and the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I'm the chief however for this reason I obtained mercy that in me the foremost the first of sinners Jesus Christ might show all long suffering as a pattern to those who are going to believe on him forever last night so he says I was the worst of sinners God showed mercy to me just so I'd be an example to others who are bad sinners to realize that hey God's mercy is available to sinners look what he did for Paul now why did Paul say I am the chief of sinners some people might think he should have said I was and some people use the present tense here to argue that Paul was still literally the chief of sinners as he wrote this which sounds like he is saying that but I think what he means by that because he knew that he wasn't living in sin he knew there's lots of people who are living in sin and he wasn't in that sense he was not the chief of sinners but I think he meant my record my criminal record before God is the worst of all I persecuted the church you know and I had no good reason to do that I was ignorant foolish God showed mercy on me but I did I did terrible terrible things but he says I'm a terrible sinner it might be like a reformed let's say bank robber who who recognized how terrible his crimes were saying I'm the worst criminal there is referring to his previous behavior not his present behavior but still seeing himself on you know I've got a criminal record it's pretty bad and I think Paul although he uses the present tense I don't think he's literally saying there are no sinners worse than him obviously there are a lot of people worse than Paul but he recognized that what he had done was so inexcusable that you know he he he ranked very low in terms of personal righteousness because the record for 17 now to the king eternally mortal invisible to God who alone is wise the honor and glory forever and ever amen almost sounds like he's done with the book but he goes on this charge I commit to you son Timothy according to the prophecies previously made concerning you that by them you may wage the good warfare having faith and a good conscience which some have rejected concerning the faith and have suffered shipwreck of whom are hymenaeus and alexander whom I delivered to satan that they may learn not to blaspheme so hymenaeus and alexander were apparently false teachers in the church you don't deliver uh you know people who are not in the church over to satan that's what you do as church discipline the only other time we read of Paul delivering anyone over to satan was a man in the Corinthian church who though he was in the church was living in a gross form of fornication incestuous fornication and Paul says well we got to deliver that man over to satan for the destruction of flesh so the spirit may be saved in the day of Christ Jesus this is his early verses in chapter 5 of first Corinthians the only other place we read of delivering someone over to satan it's a form of church discipline so these teachers we know nothing about them except uh that they uh their faith they were Christians whose faith was made shipwreck they were among those that Paul's saying this has happened to some people like these guys they were in the church they were Christians they're they're shipwrecked they're no longer Christians uh and beware don't be like them they're now under discipline from the church chapter 2 therefore I exhort first of all that supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men for kings and all who are in authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and reverence for this is good and acceptable in the sight of god our savior who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth for there's one god and one mediator between god and men the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle I'm speaking the truth in Christ I do not lie a teacher of the gentiles in faith and truth now he starts off by saying we need to pray for everybody and particularly those in authority governors now he's not saying that they you know need our prayers more than most people necessarily although they might sometimes it's the most wicked of men that rise to power and government and and sometimes they are unusually needing mercy and prayer intercession but and they but he says the reason that he wants them to pray for the the rulers is so that we can leave lead a peaceable life without being molested by the government it was common enough where Paul went for the churches be persecuted by the local governors or by other government leaders of course this after Paul's lifetime even more this became a problem with the Romans for the next two but the idea here is that we should pray that the rulers will not interfere with our mission we're here on a mission from god they can interfere they can put us in jail they can feed us to the lions they've done that Christians before but he says pray that that won't happen so he says that we can live a quiet and peaceable life that is unmolested by the government pray that the government will leave us alone and he says for this is good and acceptable in the sight of god so it's good to be not persecuted now I realize that sometimes people say and I would even say sometimes it's good for the church to be persecuted because we get a little complacent we get a little fat and sassy we get apathetic we get unspiritual we get lured by the world just because we have the luxury of doing so and persecution tends to change things like that when persecution comes Christians who were compromising they either have to jump ship or get their act together because you're not going to want to go to jail or take a flogging or get killed for a faith you only have have any interest in you know there's churches are full of people who are only partially interested in the gospel and when persecution comes a lot of those people will be gone the others that will stay they'll be the ones who are serious about god and that and that seems like a good thing for the church to be purged like that also people who are Christian pastors from the communist world back in the 70s mentioned that whereas the churches are very divided from each other denominationally at normal times under persecution all the Christians who meet together in the woods are in some underground location and they didn't care what denomination you are if you're just a Christian that's all that mattered you know you feel the kinship for all persecuted Christians if you're one of them you don't care if they're Catholic or Protestant or any other kind of Christian the denominations fade away and they have more unity and these things are true and so sometimes I think well the church in America is so compromised that and so divided maybe it'd be good if there's some persecution maybe it would you know separate the wheat from the chaff maybe it would bring unity which God wants in the church and I will say that is possible but it's not the best thing the best thing is for the church to go on and not be compromised not be divided and just carry out our mission without the government having to be used as a tool of God to punish us and get us to strengthen to spank us you know it's better if it's if children are disobedient it's good that someone a parent is there to discipline them it's better still that they don't need the discipline that they just obey and then you know what is good and acceptable inside of God Paul says is that we actually live a quiet and peaceful life but he means in obedience of course not in compromise and division things like that he's Paul was not tolerant of those things the goal is to not have constant friction with the government although the church has had that friction through much of its history um interesting he says in verse four or three no it's four he says he God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth it also says um in verse six Jesus gave himself a ransom for all now there's some streams of theology that say that Jesus didn't die for everyone that he only died for the elect and when they come to these verses they think Paul means all the elect Jesus died gave himself a ransom for all the elect ones and that he wants all that is all the elect to be saved not all people certainly else i mean this same doctrinal camp holds that God can save anyone he wants to but he's only chosen to save a few the elect and the rest he doesn't really want to or else he would save them but this says God wants everyone to be saved Jesus died for everyone and if they say no that just means all the elect well then how do we deal with verse one where he that prayers and supplications should be given thanks made for all men that's the same all men that God wants all men to be saved it's the same all that Jesus died and gave himself a ransom for but the men in verse one include kings and and people like that who aren't particularly Christians that's praying for the lost not just for the elect and and yet Jesus died for the same all men and wants all men to be saved so I think to limit this to a subgroup within humanity is to defeat what Paul's trying to get across by this constant repetition of all all all now in verse uh eight he says I desire therefore that men pray everywhere lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting in like manner also that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel with propriety and moderation not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing but with its what is proper for women professing godliness with good works let a woman learn in silence with all submission and I do not permit a woman to teach or have authority over a man but to be set in silence for Adam was formed first then Eve and Adam was not deceived but the woman being deceived fell into transgression nevertheless she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith love and holiness with self-control now obviously this is a very unpopular passage in our time because we live in an age where what the bible says on these subjects is not well let's just say our society gave up on the bible in terms of its authority on these subjects a century ago frankly about a century ago and uh and it was moving that direction even before that and you know the idea that you know women should have some different role to play than men in general in god's economy in the church and so forth it's just it's out of fashion right now why well because we learned something we assume that people didn't know back then that's that women are smart too women are competent and capable people there's hardly anything that a woman that a man can do that a woman can't do so why in the world hold her back now you want to know something paul knew and people knew back in genesis that women can be smart competent capable certainly the book of proverbs chapter three describes a very capable woman written a thousand years before the time paul wrote um one of the one of david's wives abigail was definitely the intellectual superior of her stupid husband whose name means fool nabal her husband it means fool and he was a fool he acted like a fool but she was described as a wise woman there's actually a lot of women in the bible described as wise there's prophetesses in the bible paul allows for prophetesses in the church he says in first corinthians 11 you know a woman can pray or prophesy in the church if she's properly uh you know under proper submission so forth paul doesn't believe that women are incompetent or capable so why would he put any restrictions on their roles well the reason he gives is not what you think some people say well in paul's day women were just you know in society were pressed down the church would be scandalized if it allowed women to to leave the church because the whole society would be against it not so in greek and roman society one of the most highly regarded religious figures was the oracle of delphi who was a woman always uh the idea that a woman could be a spiritual authority was not a problem in the pagan world not even a little bit uh it shouldn't have been much of a problem even among the jews one of the judges of israel was a woman deborah who rescued her people from mars the bible does not have negative things to say about women in general and paul didn't have negative things in fact he blamed adam not eve he said eve she was deceived but adam wasn't he disobeyed anyway in other words adam willingly rebelled and disobeyed eve kind of innocently did remember earlier paul said the things i did god show me mercy because i did it in ignorance and now he says the woman when she when she when she you know did the wrong thing and ate the fruit she did she was deceived she obviously did it ignorantly paul's not putting blame on women here but why is he putting any kind of restriction now what is the restriction he's putting on them now he says i i don't permit a woman to teach or have authority over a man if these two things are seen as two separate details to be taken separately then that would suggest a woman shouldn't teach a man and shouldn't have authority over a man however in the context we'll find that the very next verses in chapter three are giving qualifications for an elder an elder had to be the husband of one wife the head of a household and that was the role of a man not a woman a woman doesn't have a wife in paul's in paul's order of things the husband was the head of the household and therefore the person who is the head of the household the husband was the one who was in a approving ground being vetted for qualification to lead if he didn't he paul says actually in chapter three if he doesn't leave his family well then he shouldn't be trusted to lead the church showing that he can lead the church is demonstrated by his leading his family well now paul didn't put women in the role of elder partly because they weren't the head of their homes but also there may be other reasons he doesn't give us but we know that paul didn't think that women can't teach or even that they can't teach males that was not paul's position in second timothy chapter one he commends two women unison lois the mother and grandmother of timothy because they taught him the scriptures that was good as a young man timothy was taught by two women and paul thought there's a good thing two of paul's traveling companions and partners in this are priscilla and aquila married couple and we read in x chapter 18 that priscilla and her husband together but priscilla seems to mention first is prominent took a man apollo society and instructed him in a better way of understanding things and that was apparently okay that was good paul didn't think that women cannot teach we read a moment ago in our previous session in titus chapter two he says the older women should teach the younger women and we know he didn't think they shouldn't teach children you know women teaching other women or women teaching children and we've got three quarters of the human population among those two groups that's okay no problem and even when it comes to teaching men paul didn't forbid that when priscilla taught apollo's so what's he saying here i believe he's simply saying there's a certain teacher authoritative role in the church called the elder which he goes into the qualifications for in the next chapter and he's telling timothy who does and who does not qualify for that particular position and in chapter two i think he's setting the stage saying i don't put women in that position now why he didn't well some people say it's because he's stuck in his old pharisaic culture and prejudice against women no he said it's because of the way things happen in the garden of eden he actually gives that as his reason the reason he doesn't put the women in the leadership over the church is because of what happened in the garden of eden now what's that got to do with anything some people think paul's saying he thinks women are more easily deceived because he mentions that the woman was deceived in the garden of eden he doesn't say all women are deceived he does mention that eve was deceived and we have to ask why he did that but he doesn't make any statement that he thinks all women are more likely to be deceived and if he did think that he shouldn't let them teach other women or children because in teaching children they're influencing the whole next generation of men and women but he had no problem with women he didn't think they're likely to be deceived more than men most of the deceivers paul names in his epistles are men the false teachers are usually presumed to be men so i don't think he's saying don't let women teach because they'll be deceived well men can be deceived too he's already mentioned two men alexander and hymenaeus they were obviously false teachers they were deceived so being a woman doesn't make you more subject to deception than being a man obviously paul wasn't saying that he didn't believe that he did believe though that there was a certain order that god demonstrated in the garden of eden he says adam was made first and then eve was made to be his helper so god in doing so set up a primeval norm for the roles of the men who were the husbands the leader the wife is the is the helper now helper doesn't mean slave helper doesn't mean she's inferior my wife helps me a great deal and i could easily argue that she runs our home more than i do and that's not a bad thing that's good i let her do i want her to do it there's things i don't want to do and i'm glad for her to do instead of me uh she certainly bears more of the burden of running the household on a daily basis than i do has nothing to do with competence it has nothing to do with you know not being trustworthy it has to do with something that paul thought was inherent in the order that god created between the man and the woman and he didn't want the church to deviate from that order because he thought god does things purposefully god could have made adam and eve at the same moment he could have he could have done something differently but he did it made the man first and they said the man's alone he needs a helper i'll make him a helper made the woman paul's referring to that and he says that's that's why i'm going to assume that god wants the men in leadership and the women to be helping and but by the way most of the men are just helpers too when you see the qualifications for elders that he gives most men don't qualify not one man in 50 in the average church qualifies to be an elder so it's not just being a woman but disqualify many things disqualify most men it's a very narrow range of things he's looking for for the elders to be now i've actually contemplated something which is almost sounds humorous but i'm serious about it i wonder if paul part of his interest was to keep women from being elders so men would have to step up because you'll find in most churches most of the volunteer work is done by the women on the mission field the majority of people who go on mission are women if and men are so often willing to just sit back and let them do it men often are just lazy or apathetic and uh women are not women are motivated and so by saying women you're not going to be the elders here well then then the men have to do it the men have got to step up which is something men are often loath to do but i i think that may be a consideration but it's not the consideration that paul gave paul seemed to be more interested in the order that god created in the in the garden as a factor so i mean uh if i was writing the bible instead of teaching the bible i could say it differently sometimes people get mad at the messenger but we are obliged to let the word of god inform our opinions not to allow our opinions to reshape the word of god to say whatever we would like it to say there never was any question in the mind of the church for many centuries millennia even whether uh you know god wanted women to be the priests or the pastors or whatever in the church the leaders in the church it's only been in the last century or so that that began to be controversial and guess what it corresponds exactly with the the secular world's changes of opinion on the same subject it's interesting how the church has often let the secular world decide what our opinions are going to be we don't accept them quite as early as they do but before long we feel embarrassed to stand for what god said if it's too out of step with what the secular world says and you do find that most of the views i mean there are churches now that have uh let's just say same-sex couples pastoring churches now 10 years ago or 20 years ago not a single church in the world would consider that as a possibility why because the bible teaches against it but now it's politically incorrect and maybe dangerous to your to your popularity and to your liberty to take a stand that the bible does it used to be the women's issue now it's the lgbt issue who knows what will be next but the thing is the modern church is pretty cowardly where the bible is very plain on teaching certain things that god has said the church used to stand for until the world said you can't believe that anymore because we don't believe that anymore and lo and behold the church has eventually come along yeah francis schaeffer some of you may remember who he was a christian leader back in the 70s and 80s um he said you tell me what the world's saying today and i'll tell you what the church will be saying seven years from now church is a slow learner in terms of learning to follow faithfully what the world says it takes about seven years to catch up he said but the church shouldn't catch up at all it's not the church's job to simply be another version of paganism that just adds some christian theology to it we are called to be followers of jesus christ and following jesus christ means the same thing today it meant a hundred years ago or 200 or 500 years ago a thousand years ago true the churches back then had their own problems they weren't doing the things we're doing wrong but they did other things wrong but following jesus is what being a christian means and we can decide that uh following jesus too unpopular it's getting really unpopular we might get persecuted yeah welcome to christianity welcome to historic christianity the church when it's been faithful has always been persecuted by the world because when the church is faithful it doesn't follow the world it sets an alternative for the world and the world needs an alternative because frankly what if everyone doesn't agree with the world what if what if there's a few people out there who actually believe what god said instead well the church has to be the place where they can come where they can be nurtured you know just because the church follows the world doesn't mean all is well because there's still christians out there who are saying i'm i don't care what the world says the world behind me the cross before me though none go with me still i will follow no turning back i will follow jesus there's people like that maybe the church isn't like that that is the institutional church but the christians are and if the church just becomes like the world then there's no alternative for the real christians who want to follow jesus the church is supposed to be an alternative society and the christians should have a haven in that society where they are affirmed in their conviction that they should follow jesus and what's what the word of god says and no matter how unpopular that gets in every time there's been christians who've gone to jail and to and to the cross and to the lions for uh for just saying i don't care what the world says i'm following jesus that's what i'm about so we're kind of at a point where that has to be done now now when he talks about elders it's interesting these elders are to be the leaders in the church and he says this is a faithful saying if a man desires the position of a it says bishop in my translation it's overseer which is the same thing as an elder how do i know it's the same thing well i don't have time to show you all the places where we see that but there's many places the terms are used interchangeably one of them is in titus which is one of our pastoral epistles in titus chapter one let just show you quickly here time is one seven and no one five says for this reason i left you in crete that you should set up order set things in order they're lacking and appoint elders in every city that is elders in every church in every city as i commanded you if a man's blameless the husband one wife having faithful children etc etc verse seven for a bishop must be blameless you know an elder has to have these qualifications because a bishop must an overseer an overseer has to be blameless that's an elder throughout the scriptures elder and bishop or overseer are used interchangeably so here he says if one wants to be a an overseer or an elder same thing he desires a good work and he says an overseer then must be blameless the husband of one wife temperate means self-controlled sober-minded of good behavior hospitable able to teach not given to wine nor violence nor greedy of money but gentle not quarrelsome not covetous one who rules his own house well having his children in submission with all reverence for a man does not know how to rule his own household how will he take care of the church of god not a novice that means a new believer it's got to be older less being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil now the word same is not in the greek it just literally says lest he fall into the condemnation of the devil which could mean the condemnation brought upon him by the devil although most translators stick in a word that's not in the greek the same condemnation of the devil you know in other words they're saying the devil fell into condemnation through pride and you don't want your elders to fall into the same condemnation the devil did through pride and it says moreover they must have a good testimony among those who are outside lest they fall into reproach and the snare of the devil now the snare of the devil and the condemnation of the devil these two phrases are similar phrases and the snare of the devil is not the snare the devil fell into but the snare that the devil has laid to capture the believer so it's probably the condemnation is not the condemnation brought by the devil i'm sorry that the devil fell into but the condemnation brought by the devil it's it's not important to decide that but some people translate it differently now the one thing i'd point out is to qualify to be an overseer in church or an elder it mentions nothing about training theological training today most pastors become pastors by getting theological training usually through seminaries and things uh some of them are good men and they become good pastors others are not good men but they get the job anyway because they have the certificate they got the the you know they've got the doctorate or the master's or whatever they went for having that paper is often what qualifies a person to candidate for a position in a pulpit somewhere and that's how most churches get their pastors paul didn't even mention that now the elder has to be able to teach a lot of people can teach with or without a certificate in fact sometimes a certificate is a drawback because a certificate means you've been indoctrinated by a certain school to repeat what your teachers say a person who does go to school can still learn and teach and may not be indoctrinated might actually be more open-minded and more learn more but anyway it's the person's character that qualifies him it's clear that all that's described about this elder is his behavior his character again this is what matters to paul he doesn't mention anything about the theological acumen although he does have to teach but for all we know he has to teach people how to obey all things jesus commanded which isn't so much about theological concepts though i would i would certainly not want to have a leader in the church teaching if you didn't know this theology either you don't want bad theology any more than you want bad practical teaching from the pope now there's someone else now the word deacon is retained in our english translation diocanus is the greek word so diocanus is anglicized to be the word deacon diocanus is simply the word for servant there's two words for servant one is doulos which means a slave in the greek and the other is diocanus which just means a servant these people are called servants now in later church history deacons became kind of a ruling body in the churches once it was institutionalized of course the elders became a ruined bishops became exalted to these offices became in later church history um institutionalized they became political powerful positions and that's a shame because that's not what they were these were just servants of the church the unlike now the qualifications for deacons are the same as for elders except for one thing the elders have to be able to teach because that was something elders were to do the deacons are just like them in their qualifications except they don't have to be able to teach because their their role is not teaching it's serving they set up the chairs they clean up after things they run the sound system you know they do stuff that needs to be done that isn't the teaching so he says likewise the deacons must be reverent not double-tongued that means not saying one thing and meaning another not given too much wine not greedy for money holding the mystery of faith of the pure conscience there's that conscience again but let these also first be tested then let them serve as deacons so they have to be vetted to make sure they are the right stuff being found blameless likewise their wives now it doesn't say their wives the word there is in italics means it's not the greek it just says likewise wives now the word wife here is the same word in greek for women but some people think the women that he's talking about are deaconesses we know there are male and female deaconesses or deacons and deaconesses phoebe in the opening verses of romans 16 is referred to as a deaconess or a servant so there's a male form of a female form of that word servant deacon and deaconess and some feel like this these women that are mentioned are now he's referring to he's he's talked about the deacons not with the deaconesses though it's not clear it could mean that the wives of the deacons instead and that and no one can say for sure which paul meant but because he just says the women must be reverent not slanderers temperate faithful in all things let deacons be the husbands of one wife ruling their children and their own houses well for those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a good standing or good reputation and great boldness in the faith which is in christ jesus i wonder if his saying that was a reminiscence of stephen they in the book of acts in chapter six there were seven men who are set apart by the apostles to wait on the tables and distribute the food for the poor in the church these would be what we call deacons today though those seven men are never referred to as deacons in in acts they're never called deacons but pretty much they differentiate the apostles were being set apart for teaching and for prayer for prayer and the word of god and the deacons were set aside for practical service and most people can hardly avoid noting that in the jerusalem church the apostles were like the elders of that local church and the seven were like the deacons of that church although they're not called those terms but in the other churches they'd have a group of elders and a group of deacons and one would be the teachers one would be the servants now the point is that stephen was one of those seven and we know that he not only was a faithful servant serving in that capacity but he also was a bold preacher uh he you know god gifted him he did signs and wonders like the apostles did he he stood before the supreme court and rebuked them to their face and he was very bold he got killed doing so but when but paul who was at that time called saul was a witness to stephen and his death and many people think that stephen might have become like the apostle paul if he had not died and that god may have called paul saul to be the replacement for stephen because there are many things they had in common some teachers give a long list of similarities between stephen and paul but certainly saul was impacted by stephen's death it specifically says when stephen died being stoned to death it says saul was consenting to his death and then next we read saul is apprehended by christ on the way to damascus and christ says it's hard for you to kick against the pricks or the goats there's saul was resisting the goading of of the holy spirit he was convicted and he was resisting being converted that goading i suspect had a lot to do with having seen stephen die with a glowing face and saying father do not lay this sin to their charge and and i mean i think that impacted him and there may be a reminiscence of stephen in this way says the deacons who serve well they earn a great reputation and great boldness because stephen was simply noted for his boldness i i don't know if that's what caused paul to make that observation there or not but i wouldn't be surprised verse 14 these things write to you though though i hope to come to you shortly but if i'm delayed i write that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of god which is the church of the living god the pillar and ground of the truth and without controversy well let's stop there a minute the church is a house of god it's also the pillar and ground of the church truth now the roman catholics use this verse to say that the traditions preserved by the church are as important as what the scriptures say you may know this about roman catholicism that's one difference between protestants and catholics protestants say the bible's the ultimate authority nothing is above it catholic church position is no the bible is the ultimate authority and also on the same level as ultimate authority is the traditions of the catholic church that's their position and the traditions of the catholic church are things that aren't in the bible but they say were taught by the apostles though there was no written record of the apostles teaching them they're just passed along by tradition now they say one reason we should follow the traditions of churches paul said that the church is the pillar and ground of the truth so you know obviously he felt like the church teaches the truth a couple things here one is that paul did not have the roman catholic church in mind it did not exist when paul wrote to paul all christians were part of the true body of christ and these are the people who are followers of jesus later centuries later the roman catholic church developed from this original movement and became very institutionalized began to have leaders many of them were corrupt and and the catholic church admits this they meant that many of their hopes were corrupt but they believe that the church is an institution that still holds the authority to pronounce what truth is now paul didn't say that the church has the authority to determine truth he said it's the pillar and ground of the truth a pillar upholds something holds it up the church is the the the ground and the pillar that holds up the truth and certainly that's what the church did and is supposed to do when the church stops doing that and starts holding up falsehoods and doesn't go by the scriptures it ceases to be the church that paul's talking about it becomes something else just to say well the catholic church that's the church and therefore what they say is the truth that's not something you could derive reasonably from what paul says here you have to read a lot into that that isn't actually in paul's mind at all he says and without controversy greatest the mystery of godliness god was manifest in the flesh now the older manuscripts say he was manifest in the flesh the reason this is important is because the texas receptor said god was manifest in the flesh which is a very strong statement about the deity of christ christ is nothing other than god manifest in the flesh however in the older mantra which just says he which would no doubt refer mean jesus he was manifest in the flesh and not making a specific reference to him being god now um of course i believe jesus is god but i only let you know this because if you talk to jehovah's witnesses or someone who don't believe that jesus is god you say look it says right there god was manifest in the flesh that means jesus god they'll say that's not what our bible says in fact that's not what any newer translation says they all say he meaning jesus the manifest verse so what the original read we don't know for sure but i have no doubt that paul believed that jesus was god manifest in the flesh because in philippians 2 he said he existed in the form of god and did not count his equality with god as something to be clung to but he emptied himself and took on the form of the servant he said he was god before in the form of god became a man and so to say that god was manifest in flesh would not be contrary to what paul's beliefs are stated elsewhere but that might not be what he wrote in this particular place jesus was manifest in the flesh justified in the spirit seen by angels preached among the gentiles believed on the world in the world and received up to glory it's not entirely clear why this particular selection of details about jesus are put into this creed or in this order i'm not going to try solve that right now i've read commentaries and they don't really know for sure either in many cases so this is seen as an ancient creed paul's apparently quoting uh an ancient creed why do we say that because if you read read it in a greek it's obvious it's written in poetry it's a it's like a it's not just written like an ordinary paragraph it's written like a statement of faith sort of like the apostle's creed or something like that this is an ancient creed that paul's quoting about jesus all the things in it are self-evident anyway so chapter four now the spirit expressly says that in the latter times some will depart from the faith giving heed to deceiving spirit and doctrines of demons speaking lies in hypocrisy having their own conscience seared another conscience problem having their own conscience seared or cauterized is the word with a hot iron forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from foods which god created we received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth for every creature of god is good nothing has to be refused if it's received with thanksgiving for it is sanctified by the word of god and prayer now paul says there's coming teachers that will teach that you should abstain from marriage and you should not eat all foods now i don't know of any particular uh branch of christianity that teaches you can't marry some people would point out to the roman catholics forbid their priests to marry but that's i don't think he's thinking of the roman catholics at this point i think he's thinking of a more ancient heresy probably somewhat of a anti-gnome and uh not an issue ascetic an ascetic group that that thought the pleasures of marriage and pleasures of eating you know all foods was simply something that spiritual people would avoid uh we don't know the nature of it we don't know this hair the particular heresy is referring to but he does say that these teachers are doctrines of demons these people have departed from the faith these people were in the faith just like hymen is alexander were apparently in the faith and their ship their faith the shipwreck these teachers will be people who are in the faith but they depart from it they're no you know they're no longer christians and the doctrines they're teaching are not god's doctrines they're the doctrines of demons now notice that these have to do with behavior marrying or not married eating foods this is doctrines again this is not theological this is practical teaching it's wrong wrong practical teaching but it's teaching people how to live or not live and that again is what doctrine normally is with paul it's wrong doctrine in this case now the main thing i would bring out of this is that he goes off on this matter forbidding to eat foods that are supposed to be received with thanksgiving there are people today who believe that we should eat only kosher foods not only jewish people do that of course muslims have the same they have restrictions in their diet and many christians think we should follow the torah's restrictions on certain foods we're not under the torah and paul said that if someone restricts you from what you eat that's a doctrine that demons teach christians are not under that law now he actually says every creature of god everything god created is good and nothing's to be refused to eat this is the way it was for noah after the flood in genesis 9 uh there were clean and unclean animals before the flood that they had nothing to do with what people would eat or not eat because men didn't eat meat before the flood they ate only vegetables as near as we can tell from what genesis tells us clean and unclean animals were those that could or could not be offered as sacrifices before the flood noah took seven each of the clean and two each of the animals on the ark so there's that distinction between clean and unclean but when it came off the ark he he he offered sacrifices of all the clean animals clean or unclean was not what you could eat or couldn't eat but what you could sacrifice or not sacrifice but after the flood god told noah from now on you can eat any animal that moves every creature everything that moves should be food for you god did not place a restriction on the diet it wasn't until the law of moses put restrictions on certain foods and paul says we're not under those rules if people put you under those rules that's that's demonic not that it's demonic to avoid eating pork if that's what you wish but it's demonic to tell people that they need to avoid eating pork it's demonic to place uh food restrictions on people says everything that god made is good nothing's refused you can receive with thanksgiving it's sanctified by the word of god and prayer um okay so don't let anyone teach you otherwise than that paul says now he says in verses six through nine if you instruct the brethren in these things you'll be a good minister of jesus christ nourished in the words of faith and of good doctrine teach them what things that's okay to eat all foods that's good you'll be nourished not with foods only but with doctrine good teaching once again doctrine has to do with what you do what you teach that can be done or not you follow these instructions you'll be nourished with words of faith and good teaching which you have carefully followed be uh but reject profane and old wives fables and exercise yourself toward godliness but bodily exercise profits a little excuse me for bodily exercise profits a little but godliness is profitable for all things having promise of the life that now is and of the life to come now when you bodily exercise can be a helpful thing obviously we're more mindful of that in modern generations than they were even in paul's day i mean if you're an athlete in the olympics in those days you'd you'd know you had to work hard and exercise but the average person probably got enough exercise just doing his labor every day didn't think to go to the gym afterwards nowadays we're very aware that you know if you don't get any exercise you're going to probably die young and possibly yeah bodily exercise it is good a little it has its own value but it's not like godliness which which has not only value in this life but the next one bodily exercise can perhaps give you better health or extend your life in this life but godliness is worth more than that because it has benefits in this life too but also in the life to come so uh it's not a matter of you know don't don't do any bodily exercise but make sure your priorities are it's more important to maintain godliness than to maintain a routine at the gym um i'm going to skip on down now verse 12 let no man let no one despise your youth but be an example of the to the believers in word and conduct in love and spirit in faith and purity now what's interesting here is that timothy had probably been traveling with paul for at least 20 years at this time he was a young man probably in his late teens when he started traveling with paul this is like probably at least 20 years later and paul says don't let anyone despise your youth you're after all you're only 40 years old which suggests that a 40 year old christmas still considered not necessarily that credible you had to be a lot older than that to really have put in your time and and gain credibility an old man was a respected man in those days timothy had probably 40 ish or there abouts there was always a danger some of the church would think you're just a kid you're too young paul says don't worry about them thinking that just be an example to them you'll show them that they should earn their respect and you can do that he says be an example to the believers in conduct and love and spirit and faith and purity till i come give attention to reading to exhortation to doctrine do not neglect the gift that is in you which was given to you by the prophecy with laying on of the hands of the eldership will encounter this gift that was given to timothy by the laying on of hands again in second timothy chapter one where paul will say stir up the gift of god that is in you which was put on put in you by the laying on of my hands now here he said the eldership laid hands on timothy paul said he laid his hands on he must have been there with the eldership laying on of hands and timothy received a gift we're not told what it is but with every gift of the holy spirit there is a function in the body of christ that accompanies the gift defines your function and uh and therefore whatever his ministry was regarded to be was the gift that he was released to do by the laying off hands of paul and the eldership that was the present when probably in lister when timothy was sent out um he says meditate on these things give yourself entirely to them that your progress may be evident to all take heed to yourself and the doctrine that's that doctrine continue in them for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you so you'll save yourself you mean you'll go to heaven if you do this and you won't go to heaven if you don't saving yourself is not in the bible always what we think of it as we usually think of only one aspect of salvation namely justification by faith and if we're justified we go to heaven when we're dying but in the bible salvation is a bigger thing it includes justification transformation you know sanctification um numerous aspects of being reconciled with god and becoming more like christ that's the whole package of salvation and you progress in this as you do the thing that god assigned you to do as you fit into the plan that god has for you and that's for some do these things and you'll save yourself not not go to heaven but your sanctification your you know your uh transformation that'll that'll continue as you do what god has set you aside to do chapter five we'll go quickly here do not rebuke an older man but exhort him as a father younger men as brothers older men women excuse me as mothers younger women as sisters of all purity i guess that handles everyone except the children uh timothy didn't have a children's ministry i guess but he was overseeing the adults children's ministry was actually done by parents not by you know youth leaders in the early church so he didn't have to deal directly with the children he dealt with their parents and grandparents apparently and he's basically saying listen show deference to older people just like they're your parents there's a certain propriety in the ancient world is well known instinctively our our generations have forgotten it with the last couple generations but just age itself is venerable and so treat the old men and old women like fathers and mothers the younger men and women treat them like brothers and sisters now this is a good good advice to a single young man i'm sure timothy was single how do you treat younger women like you treat your sister you know when uh when i was young a young christian yeah i don't know what what am i allowed to do on a date well what would you do if you're dating your sister do that that's what paul says treat the younger with all purity like sisters well how would i ever end up marrying someone if i treated like my sister well you won't treat her like your sister once you're married she's that's different but until you're married treat her with purity like as pure as you treat your sister i remember when i was in junior high and i started to get my hormones started to notice women i remember the girls that i'd be attracted to just you know across the room because they never attracted to me uh never had any involvement with them but i remember i i'd have thoughts about women i and i think how do i deal with these thoughts i remember thinking well what if that what if that was my sister because i do have a sister i'll tell you my sister's a girl i'd never have any slight temptation to have impure thoughts toward not because that's not a negative thing about her it's just she's my sister i'd never have any thoughts like that so i thought well how would i feel toward that girl she was my sister and that that was a good strategy for change of the way i thought about women and it's i i didn't realize at the time that that just came to me i didn't realize that paul had said that treat young women with all purity like you would your sister honor widows who are really widows now i'm not going to talk much about this paul talks about widows throughout this chapter in the early church they had a group of women that were widowed whom they would support because they didn't have welfare system in the roman empire they didn't have options like that most widows some widows obviously would have something their husband had left behind but not most people were peasants and didn't have much to leave their widows widows and orphans were among the most vulnerable people to be taken advantage of by crooks and people who wanted to get their money and things like that many times in the old testament the bible says to the judges make sure you do right by the widows and the orphans because there are plenty of shysters who wanted to rip them off because they didn't have a man of house to stand up and defend them and so forth and in fact james tells us in the end of james chapter one he says pure religion and undefiled before god and the father is this that you visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction and keep yourself unspotted from the world so the widows the orphans are always a concern now in the early church there were widows so what do you do well the church actually had an order of widows that they established where the widows would be supported by the church i think they would they would uh do so on the basis that they would become like deaconesses they would be they'd be servants to the church and serving the church then was different than now today the church is an organization with a building and programs and things like that and a woman who wants to serve the church might go and cook you know at some of the church meals and things like that and that's but in the early church the church wasn't a building and it wasn't an organization didn't have programs it was people serving the church meant serving people and uh you know giving money to the church went giving to people it wasn't supporting a building program or you know gymnasium or you know pastor salter they didn't have salaried pastors in those days when you gave to the church or when you serve the church you were doing that to actual people they are the church people are and that being so they would have these widows available to serve the needs of people in the church i mean like today if we had that we might say there's single moms who don't want to put their kids in public school but they can't afford to put them in christian school they'd like to home school but they have to make a living they can't do it themselves an older woman in the church who's free to do so could come and home school that woman's children for her so she doesn't have to put in public school or could you know if somebody gets injured these widows could come and they could do the things that a woman of a house would do when one's been incapacitated or not available that was a a role that was actually quite respected in the early church and the church it's like the widow was kind of married to the church instead of married to a husband and the church would support her like a husband would be expected to do and so paul says well i'll just summarize what he says if you're going to add widows to the number of this order of widows only oh just so if they're over 60 years old and if they have basically the qualifications of an elder as you read as you read what they have to be they have to be like ideal christian women they have to have rid children wash the saints of the feet of the saints and you know have been zealous in every good work and so forth like ideal women if they've been godly women in their younger life they could be qualified to be taken on as part of this elite group of women who had special roles in the church of serving and they'd have the support of the church they said widows were younger than that he said that's probably better for them to look for their prospects and i mean a woman under 60 interesting that he said we might say 30 or maybe 40 i mean you think a widow a 60 year old may feel like she's past her prospects of finding a husband but paul thought older widows can i mean if they're under 60 they they can find husbands and remarry and then the church wouldn't have to be financially burdened with their upkeep um he does say specifically if the elders excuse me the widows have any children or nephews those younger ones should support their widowed mothers or aunts rather than letting the church that's what he says in verses three and following honor widows who are really widows i just really don't have anyone else to take care of them but if any widow has children or grandchildren let them first learn to show piety at home and to repay their parents for this is good and acceptable before god now the idea here is that children owe something to their parents let them repay their parents how so well obviously when children are young their mothers and fathers give up a lot of freedom in order to live their lives for their survival and for their well-being to feed support house educate their children young couples give up a lot of their best years of their lives to sacrifice for the well-being of their children that stands as a debt that the children have to their parents because just like the children need that kind of care when they're young sometimes their parents need that care when they get really old and uh you know when a person has a widowed mother or grandmother paul says you have a debt to them you should pay that debt off he goes more into that i don't want to talk more about that just because you know he says an awful lot of things about that but he says in verse 17 chapter 5 17 let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor especially those who labor in the word and doctrine now honor when he said honor widows in verse 3 and now honor elders this means support them this this speaking of financial support and you can tell that by his next line he says as is written you shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain as the worker should be worthy of his hire and should be supportive and the labor is worthy of his wages that line is quoting jesus in the book of luke do not receive an accusation against an elder except from two or three witnesses those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all that the rest may now those those elders that sin need to be publicly rebuked to put fear to put the fear of god in in the rest of them so they don't misbehave i'm gonna skip down a little bit here he does say in verse 23 no longer drink only water but use a little wine for your stomach's sake and your frequent infirmities interesting because paul has earlier said that an elder and a deacon both should not be given too much wine but a little wine is recommended at least for timothy for because he has stomach problems now these stomach problems probably arose from the quality of the water in the ancient world frankly you go to the third world countries now and drink the water you may get the same problems timothy had because potable water was simply not that um not that easy to get in the ancient world still in third world countries it's still difficult sometimes you'd have to boil it or or add some kind of you know iodine pills or something to make it potable in those days what they did to make it part was put wine in it because wine has alcohol in it and it would kill microbes very common we have ancient writings from the latin the greek and the jewish writers of that period all around the mediterranean all the cultures had the same practice and that is they drink water at the table but they'd always mix it with wine before they put it in their mouth because of the danger of amoebas basically and uh now there were different there were some who didn't there were nazirites who had taken a special vow and wouldn't drink any wine because the old testament forbade nazirites to drink any wine timothy might have taken such a vow it was always voluntary so no one had to take the vow and if he was drinking only water and not drinking wine like everybody else did he may have gotten sick it sounds like he did he had frequent infirmities stomach problems probably had amoebic dysentery actually and paul said don't drink only water anymore let's not be so spiritual here i mean you don't have to avoid wine put a little wine in it like everybody else does so your stomach can be settled from this kind of a frequent problems you have so he's basically given sound advice that's still sound advice putting drinking wine can be a very helpful thing to uh to discourage the growth of amoebas frankly i have a friend who ministered in india a lot and his doctor here in this country said um you know to avoid getting amoebas from bad water he said drink about half a glass of wine a day so uh he said that'll balance the alkaline of your of your stomach and amoebas will not flourish there so i'm not the doctor i don't know these things but that's what he was told and that sounds like what paul's saying he also said in verse 22 do not lay hands on anyone hastily nor share in other people's sins keep yourself pure what's that mean laying hands on someone means ordaining them to eldership paul was earlier telling about the qualifications for elders in fact just a few verses ago he's saying don't receive accusations against elders must have adequate testimony against them but he said don't lay hands suddenly on anyone don't don't ordain anyone prematurely because if they sin you're laying hands on you're ordaining them makes you complicit with them that's what laying out of hands actually meant it was symbolic of saying we are you're our partner from now what you do from this point on is an extension of our own fingers of our own hands we're releasing you to do what you would not be able to do if we didn't release you to do it because we're the leaders would ordain younger leaders and then they'd be authorized and paul says don't don't do that too quickly because you might end up being part of someone else's sins in other words if you make someone an elder and he's not qualified and he goes out and sins you're kind of responsible for that you're the one who sent him out to do this kind of damage and that's why he says don't lay hands suddenly hastily or share in other people's sins he means in the sins of the person that you have hastily put into a ministry who doesn't deserve it okay quickly chapter six very quickly he gives instructions to this bond servants in the first two verses to be obedient that's kind of the instruction paul gives the servants and all of his epistles when he addresses servants um he said don't be tempted if you have a christian master to be slack in your obedience thinking that well he's a christian brother he'll let me get away through paul says no serve him the more diligently because he's a brother you're serving a brother you should be more diligent even he said uh he worries about greed or the love of money a great deal in this chapter that's kind of the main subject of this chapter he says um if anyone teaches verse three otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words even the words of our lord jesus christ and the doctrine that accords with godliness he is proud knowing nothing is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words from which come envy strife etc etc the person who doesn't teach as jesus taught anyone who teaches something other than the sound words of jesus doesn't know what he's talking about paul says he knows nothing don't listen to any teacher who teaches contrary to what jesus said now by the way there's a whole school of theology out there that says what jesus said isn't for this dispensation that was for a different dispensationist we're now under different dispensation than that what jesus said doesn't apply to us until the millennium now that's not what paul said paul said if anyone teaches otherwise than what jesus said they don't know what they're talking about and don't you know don't put up with that then he says this is the useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds destitute of the truth who suppose that godliness is a means of gain now there's people who use religion or a or a profession in preaching to get money he says they consider godliness as a means of gain now there's another kind of people like that today the word of faith people who think that godliness is a means of gain they think if you have enough faith you'll get rich that wasn't being taught in paul's day but that that would also be people who falsely think that um being godly is a means of getting rich but this is talking about people who are false teachers who are using their prestige as as teachers in the christian community to make money he says in verse six now godliness with contentment is great gain that is the contentment is the wealth being wealthy doesn't mean having a lot of money being wealthy is being content and paul makes it very clear he says we brought nothing into this world it's certain we can carry nothing out and having food and clothing with these we shall be content now being wealthy paul said we are wealthy if we have godliness and contentment and this contentment we can choose to have even if we only have food and clothing that's not very wealthy by earthly standards but we're that's great gain the great gain for the christian is not money it's contentment what rich people want and what they often lack is contentment contentment is the word content in greek is the same word that means enough or sufficient the person who has is content is what it says i have enough i have enough i'm okay i'm not craving anything more than this i'm content i have enough very few rich people would say i've got enough being wealthy in money doesn't make you wealthy if you're not content a poor man who's content has achieved his goals more than a billionaire who's not content the man who's achieved his wealthy in terms of matter that's great game but he says but who those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil far which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierce themselves through with many sorrows greed love of money this is has led to all kinds of evils including people strained from the faith who were christians because they pursued after wealth but you oh man of god flee these things and pursue righteousness godliness faith love patience gentleness fight the good fight of faith lay hold on eternal life to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses we're going to skip down a little bit here in verse 17 he returns to the subject of wealth he says command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty nor to be trusting in uncertain riches but in the living god who gives us richly all things to enjoy notice god gives us all things to enjoy god doesn't want us to be unhappy these people are rich they need to not trust in their riches they need to trust in and god's one who gave them all things richly to enjoy but before you decide that if you've got a lot of money god wants you to go out and have fun realize that jesus said there's more joy in giving than in receiving paul actually quoted jesus that's not in the gospels but paul quoted it as a saint of jesus in acts chapter 20 said remember that our lord said it's more blessed which means blessed means happy more blessed to give than receive so god gave you all things to enjoy and the best way to enjoy them is give to the poor the more you keep the more enjoyment you're depriving yourself up if jesus wasn't lying now christians are people who don't believe that jesus lies maybe the world thinks he lies maybe they think he was just wrong christians by definition do not think that jesus was wrong and do not think that jesus lied they believe what he said and that means if i have stuff i'll find it more enjoyable more blissful more happy to give it away than to keep it or to receive more that's what jesus said that's what paul's actually saying here how do i know that he's saying that he says god gave us all things to enjoy how do i know that he thinks that means giving away well look at his next line you tell the rich people in verse 18 to let them do good that they may be rich in good works ready to give willing to share storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life now many people are trying to financially you know establish a good foundation for the time to come laying up for their retirement and stuff like that also yeah rich people really should lay up for themselves something for the time to come by giving it away by sharing let them learn to be rich in good works when you stand before god he's not going to give you credit for how much was in your bank he might actually might actually be demerits and wesley i forget i don't remember the novel charles john wesley said if when i die if i have more than 25 i think the figure he gave was lower but i don't remember it when i die if i have more than 25 dollars no i died a hypocrite because a christian believes that everything that can give them is god's and that god's gonna judge us for how we stewarded his stuff and the more we have kept for ourselves as if it wasn't god's as it was ours and the less we have given away which is the distribution of god's things the way he wants it distributed the less we've done that the more the more we show that we don't really believe what the bible teaches about stewardship so paul says teach the rich man now i remember jay adams uh once was a theologian and a pastor from this passage he said you know every church should have a sunday school class for the rich a rich person's sunday school class and this is the curriculum get all the rich christians to go to one sunday school class and here's what you teach them don't be haughty don't trust in your riches do good be rich in good works be ready to give willing to share and by doing that you're storing up a good foundation against the future and that's not the way we usually think we should insulate ourselves against an uncertain future but you see there's nothing uncertain about god if you trust not in riches but in the living god and if god is reliable then you've laid up a great security for the future because god will still be there even when the money's not even if the economy doesn't exist anymore which is not an unthinkable prospect in our present day even if there's no money there will still be god if you're trusting in money and not in the living god you stand very vulnerable to being disappointed even before you stand before the judgmency of christ of course there's more after after you do but uh the point is even in this life if you want to be secure for the future steward the money in a way that a person would who doesn't trust in money but who trusts in the living god and they're storing up a good foundation for themselves finally oh timothy guard what is committed to you or trust avoid profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge by professing it some have strayed concerning the truth those how many says some have made their faith shipwrecked some have strayed from the truth some in pursuing money have strayed from the faith paul didn't seem to think you know kind of once saved always saved kind of thing he believed that if you don't if you don't live as a christian supposed to live whatever you have now you might stray from it you might lose it you might shipwreck it you might not have it in the future so this is how paul talked to timothy um of course some people say well this is how paul talks to ministers because timothy was a minister but frankly i got a feeling a lot of this applies to people who aren't ministers who are just people because like i said paul said if you have a rich man's class in your church here's the curriculum for them teach them these things you by the way you people should perhaps volunteer wherever you go to church say pastor i think we should have a rich man's class paul had some special instructions we're commanded to give to rich people let's get them all in one room here and tell them what paul said i think it'd be a great thing we'd have a better church i think very probably but that's not the only thing we need a lot of stuff in here would point the way to a better church than we have now