ReNEWed COVENANT Ministry

SABBATH BIBLE STUDY

8-15

(2020)

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Compiled by JS LOWTHER
renewedcovenantministry.com
servant@renewedcovenantministry.com

Section II of 1 Timothy

Part 15

(Ruling Elders)

1 Timothy

Chapter 5:16-25

A Creed

of

1Timothy 4:9-10

This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation:

For this cause:

We both labour
and
Suffer reproach,

Because we trust in the living God,

Who is the Saviour of all men,
Specially of those that believe.

1Ti 5:16  If any man or woman that believeth have widows, let them relieve them, and let not the church be charged; that it may relieve them that are widows indeed.

1Ti 5:17  Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine.
1Ti 5:18  For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward.
1Ti 5:19  Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses.
1Ti 5:20  Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.

1Ti 5:21  I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality.
1Ti 5:22  Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure.

1Ti 5:23  Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.

1Ti 5:24  Some men’s sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after.
1Ti 5:25  Likewise also the good works of some are manifest beforehand; and they that are otherwise cannot be hid.

As established it out of the law of God definitively, we have seen Elder men, the old men of the Church unit which we call the presbytery commanded to be not be Rebuke but to be rather entreat as a father, Younger men to be entreated as brothers, Elder women as Mothers and younger women as sisters, both to be entreated with all purity.

We learned of the state of widowhood which can befall either an elder woman of a younger woman
we learn of 2 categories of widows in the church:

Widows with children and progeny and widows indeed 

Widows indeed have no progeny, they rather only have the Lord and his church to help them.

With in the category of a widow indeed we saw Paul speak concerning a widow that trusts in the LORD due to her circumstances of only or monos having the LORD to trust in, because she is a widow indeed, that is truly in a state of chasm or de-void of others to take care of her, as the Greek meaning of the word widow implies to the Greek speaking Ephesians Paul is addressing through timothy as presiding Overseer / bishop, a head judge in need of understanding and implementing the Household Law of God in Faith within the church he rules over.

As we saw last week the Judgment of a Widow is a judgment in righteousness that the LORD takes special attention to, He promises to vindicate her and to arbitrate her cause before the face of the one, especially the Judge  that neglects her void state in the society she is part of.

Within this group of widows indeed, we saw a woman that is also to be treated fairly or with equity, righteously as a widow indeed, yet she show herself to be one who does not have the LORD either to trust in, she is found wanting and in a state all the more chaotic and chasmatic, void in not even having the LORD GOD YHWH as her rock of trust, rather these widow, having no progeny and not trusting in God alone have a tendency to:

• liveth in luxury or pleasure and
• this widow is learning to be idle,
• she is found wandering about from house to house;
• and not only idle, but a tattler also
• and busybody,
• speaking things which she ought not.
• and Paul summarizes this as
  1Ti 5:15  … turned aside after Satan.

Paul is speaking of those women that are widows indeed, when they are younger than 60 years of age, to not be encouraged to be idle by being taken care of beyond measure freely at the expense of others ( the family church, or kindred church, or tribal church (or God forbid as we have it to day) the national church of SS and Welfare), but rather to test this woman’s heart and reigns in commitment to Christ as a Christian by saying:

1Ti_5:14  I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.
Yet Paul’s lesson in total lock step with the Law of God as divinely given by Moses is this:
1Ti 5:8  But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.
and
1Ti 5:16  If any man or woman that believeth have widows, let them relieve them, and let not the church be charged; that it may relieve them that are widows indeed.

Now there is a conciliation of these two equal and loving truths is this:

1. You never abandoned your widow unless she has abandoned her God with her God’s Law, if you have a family member especially, but a relative or relation or friend- a sister in the church of Christ that is not related to you, you as a man of faith are charged to take care of that widow indeed, that is that woman with no one but you as one of the son’s of God who is brother to Jesus Christ.
   One who does not take care of the needs of a widow indeed, as the law demands, helping her find food and shelter and clothing, and if she be under the age of 60 and able to be a suitable helpmeet for a husband, especially of child bearing age, but also of house guiding age which is much later, let the faithful family in Christ do thus.
2. Let them encourage her in remarriage according to the prescription of the Law of God with preference to he husbands family as kinsmen redeemers.
   Also, let the aged women be the inheritance of the family, let her needs fall upon the family of her dead husband in lawful order, that she be loved and cherished by those she has been given in Faith and Family genetics together.

Likewise, we have seen the woman who has progeny: children or grandchildren, those which she has produced- they are the fruit of her body generationally,  remember this simply is that without that widow woman’s womb and labor in child birth the person who is responsible to her would not exist.

The Laws contained and exhorted by Paul:

1Ti 5:8  But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.
and
1Ti 5:16  If any man or woman that believeth have widows, let them relieve them, and let not the church be charged; that it may relieve them that are widows indeed.

To the child or progeny this statement of Paul’s is all the more damning, because at the closest level of genetic identity, that is brotherhood and neighborhood, these children or grandchildren have broken blasphemously the 5th commandment:
Exo_20:12  Honour thy father and thy mother:
their by relinquishing and abhorring the blessings upon the country “that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. ”

As well as abhorring the “fear thy God: YHWH by not:
…rising up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the LORD. Lev_19:32

For in honoring, or valuing the grey haired elder woman who would in this case be your mother or grandmother, or great grandmother, you spit in the face of your fallen fathers and elder who constitute your genetic make up and ethnic heritage.

You are worse than an infidel, you despise the faith of Jesus Christ in preference to selfish pleasure and as worse than an infidel you are cut off from the church and it’s manifold blessings of charity by its lawful order.

This is not an ‘either or’ scenario we are given:

1. It is not the churches job to aid and abed the unlawful life of free loaders, noting in the Law promotes such scenario that is like atrophy of the body, that sets in, destroying itself through idleness.

2. But we are to help the helpless, and be the voice for the voiceless, be strong for those who are without strength, not to aid them in the ease of life to be idle, but to aid them in being Christians who rise to the occasion the LORD God has called them in.

It is always the Churches job to encourage the Household of Faith to be faithful to the Law and the Gospel, to live out the law lawfully, and to give no occasion of reproach to the heathen to speak reproachfully, but rather to teach them in truth and verity from the only source of truth, from the Law which is eternal truth and righteousness and the Gospel which is the only rectifier of our failures thereto.

And so to our final look at this chapter 5 of 1 Timothy, it is said immediately of the heels of:

1Ti 5:16  If any man or woman that believeth have widows, let them relieve them..
that the following is then state, most certainly in connection to it:

1Ti_5:17  Let the elders (πρεσβυτεροιG4245) that rule well…

This statement is so closely linked to family life as covered prior in chapter 5 it must be noticed that this is the section which then extends out beyond the Elder men and younger men, the Elder women and the younger, widows included- that here it reaches out into the churches construction in terms of Presbyterian organized church government.

Here is where we apply some of what has been said in the law and prior concerning the Elders or presbyters, they are the elder men that in fact make up the heads of families in the church units of 10, 50, 100, 1000’s; these are Elder men with life experience, they are fathers in fact, grandfathers in fact.

We see the term “rule well”, which literally means to stand forth, as it was prior used in Greek and represented in English prior in  1Ti_3:2-5 in reference to a Bishop or Over seer where it read in verses

1 Tim 3:4  One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity;
1Ti 3:5  (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)

In this context we can be sure Paul is already speaking of other Bishops or Over-seers / head judges over units of 10, 50, 100’s… who Timothy will have influence on, thus:

1Ti_5:17  Let the presbyters that rule well (the bishops) be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine.

Why Double honor?
This is a multi-faceted statement, it has predominant exercise in the honor prior quoted, as is well known from the 5th commandment as well as the relative elder commandment that says : “Honor thy father” and “honor the face of the old man”, in both instances the same Greek word is used tim-ay or tim-aho, which the ABP translated ‘esteem’, is before all else an organic honor of parents and grandparents which is implied. (I did a more lengthy study on this word and it’s relationship to the 5th commandment and parentage on our study on the Common law of God stud concerning the 5th commandment.)

So what dose it mean to then double this honor, value or esteem?

It is an exhortation for the church to not only honor this man with their reverance and esteem for him as an old man, an aged face and grey head, as a father, but to also respect him for his labors in word and doctrine, yes this is a call to obedience to obey his leadership in the church. Because in a church structured lawfully, this man is to be your father, grandfather, uncle, great uncle – he would be in fact an Elder of your people, of your family and kindred- but more than this honor it is doubled by the Law of God sited from by Paul in 1Ti_5:18

Deu_25:4 …Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn.

And, The labourer is worthy of his reward. – Which is a summary statement of multiple Laws of God that say you pay the one who does the work.

The work that is being done, is done like the ox that is harvesting grain with his farmer driving him along, and the work being done is done in fact, as the labor preformed is to be paid in like, so is the labor done here stated in ‘word and in doctrine’ or word and instruction’ or ‘teaching’ ‘helping others learn’ a payment is payed from those that learn the word and doctrine from this well ruling elder.

In this way these well ruling elders, who are the heads of 10, 50, 100, 1000’s are not like the farmer setting upon the cart being pulled by beast, for are they are not like the one paying the laborer to labor, but rather they are the ox and they are the hireling, and because the do their diligence and rule well in this way, thus they are worthy of a double portion of the honor due them as a father and elder, and this extra portion is of payment in compensation, albeit money or stuff, the office of a Well ruling Elder is to be compensated according the honor he first has by his tiring work in the word of God and it’s lesson given in instruction to the church through his judgment.

With this said, among the lessons most focused on here is the lesson of how to do the work of the LORD as his beast and as his laborer among the widows of the church families, in teaching the proper order and instructing the gentiles in the needed knowledge of faith and verity according to the law of God that is centered in its focus upon the family structure under God and to His total glory.

Therefore in dealing with an Elder of this order as well as of the general order, Paul teaches yet a most important fact, rooted deep in the Law of God:

1Ti 5:19  Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses.

An elder as a man who is and is to be an object of honor by the law is lawfully to be treated according to the Law of God. This is in accordance with his honor he is due, he is not rebuked by entreated as ones own father, and beside this if a church member brings an accusation to the Over seeing Bishop who is a head judge of the higher unit or lesser unit ,depending on the circumstance, this accusation must be lawfully grounded by 2 or 3 first hand Christian witnesses.

1Ti 5:20  Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.

When this Overseer is proven to be a sinner by a diligent inquiry according to all applicable Law, he then is to face the Church unit he is part of and to be rebuked by the presbytery that laid hands on him and ordained him which he serves on behalf of the Lord his God that he may be judged and repent, but most importantly that “others also may fear. ”

Paul says to Timothy as ruling bishop:
1Ti_5:21  I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality.
1Ti 5:22  Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure.

This is yet another quote of the Law of God as one would speak to a judge:
Deu 1:16  And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him.
Deu_1:17  Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God’s: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it.

This is an endorsement of diligent inquiry and the need for keeping order by a lawful use of the Law, I presume that Paul is joking a bit with a serious tone in saying:

1Ti 5:23  Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.
1Ti 5:24  Some men’s sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after.
1Ti 5:25  Likewise also the good works of some are manifest beforehand; and they that are otherwise cannot be hid.

Perhaps Timothy had an ulceration and was in need of help due to many troubles heretofore endured on account of the teachers of fables contrary to the faith of Jesus Christ unto repentance as well as in turning the law into something they had no understanding of.
But the sober judgment Paul is offering is simply states as Moses said it in Deu_1:16-17 , there is a great need for restraint in making quick and ignorant, or uninformed or misinformed judgments which lead to false witness and unwarranted punishment.

Therefore, Timothy as well as the elders and deacons beside him, as well as our selves are reminded that some men are punished in this life and we know why the Lord judged them thus, and others are judged by God in death when we had no knowledge or enough proof to know they were sinners, as well those who are the doers of good works are known to us, and thus we shall know them by their works , for they are manifest by their works; as are those that are manifest by their sins, their works which are otherwise, these can not hid their sin, they are manifest to others by their works which they do openly.