1 Timothy Episode 6: Direction for Shepherding God’s Flock

Paul gives Timothy detailed instructions about the wise shepherding of the local church, especially the proper ministry to men, women, widows, and elders.

- Podcast Transcript - 

Wes

Welcome to the Two Journeys Bible Study podcast. This podcast is just one of the many resources available to you for free from Two Journeys Ministry. If you're interested in learning more, just head over to twojourneys.org. Now on to today's episode. This is episode six in our 1 Timothy Bible Study podcast. This episode is entitled Direction for Shepherding God's Flock, where we'll discuss 1 Timothy 5:1-25. I'm Wes Treadway, and I'm here with Pastor Andy Davis. Andy, what are we going to see in these verses that we're looking at today?

Andy

Well, this is a very practical and helpful study on pastoral ministry. This is part of the epistles that are called pastoral epistles and clearly couched as advice that Paul gives to a young pastor Timothy on some very practical issues in terms of pastoring a local church, including how you deal with different categories of people- older men, older women, younger women, how you care for widows in the church, which widows to care for, and how much to care for them. What are the limits of the church's responsibility, and what is the family's responsibility? Also caring for pastors, elders financially, protecting them from false accusations, and various other key issues. So, this is a very practical chapter, and it's going to be a joy to walk through it with you.

Wes

Let me go ahead and read 1 Timothy 5:

Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity. Honor widows who are truly widows. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God. She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day, but she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives. Command these things as well, so that they may be without reproach. But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

"Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, having been the wife of one husband, and having a reputation for good works: if she has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work. But refuse to enroll younger widows, for when their passions draw them away from Christ, they desire to marry and so incur condemnation for having abandoned their former faith. Besides that, they learn to be idlers, going about from house to house, and not only idlers, but also gossips and busy bodies, saying what they should not. So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander. For some have already strayed after Satan. If any believing woman has relatives who are widows, let her care for them. Let the church not be burdened, so that it may care for those who are truly widows.

"Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,’ and ‘The laborer deserves his wages.’ Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear. In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality. Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others; keep yourself pure. (No longer drink only water but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.) The sins of some people are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later. So also good works are conspicuous, and even those that are not cannot remain hidden.

What does verse one teach about how young men in the ministry should carry themselves toward older men, and how do these verses protect young pastors from behaving arrogantly toward older men in the church and from wrongly refraining from exhorting older members?

Andy

Well, it's interesting. In the Bible, there is a respect given to elderly people, supposed to, in the book of Proverbs, rise in the presence of the aged. There's a certain honor given, and in Asian cultures, Confucius, Confucian teaching, there's definitely respect given to elders, to parents, to grandparents, to great-grandparents. Our society is not that way. We really honor the young and athletic, the young and able, the potential and the energy and all that. And it's young people that have a lot of the most exciting ideas and all that. And you think about our technology, the digital age, it really is the young people that understand that technology better than the older people and are on the cutting edge of that particular aspect of technology. Whereas there's some other older, more developed technologies that the older people know better than younger people, et cetera.

But in our society, we very much honor young people. But the Bible wants the elderly to be respected, to be cared for, to be honored for their experience and their wisdom. And so, Paul commands this young man, Timothy. He says, on the one hand, don't let anyone look down on you because you're young. But on the other hand, respect older people. And so specifically here, don't rebuke an older man harshly. Treat him with respect if you're going to correct him. And older people need correction by pastors, too, but make certain that you do it with dignity and respect.

"The Bible wants the elderly to be respected, to be cared for, to be honored for their experience and their wisdom."

Wes

How can young men treat older women in the church as mothers, and young women in the church as sisters with absolute purity?

Andy

Well, first of all, it's just beautiful, this family language. We are definitely part of the family of God. And how beautiful is that? We've got singles in our church who are not married. They live in cities they didn't grow up in, but they're part of a family, they are brothers, and they are sisters. But we also have this language of mothers, older women being mothers. We have in Romans 16 Rufus' mother who Paul says, “has been a mother to me too.” I don't know why I always picture her feeding him chicken soup. I don't know. It just always comes to chicken soup for me with Rufus' mother, and whenever Paul was in town, she would feed him a good meal or something like that. But there's that kind of mothering, that caring that an older woman can do. And so older men are like fathers, older women like mothers in that they have that ability to speak into your life.

And then the issue with younger women, they are sisters in Christ, but because they're younger and then Timothy also a young man, you've got the whole sexual tension sometimes between the sexes and the need for absolute purity. So, he uses that word purity, which he doesn't use for the other categories. And so, the idea is to guard yourself, make certain that you're careful how you deal with the sisters in Christ, that nothing can impugn your reputation. As Paul says in Ephesians, that there should not be even a hint of sexual immorality. So that would cause some people to follow what some call the Billy Graham rule in terms of travel, in terms of being with women alone, to be very, very careful how you handle that. And people are going to have different ways of approaching that. But we can't get away from the fact that we are sexual beings, and that post fall, we need clothing for covering. There is a shame factor, and there is a need to be very, very careful in this area.

Wes

Andy, why is this church as family mentality so important for elders and church members to have?

Andy

Right. Well, first of all, it's just a gift of God. We're not alone. I think one of the worst things that could ever happen in this life is to be alone, truly alone, to have no one in the world know about you or care about you. I think about people in urban situations living in certain places and there's just, nobody knows whether they come or go, live or die, and it's sad. But if you're in a good healthy church, you're in the family of God, you've got a network of relationships. But the idea here in these verses is you do have that, but there are certain ways to deal with it. So, let's be careful.

Wes

Much of this next section that we'll examine verses 3-16, has to do with clarifying who the church should help and who it should not help, and highlights the limits of benevolence ministry in the church. What distinction does Paul draw between widows who are really in need and other widows in verses 3-8? And what makes a widow become especially needy according to these verses?

Andy

Well, big picture what's going on, for all of what we just said about the church as the family of God, there's still your biological family. That's a real thing. And so, the New Testament doesn't obliterate it, even though Jesus does say, "Who is my mother and who are my brothers? Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother." But that doesn't mean everybody's your biological family. And so there are definitely boundary lines in life, and they focus our attention because we have limited resources- time, energy, money- and we focus in concentric circles of closeness to us. And so, the language here, in verse eight, my translation says, "Immediate family." Do you have a phrase like that at all in verse eight?

Wes

It says, "Especially for members of his household."

Andy

Members of his household. So, this is more of a loose translation. But that language of immediate family, even though it's not in your translation, we know what that means, and it has to do with proximity. There's first and foremost, if you're a married man or woman, your spouse is your number one person on earth, and then out from there, your children, and out from there, perhaps in order, maybe your own parents and your wife's parents or vice versa, your husband's parents if you're a woman, and then maybe your grandchildren. And it goes on from there. And it's concentric circles, and there are responsibilities with that biological family.

So going back to your question, a widow who is truly in need, really has no one in the world, no one to look after her. And he's going to go on beyond that to say, let's make certain that she's also godly. We're not caring for just anybody. Somebody could come along who's a woman who knows how to game the system, work the thing. And she's only recently been connected with the church. Nobody really knows her. The church's responsibility to her will be greatly reduced compared to a woman like a Tabitha who is immersed in the life of the church and has done all these good works. We'll get to all that here in this chapter. But our responsibility is limited based on biological family, and then the widows who are truly in need, don't have biological family, and they are godly women.

Wes

Andy, what more should we understand about family obligations in light of these verses, particularly verse four?

Andy

Yeah. One translation says, "When you care for your elderly parents and grandparents, you're repaying them or making return to them." The idea is, and you know this very well, you have a son, and he's racking up a pretty huge debt. All right, you put some money in that relationship, haven't you?

Wes

Little bit. Little bit.

Andy

It's going to keep coming, I'm telling you, because my kids are a lot older. And it ramps up greatly. And not just money. Money is sometimes the easiest. There is an emotional investment. There's time, there's middle of the night health cares and things that we do, and it's just immense debt. No one has cared for you, if you have godly parents, no one has cared for you as much as your mom and dad. And the verse here in verse four implies you owe them, there's a debt.

And one of the ways you pay it is by caring for them when they're elderly, you repay them by caring for them like the thing flips. Now you're in your heyday, you're in your 40s, you're in your 50s, you're healthy, making plenty of money, and your parents are retired and maybe resources are dwindling on a fixed income. And they have medical needs and all that, and they need to be cared for. And so, there's a repayment. And another way you pay it is by caring for your own children and grandchildren as time goes on as well. But there's this sense of obligation that is very, very clearly taught in verse four.

Wes

Andy, you alluded to some of the moral observations that Paul makes concerning the widows. What are those observations regarding the widows that the church should help in verses 5-6 and really reiterated in 9-15?

Andy

Yeah, it's really beautiful what he says. There are certain widows that just live in open, beautiful godliness. You think about the woman that put in the two little copper coins, and Jesus said she gave more than anyone else, and so she was esteemed highly by God. And then you got Anna at the time of the birth of Christ who was just waiting for the consolation of Israel, and she was godly. And so, you have these women that are frequently known as prayer warriors. They're fountains of wisdom, but they don't have anyone. So again, we're talking about widows in need, but they're morally excellent. They're morally high quality elderly women, and this is a woman that prays constantly that her needs would be met. She puts her hope in God. She's not as later said negatively, living for pleasure. She's not into that whole thing. She just needs food, clothing, and shelter.

She needs basic needs met, but she doesn't have anyone. And so, she's praying, and you can be an answer to her prayers. That's the implication here. Later in verse 9-10, she talks about, or sorry, Paul talks about being known, verse 10, for her good deeds. She's brought up a family, but apparently perhaps the husband's dead, and the children cannot care for her. Maybe they're dead too. I don't know. A woman who truly has no one, maybe her children did die along the way or they're in another part of the world, and they just can't help. But this woman shows hospitality. She washes the feet of the saints, meaning caring for their needs, helping those in trouble, devoting herself to all kinds of good deeds.

So, this is a woman who just lives for God, puts her hope in God; she's a prayer warrior, she's godly, and she has no one to help her. And so, there's a sense of the worthy needy. I know that sometimes suspicious, like Tim Keller in his book on the Jericho Road, and also citing Jonathan Edwards says, "We tend to get into that too much, the worthy needy, do they deserve to be helped." But here it's clear that the worthiness matters. It does make a difference that this is a godly woman who has no one to help her.

Wes

How do we see verse eight being lived out in our society, and what are some of the repercussions of this?

Andy

Yeah, this is a very important verse, and it goes back to the family obligations. And fundamentally, we are responsible to care for our biological family. It's not the church's job. It's not the church's responsibility. It's a weighty thing to care for food, clothing, and shelter for another human being. And the basic way that God has provided that for everyone is their own labor. That is the number one way that you feed yourself is by working. If anyone will not work, neither will he eat, it says in another place. And so here, then, if a person can't work, they're sick, they're infirm, paralyzed, some issue, they're not able to work. Then the next answer biblically is biological family, not the church.

And so fundamentally, we have a responsibility to care for our family to make sure that the needs are met. It's even a criminal issue. If you talk about minor children, infants, whatever, your criminally negligent if you don't meet the physical needs of that little one. But then as they go on from there, we're not criminally negligent, but it's just immoral to not care for your elderly parents, grandparents if they're in need. And so, if you don't, Paul says very strongly and sternly here, you've denied the faith and worse than an unbeliever. So, he's just saying, do not bring your mother, your grandmother, to the church to care for them. If you are an able-bodied man, and you are making an income, that widow's provision is you, not the church.

And so, there's limits, there's boundaries here. The implications for this society-wide is when you have the breakdown of the family, you're going to start having wards of the state. You're going to start having the state need to care for people, the welfare state and all that. One of the fundamental issues is the breakdown of the nuclear family, the husband/wife relationship, first and foremost. Fornication leading to out of wedlock babies is the number one causal factors in the cycle of poverty because there's not this family to care for the people.

Wes

As we began talking about 9-15, a moment ago, we observed some of the character traits of those widows that would be included in this list. What's the relationship between those positive moral requirements that we find in verses 9-14 and Paul's reason for not wanting younger widows to be put on the list?

Andy

Well, we've already talked about the positive qualification. So, the widow is a hard worker. She puts her hope in God, she cares for and has washed the feet of the saints. She's part of the church community, but she doesn't have anyone. She's raised her children. That's the positive aspect. Younger widows don't put them on the list, because, first of all, they're still young enough to marry and have family, and so their heart is divided. They're going to go in different directions. And some of them behave immorally here. I'm not saying everyone does, but some of them, in fact, behave immorally. They, Paul says, "Get into the habit of being idle and going from house to house." So, this is where you have, I think, the church's version of the welfare state I mentioned earlier, where your financial needs are just given to you. You don't need to work, so now you’ve got your day, what are you going to do with it? And in this context, they're idle, and they're going from place to place, and they're talking and they're gossiping, they're being busy bodies, they're saying things they ought not to say, and they're doing damage.

And so fundamentally, if you're able-bodied, man or woman, you've got work to do. So, if you're a woman back in that society, you're going to do household type things, caring for, let's say, other people's children. You could be a nanny, you could be caring for, but you're going to be busy. You're going to be doing productive things. But these younger women, they've got a deep desire. They're still looking for a husband to replace their dead husband now. And it's like, yeah, those younger women probably should just get married.

Wes

Now, Paul says some very challenging things in these observations that he's making in 9-15, so much so that in verse 15 he says, "Some have already strayed after Satan." How should we understand the strength of Paul's statement here, and what he has to say about some of these women?

Andy

First of all, we just need to understand all scripture is God-breathed. Every word of this is coming from God, not Paul. We should not think of Paul as really hammering on women here. What he's saying is some have done this. This is what we've talked about before, Wes, in terms of preaching. It's like, if the shoe fits, wear it. All right, I'm going to describe the shoe, I'm going to lay it out, I'm going to give you the shoe size, I'm going to put it on the table. If it fits your foot, put it on, and be rebuked, be corrected. If this is who you are, stop doing this. If this isn't who you are, I'm not writing to you, I'm not talking to you.

But he says, "Some have done this." All right? Some bring this. He's not saying all women, all young widows do this, but some have, in fact, verse 15, “already turned away to follow Satan.” So, the idea is Satan's active, He's tempting, and there's different temptations. So, for the young women in this category, they're tempted to be busy bodies, be idle, to be chatter boxes, to do gossip and slander and all that. And if you say, "Well, you're characterizing all women that way." No, I'm not. There just are some women that do that.

And you can say, "Well, some men do that too." Well, they have their own verses in other places, and they do get addressed in other places because gossip and slander are not just a woman thing. But here, these are young widows that are doing that. And so, the scripture through God, through the apostle Paul is putting out a set of shoes, and if they fit, put it on and repent. I think that's the call here.

Wes

 I think he also wants them to feel the weight of making sure that these things are handled properly in the church, especially as he's writing, as we talked about this being a pastoral epistle. He wants Timothy to receive this and feel the weight of thinking well about these topics in the life of the local church.

Andy

And behind the gender and age, is the thing itself of gossip and slander, and how deadly, how destructive the tongue really is. James calls it a restless evil, full of deadly poison. And then in Romans 3, so many of the sins listed in Romans 3 focus on the mouth. Their throats are open graves, their tongues practice deceit, the poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. That's all talk. The tongue is a forest fire of evil. It just sets things on fire. So male or female, young or old, do not gossip, do not slander. You're destroying people's reputations.

Wes

Now in verses 17 through the end of the chapter, Paul turns to this idea of ministering carefully with elders and prospective elders. What do verses 17-18 teach us about elders and their relationship to the church?

Andy

Well, this is dealing with, I think also because the clear teaching in 1 Corinthians 9 with the same Old Testament scripture, "Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain," he's overtly talking about paying for gospel ministry in 1 Corinthians 9. Those who preach the gospel should make their living from the gospel. And so also here, though it's not as clear here, I think it's still kind of obvious, the food image, the ox is not muzzled so it can eat some of the grain. And so, it just has to do with provision.

So, the elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of a double honor. First, the honor of being an elder, a leader in the church. And second, the honor of being paid for the work. It is an honor to receive money for doing the ministry. And I like how it says the elders who direct the affairs of the church well, I mean, let's make sure they're skillful and do what they do well. So, make sure that you're providing for the elders and caring for their needs. Verse 17 also is interesting in that I think the Presbyterian church sees a division in types of elders that are the ruling elders, and you have the teaching elders, and I don't see that distinction. I think every elder needs to be able to teach.

But there are some that are called vocationally to full-time in doing both, actually. In our church they do both, those that preach and teach also with their other brother elders do the ruling, the leading. And so, in any case, I think, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching, they are not to be burdened by having to make a living. The bi-vocational. I understand there is value from time to time to bi-vocational, but I really look on it as a transitional state. It was for Paul in Acts 18- as soon as some came with money from the churches in Greece, he was able to stop tent-making and give his full attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.

So, I would say just like in Act 6 where it says it's not right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God nor to wait on tables, I would say it's not right for those who have that calling to neglect their calling of preaching and teaching so that they can earn a living for their family. Instead, the church should support them. And by the way, let me say one more thing. Practically, all right, if you're bi-vocational and you're working a 40, 45 hour a week job, maybe a little more, when are you going to write your sermon? Let's just say you have a Monday through Friday, 8:00 to 5:00 job. Let's keep it simple. All right. You get home, let's say you have a family, you're going to have a family dinner. You spend some time with your wife, help the kids, put the kids to bed. It's about 9:30 on Tuesday night and you got to preach on Sunday. So, you're going to work a little on your sermon until you go to bed. All right? And so, times five.

Then the weekend you're going to spend most of your Saturday working on it or it's not going to be a great sermon or you're a prodigy. I mean you got to work on this sermon, and I don't think you can do anything else for the church. I don't know. You can't do counseling, evangelism, other things. You just got to write that sermon, get that thing ready. Meanwhile, you're not really spending Saturday with your family. The kids are available, but you're not. It's hard to do. That's why I advocate the benefit of paying those whose full-time work is preaching and teaching.

Wes

Why is verse 19 such an important verse for the protection of elders in a church? And how does verse 20 limit the authority then of elders?

Andy

Yeah, do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it's brought by two or three witness. Now first of all, we need to realize that's not unusual, that's the normal pattern, but it's singled out here and that it's mentioned specifically. Oh, this is an accusation against an elder, we need to be careful here. The two or three witness thing was true anyway, but we're not just going to listen just because somebody says that an elder did this or that wrong. And so, I think the idea is, first of all, I think we need to recognize elders are uniquely the focus of satanic attack. And as we said earlier, gossip and slander can be one of the number one satanic attacks. I actually think it's frequent. A lot of times. I remember I was hearing about a church years ago in which, this friend of mine was talking about this, he said on Sunday afternoon they would all go home and have roast pastor for Sunday dinner.

And what it is, they're just slicing and dicing the guy, they're criticizing him, and they're being negative a lot of gossip and slander. So, the point here is like if you have an accusation, fine, elders do sin, and they can and should be removed. They should be disciplined if they sin. But the accusation needs to be handled with special care and make certain that it's true. Because it is very likely, I mean, how gossiped against and slandered was Jesus or Paul? Paul openly talks in Romans 3 about being slanderously reported as saying, let us do evil that good may result. We don't teach that, but people say we do. So, it's very common for godly leaders to be slandered and gossiped against. And so don't listen to it. I'm not going to entertain that.

So, apart from the formal level, at the informal level, church members should be like wet wood when it comes to the fire that's trying to spread. You're bringing this story, it's like, I'm going to stop you right there. Don't do that. If you think that our pastor did something wrong, you should go tell him, confront him or deal with him or deal with all. I mean, it needs to be done properly. So, unless, if this is just some unsubstantiated rumor, I'm not going to listen to it. I'm going to stop you right there. So that's what “do not entertain an accusation,” means at the personal level. I'm not listening to it.

Wes

And then how does verse 20 limit the authority of elders?

Andy

Yeah, well, they have to be rebuked publicly because they're public figures and probably their sin is a public sin. And so yeah, they're not immune. So, it's not like anything goes, like you're one of these medieval popes, and you're untouchable. So, it's humbling. I mean, we are sinners and there are going to be times that we need to be rebuked or corrected or perhaps even removed from our office or maybe even disciplined entirely from the church because human beings, and we sin. So fundamentally that's a check and balance against pastors thinking they're above the law.

Wes

What does verse 21 teach us about angels, and what does verse 21 warn Timothy about?

Andy

Yeah, the phrase is elect angels. So, the idea is there are elect angels, and the clear implication is that there are non-elect angels, reprobate angels, I suppose, and those would be demons. And I think the idea is before God ever created both angels and humans, he chose some for glory and others for damnation, honestly, to be punished in the lake of fire. So, the non-elect humans get the same punishment as the non-elect angels. He says, "Look, I'm charging you in the sight of God and the good angels," I would say, the holy angels, we could say, "To keep the instructions and the charges I've given you here without partiality. So just follow the things that I've been saying to you."

Wes

What's the laying on of hands in verse 22, and how does it relate to 1 Timothy 3:6?

Andy

I think it's ordination, the idea of establishing a man as an elder and he says, "Don't be hasty in doing it. You’ve got to take time." And this is very important actually, for a thing that I went through. I was until recently a trustee of the International Mission Board, and one of my concerns was to make certain that missionaries all over the world were planting healthy churches. And essential to planting healthy churches is leadership development, an elder pipeline, men that are being trained and groomed in the target people group to eventually lead the church. It's foundational to the work that the church planting missionaries are doing. Well, one of the problems has been in a zeal to rescue people from hell, some people, not most or all, but some people have chosen to cut corners and say, "We don't have time for this. We don't have time for that. We don't have time for the other. We don't have time for a highfalutin doctrine. We don't have time to debate predestination. We got to save souls.” That's the language you hear.

"Essential to planting healthy churches is leadership development, an elder pipeline, men that are being trained and groomed in the target people group to eventually lead the church."

The problem is they start to cut corners on the actual great commission, which says, "Teaching them to obey everything I've commanded." And they tend to cut corners on planting healthy churches, which involves shepherding, involves family ministry, marital counseling, parenting, instructions on parenting, dealing with money, just all the nitty-gritty details of healthy church life like in these pastoral epistles. The mentality is we don't have time for that. We need to plant as many churches as possible. They even talk about rapid, explosive church planting movements. They like to, it's kind of an almost grotesque image, but plant pregnant churches. In other words, as soon as the church is planted, they're ready to plant a church too.

And it's like, well, this verse at least says, "Do not be hasty in laying on hands." It's like we're going to slow down. So, this is a bracketing verse with also 2 Thessalonians, which says, "Pray that the word of God may spread rapidly and be held in honor." It's like, oh, that's a giddy-up verse. That's a speed-up verse. But this is a slow-down verse. So, it's like, okay, balance. You got to balance. We're not dragging our feet, but we also are not going to be hasty in laying on of hands. We want to make certain that the man that's going to be an elder is mature and ready to take that responsibility.

Wes

And do we learn about wine from verse 23? And how might this be a good balancing verse for those who think that the drinking of any kind of fermented beverage is sin?

Andy

It is. And that also, Jesus is changing water into wine, but don't drink it. It's like, what is it, a decoration? I was at the wedding at Cana in Galilee. It's like pretty clearly intended to be consumed. Jesus, he was talking about John the Baptist didn't eat very much, locust and wild honey, and didn't drink, but the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and drinking means drinking wine in context. If you're just going to do contextual work, he's like, "He's clearly saying he drank wine."

But they slanderously said, "He was a glutton and a drunkard." Which he never was. So, the idea here is that it cannot be said that drinking fermented beverages is intrinsically evil. However, it's consistently presented in the Bible as a blessing that's dangerous or what I call a dangerous blessing. It can with some people who lack self-control, grow to be a monster that takes over the family, it takes over everything. It's a jealous god in that person's life, male or female, in which the person just cannot get up out of the habit of getting drunk. And so, it's a dangerous thing.

Now, in this particular case, I think the implication is that the water wasn't the best. All right, you go to the well or the little muddy stream where the animals are, and that's the water source. I don't know that they understood pre-, was it, Pasteur,or whatever about little microbes. It's like amoebic dysentery and different things are happening. It's like, tell you what, why don't we just stay away from water entirely? The alcohol in the wine would kill all those nasty little things, and it was a little safer. So maybe you're having some stomach problems, some GI issues because of the water. So, let's be careful about what you take in.

Wes

How would verses 24-25 have helped Timothy to do his ministry, and what final thoughts do you have for us on this chapter today?

Andy

The sins of some men are obvious, everybody knows, they're just conspicuously evil people. They sin with a high hand. Another verse or image gives, it's like they have no fear of God. They flout their freedoms. And it's like anybody who knows the Bible, anybody who knows God's morality knows it's just a matter of time. And their sins are just, the stench of the way they live their lives reaches judgment day before they ever get there. That's the image. It's like they get there ahead of them, but others sin more subtly, more secretly. They trail behind, and it's only on Judgment Day that they're going to be exposed. So fundamentally, however, Jesus says, "There's nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known." It is true that some conspicuous sinners, everyone knows they're evil, and they're going to be judged, and they will be.

It's not like, "Oh, no, no, no. Everything's topsy-turvy." Those wicked people, we're going to find out they're actually greatly honored in heaven. No, they're going to be judged. But there are others that you didn't really know what was really going on, and there are some secret sins that were trailing behind. And the same way it happens with good deeds, there's some people that are just lavish in good deeds and when they die, you get a sense, like in Pilgrim's progress, there's like an angelic cohort that goes down and escorts them into the celestial city. They're just such great people. And then there are others that, like the widow with their two copper coins, you didn't know how good they were. You didn't know how faithful they were. And you'll find out on Judgment Day. So, to me, it's an exhortation to urge everyone toward good deeds and to trust God to reward them. Yeah, it's a great chapter, lots of practical insights, and I'm grateful that the Lord gave it to us through the Holy Spirit.

Wes

This has been episode six in our 1 Timothy Bible Study podcast. We want to invite you to join us next time for episode seven entitled, The Eternal Danger of Loving Money, where we'll discuss 1 Timothy 6:1-21. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys Podcast. And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.