1 Timothy 5:17-19

     In chapter 5 verse 17, Paul continues to tell Timothy advice that that he need to help his church.  Paul tells Timothy in verse 17, "Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching."  Paul told Timothy in verse 1 of chapter 3 that elders seek a "noble task." Elders are called by God to serve the church, to teach and show the light that comes from God. Since they are teachers, they are judge stricter ( James 3:1) because they are teaching the body. They they are not teaching the Word right. They are not teaching the truth, they are not helping the church to grow in Christ. In verse 18 Paul writes, "For the Scripture says, 'You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,'and, 'The laborer deserves his wages.' " The reference that Paul uses is Deuteronomy 25:4 and Luke 10:7. In the first verse, "You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain." is used twice (besides this time), the other time is 1 Corinthians 9:9. When Moses wrote this law, it was a miscellaneous law. In the the Hebrew, it means to stop/cover a mouth of an ox when it crushes grain.  Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:9-10, "For it is written in the Law of Moses: 'Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.' Is it about oxen that God is concerned? Surely he says this for us, doesn't he? Yes, this was written for us, because when the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they ought to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest." Paul is using Deuteronomy 25:4the same way in 1 Timothy 5:18. So Elders should be able to have a share of what they help produce. This is way Paul also writes, " 'The laborer deserves his wages.' " This verse is used in Luke 10:7 after Jesus sent 72 out to proclaim his name. Jesus in Luke 10:5 & 6 is telling them to find a house with a man of peace. In verse 7, Jesus tells them that they are to eat what every is given to them for they deserve the wage for proclaiming his name. The 72 are out to reap a harvest is what Luke said in Luke 10:2. So the elders deserve to share the harvest of believers and to get what they deserve for it.

     The next advice Paul gives Timothy is "Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses." In context with what Paul is writing to Timothy, it makes sense. In chapter 3 of 1st Timothy verse 2, Paul tells Timothy that "overseers (or Elders) must be above reproach." So if they are wrong, there needs to be two or more witnesses to it should that the one did not take it wrong. Deuteronomy 19:15 even says that a person who accuses/charges a brother must have 2 or 3 witnesses. Back then they did not have DNA testing our finger prints. They had to have a witnesses to crimes to even prove people guilty. Deut. 19:18-19 says that false witnesses would receive the same punishment that the person the accused would have been given if they would have been found guilty. What would happen if he would only require 1 person to convict people of crimes? I think that a lot more people would be in jail for doing something they did not do because someone did not like them. The same would happen to elders in the church. A person did not want to believe or disliked what an elder said could get him fired from being an elder.

 

Pray Request:

Please pray from my Grandfather and Great-Grandmother they are both towards the end of their lives and are having a hard time getting around. Please Pray for me as I try to stop my problems with sexual immorality, especially with pornography. This was been the main problem with not doing my Bible Studies every week.

1 Timothy 5:3-16 Widows

This post has been a long one for the making. I have done a lot of searches in the bible about widows. In Exodus 22:22-24, Mosses writes law that tells that anyone who miss treats a widow or fatherless will die and his children will be fatherless and his wife a widow.
     Verse 3 of 1 Timothy says, "Honor widows who are truly widows." Verse 4 talks about how the widow's children and grand-children should give back their mother. In other words to care for her since she cared for them. The more I was thinking about these verses as I looked for other verses, it came to me.  Is not one of the commandments to honor your mother and father (Exodus 20:12)? Paul saw a need to tell Timothy that children need to take care of their parent when they got older. Paul tells Timothy in verse 8, "But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever."  He would not be honoring is mother. They would also would not loving their neighbor as themselves, this breaking the 2nd greatest commandment. So to honor your parents is to help them when they are in need. I see this now because I have a great-grandmother that needs help (please pray for her). Her children take care for here even when they're busy. They know what is wrong with her health and are help her thru these times.
Paul sets a criteria to define a widow. He writes in verse 9-13;

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 busybodies, saying what they should not.

He first says that they must be over 60 years of age. I can only guess that was age where they saw most widows needed help. A wife to one husband to show that they were faithful and cheating on the husband. They also need to show that they are Christians by the way they acted like raising children in the Lord, showing hospitality, washing the feet of the saints, caring for the hurt and did make it feel like a burden to do everything. As I go thru that list of notice washing of the saints feet. There is one story that came to mind when I read that. That story is about serving. Jesus washed his disciples feet after there final meal. John 13:15-16 Jesus tells his disciples to follow his example (also 1 John 2:6) and then tells that not student is about his master.  Jesus served the people he loved. We as Christians need to also. Paul was telling Timothy and now us, that widows need to serve Christ.  Younger widows were not allowed to be part of this group. Paul talks about how the the younger should marry again and not give Satan a chance to pull them away from the church (1 Timothy 5:14-15). Paul tells the Corinthians that the young women and widows should marry if lacking in self-control so they do not fall into sin by lusting (Paul says before this that we wishes that they remain single 1 Corinthians 7:8 & 9).
As I end this post on Widows, I hope that it hit all subjects that need to be hit. I would also like you to pray that I can get doing a regular Bible study for the expansion of the Church and that what I say will be true to the Word of God and not based on the knowledge of men. If I am wrong please comment and I will look in to it and re-post the Bible study.