Shepherding the Flock
Over the last couple of weeks we've looked at the criteria for choosing elders and deacons, we've read Paul's instructions to Timothy to guard his inner life, to train himself in holiness, and now we come to more instructions, this time to do with how he's to relate to others in the congregation and how to arrange the ordering of ministries in the congregation.
First we find an instruction about how to deal with older men. The context is one where Timothy might need to rebuke someone, to pull them into line. In such a case he's to be careful not to speak harshly to such a man but rather to exhort him as a father.
Now notice first of all that Timothy, as the elder appointed by Paul to lead the church, has a responsibility to keep order in the church. This has been a constant theme throughout the letter: he's to correct and admonish those who might lead the congregation astray. So despite the difficulty he might feel in rebuking an older man, he has to do it. In fact he's to do it at whatever level the person is in terms of seniority.
But he's not to do it in an arrogant or harsh manner. Christian Leaders should never consider themselves to be authorities in themselves. No we're always leaders under authority. We're accountable to Jesus Christ our overseer and chief shepherd of the sheep. So he's to treat older men with the respect that's due to them. He's to exhort them as if they were his father. This respect for our elders is something we've largely lost with our egalitarian culture in Australia, but there's a lot to be said for giving those who've gone before us, often pioneering the work in the place where we are now, the respect that they deserve.
Similarly he's to treat older women as mothers and those of a similar age to himself as brothers, or sisters. And notice the added warning: “with absolute purity.” The temptation to use a position of power and authority to attract someone of the opposite sex appears to have been just as great in the first century as it has been more recently. So Paul creates an absolute boundary on the behaviour of Christian leaders - absolute purity. That means purity of mind as much as purity of action. Treat women you minister to as though they were your own sisters. The church would be in a lot less difficulty if ministers had always followed that rule, wouldn't it?
Before we move on let me just comment that the sort of behaviour he describes here is really the sort of meekness in leadership that Jesus called for. It's not weakness. In fact it's the opposite. It's leadership that has sufficient strength not to need to force people to behave, because their gentle persuasion is so effective.
Paul then moves on to focus on 3 other groupings: widows, elders and, in the next chapter, slaves, and the church's responsibility towards them. And notice that in this chapter, ministry to the congregation and support by the congregation go together.
Widows - the principal and the practice
Widows were in a difficult situation in Biblical times. Women had no right to own land. It was assumed that they'd be married and be looked after by their husband. So if the husband died they were left destitute, entirely dependent on other family members to care for them. Under Old Testament laws God had provided for widows to marry their husband's brother or nearest relative so they were looked after, but for Christian women in the first century their husband's family may well have disowned them when they became Christians. So this first section deals with these widows and in particular the principle that widows should be honoured.
So what does it mean to honour a widow? Well first of all it means to give them respect and emotional support. As we'll see in the next section the assumption is that widows have spent their lives up to this point in service and so deserve the community's respect and care. But in fact in biblical thought honouring is more material than that. Honouring your father and mother included supporting them in their old age.
That's why Paul qualifies his instruction by saying that if a widow has children or grandchildren, they're the ones who should be supporting her. And notice that he gives two good reasons why this is so: First because it's a way of repaying them for all the support and care they've provided throughout their life; but secondly, because “this is pleasing in God's sight.” How often in scripture is God referred to as the one who cares for the widow and the orphan?
But if there are widows who are really in need, who are all alone, they should be cared for by the community who are their spiritual family. Notice though that this support comes with a condition. The real widow will be someone who's devoted herself to service, particularly to prayer, here, but in the next section to good works, hospitality, helping the afflicted, etc.
There will be widows who are not like that. He describes them as living for pleasure, living for themselves rather than for God and as a result they're dead even while they live. It's ironic, isn't it, that a life of self-indulgence can be described as death while a life of self-denial is in reality spiritual life.
So the church is to look after those who are real widows and families are to look after those who are their relatives in need. The reason he gives is pretty serious: “8whoever does not provide for relatives, and especially for family members, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” You see, even the pagans understood the need to care for widows. The practice of the bride's father giving a dowry was created to provide a safety net for the wife in case the husband died. In Roman law if the husband died the dowry remained hers. So whoever had control of the dowry was required to look after her as long as she lived. That would often be her son, but it might have been a relative or a second husband.
So for a Christian to fail to look after their relatives was a disgrace that would shame the church. So it mustn't happen.
For most of us today this isn't an issue financially. We have a strong superannuation system; the government provides a pension, so far, to those who don't have enough superannuation. But there are some cases where none of this is enough. And there are other cases where the support needed is more than financial. It's time, and effort. It requires great patience. It may require us giving up some of our freedom to care for our parents when they're no longer able to care for themselves. So the issue is the same. We should look after our parents for all the same reasons: to repay them for all they've given us; to please God; to witness to our faith; and to relieve the church so it can look after those who have no-one else to look after them. And can I just say to those who are younger than I am, this is going to become a bigger issue as time goes on, as people live longer, as the average age of the population rises; and as governments find it harder and harder to provide a sufficient level of care for those who need it.
Paul goes on to give instructions for the practical ordering of this support for widows. First, Timothy is to create a list of real widows; or perhaps the list was already established. This appears to be a list of widows who have committed themselves to the service of God with no thought to remarrying. He sets up fairly strict guidelines as to age and behaviour. They have to be 60 or older. They have to have been faithful in marriage, not unlike elders and deacons. That's what I understand him to mean by being married only once. They have to have been well known for their good deeds. So it was no use waiting until you were a widow to show your Christian virtue. You had to do it as a lifelong practice. As we saw last week, they had to have practised being godly. So it included not just showing hospitality, washing the saints' feet, helping the afflicted, etc, but it also included raising her children - not stated, but the implication is “in the Lord”; again, a parallel to the elders in ch3.
Younger widows are another matter. In that context younger widows would most likely have been looking for another husband, since that was the only way they could survive financially, and he also thinks their natural human instincts will make them want physical companionship. If that should happen then the vow of commitment to God's service as a widow would be broken and they'd be under condemnation from God. So he encourages them to remarry.
His other reason for not allowing younger widows to join the ranks of the real widows is that “they learn to be idle, gadding about from house to house; and they are not merely idle, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not say.” I guess as younger women they'd have a lot more energy to burn and so were more likely to get out and about causing trouble. He may have in mind, in fact, some women in the church who were listening to the false teachers and spreading their message around as they gossiped with each other.
Now can I say I don't think this is a general statement about women's tendency to gossip, though women do seem to spend a lot more time talking to one another than men do and so the temptation to gossip may be more an issue for them. What I think Paul is worried about is that in a world where women don't work outside the home, if they don't have a household to manage they may find themselves filling their time with unhelpful pursuits. That doesn't seem to be a problem for most women these days, given that most are working two jobs, at work and at home. But it may be a problem for women when they retire and no longer have that job to go to. I'm not sure about that. I'm just surmising. It may also be a problem for some men when they retire, though men tend not to have the social networks that women have.
Again, notice that the reason Paul's concerned about this is that he doesn't want to give the adversary any occasion to revile us (v14). Always in this letter the thing on his mind is the standing of the gospel in the eyes of those outside.
So he repeats the instruction that if any woman has relatives who are really widows, she should assist them so the church isn't burdened, leaving it free to assist those who are real widows without family to support them.
Elders
That leads him on to how to treat elders. Now this isn't just those who are older as was the case in the first few verses. No this is those who have been appointed as elders in the church. He says “let those who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.” Again, there's the idea that honouring them means you support them. The reason he gives for this is that this is what the Scriptures teach: “18for the scripture says, 'You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,' and, 'The laborer deserves to be paid.'” I guess there's something of a parallel here with the child who supports their parent in repayment for what they've done in the past. Here the support is in recognition of the care and hard work that the elders give to the congregation in leading and particularly in preaching and teaching. It actually takes a lot of hard work to lead a congregation, in case you didn't realise it. It's hard work preparing sermons week after week and sometimes very tiring just presenting them. It's even harder when you're faced with some pastoral crisis in the congregation. I occasionally hear someone asking why we should pay full time ministers; why can't they work part time and just be here for Sundays and the other occasions when they're needed. Well that's how it's done in some places but I don't know of any places where it's done and the church is growing, except perhaps for an initial period in a church plant somewhere.
He then turns to the question of disciplining elders. Here he insists that no accusation against an elder be even accepted except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. Elders, then as now, are particularly vulnerable to false accusations. And they deserve a greater degree of respect because of their position in the congregation. So for those 2 reasons any accusation shouldn't even be considered unless there are 2 or more witnesses to support it.
Of course if the sin is established and the elder persists in it, he should rebuke him in the presence of all, so that the rest also may stand in fear. You may remember that Jesus in Matt 18 gave similar instructions for how to deal with complaints among church members.
He then tells Timothy not to ordain anyone hastily, and not to participate in the sins of others. I think those two probably go together. That is, if he ordains someone before they've been properly tested and they later do something inappropriate then Timothy will be connected with their sin. In any case it's a good principle: you don't put someone into leadership until they've been properly tested; until they've had time to exercise their gifts in the congregation; until the elders have seen that their lives fit with their calling.
He then adds a couple of extra bits of advice. First Timothy is to take a little wine for the sake of his stomach and his frequent ailments. We don't know what these were but maybe he was suffering from the stress of leadership and needed some wine to settle his stomach. In any case, it seems it was a common medication in those days for that sort of illness.
His final comment in the chapter is an interesting one: “24The sins of some people are conspicuous and precede them to judgment, while the sins of others follow them there. 25So also good works are conspicuous; and even when they are not, they cannot remain hidden.” I think this is connected with the instruction not to ordain someone too soon. He's saying that with some people you can see quite quickly that they're not to be trusted, while others are much better at concealing it.
The same goes for those who do good: sometimes it's easy to see their good works, but others aren't so obvious. Nevertheless with time both will be seen. So wait for a while before giving someone the position of leader.
What's clear from this chapter is that being the leader of a church is a tricky job. Our leaders need to be very wise in how they lead, in the decisions they make. But it's also the responsibility of the members of the congregation to make sure that they do everything they can to support their leaders in whatever way they can, whether it's by supporting widowed relatives or providing financial support for the elders, or being careful to protect their elders from false accusations. So let's support our leaders by making sure we do everything we can to bring honour to the gospel in our life as a church.