ReNEWed COVENANT Ministry

SABBATH BIBLE STUDY

4-29

(2020)

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

Part 5

(A Bishop, the Devil and The High Calling) 

Chapter 3:1-11

 

A Creed
of
1 Timothy 1:15-17

This is a faithful saying,
and worthy of all acceptation, that:
Christ Jesus – came into the world
to save sinners;
Of whom – I am chief.

Howbeit
For this cause – I obtained mercy,

That- In me first
Jesus Christ
Might shew forth – all longsuffering,
For a pattern – to them
Which should hereafter – believe on him
To life everlasting.

As He is: King:
Eternal,
Immortal,
Invisible,
The only wise God,
Honored and glorified
forever and ever
Amen

---

 

1Ti_3:1  … If a man desire the office of a bishop (epi-scope) , he desireth a good work.

1Ti_3:2  A bishop / Overseer then must be:
1. blameless, G423 an-epi-lēptos in the ABP as unassailable. lit. means “not over taken”.

2. the husband of one wife

3. vigilant,
4. sober,
5. of good behaviour,
6. given to hospitality,
7. apt to teach;
1Ti 3:3
8. Not given to wine,
9. no striker,
10. not greedy of filthy lucre;
11. but patient,
12. not a brawler,
13. not covetous;

1Ti 3:4-6
14. One that ruleth well his own house,
a. 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?)

1Ti 3:6  b. Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.

1Ti_3:7
15. Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

1Ti 3:11
16. Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things.

 

So, last week we had taken an in-depth look a the meaning of ‘the husband of one wife’, or literally ‘Having his owe wife that he is the husband of’, both in the character of the wife prior described in Chapter 2 as well as the possibilities of a divorced man desiring this office of Bishop, and of the various ways the bible ordains divorce at times when it is the best option to preserve the Gospel preached, yet only occurring in a time before conversion or at a time of unequal marriages either in terms of faith or in terms of adulteration.

So I had ended in showing how this elder man, at the time of his desiring of the Oversight, must be an unassailable man ‘Having his owe wife that he is the husband of’ in the present tense of the statement, this is a to say at the very time he desires the office and the office is available he is conformable to these simple and organic requirements which indeed have their roots in the Law of God, as we had read time and time again in our prior bible study of Church Government.
I believe the very introduction of the Septuagint Greek word Episcope or Bishop as we say it to day is a defined appeal to the Law of God as is found stated by Moses, simply and already, it is known that the ‘office of Bishop’ was filled by an Elder from the Presbytery, that is an Elder man who has a wife or wives and children by which he is called the Elder father of. This is not a collage degree, where so long as you have the paper work you are eligible for the office, nor is it a democratic post wherein you are voted to sit in. Rather an Overseer is taken from among the provably Faithful Elder men of the  natural presbyter of a people- Israel, the Old men that believed in YHWH by Faith, that followed Moses Law by Faith and who perceivably love YHWH and His salvation and had faith in his lawgiver.
It was to these faithful old men that Moses laid upon them the charge according to :

Deu_1:13  : Take you wise men, and understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers H7218 /heads.
Deu_1:15 So I took the chief of your tribes, wise men, and known, and made them heads (LXX leaders : hēgeomai) over you, captains (heads) over thousands, and captains over hundreds, and captains over fifties, and captains over tens, and officers (Scribes/ Grammataus) among your tribes.
Deu 1:16  And I charged your judges H8199at 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.

These are the same of Exo_18:21-22, who are: Able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and placed over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens:  these judged the people at all seasons:

And then what we read again in Num 1 , which is about a 1 year long establishment of Exo_18:25-26 , this system has been established for a year, now with the addition of the revelation of the workings of the tabernacle, but it is at this time that sufficient organizational time has elapsed to show forth the “SUM” or Over site the Episcopate of the people in fact and in time:)

Num_1:2  Take ye the sum (Archon, Head, the person) of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers (LXX ABP patrimony G3965) with the number of their names, every male by their polls (skulls);
Num 1:3  From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel: thou and Aaron shall number G1980 them by their armies.
Num 1:4  And with you there shall be a man of every tribe; every one head (Archon, Head the person) of the house of his fathers.

And so before pressing into this subject of Timothy’s Overseer, we need an absolute endorsement of the Law of God’s meaning of Overseer, as a family Head Judge and Numberer.
Thus this Husband of 1 wife, and this man who can ‘rule his family well’, is exactly that, a family patriarchal ruler, one who stands or presides over his own house and children particularly expressed in:

1Ti_3:4-5 ABP
[ His own house well standing over [2childrenG5043 1having]G2192 inG1722 submissionG5292 withG3326 allG3956 seriousness;G4587
1Ti 3:5  (and ifG1487 G1161 anyG5100 [ knows not how his own house],G3756 G1492 how to stand overG4291 [how the church of GodG2316 1shall he care for]?
In other word, everything from this man who is presently in possession of a family of wife and children are known by his:

3. vigilance,
4. sobriety,
5. good behavior,
6. hospitality,
7. aptness of teach;

All point to the raising of his family, his children and his wife as part of the way elder men of the presbytery are weighed out and measured as to fill the role of the Overseer or Number of a greater unit of his extended family as we see in th Law of God.

The fact that the Bishops office is an office filled by an elder of the Presbytery presumes in its lawful usage a man with a standing in his own family, which will a test to his :

3. vigilance,
4. sobriety,
5. good behaviour,
6. hospitality,
7. aptness to teach;

and that he is
1Ti 3:3
8. Not given to wine,
9. not striker,
10. not greedy of filthy lucre;
11. patient,
12. not a brawler,
and
13. not covetous;

and to assure that this is so is encouraged to also have a testimony of his knowledge of the Law and Gospel, in not being

1Ti 3:6 “Not a novice”

as to protect him, the Elder man, from being lifted up with pride as to not fall into the condemnation of the devil.

Thus even those outside of that family should be consulted to see if :

1Ti 3:7  he have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

Now notice these  last 2 mentions in verses 6 of not a novice or a newbie and of 7 that those who are outside of the immediate family of children and wives, and even maybe even beyond the family circle entirely are consulted for a similar reason:

a. “lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.”
and
(15.) b. “lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.”

The devil is a tricky subject, we believe in a spiritual being called the devil and Satan, who is the great dragon , that old serpent… and we know he has the purpose of deceiving the whole world, and we know that he is the spiritual force of evil in the world which comes by deception only, he has no real power of himself, he has no deity as some falsely presume, he has no power outside of God’s LORDSHIP, he simply is allowed to do what YHWH God allows him to do.
And knowing he is liarr and a deceiver and a false accuser – his purpose as an agent of deception, aswe see in verse 6: “being lifted up with pride”, and this was the pit of the man to ‘fall’ as to trip into in regards to his judgment as a judge, not that it was not avoidable if better Godly judgment from the Word of God were used, but that the man’s own weakness of will in self judgment works with the one who is able to take captive by his will in being proudly condemning .
So being lifted up and proud of his position as an Overseer and having having not enough knowledge and wisdom in the Law and Gospel that he is deceived by his ‘standing among the church’ that he falls of or by the devil in this way… in the Greek the understanding is not conveyed in the KJV clearly as the actual reading is

” being proud [2inG1519 3judgmentG2917 1he should fall]G1706 of theG3588 devil.G1228

And so the Judgment is the ‘devils’ and it is the deceptive and deluded judgment that is condemning of others, as if he has fallen into a pit of self judged condemnation, and thus the use of this novice judgment is the use of the devils lying deceptive judgment that is a pit others will suffer from who are under him, but most importantly that he will suffer from in his spiritual growth.

Likewise we also have 1Ti_3:7
b. “lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.” which comes as a repercussion of Not having a good report or testimony of those out side of his immediate family that is his brethren, probably even extending as those out side of his brothers and sisters as such language would indicate from a comparison to the Laws family usage of such Greek terms:

Deu_25:5  If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband’s brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband’s brother unto her.

And so a loose example of without the family of a head of house shows that this speaks of those who are outside of the confines of the kindred family, and in 1 Timothy’s context outside of the family he is to have rule or standing among, which is his immediate family of sons and daughters as well as those brothers he is close to.
And so what is the snare he may fall into?
Well, this to is still that of the devil, and so it is the devil’s same deception trial, and that which involves the judgment, but in this case it is not as much attributed to pride as it is to a novice but to that of score the outsiders would accuse him of perhaps from his person known to him at any given time, which has a more immediate leading into the devils trap as this scorn or reproach he is known for be something that one may accuse him of.

It is also appropriate to say that the devil works through the deception, and man’s deception of judgment, especially in condemnation of others is a slander of that man’s person. While we fully know that men who are outside of the family of God, born into a Christian cultural family or not, those unconverted persons have no moral prohibition to slander another, especially a man who is thought to be a ‘blameless’ man, a vigilant man, a sober man, a man of good behavior, and hospitable, and especially one who can teach the doctrine of repentance they cannot hear and rather hate or else they would turn to it.
Thus, the affront to the man from the outside will come by devilish human’s , slanderers, as accusers of the brethren, and it is to the unassailable man’s defense is aided in that he has outsiders of his immediate family and of those of the general population he lives among that God has given him favor in their sight. (Joseph, David , Daniel and so forth).
And so it is established by record that not only in Christian verity and morality, that is in the good works of the Law God this man has a good reputation in answering to being as

Exo_18:21 in conformance with these general abilities, as an ‘able man’ having a God fearing, truthful hatred of Covetous that allows them to be satisfied with their own:

1. Purpose and 2. Nature
and not men of Covetousness

Deu 1:13  wise men, and understanding men, who are known among your tribes, able to be preside over the church of God.
those who can “Hear the causes between brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger.
Deu 1:17  to not by novice condemnation respect persons in judgment; but rather be ready to hear the small as well as the great; to not be afraid of the face of man insomuch as he is the steward bearing in his mouth the judgment that is God’s: one who knows his limitations of knowledge and judgment and is not puffed up, and thus willing to say there are causes that are too hard him, whereby he shall bring it unto judgment to be heard.
Therefore, it is for this high calling an Overseer of the Church of God must be:

8. Not given to wine,
9. not striker,
10. not greedy of filthy lucre;
11. patient,
12. not a brawler,
and again
13. not covetous.