The Churches Responsibility

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The Older Members

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Chapters 5 and 6 deals with the "Ministry of the Church". Its responsibility to older members, to older widows, to young widows, to its officers, to employees and to false teachers. Lets look at the first of these.

These are those who belong to the "39 club", the "Young in Heart", those who have paid their dues and may feel like they have been replaced and even made to feel like they are "excess" baggage.

Hopefully, every church has a wide range of ages in its membership. Every generation can learn something from the others. Older people tend to be satisfied with things as they are. Younger members tend to want change. Each one needs to temper the other, for both change and caution are needed. As the younger members take over places of responsibility, the older members are often neglected. Here Paul is instructing Timothy to minister to all the various age groups in the church. This is very difficult for a Pastor. Most Pastors relate well with their age group but may have trouble with other groups. I never knew a Pastor who could work equally well with all three groups, the young, the middle aged and the old, but Paul says to Timothy, do not show partiality. Since Timothy was a young man, he might be partial to young people, might even feel uneasy with old people, so Paul suggests that he treat older people like he would his father and mother.

There needs to be a meeting place, a place where all can feel comfortable. A place in our church activities and administration where all will be invited to participate and feel comfortable doing so. We need to promote mutual respect and equal opportunity to express opinions.

To Old Widows

"Honor widows who are REAL widows." What constitutes a REAL widow? A REAL widow is one that qualifies to be supported by the church. It has nothing to do with legal interpretation. Paul lists 5 qualifications for a REAL widow:

1. She must be without human support. If a widow has any relatives, they were to support her. Remember in that day there was no social security, retirement pensions or retirement homes. The presence of those things today should not negate our responsibility to the older members of our family. To Paul, any believer who would not take care of a relative who was in need, was worse than a un-believer.
2. The second qualification for a REAL widow is that she must be a believer with a "faithful testimony". One was not self- indulgent, one not seeking pleasure, but one that has a ministry of intercession and prayer. (Read Luke 2:36-37) Many Pastors will admit that godly praying widows are the spiritual powerhouses of the church. They are the backbone of the prayer meetings, the backbone of visitation and Sunday School teaching. (Notice nothing is said here about men who were widowed.)
3. The third qualification was that she had to be at least 60 years old. A study of numbers will tell you that 60 has a literal meaning which is, "to be enrolled and put on a list." Tradition has it that at age 60, women who were widows were enlisted to minister to the congregation in various ways. Remember Anna, a prophetess who was constantly dealing with the problems of others and Dorcus (Tobitha) and her widow friends who made clothing for the poor in Joppa. Remember that when she died, Peter was called and when he arrived, he found all of her friends standing around talking about all the good things that she had done and Peter said, "Dorcus, arise" and she arose and as the result, many believed at Joppa in the Lord. Spiritual leaders over 60.
4. The forth qualification was that she had to have a good marriage record. The wife of one husband. This did not refer to those who had lost their husbands while they were young and remarried. As we will see, younger widows were encouraged to remarry, but only to one husband at a time. Faithfulness to one's partner was stipulated for Pastors and Deacons and now it is required of wives in order that they may qualify later to be REAL widows.
5. The fifth qualification was a good witness. Jesus described a good witness. "If a person is faithfully serving God, their light will shine and others will see it and glorify God." Thus a REAL widow was one that was serving God. Note the areas of service that were open to her:
   1. Caring for abandoned children.
   2. Hospitality. Travel in those days was very dangerous and accommodations were almost impossible to find so widows would open up their homes to Christian travelers. Often she would wash their feet and feed them.
   3. She was active in feeding the hungry.
   4. She cared for the sick.
   5. She gave encouragement to the sorrowing.
   6. She counseled the less wise.

In return, these REAL widows were cared for by the church, but as you can see, they gave much more than they received.

To Young Widows

There is much that can be said of this scripture and much that has been said. Paul, led of the Spirit, wrote these words of instruction regarding what the churches responsibility should be or should not be, to young widows. Before we look at what he said, lets look at the way some people have responded to what Paul had to say. There are basically three views of why Paul said this:

1. There are those who see a male chauvinist reflecting the opinions of a prejudice generation.
2. There are those who see an old man who may be jealous of the energies and enthusiasm of youth.
3. But we believe that Paul, led of the Spirit, saw what generally happened when a young woman became a widow and determined what the churches responsibility should be and what her responsibility should be for herself.

Because of the times, disease, war, dangers of travel and a host of other things, men often died at an early age and because of this, there were many young widows. Now, here Paul is forbidding Timothy from putting them under the care of the church. Why? Well, if they we were cared for by the church, they would have to take a "pledge". It is believed that widows over 60, real widows, would take a pledge to serve the church in return for the church supporting them. An outgrowth of this was the "Sisterhood" or Nuns in the Roman Catholic Church. This pledge, in essence, married them to the church and if young widows took this pledge and later met someone and want to get married, they would be committing adultery as they were already pledged to the church. So to keep this from happening, they don't pledge and you don't support.

Well, what should the young widows do? Paul says marry and have families. Be fruitful and multiply and rule their household. Life was not easy in those days, children had a high mortality rate, but if Christians do not have children and raise them to live for God, who will???

To its Officers

Considering the wide range of names that the different denominations call their lay leaders, it is difficult to apply this scripture only to Elders. The application is to all "lay leaders" of the church whatever they may be called. At the church at Ephesus, where Timothy was, the lay leaders were called Elders. There were and still is, two groups of Elders. The Teaching Elder is usually the minister and the Ruling Elder is the spiritual Lay Leaders of the church. There is some disagreement among scholars as to whom Paul was addressing this. This question does not need to be addressed for it seems that these instructions can apply to both groups.

Elders were normally older men. Because of Timothy's age, he was having problems with these men who, it would appear, Paul had appointed personally. (Timothy had replace d Paul as the minister at Ephesus.) Acts 20:17-38 record Paul's parting words to the Elders at Ephesus and when we read them, as I hope you will do again, we see why Timothy had such a hard act to follow. It was not Paul's intention to add to Timothy's problems so he wrote these words to the Elders at Ephesus in hopes of doing two things. One, to instruct Timothy in how he should deal with these Elders and two, to bare evidence to them that he had personally sent Timothy and that he had his blessing.

Now notice this about these Elders. They were considered with great honor. Many were full time servants of the church. They served as administrators, and in some cases, substituted for the minister. They had been set apart and ordained for life, by Paul. So Paul instructs Timothy in three areas on how he should deal with these men.

1. Their pay or recognition. Paul says that these men should be paid on the basis of their ministry. Christ said that the laborer deserved his wages. If these men were faithful in teaching and leading these people, they should receive "double honor". Another translates "generous pay", another, an "honorarium". This can be in the form of money or simply acknowledgement. So to Timothy and to the church, Paul says that these men deserve some form of recognition.
2. Their discipline. Now, what about those who "back slide"? Paul says that the church and the Minister still has an obligation to them. If an Elder is believed to be involved in some evil, Paul gives these 3 instructions:
   1. Make the charge in the presence of two or three witnesses. Never discuss reported evils behind the back of the accused or in secrete without witnesses.
   2. If the accused is found guilty, he should be rebuked before the other officers and given an opportunity to repent. Always remember that the purpose of discipline is to restore not to revenge.
   3. If he repents, he should be forgiven, the matter settled and should never be brought up again. If he persists in sin, rebuke him in the presence of the congregation, as a lesson to all. What form this rebuke should take is not made clear here, but Paul in Galatians says that such a one should be dealt with as one sets a broken bone, with patience and tenderness. Notice one last word of caution on this subject, there should be no prejudice, no partiality, no senior rights as all officers have the same standing in the church.
3. Their selection. Paul says that we should not be hasty in our ordination of anyone. We should carefully and prayerfully investigate all potential church leaders. Why? Second John 10:11 says that if you simply greet a heretic, it makes you a partaker of his sin. So how much more are we guilty if we ordain people who are not qualified and remember well verse 24, the sins of some are not conspicuous but may appear later. Mix this caution with a degree of reality realizing that none of us are perfect, but this should not deter us from seeking those who are best qualified in the selection of our church officers.

So the churches responsibility to its officers is three fold, pay well, discipline in love and select carefully.

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