04-04 08  BCCC Friday Bible Study

1 Timothy 5: 1-25

 

1 Timothy 5:1 & 2 – THE RELATIONSHIPS OF LIFE:

 

The rebuke which clearly comes from love is the only effective rebuke. This 2 verses lay down the spirit which the different age relationships of life should display.

 (1)   To older people we must show affection and respect.

 (2)   To our contemporaries we must show brotherliness.

 (3)   To those of the opposite sex our relationship must always be marked with purity.

 

1 Timothy 5:3-8   - CHURCH AND FAMILY DUTY:

 

The New Testament ethical writers were certain that support of parents was an essential part of Christian duty. It is a thing to be remembered. As in these verses see it, help given to a parent is two things. First, it is an honoring of the recipient. It is the only way in which a child can demonstrate the honor and esteem which are within his heart.

Second, it is an admission of the claims of love. It is love honoring its debt to love. It is repaying love received in time of need with love given in time of need; and only with love can love be repaid.

 

1 Timothy 5:9-10 - AN HONORED AND A USEFUL OLD AGE:

 

When we study these qualifications for those who were to be enrolled as widows, we see that they are indeed the qualifications for the life of every Christian who loves Christ and who loves his fellow men.

 

1 Timothy 5:11-16   - THE PERILS OF IDLENESS: 

 

A passage like this reflects the situation in society in which the early Church found itself.

In any event the perils of idleness remain the same in any age and generation. The best way to avoid worthless, gossiping talk is to pack life with activity and to store the mind with knowledge so that there is always something which is worth talking about. The full life is always the safe life, and the empty life is always the life in peril.

 

1 Timothy 5:17-22 - RULES FOR PRACTICAL ADMINISTRATION:

 

(1)  Elders are to be properly honored, and properly paid. (Exodus 25:4; Luke 10:7)

(2)  It was Jewish law that no man should be condemned on the evidence of a single 

      Witness. (Deuteronomy 19:15).

(3)  Those who persist in sin are to be publicly rebuked. Whatever happens, the Church

       must never give the world the impression that it is condoning sin.

(4)  Timothy is urged to administer his office without favoritism and without prejudice.

       Justice is a universal virtue, and in it the Church must surely never fall below the

       impartial standards which rightly demands.

(5)  Timothy is warned not to be too hasty “in laying hands on any man.: That may mean     

      

04-04 08  BCCC Friday Bible Study    -    2    -

 

       one of two things. (a)  It may mean that he is not to be too quick in laying hands on

       any man to ordain him to office in the Church. A man must give proof that he

       deserves a position of responsibility and leadership. (b) In the early Church it was the   

       custom to lay hands on a penitent sinner who had given proof of his repentance and

       who had returned to the fold of the Church. The Christian fellowship at such a time

       must do everything to help such a man to redeem himself and to begin again. But the

       membership of the Church is for those who have truly and honestly pledge their 

       lives to Christ.

 

1 Timothy 5:23 – ADVICE FOR TIMOTHY

 

This is a text which has much troubled those who are advocate of total abstinence. It must be remembered that this text does not give any man a license to indulge in drink to excess; it simply approves the use of wine where wine may be medicinally helpful.

 

1 Timothy 5:24,25 – THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF ULTIMATE CONCEALMENT:

 

This is a saying which bids us to leave things to God and to be content. There are obvious sinners, whose sins are clearly leading to their own disaster and to their own punishment; and there are secret sinners who behind a front of unimpeachable rectitude live a life that is in essence evil and ugly. What man cannot see, God does see. “Man sees the deed, but God sees the intention.”

Here we are told that we must neither grow angry at the apparent escape of others, nor embittered at the apparent thanklessness of men, but that we must be content to leave all things to the ultimate judgment of God.

 

May God richly bless you!

 

In His Ministry- Zauya Lahpai