According to what Paul said in chapter 3 vs 15, he is writing this letter to Timothy “so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.” Now that should be of importance to all of us, and I assume by your presence here today that you too are interested in how you should conduct yourself in the household of God.

And that the church is likened to the household of God I think is the key to understanding these verses. He is speaking of the church body as being the family of God. A family should be known by it’s love for one another. That’s the hallmark of a good family, they love one another. They respect one another. They submit to one another. They help one another out. They are concerned for one another. And according to the Biblical standard, one doesn’t grow out of that family. The commandment to honor your father and your mother doesn’t have an expiration date on it. I’m sure those of you that are parents continue to love and be concerned for your children even though they are grown and may have children of their own. And I’m sure that all of us that have living parents continue to love them and care for them.

That model of the natural family is the illustration of the spiritual family that we belong to if we are Christians and a part of a godly church. In many cases, our church family has even replaced our human family, perhaps due to the rejection that we have suffered from our family as a result of our coming to the Lord. I think that was often the case in Paul’s day, especially among Jewish converts who found themselves ostracized by their unconverted Jewish families.

So our conduct in the church towards each other is that all is to be done in love, as if those in the church are our fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters. And to that effect, Paul gives some practical advice how that love for one another should look. He says in vs 1 and 2, “Do not sharply rebuke an older man, but [rather] appeal to [him] as a father, [to] the younger men as brothers, the older women as mothers, [and] the younger women as sisters, in all purity.”

Paul is speaking primarily to Timothy, but indirectly he is speaking to everyone in the church. And we are all to have this familial type of love for one another. There is a bond that you have with your natural family, I’m sure. No matter how your paths in life may separate you, there is still nothing like being able to pick up the phone and talk to your mother or one of your siblings. There is an acceptance and freedom and love in those relationships that is essential to our well being. My mother has been dead for about 5 years now, and I still find myself sometimes wanting to pick up the phone and call her. She may not have always been the perfect mom -though I don’t think that anyone can be the perfect mom or dad – but nevertheless she was always interested in what I had to say and willing to listen. That kind of love should be characteristic of God’s family as well.

In regards to rebuking older men, upon further study we find that the ancient Greek verb for rebuke is not the normal word for “rebuke” in the New Testament. This is the only place this word is used, and it means literally “to strike at.” So basically what Timothy was being told was not to lash out at older men, but to treat them with respect as he would his own father. In fact, the idea behind “appeal to him” means to take him aside. The issue is not whether or not the pastor should rebuke an older man. We are told elsewhere, such as in Titus 2:15, “Rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you.” Now that is the more common word for rebuke, but the idea is clearly stated that there are times when people are to be rebuked. But in the case of older men, don’t lash out at them but treat them with respect and honor.

And just for reference, Timothy was probably around 32 years of age. So an older man would be someone perhaps 60 years old or older. If you’re younger than 60, it’s ok to lash out, I suppose. I’m kidding, of course. But I must admit I have always had a certain degree of jealousy for some of our Old Testament models of leadership who didn’t seem to have a problem administering corporal punishment.

For instance, I’ve always admired Nehemiah when he found out that the sons of Israel were marrying the pagan women from around the region near Jerusalem. And he said “So I contended with them and cursed them and struck some of them and pulled out their hair, and made them swear by God, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor take of their daughters for your sons or for yourselves.” I’ve always been a little jealous of the fact that Nehemiah was able to slap and pull the hair of people that were disobedient. I wonder if that would be effective today. I kind of doubt it.

In fact, Paul warns us not to lash out against those men that are older, but treat them like you would treat your father, and younger men as brothers. I’m going to take exception to the brother part and try to treat younger men better than my brother and I treated one another. We fought constantly our entire childhood. And even today, if we get together for more than 10 minutes we will be arguing so heatedly my wife is afraid that we will come to blows. But ideally, treat younger men as brothers. Maybe the idea there is to treat younger man in the church like an older brother who takes his younger brother under his wing and teach them the essentials of life.

And then Paul adds in regards to older women, treat them like you would treat your mother. Or at least, like you are supposed to treat your mother. You show them respect, honor them. Listen to them. You know, the fact is, a lot of us probably had parents or family relationships that were far from perfect. A lot of us wish that we had a godly mother that could have set the right example, that had a sacrificial love for her children, that gave wise advice. The hope is that in the church, you might find such a person who could be the godly mother, or godly father, or big brother or sister that you never had.

I think this is what is missing today in the church. We all know that we are told the characteristic of the church is that we are to love one another. But we don’t know how that is supposed to look. To be a godly mentor, a godly big brother, or a godly mother to a young woman who may not have had a good mother in her life, that’s the practical way that you love one another. It doesn’t mean that you have to have a one on one Bible study with someone in order to love them. It may mean that you take a young man fishing, or take a kid surfing, or take some young woman in the church out to lunch, or to a farmer’s market, or any other of number of ways you can practically love someone.

You know, in your family growing up you just kind of accepted what the hand you were dealt and things happened because you lived in close proximity to one another. But in the church, you have to be a little more intentional than that. You might have to plan for it and create an opportunity. But what I think Paul is going to show here in the remaining verses, is that loving one another is a little more practical and concerned with daily needs and activities than what you might think.

The final relationship he mentions is that of young women, whom he says should be treated as sisters, with all purity. In other words, there should not be any concern about a young woman, particularly an unmarried young woman in the church. The same attitude that men would have towards their sister is the type of approach that you should have in the church. Now saying that, I do recognize that young people should ideally be able to find a mate in the church. We are to marry “in the Lord”, that is, we are to marry another Christian, and only Christians. And the pastor has the right to slap and pull the hair out of those who break that cardinal rule. But seriously, I think it’s appropriate for a young man and young woman to meet and marry within the church.

But I think Paul is speaking of impropriety, where a married man, or a pastor, or someone in leadership, is to avoid at all costs any improper conduct towards a young woman. But rather guard such women, as a young man might guard the honor of his sister. And if we look upon those women as our sisters then there should be no impure thoughts, or impure actions. Unfortunately, that has not always been the practice in the church at large. Pastors and other men have sometimes given into temptation and took advantage of these young women and in the process ruined both parties lives as well as the church’s reputation in the world. So above all, a pastor must be above reproach in that area. I said I think last week that for my part, I refuse to counsel a woman without my wife present. That’s just being prudent against gossip, or temptation or just bad appearances.

And then Paul begins to illustrate this principle of love within the household of God by dealing with a subsection of the family that we may not think much about today, but which was very much a part of the family dynamic in his day. But even though we may not have as much of this sort of thing in our churches today, we can still apply the principles to the church family in our age. Paul says in vs3 “Honor widows who are widows indeed; but if any widow has children or grandchildren, they must first learn to practice piety in regard to their own family and to make some return to their parents; for this is acceptable in the sight of God.”

I think it is helpful to understand the historical context in which he presents this principle. In Paul’s day, there wasn’t life insurance, or term insurance in the case of the unexpected death of a husband. There wasn’t public assistance or welfare, or government programs to help the needy. And so as a result, there were two classes of people that were left very vulnerable in that society. One was widows and the other was orphans. Both stood to become financially destitute by the loss of the husband, who was by and large the primary breadwinner of the family. Today that is not as much of a concern. We have programs and insurance and all kinds of government plans to take care of at least most of the financial needs of people that fall victim to the loss of a husband or parents. But there are still great emotional and spiritual needs that such people have that we should be concerned about.

But what Paul is addressing primarily here is the financial needs, which he says should be taken up by any surviving members of the widow’s family. If they have children or grandchildren, then the responsibility to take care of them should fall on them. The principle is that the parents took care of their needs as they were growing up, and now that they are unable to care for themselves, the children should care for the parents. And I think that we are seeing that to a great degree in our society, as people are living longer, but many times require assistance in living in their old age.

So there is a spiritual as well as a physical obligation to care for the elderly. And I would hope that doesn’t mean just handing them over to an old folks home and then forgetting about them. A person needs a lot more than just food and water to live. And additionally, the elderly have a lot more to give that we sometimes give them credit for. I don’t believe that God designed the family to be as split apart and separated as it is today. But unfortunately, economic and social concerns have taken precedence over family unity, and so a lot of young people think that growing up automatically means moving as far away from home as they can get. I don’t think that is God’s intention for the family. But nevertheless, God’s design is for the family members to take care of the elderly or widowed parent.

If you notice in Paul’s original injunction regarding widows, he says “Honor widows who are widows indeed.” Now he wants to define who are “widows indeed.” In other words, in the eyes of the church, who are really dependent widows. He says in vs 5 “Now she who is a widow indeed and who has been left alone, has fixed her hope on God and continues in entreaties and prayers night and day. But she who gives herself to wanton pleasure is dead even while she lives.”

A widow indeed is one who has been left alone, her husband has died, and there are no children or family that can help her. But even in that situation, it’s apparent that she is a godly woman, continuing in prayers night and day, and has fixed her hope on God. The contrast to a widow indeed is a woman who lost her husband, but she is living for pleasure. She obviously has the means to do so and she is not necessarily living for the Lord either. She is living for the pleasures of this world. Paul indicates that she is wanton; that means sexually unrestrained. Such women are not the kind of widows that the church should be concerned with supporting.

Vs7 “Prescribe these things as well, so that they may be above reproach. But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” So these aren’t suggestions, they are commands. And the commands are given so that we might be above reproach in our conduct.

And the principle which is given has a much broader application than simply to widows. I think it applies to everyone. And that is, that a person should provide for those of their household. To not do so, is to deny the faith. That’s a pretty serious condemnation. That condemnation covers dead beat dads who leave their family and don’t take responsibility for their kids. But it also covers any member of the family that has the responsibility to provide for the needy ones in their family and yet doesn’t do so. Paul even goes so far as to say in 2 Cor. 12:14, that “children are not responsible to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.” So even saving up money for their children is a way that we are to provide for our household.

And of course, spiritually speaking, the church should provide for the needs of those of it’s household. That means spiritually providing for them, and if necessary, physically providing for one another’s needs as well. Those needs may be financial, but other needs that people have are just as important, such as companionship, mentorship, and so forth.

Now in the church of Paul’s day, there was such a widespread need for assistance for widows that there was a list in the church that those women were added to, that needed basic food and necessities for living. These women had no other resources for their living expenses other than the benevolence of the church. I can’t say that I have ever heard of that sort of list in churches today. We do sometimes have other type of lists in the church, especially for people that are shut ins. They may not have a shortage of food, but they are unable to get out and do things that they need to have done. So as we look at this, we’re going to look at it but briefly, not because we have the same situation occurring in our churches, but because the principle of caring for one another’s needs is applicable to many possible scenarios.

Paul says in vs9 “A widow is to be put on the list only if she is not less than sixty years old, [having been] the wife of one man, having a reputation for good works; [and] if she has brought up children, if she has shown hospitality to strangers, if she has washed the saints’ feet, if she has assisted those in distress, [and] if she has devoted herself to every good work.” So this is a description of a godly woman, a “widow indeed” which Paul referred to earlier. She was a loyal wife, she has served the church, she has helped others and shown hospitality, and she has generally been known for her good deeds. And, she is at least 60 years old. I think as a general rule people didn’t live as long in those days, and so 60 was considered old. I used to think 60 was old. But now I don’t think it’s quite as old as I used to. But that was their standard of old age in their day. Bottom line, she was an older woman, without any real opportunity for remarriage, with no children, with no relatives, but a godly woman who lived a life for the Lord and depended upon the Lord for her survival.

In contrast to that, Paul speaks of younger widows. Vs11 “But refuse [to put] younger widows [on the list,] for when they feel sensual desires in disregard of Christ, they want to get married, [thus] incurring condemnation, because they have set aside their previous pledge. At the same time they also learn [to be] idle, as they go around from house to house; and not merely idle, but also gossips and busybodies, talking about things not proper [to mention.] Therefore, I want younger [widows] to get married, bear children, keep house, [and] give the enemy no occasion for reproach; for some have already turned aside to follow Satan.”

As a general rule, these younger widows were not to be added to the support roll of the church, because they generally could provide for themselves and could remarry. Paul isn’t condemning young widows for wanting to get married, only observing that some unmarried women are so desperate for marriage and companionship that they don’t conduct themselves in a godly way in regard to relationships.

But a woman doesn’t have to be a young widow or even a widow at all to fulfill the description of “they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle but also gossips and busybodies, saying things which they ought not.” Those who spend much time talking about other people’s lives need to mind their own business get a life of their own. We all need to guard against gossip and being a busybody. I’m afraid a lot of times gossiping masquerades as prayerful concern for others, when in fact some people find it exciting to speak of things that they shouldn’t be concerned about.

Paul was saying though that a young widow who might go on support assistance from the church could end up with too much time on her hands, which leads to being a busy body. If she were to get remarried, that problem would take care of itself. Paul is not condemning any young widow’s desire for romantic companionship; but he insists that it be pursued and expressed in the purity that is becoming to all believers.

Then finally, Paul restates the same principle he has already given twice before. So for the third time he confirms this principle in vs 16 “If any woman (some versions add man) who is a believer has [dependent] widows, she must assist them and the church must not be burdened, so that it may assist those who are widows indeed.” In other words, the first responsibility for support is at the level of the family; then the church is to support the truly destitute who are godly and dependent upon the Lord.

But let me close by reiterating the undergirding principle that I started with this morning. And that is that Christian love is practical. It’s not all about feeling something for someone, or having an attraction for someone. It’s about recognizing various needs of different members of the church and then acting to supply or fill those needs. I would suggest that most of the needs we have today in the church are not financial. Though there may be some financial needs amongst the various church members. But there are also many emotional and physical and spiritual needs that people have that can be fulfilled through Christian love. I would encourage you to pray that God will identify those needs to you as you consider and pray for one another.

Jesus gave us the command to love one another. It’s restated numerous times by the apostles. Three times in John’s gospel we read Jesus’ words. John 13:34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”
John 15:12, “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. … And John 15:17 “This I command you, that you love one another.”

“Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging [one another;] and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” Hebrews 10:24,25

The first letter to Timothy that we are studying is a personal letter to Timothy on the one hand, but it is also scripture, and as such it was meant to be read publicly in the church. And the purpose of that was two fold as well; to give instruction in regards to the qualifications of pastors and teachers in the church, but also to inform the church as to what to expect from a pastor/teacher.

And I think that is very necessary today. I believe that many pastors and teachers are obviously wrongly informed as to what their job is supposed to be, and many people in the church have a wrong view as to what to expect from the pastor. Pastors seem to have the impression that their primary job is to be kind of like the general manager of the church, orchestrating all the various parts so that they work together and present a comprehensive service. And then in addition to that they think that they are to be an entertainer of sorts. They must be witty, be able to get a good laugh now and then from the audience, and able to speak fluently and articulately in such a way as to leave the audience with the vague impression that he said something meaningful, comforting and encouraging, without being insulting or offensive in any way. That’s the pastor’s perspective.

The church people’s expectation is somewhat of a mystery. I think there are as many different expectations as there are individuals in the church. So the pastor in some respects has failed before he starts, because there is no way he can meet the expectations of everyone there. Some wish to be merely entertained. Some wish to hear things which validate their own beliefs. Some wish to be comforted and encouraged in regards to some personal crisis that they are going through. And a few, albeit I believe a very few, desire to hear the word of God, irrespective of whether or not it seems relative to their own particular interests. But above all, most people’s desire is that the pastor be as brief as possible.

I think it is necessary and helpful for today’s audience to hear what the apostle Paul says is to be the primary function of the pastor. Because after all, it is the Lord’s church, and the pastor has been called by God to that role, and God has established certain qualifications for the pastor, and so it’s God’s prerogative to determine what the pastor should do and say. Since God hires the pastor, He is justified in determining the job description for the pastor. And that will serve to inform the congregation as to what they should expect and desire from the pastor.

So Paul has been warning Timothy in the beginning of this fourth chapter about the deceiving nature of false prophets who will arise in the church, and draw away many after them by teaching fables and false doctrine such as asceticism and Gnosticism. Paul’s response to that false teaching was to say that bodily discipline profits but a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, for it offers a promise for this life and the life to come.

So now as Paul instructs Timothy in what a godly pastor is to teach, he begins by saying, “Prescribe and teach these things.” Prescribe is from the NASB, but the KJV and others say “command and teach these things.” Prescribe sounds a little more politically correct. But the emphasis in the original language is a bit more strenuous than that. Paul says in effect that Timothy, or the pastor, is to command certain things to the church. In other words, there is to be no equivocation in preaching these truths. There is to be no watering down of the truth to make it more palatable. These truths are non negotiable. They are not to be emasculated by the current culture. If God says it, then that is enough and it’s to be accepted as the word of God. There is no alternate truth.

And we all know what it means to teach. That means to explain, to expound. The great thing about God’s commands, God’s word is that He doesn’t just give us absolute imperatives without also giving reasons for His commands. Sometimes they aren’t explicitly stated directly afterwards, but when you compare scripture with scripture, and interpret scripture with scripture, then you can usually see the reason for God’s injunctions. And it’s the pastor’s job to teach, to answer the questions why, what, how. To show from correlating scriptures what God is saying in it’s fullness and completeness.

That’s really what I think my job is as a pastor/teacher. Its to be an expositor of the word. To expound the word. To use the common vernacular of the day, to unpack it. There is a lot that can be contained in a single sentence of scripture. And so the pastor is to prescribe the word as a remedy for a certain malady, to command the word as the will of God, and teach the word by explaining it and applying it.

What things is Paul referring he should prescribe and teach? Well, everything that came before verse 11, and even those things which come after. Specifically though I think he is referring to teaching sound doctrine, the principles for godly living, in contrast to the worldly fables and old wives tales that the false prophets were relying upon to keep their audiences attention on themselves. He has emphasized the importance of godly living, which is another way of referring to sanctification, which means to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.

There is a church in the area that on it’s advertising says, “nobody’s perfect.” As in don’t worry, we’re not going to hold you to any standard of perfection. Nobody’s perfect, and we don’t plan on trying to be either. Well, actually, Jesus is perfect. And according to Romans 8:29 we are supposed to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Peter said in 1 Peter 1:14-16 “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts [which were yours] in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all [your] behavior; because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.” So I guess that means we are to be perfect. We may fall short of that perfection, but that is what we are to be striving for, modeling ourselves after. Being holy is not a feeling, but a life style that follows in the footsteps of Jesus. And the path to holiness is through the gate of repentance, not by insolently taking offense at the standard of holiness.

Then there is a seemingly odd statement here by Paul concerning Timothy’s age. He says in vs 12, “Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but [rather] in speech, conduct, love, faith [and] purity, show yourself an example of those who believe.” Now some think that this is an reference to the age of a pastor, as if Paul is concerned about how old or how young a pastor should be. And there may be some merit to one’s age if it is measured by one’s spiritual maturity. But I’ve met some spiritually adolescent 70 year old pastors as well. So their biological age is not necessarily the issue here, but their spiritual maturity is very much the issue.

The word that is translated as “youthfulness” is according to Greek scholars comes from a word that denoted the age of a military male. And you were considered to be of military age up to 40 years in those days. And so he is not talking about a teenager. Actually, it’s believed by most scholars that Timothy was about 30-32 years of age. About the same age as Jesus when He began His ministry. But what he is referencing here is don’t let your relatively young age keep you from being an example to the church. Make sure that your conduct is something that people can look up to.

I just finished saying a moment ago about how we are to be following the example of Jesus in regards to holiness and perfection. And now Paul says that Timothy is also to be a similar example to his church. His life should be one that his people can emulate. Paul says about himself in 1Cor. 11:1 “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.” So as the leadership in the church, Paul says they are to imitate Christ, and in so doing give an example to be imitated by the church.

Now how does the pastor do that? Or how are you to be an example to your children, to your coworkers, to your family and friends? I think we are all called to live godly lives as an example to others, regardless of the role which you are given. So first of all, we follow the example of Christ’s life and conduct. Peter says in 1Peter 2:21 “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.”

I think we have all heard the adage, “do as I say, and not as I do.” Well, that may be the world’s way of teaching, but it’s not God’s way. God’s way is that we teach by example. And the pastor should be a good example of a godly life. But so should a housewife, or a school teacher, or a construction worker, or a father. And the example we should follow is Christ.

Specifically, Paul says there are five areas of your life that should be exemplary. Speech comes first. So much damage is done by speech. James writes a lot about controlling the tongue, which he calls a restless evil, full of poison. Godly speech doesn’t mean that we are mealy mouthed, that we can’t speak the truth, or that we have to say thee and thou and intone some pantomime of piousness. But it means we speak peace and not hurt. We speak love and not hate. Our speech is not a fountain from which flows both bitter water and sweet. You want to be godly? Then start with your speech. Knock off the vulgar, foul language. Stop the angry, bitter language. Take control over your speech.

The second is conduct. Your behavior. Behave as a Christian should behave. Jesus, on two separate occasions, took a bullwhip to the temple and drove out the money changers and sellers of merchandise that were taking advantage of the people. So behavior doesn’t mean you always have to be lovey dovey and limp-wrists. If you want to know how a Christian is to behave, ask a non-Christian. They know how Christians are supposed to act. I can tell you that it’s not in drunkeness, sexual immorality, crude speech, lying, stealing, etc. Model your behavior after Christ.

Third is love. Love is agape love. There are many Greek words for love. Eros is one that means sexual love. Phileo is another which means brotherly love. Agape is the third that means sacrificial love, and that is the word that is used here. Someone explained it this way; eros is take, phileo is give and take, and agape is give. We are called to love with a sacrificial love. That is by the way, the ultimate love in marriage as well. That’s the sacrificial type of love we are to have for our spouse.

Faith is the fourth. Faith here is not a reference to believing in something very, very fervently and then presto, it comes to pass. Some think that is what faith means. And I guess they think that a pastor should be really good at faith, and because of that faith in whatever he says or prays, it will come about. That’s a perversion of faith. Faith in this context is belief in Jesus Christ, in who He is, and what He accomplished, and what He will yet accomplish. So really Paul means the pastor is to be an example of being firm in the faith. All the tenets of our faith are held by him without wavering.

And the final example we are to have is by our purity. This is the perfection we were talking about earlier. I guess we do need to be perfect if we are going to be an example of purity to the church. But purity, while it does indicate the idea of perfection, also speaks of the lack of perversion or corruption. His actions are to be above board, beyond reproach, transparent.

Not to read too much into this, but purity may also speak to motive. A pastor may be in that position for the wrong reasons. Some have obviously used their position to try to gain wealth or fame or for other possible reasons. So being pure in his motives for ministry is important.

Having addressed the pastor’s conduct, Paul now speaks to his ministry. He says in vs13 “Until I come, give attention to the [public] reading [of Scripture,] to exhortation and teaching. Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery.”

The primary job of the pastor is the preaching of the word of God. That is done by public reading of scripture, exhortation from scripture and teaching of scripture. A man who lived during the days of Spurgeon and all the great preachers of the late 19th early 20th century, and had listened to them all, said that the most powerful sermon he ever heard was from the Scottish pastor Alexander Whyte, who simply read through the book of Philippians with only a few words of explanation here and there.

I don’t know that I would necessarily go that far, but I certainly want to avoid the other extreme as well. I visited a multi campus, mega church central office in San Diego a few years ago, and I toured their facility. At one point I was shown a conference table in a room that I was told was for the sermon committee. A large group of creative writers met there to write the message that would be preached the following Sunday. The pastor wasn’t even a part of the committee. He just showed up a day or two before and practiced delivering his lines.

That to me is obviously so far from what God has called the pastor to do as to be ludicrous. But people seem to like it. A more common practice among a lot of pastors is to buy a “canned sermon” or a series of messages from some online source which arrives all prepackaged with power point presentation and witty, whimsical stories and so forth. That’s really popular.

Paul says read the Bible, expound the Bible, give exhortation from the scripture, and teach the scripture. In his second letter to Timothy Paul says, (2Tim. 4:2) “preach the word; be ready in season [and] out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but [wanting] to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

Preach the word, in season and out of season. That’s the verse that God used to confirm my call to the ministry, by the way. Preaching the word is hard enough, but the in season and out of season part is really the most difficult part.

And notice this preaching of the word is what Paul refers to as a spiritual gift that Timothy was given by God. “Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery.” Now that sounds all ecclesiastical, but I think we need to recognize that the presbytery is just another term for elders. So at some point, Paul and some of the other apostles laid hands on Timothy. But that doesn’t mean that the gift of preaching came from Paul or the elders. The gift came from God, and the elders just confirmed it. But it’s the same idea that we see in our ordination services today, where godly men confirm a pastor’s calling.

But much has been said about this gift of preaching, or gift of teaching. I don’t think we should think of that as some special gift of articulation or oratory. It’s not a gift of being a good story teller. A spiritual gift is just the ability or power to do something that God wants you to do. There are times when I don’t feel like physically I can preach. There were a couple of times when I was in extreme pain from needing a root canal and was unable to get it done before Sunday and had to preach when I could barely speak. There have been times when I was dehydrated or something and I felt like I was going to pass out and had to pray for God to keep me from falling out. I’ve had times when I lost my voice right before I was scheduled to speak. But in those times when physically I felt I could not do it, God gave me the strength or the voice or whatever it was I was lacking, to be able to preach the gospel. No one listening was aware of anything miraculous happening, but I knew that God provided the ability I needed to do what He wanted me to do in that hour.

There is a wonderful, godly couple who come to our church whenever they are visiting Bethany. They’ve been coming here for years. And they have an amazing British accent. Not the Cockney kind of accent, but the sophisticated type. And I’ve jokingly said that if I had their accent I could have been a mega church pastor. Instead, God decided to keep me humble and give me a Southern accent. But what that illustrates is that people can think someone has the spiritual gift of preaching just because of how they sound and how the articulate words. But the gift is simply being able to rightly divide the truth and proclaim “thus says the Lord.”

And sometimes, according to 1Cor. 1:26-29 God choses the opposite type of person that we might choose to give that gift to. Paul says, “For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God.” I think that speaks especially of God’s call to pastors. God doesn’t necessarily look for the ex rock star, or ex football star to be who He uses to preach His word. He uses the weak the foolish, to shame the wise.

But Paul indicates in the last verses of this passage, that our gift is not something that we are to become complacent with, but which we are to exercise, to strengthen, to build upon, to practice, so that we might increase it’s effectiveness in ministry. He says in vs15 “Take pains with these things; be [absorbed] in them, so that your progress will be evident to all. Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.”

So pastors are to work on their preaching. We are to study the word, diligently prepare the message from God’s word. In his second letter to Timothy, Paul said, “Study to show yourself approved unto God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.” Persevere in preaching, take pains with it, be absorbed in it, so that you will preach the truth of the word of God, which has the power to save.

And that word of truth that we are preaching is the means of salvation for those who hear. Romans 10:14 says, “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?”

1Co 1:18, 21 says, “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. … 21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”

Saved means salvation, and salvation can refer to the full scope of salvation or any part of it, from justification, to sanctification, to glorification. All are essential parts of salvation. So back in vs 16, when Paul speaks of salvation for those who hear you, he is talking about any and all parts of salvation. For those who have been saved, it is a reference to deliverance from the power of sin. That’s the process of sanctification which we were talking about earlier. About godly living. Being under Bible preaching and teaching and exhortation is the means by which we mature, by which we live godly, holy lives, and the means by which we are perfected in our faith.

And that sanctification is the means by which all of us are able to preach a message that is seen by a watching world, that they may want what we have, which is a new life through Jesus Christ. I hope you will show yourselves as an example of godliness in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity, as you follow in the footsteps of Christ.

I think almost every week as I preach, I somehow find a reason to quote the words spoken by Jesus found in John 4:24 “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” That statement by Christ is closely correlated to another He made in prayer to the Father, which is, “Your word is truth.” And that statement finds it’s consummation in the words of Jesus found in John 8:32, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

Now when He says make you free, He is not speaking of political freedom, or freedom from tyranny, but freedom from the captivity and condemnation of sin. And we have been saying that in our church practice and worship it must be according to the truth of God’s word. Paul has written this letter to Timothy according to chapter 3 vs 15, so that we might know how we are to conduct ourselves in the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth. So when Paul lays out qualifications for leadership, for pastors, for deacons, and so forth, it is a matter of being obedient to the truth revealed by God. There are not multiple ways of doing church depending on the culture you live in, nor multiple ways of interpreting scripture, nor multiple possibilities in regards to pastoral qualifications. There is the truth, period, which we are to adhere to without deviation. Some aspects of church conduct are not stated, but things that are stated are not negotiable.

But now in this manifesto for church conduct, Paul turns his attention to the enemy of the truth, which is apostasy. Apostasy simply means the abandonment of the truth. And that has been something which the church has had to deal with since the very beginning. Paul says it is in the latter days, but he is speaking as if he is in the latter days. The latter days, or latter times is a reference to the church age, which began at Pentecost and continues today, and will come to its conclusion at the second coming of Christ. So Paul was living in the latter days, and we are living in the latter days.

Notice what he says in vs 1, “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.” Now there are two primary ways that you can understand faith. There are maybe more than two ways, but these are the two major ways to understand faith. One is our faith which is believing unto salvation. Believing and trusting in who Christ is and what He has accomplished through His work on the cross. The second way is understanding faith is the faith, that is a reference to the body of truth which we hold and practice. And that is how Paul means it here.

So who is he speaking about here when he says some will fall away? I would suggest that it is people who are at least in some way physically attached to the church. They profess to be Christians. That doesn’t mean that they are truly Christians. I don’t believe that the Bible teaches that a true child of God can cease to be a child of God. So Paul isn’t saying that people who are truly saved have fallen away unto perdition. But they can fall away from the practice of the faith into spiritual and physical shipwreck. But more than likely what he is primarily speaking of here are people who have professed to be Christian but are not really Christians. And because they did not believe the truth so as to be saved, they were led astray further by believing false doctrine, which makes it almost impossible for them to be saved.

And that is the goal of the devil. His goal in purveying false doctrine is two fold; to cause those who are saved to suffer spiritual shipwreck and ruin their testimony, and secondly, to cause those who would possibly come to be saved, to become so deceived by false doctrine, or so confused by false doctrine, that they can not come to believe the truth so as to be saved. That’s why Paul attributes this apostasy to the doctrines of demons. Because the architect of apostasy is the devil and his angels.

Notice the end of verse one, these who have fallen away were “paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.” Jesus said concerning the devil in John 8:44 “You are of [your] father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own [nature,] for he is a liar and the father of lies.” So the architect of false doctrine is the devil. He is a liar and a murderer, and he twists the truth into a lie so as to deceive the world and lead them to destruction.

We should remember that John said in 1John 4:1 that we aren’t to believe every spirit, but we are to test the spirits to see if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. It amazes me how gullible people are. Anything that is said or done in church or in the name of Jesus is automatically assumed to be true and of the Holy Spirit. And yet we are warned again and again in scripture that from within the church false teachers will arise and deceive many. And yet some crazy thing happens in a church building that you can not find even suggested in scripture, like angel dust falling from the rafters, or being slain in the spirit, and automatically people attribute it to a great work of the Holy Spirit. It’s a spirit alright, just not the Holy Spirit. It’s evil spirits, doctrines of demons and deceitful spirits at work in the church.

Now these spirits make use of men who speak their lies. These men are false prophets, false teachers and preachers in the church. Look at verse two, “by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron.” Their consciences are cauterized so that they no longer feel the pangs of their guilt. They become hardened in their rebellion. Grieving the Holy Spirit has led to resisting Him, which has led to quenching Him. So their conscience no longer bothers them when they tell their lies. Do you know it’s possible to tell a lie so often that you start to believe it? I think that sort of thing happens a lot. Especially in politics, it would seem. But the thing about a lie is that there is usually a germ of truth in it but it has been perverted into something that no longer is the truth.

Now what I think is really interesting is what Paul gives as examples of this demonic deception that leads to apostasy. You would think that it would have to be some great evident heresy, like saying Jesus is Beelzebub or something to that effect. But that is not what Paul identifies. Instead he choses to illustrate this principle with two doctrinal errors that really don’t seem that big of a deal. Just a difference of opinion perhaps, not a matter of doctrine.

But notice what he identifies in vs 3 as examples of doctrines of demons. “[men] who forbid marriage [and advocate] abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth.” Forbidding marriage and abstaining from certain foods. These are the two great illustrations of apostate doctrine. Now I don’t think for a minute that Paul is saying that these two are the only possible means of apostasy. I think there are numerous possible false doctrines that can lead to apostasy. But Paul chose these two probably because they were prevalent at that time in Ephesus, and because they were so subtle that Timothy might not have been aware of the danger.

These particular doctrines more than likely came from a philosophy known as asceticism. In many ways asceticism had a lot in common with Gnosticism which the Apostle John warns about at the end of the first century. But it was a belief that matter was bad, and spiritual was good. So they made a big deal out of restricting the physical in the belief that it would accentuate the spiritual. We see that in pagan cultures today, such as in Tibetan Buddhism. But certain aspects of asceticism has also been practiced in Christianity, for instance by monks, particularly in the Middle Ages. It’s the idea that refraining from certain physical comforts helps one attain a degree of spirituality or holiness.

The problem was that in practice asceticism did not keep one from sin. In fact, in Gnosticism they believed that you could participate in sin without any repercussions, because it was only the spirit that was important. And so they actually advocated that you could overcome the flesh by indulging in it. The flesh and the spirit could lead opposing lives and that was ok. And perhaps that spirit of Gnosticism is still working among the sons of disobedience today by saying we live in a age of grace and not law, and so therefore, we are not under condemnation but under grace, so there is no sin, no need to repent, and not to worry when they walk after the lusts of the flesh.

But my purpose here this morning is not to try to teach about asceticism or Gnosticism or Antinomianism, or any other ism. What I would like to show you though is that false doctrine may be something we might consider relatively minor, of not any real consequence. And yet the culmination of small deceptions can end up taking one far from the faith.

Now in regards to both marriage and food, Paul adds, “which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth.” In other words, God created marriage for man and woman to be enjoyed, to be a mutual comfort and support for both, and something that we are to be grateful to God for. God said in creation that it was not good for man to be alone, and so He made woman to be a help mate for him. So we should thank God for that, and our gratefulness to God for marriage should make us honor marriage and the vows we made to God. But instead, these false teachers had said that by forbidding marriage they were accomplishing some spiritual achievement.

But as Paul said in Col 2:23 “These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, [but are] of no value against fleshly indulgence.” In fact, in one particular church denomination today where they forbid marriage, there is ample evidence that practice has not prohibited fleshly indulgence, but has probably induced gross fleshly indulgence. And yet they persist in teaching this false doctrine as a means of achieving holiness.

The other thing that was popular among the ascetics was abstaining from certain foods. We still see that in certain religious circles today. There are certain denominations that say that you need to practice vegetarianism, or that you need to follow the Jewish dietary laws.

But they clearly haven’t read what God revealed to Peter in Acts 10:9-16 “On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. But he became hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance; and he saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, and there were in it all [kinds of] four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. A voice came to him, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!” But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.” Again a voice [came] to him a second time, “What God has cleansed, no [longer] consider unholy.” This happened three times, and immediately the object was taken up into the sky.” So at that time God declared all foods clean.

So Paul says if food is received with thanksgiving, with gratitude towards God, then it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer. It is blessed by God, and given thanks for by us, and thus it is good, given by God to nourish us and strengthen us for our life. God has provided for us physically as well as spiritually, and we should receive such blessings with gratitude. Not believing the lies of demons that try to twist the truth into a false means of righteousness.

Instead, Paul indicates that a good pastor will teach the truth, and the truth will be spiritual food for the church that gives them spiritual life. Remember Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” So rather than give heed to the word of false teachers, Paul says in vs6 “In pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, [constantly] nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following.” Some translations say you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus. Either way, he is talking to Timothy, who is a pastor in Ephesus. And he indicates that the truth of God’s word and sound doctrine is the spiritual food that nourishes the soul.

That verse also indicates that it is the faithful pastor’s job to point out false doctrine and expose those who teach it. Now I could spend a lot of time here this morning naming names and calling out apostate churches and televangelists and fake healers and so forth. But I don’t think that is necessarily profitable. However, when I do call them out by name, it doesn’t mean that I am being unloving or unnecessarily combative. It means that I take my job seriously. I take the truth seriously. I believe that the devil is real and he is working. And I value the spiritual and physical lives of those in our church enough to warn them when the wolves are in the hen house.

I was in the Post Office the other day and noticed that they have these bulletins on the board in the lobby showing the pictures and names and address of people that have been convicted of being sexual predators, who are now living in the community. Does that seem mean to you? No, if you have kids and you live next door to that person, it seems prudent that you would like to know if your neighbor is a convicted sexual predator. I’m sorry if some people find in offensive, but I think the same principle applies to spiritual predators, that cause children of God to suffer shipwreck in their faith. They need to be called out. And I would be happy to give you the names of some if you want to see me afterwards.

So the pastor is to contend for the faith. But as in his letter to the Thessalonians, Paul warns about these teachers who have concocted spiritual doctrines from vague Biblical references which they combined with asceticism. And so he says to Timothy in vs 7 “But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and [also] for the [life] to come.”

You know, we could make too much or too little out of his statement that bodily discipline is only of little profit. We could take that to mean that we all should practice bodily exercise in moderation. That it does have some profit. And certainly, that is practical advice which is backed up by science.

Or on the other hand we could emphasize the fact that there is only a little benefit to bodily exercise. And therefore use that as an excuse to say why bother – eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. But what I think Paul is really saying here is physical exercise has only physical, temporal benefits, but spiritual discipline has eternal benefits.

The kind of discipline that Paul advocates is that which restricts the lusts of the flesh. He says in 1Cor. 9:25-27 “Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then [do it] to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.” So we do exercise discipline in regards to the lusts of the flesh, so that we may walk in the Spirit.

We discipline ourselves to walk in the Spirit, so that we might attain godliness, and godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. And to that he says, “It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance.” In other words, this is the truth of God, which is to be accepted and believed and practiced by the church. The false teaching that these men were teaching wasn’t the truth, and it did not produce godliness, just self righteousness.

And that truth of God, Paul says in vs 10, is that for which “we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers.” We serve the living God, and we have our hope in Him. There is no hope in science, or philosophy, or physical fitness, or any degree of education or knowledge. We cannot save ourselves. Salvation is from the Lord, and there is salvation in none other than Jesus Christ. He is the Savior of all men, who believe in Him and in HIs word.

I don’t know what hope you have for life after death. I hope you are not trusting in anything other than in the atoning work of Jesus Christ through His death and resurrection. The Bible says it is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment. The only way to escape the judgment of condemnation which has been passed to all men -for all have sinned – is to trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior, as the One who took the wrath of God upon Himself. It’s only by the transference of our sins upon Him, and His righteousness upon us, that we might be able to stand spotless and blameless before the throne of God.

If you’re here today and have not believed in Jesus Christ for salvation, then I urge you to make that commitment today, to confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and receive the gift of new life.

As most of you know, we practice verse by verse preaching at this church, rather than trying to approach the scripture from a topical perspective. There are times when I think I would like to preach topically, and perhaps today is one of those days. But for the most part, I feel that the verse by verse, chapter by chapter approach is better for me, because it keeps me in line with God’s priorities, rather than my own, which may vacillate from week to week depending on the circumstances.

We have been studying the first letter to Timothy for the last few weeks, and so we are at this particular passage today by the providence of God. The purpose of writing this letter, as Paul states in vs 15 of this chapter, is “so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.”

Now I suppose I could say that this subject is one that we could well postpone, or skip over, or save for a Wednesday night Bible study and not do any great harm. But as we come to church today, as we worship the Lord, it is important that we do so according to God’s design for the church. It is His church, and as Jesus said, they that worship God must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.

That being said, the Christian community today has been playing fast and loose with the template for the church for quite a number of years now. First of all, they have played with the authority and inerrancy of God’s word. While most churches feign obeisance to the Bible, in reality they don’t believe it is inerrant. They don’t believe it is absolute truth. They don’t believe it is authoritative.

And so they have thought that the ordinances of the church and the gospel of the church, and the leadership structure of the church are something that they can change according to what seems good to them, and relevant to the modern culture that we live in. So perhaps it is more pertinent than ever before to remind ourselves of God’s template for the church, and particularly God’s instructions in regards to church leadership. Because if we don’t get the pastor/teacher position right, then it’s doubtful that we will get our doctrine right either, and the church will continue it’s downward spiral into apostasy and irrelevancy that it has already succumbed to, to a large degree.

Now last week as we looked at chapter 2, Paul laid out the doctrinal reasons that women were not to take the place of authority in the church. He gave reasons from scripture, going all the way back to creation, in support of this instruction that women were not to teach, nor exercise authority over the men in the church. I said last week, and I will say it again for the benefit of those who weren’t here last week, that this is not a cultural issue, as some would try to dismiss it. But it is the prerogative of Christ, whose church it is. And the Lord could have just laid down the law and that would be it, but He supports it with two arguments that come from creation. So He is showing that this is His plan from the start. It’s not something that we can dismiss by saying that was the culture of Paul’s day. This predates that culture.

And by the way, let me add something to that discussion which I failed to say last week. Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles. The Gentiles in Ephesus and the surrounding region were pagans by nature. Before they were saved they worshipped the popular pagan deities of that day. And a number of those deities were female, such as Artemis, Diana, and Aphrodite. Those religions had no problem with women as priestesses of their cults. In fact, women were often held in high esteem in those cults. And furthermore, those religions encouraged engaging in immoral acts in those temples. Now I say that, not to be scandalous, but to show that women were not a problem in the Gentile religions. So when Paul advocates that only men were to be in church leadership, he is not saying something that is in keeping with the culture, but was counter to the culture. And so that’s just one more reason that we cannot dismiss this as a culture issue.

But now in chapter 3, Paul is going to focus on the leadership of the church, and lay out the requirements for such positions. He starts with what he calls here an overseer. This is the translation of the Greek word episkopē. It could also be translated as bishop in other versions. In the book of Titus, we see that position rendered as elder, and then elder is used synonymously with overseer, or bishop. The same can be said with shepherd, or pastor, which are synonyms for overseer. For our purposes, I think we can best interpret it a pastor. Pastor is related to the word for shepherd. And so pastor, or elder, or overseer, all refer to the same position.

Notice he says in vs 1, “It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires [to do.]”. I think the KJV says it is a noble work that he desires. I like that translation better. Noble has in mind a sacrificial task. One that is performed for the benefit of others, rather than for one’s own benefit.

But some confusion has been brought about by this phrase; “aspires to the office of overseer.’ Some think that it encourages men to seek after such a position. And they think that is self serving and vain. Personally, I think that if a man is called by God to preach, or to be a pastor, then that calling will manifest itself in a desire to preach.

Paul said of his own call to preach in 1Cor. 9:16-17 “For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me.” So I think the idea that Paul has there is if a man is called to preach, he will have a desire to preach. But the main point to what he is saying is that the office is not one to be denigrated or looked down upon. But though it is a position of service, it is nevertheless a noble office. It is service for a greater good, for a greater purpose.

I think most of the problems with church leadership today is that many of those who claim the office are not called by God to the office. I’m not sure why people would choose this position. I don’t see reaping any great rewards on this earth for spending your life as a pastor. Unless you are a mega church pastor, or a television evangelist, I don’t think there is any real money to be made. Though there are certainly some multimillionaire television evangelists out there. But they are so far out of the norm that it’s unfair to pastors to include them in the same genre.

So why someone would be attracted to the ministry I do not know. I know I wasn’t. I grew up as a preacher’s kid, and I was told constantly growing up that my dad had prayed for two preacher boys before my brother and I were born. And so after we were born, that meant that we were destined to be preachers when we grew up. Well, though we pretended to go along with that prophecy as children, by the time we were teenagers we both were doing everything we could to prove them liars. But the strangest thing happened when we reached our middle age. We have both since become preachers. But neither of us ever sought it, in fact, we resisted that call for many years.

The bottom line though I think is that we need to recognize that a pastor is called. And I don’t mean called by a pastor search committee. I don’t have a lot of faith in those contraptions. And you don’t find any basis for them in the scripture. Paul told Titus that he was to appoint elders in every city. Titus was to make sure that the men he chose fulfilled the requirements that Paul laid out, which by the way are almost exactly the same in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. But for those who are called, it is a noble work to which he is called, and he should have a desire to fulfill that office.

I want to say something else about this word overseer. As I said, in Titus 1 Paul instructs Titus to appoint elders in every city. In Acts 14:23 we read that Paul and Barnabas did the same on their missionary journey. Acts14:23 “When they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.”

Now some have derived from these texts that the scriptures teach the necessity for a plurality of elders. So in a church, there must be at least more than one elder or pastor. And so we have today a very popular church doctrine that says there must be multiple elders, and yet usually only one person is the pastor. I think that is a misunderstanding of the text. It’s widely understood that the churches in those days were house churches. There was no mega churches, because there were no houses that could even hold a hundred people at one time. We have Bible study at my house, and I can tell you that it’s almost impossible to get more than 25 people in there. I don’t have a big house, but I’m sure it’s bigger than most of the houses of the common people in those days.

So the common sense understanding is that Paul is talking about multiple house churches in a city or region. If you used the template of a Jewish synagogue, then 10 men were required for creating a new synagogue. And so these were small, neighborhood type of assemblies in people’s homes. And so that begs the question, how many shepherds are needed to take care of two dozen sheep? This idea of having multiple elders just to satisfy someones fear of monopolistic leadership in a church, is not founded in scripture.

I like a quote I read recently from Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great, late 19th century English preacher. Every pastor loves to quote Spurgeon, but I have yet to hear any quote this saying concerning one man ministry. He said, “Every now and then we hear some simpleton or other talking about a one man ministry, when it has been a one man ministry from the commencement of the world to present day, and whenever you try to have any other form of ministry, except that of each individual saint discharging his own ministry, and doing it thoroughly and heartily and independently and bravely in the sight of God, you very soon run upon quicksands.” So it would seem Spurgeon did not support a multiplicity of elders.

But nevertheless, people are rightly concerned about the qualifications of a pastor, and to offset such concerns, Paul lays out some stringent requirements for that office. And the primary requirement is that they are to be men whose character is above reproach. I think that as you read vs 2, you should imagine that there is a colon there after the word reproach, and then everything that follows describes how being above reproach looks.

So we read starting in vs 2, “An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money. 4 [He must be] one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity 5 (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?), 6 [and] not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. 7 And he must have a good reputation with those outside [the church,] so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.”

So we see that according to this list, the pastor must have a favorable testimony from two groups of people, those inside the church, and those outside. Now reproach can mean criticism, and if we were to apply that literally, then no pastor would pass the first qualification. In fact, I would suggest that criticism is part of the due process of being a pastor. But the idea of being above reproach is not speaking of criticism, which we get aplenty, but of having some moral or character failing which attracts criticism. Paul received much criticism in his ministry, but it was ill founded and he was able to appeal to those who knew his character as being above reproach.

Now there are 14 or so areas in which a pastor is to be above reproach as stated in the first 7 verses. I am not going to spend a lot of time explaining each one, or we would be here all day. I think most are pretty explanatory. But notice that the word perfect is missing from this list. Thank God for that. We need to remember that pastors are not perfect, though they should be striving for perfection.

The first qualification is one that is contentious today: “the husband of one wife.” That’s impossible to do if you are a woman pastor. But then again, it’s easy to dismiss this as another example of Paul’s male chauvinism. But aside from the discussion of male and female roles which we had last week, it means that the pastor is to be a one woman man. His wife is to be held in honor. He is not a womanizer. I think you can make the argument that he is not to have remarried in the case of divorce. The exception to that would be if his previous wife died. Paul said in 1Cor. 7:39 “A wife is bound as long as her husband lives; but if her husband is dead, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.” And I think it’s obvious that the same would be true of a man whose wife had died, as long as he marries a Christian.

Another misunderstanding that has arisen from this is that a pastor must be married. He must have one wife. I think that is a wrong interpretation of this text. Paul himself was not married and he served as a pastor. We have no record that Timothy was married. Jesus wasn’t married. And He is the head Shepherd of the church. So I don’t think that means that a pastor must be married. However, I will say that being married is a safeguard against temptation. And so a single pastor must take extra precautions to make sure he is above reproach.

The pastor is to be temperate. We live in a temperate climate. That means mild. Not too hot and not too cold. So we understand what Paul is saying; the pastor is not to be a hot head. It doesn’t mean he’s supposed to be so meek and mild that he can’t blow his nose. But not a hot head. Level headed.

Prudent is related to that. It means wise, but not so much like wise in the typical way we think of it, like having a high IQ, but judicious, able to make good, sound decisions. Having common sense.

The next characteristic is respectable, which means of good repute, honest, trustworthy. After that we read, hospitable. Many years ago I used to be a part of the hospitality business. That was a term used by the hotel and restaurant business. So to be hospitable is someone who is welcoming, who is congenial, helpful in regards to the needs of others.

The last one in vs 2, is one that we probably usually think of first; able to teach. That qualification is not usually applied to those churches who believe in a multiplicity of elders. Most elders in those churches are not qualified to teach, and not able to teach, at least beyond a rudimentary level. But having the ability or gift to teach is essential for a pastor/teacher. And I believe it is a gift, though a gift that can be improved upon and practiced to become better at it. But irregardless, notice that it’s not at the top of the list, but somewhere in the middle. It’s important, but it’s not the most important thing.

In vs 3 we find the next group of qualifications. Vs 3 “not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money.” Not addicted to wine is also the same qualification that is listed in Titus for overseers. I would go so far as to say that wine or alcohol should be off limits for a pastor. And I say that as someone who used to drink every day. For me it wasn’t wine, it was Coors Lite. But the Holy Spirit says not addicted to wine. That gives you enough freedom to hang yourself. Because I can tell you that if the pastor is a wine drinker, or likes his beer, he is going to have a real disadvantage when it comes to being above reproach in his conduct. Solomon said in Prov. 20:1 “Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, And whoever is intoxicated by it is not wise.”

Then the next qualification is probably deliberately added after to addicted to wine; not pugnacious. That means a brawler, the same thing that Solomon said about strong drink. Pugnacious means looking for a fight. Some men don’t need alcohol to look for a fight. But either way, only a fool looks for a fight. I made that mistake a few times when I was younger, and I finally met someone who was willing to give me one, and it almost cost me my life. God doesn’t need us to fight with physical means. We are to fight with spiritual means. Eph 6:12 says, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual [forces] of wickedness in the heavenly [places.]”

And not being pugnacious is followed by peaceable. Rather than being someone who is looking for a fight, he is to be the one who is peaceable. He is a peacemaker. Jesus said in Matt. 5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” We should be men who tell others how to make peace with God and with their fellow man.

The last one of vs 3, is free from the love of money. Paul said in 1Tim. 6:10 “For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” Notice that it does not say that it is wrong for the pastor to have money, or even to appreciate money. In fact, he goes on to say later in this passage that he is to govern his household well. That indicates he uses his money wisely. But it is a love for money and a longing for money that causes ruin. And I will admit that is a hard adage to accept. Because everyone has a natural tendency to want money. The more you have the more you want, and the less you have the more you want. But a desire for money that supersedes what you know is right and proper, a desire that says whatever it takes I will do it, that attitude is what causes a person to wander away from the faith, and causes grief in their life. We all have to be on guard against that desire. Jesus said “you cannot serve God and money.”

In vs 4 and 5 we see that principle of managing his household that I spoke of earlier. “He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?),” I think as we consider the entire context of both verses, this is not simply speaking of the pastor’s role in raising his children, but is speaking of the complete task of managing his house. As the father of the house, he is a loyal and loving husband to his wife, a father who disciplines his children with dignity, not overbearing, but firm and with love for his family, and as a provider and a manager of his household affairs.

The church is not a little like a family, and though the pastor’s primary job is preaching and teaching, yet he is also a manager of the house of God. And so the way he manages his home is a good indication of how he will manage the church. Not even the pastor can make someone come to faith in Christ, even if they are his own children. When they come of age, they will be responsible for their faith or lack of it. But he should be able to keep his children under control and in submission to his rule. The key there is not ruling with an iron fist that provokes a child to rebel.

As a general rule to all fathers, Paul says in Eph. 6:4 “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” To do both well is to be able to balance love and discipline in the same way that is illustrated by God the Father towards us. And the pastor is to be a good example of that balance.

The last of the “insider” qualifications is found in vs 6, “[and] not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil.” Understand that a new convert does not indicate the physical age of the pastor. However, it does indicate his spiritual age. Paul says to Timothy later in chapter 5 vs 22 “Do not lay hands upon anyone [too] hastily and thereby share [responsibility for] the sins of others; keep yourself free from sin.” The idea is that a new convert must have a time of testing, of proving, which brings about maturity and a deeper faith.

A position of leadership can sometimes work against a person by their pride. And we know that pride goes before a fall. James said in James 3:1 “Let not many [of you] become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.” With that greater responsibility comes a great need for spiritual maturity. And perhaps spiritual maturity is tied to some degree to physical maturity. Age is not a prerequisite, but perhaps it is a help.

Finally, we come to the last qualification, which is regarding those outside the church. He says in vs 7, “And he must have a good reputation with those outside [the church,] so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.” Perhaps this is one of the most difficult qualifications of the pastor. Those outside of the church are the world, and the world is at enmity with God. So to be above reproach and to have a good reputation with the world is difficult at best. Jesus said if they hated me, they will hate you.

So I think the answer must be that we are above reproach “in the sight of God.” I know I have to conduct myself in such a way as to please God, and in so doing, I know that I am doing right in regards to man. I have to love my neighbor, though my neighbor may not love me, nor be deserving of my favor. I have to love my enemies, though they seek my hurt. I cannot treat my neighbor in such a way as to make a contradiction of my faith.

Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, [Mat 5:43-48 “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on [the] evil and [the] good, and sends rain on [the] righteous and [the] unrighteous. “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? “If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing [than others?] Do not even the Gentiles do the same? “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Well, I started off by saying that the requirements that Paul laid out for the pastor did not include being perfect. And now I end up with the requirement of Jesus that we are to be perfect. But I can’t help but point out that admonition of Christ is not to pastors, but to all who are the children of God. The pastor, however, is to be an example to the church. We are to treat others like we would like to be treated. And pastors even more so are beholden to that rule. On that note, I would say in closing, pray for your pastors. It’s easy to criticize. They are on a stage and say a lot of words, and it’s possible to pick apart any pastor and find fault with him. But pray for him, and realize that he is called to this task that is greater than his ability. And I would add, if you are visiting today, and you recognize that your pastor of your home church is in flagrant disregard of these qualifications, then I would suggest you leave that church and find another which is in line with these qualifications. Don’t try to change the pastor, rather change your church. Let God take care of the pastor. He will receive a stricter judgment from the Lord.

Paul gives the purpose of this letter in chapter 3 vs 15, “I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.” And so to that purpose, Paul has written so far about the establishment of the church, specifically, that the apostles were given to be the foundation of the church and to establish the church. Then he wrote about the ministry of the church, and we said there were many different types of ministers, or servants of the church. Not all have the same title, nor the same responsibilities, but all of us have a ministry, all of us are to serve the Lord.

Now as we begin chapter 2, Paul makes the point that one ministry that all of the church are given, the service that we are all tasked with, is the ministry of prayer. And we should notice that this exhortation to pray is given as an addendum to his charge to Timothy at the end of chapter one, vs 18, to fight the good fight. We see that prayer is one of the ways that we are to engage in spiritual battle.

In the famous section in Ephesians 6 on spiritual warfare and the spiritual armor that we are to wear, Paul lists all the pieces of armor, which are defensive, and then he says take up an offensive weapon, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And then he adds another weapon in vs18 “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and [pray] on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel.”

Now Paul doesn’t use a metaphor of a weapon to describe prayer, but nonetheless it’s clear that it is the second of only two weapons at our disposal. And both are empowered by the Spirit. That’s very interesting the way Paul says that; pray at all times in the Spirit. We need to think about how one prays in the Spirit. I can tell you what it is not; it is not some reference to praying in tongues. But rather it is a reference to spiritual communication in conjunction with the Holy Spirit. In agreement with the Holy Spirit. And the way you do that is by praying in conjunction and agreement with the Sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. That’s how we pray in the Spirit.

Now there is much more that could be said about that, but I want to follow the text, and hopefully in so doing Paul will address all the essential elements of prayer in the process. So to start with, what Paul indicates in vs 1 is the priority of prayer. Notice he says, “First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men.” What he is saying is that this is a priority, of first importance. Prayer is not the last resort, prayer is our first resort. It’s the priority of the church. It’s first in ministry.

When the apostles were forming the first church in Jerusalem, they realized they needed to add the office of deacons to aid in the service of the church. But they said for their part, they wanted to devote themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word. They recognized that prayer was of utmost importance and deserved first place in their ministry. Consider even Jesus Himself who many times spent the night in prayer to His Father. Jesus was a man of prayer, though from our perspective, He was one who needed it the least. But He obviously considered it an essential part of His ministry. He needed consistent communion with His Father.

And that prompts the question – what is prayer? We are called to pray, to pray at all times, to pray without ceasing, but do we understand what prayer really is? Prayer is simply communication with God. It is spiritual communication, spiritual conversation. Now I say spiritual conversation because you are talking to a Spirit, and the Spirit does not respond verbally to you. So that is what makes it spiritual conversation. The Lord hears us whether we speak loudly or softly. The Bible says the Father knows what we are going to ask before we even say it. Whatever part of the world you happen to be in, it doesn’t matter, the Lord hears you. That’s spiritual conversation. If you are a Christian, the Holy Spirit indwells you, and He hears you and prays with you, and for you, according to the will of God.

Rom 8:26-27 says, “In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for [us] with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to [the will of] God.” So that is another aspect of praying in the Spirit – the Spirit intercedes for us. But bottom line, prayer is spiritual conversation with God.

Now Paul breaks down our spiritual conversation into four categories. This is not a formula. We all would love to find a formula for prayer that assures us that we will get what we want when we pray. But this is not a formula. A lot of people want to say that in order to pray correctly you have to incorporate all four categories in your prayer. I don’t see that expressed in this verse. But rather Paul is just breaking down prayer into different types of conversation.

So I don’t think we need to make a mountain out of a mole hill here, but nevertheless, let’s consider the four types of conversation we might have. The first type is in the NASB translated entreaties. Other versions says supplications, or petitions. In the Greek it is deēsis, which means needs, or entreating, asking. Most of us are pretty good at that type of prayer. But I don’t want to diminish that type of prayer as juvenile and say we need to get beyond such things. I think Jesus taught us to ask for what we need, what we want, with the confidence that our Heavenly Father wants to give us good things. So as a child of God, entreaties are appropriate prayer, to ask for needs, to come to the Father and lay out petitions.

I also want to say that our manner of conversation does not need to be stilted and so formal that it is not natural. I don’t think that God relates to our prayers better when we say thee and thou rather than you. We don’t need to speak in stilted, formal language in order to pray effectively. Imagine if your child or grandchild came in to your living room and said, “O blessed Father, who sitteth upon the couch, please grant the requests I make to thee.” If your son or daughter said that, you would think he was setting you up for something big. He wants to take your vintage sports car out on a date or something. God doesn’t need us to speak in Elizabethan English in order to be sympathetic to our prayers.

Jesus said in Mat 6:5-8 “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees [what is done] in secret will reward you. And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.”

All right then, entreaties, supplications or petitions. That’s one type. The second type is prayer. That’s a little redundant, isn’t it Paul? Well, I confess I don’t know exactly why Paul uses this here, except perhaps that it is a more general, broader entreaty or supplication than the previous type. All of these words are meant to describe prayer. So there is a sense in which they are all expanding on the previous type. Entreaties may be specific needs, prayers may be general needs.

I find it interesting that the first time the word pray is used in the Bible, it is in Genesis 20, and it is used by God. He says to Abimelech, who had taken Abraham’s wife thinking she was his sister, and God said to Abimelech in a dream, “Now therefore, restore the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.” So in that case, prayer was for someone else’s good. Abraham was praying for someone else’s needs, not his own.

But that reference in Genesis also speaks to the next type of prayer Paul lists, which is intercessions or petitions. And intercessions is perhaps the best translation, which has the idea of speaking to God about someone else’s need. Pleading on behalf of others. That’s what Abraham did for Abimalech. Praying that he would not die. And what’s really interesting in that example is that Abimalech is a king, and Paul says in vs 2 that we are to pray for kings. It’s interesting that the first recorded example of prayer is a prayer of intercession for a non believing king.

So obviously there is some overlap in these types of prayer. As I said, I don’t think it is so much meant to be separate categories as it is to be an expansive description of prayer. The last type of prayer Paul gives is thanksgivings. Now in the original Greek I am told that there were no punctuation marks. The NASB has a comma after thanksgiving, followed by the phrase, “be made on behalf of all men.” And I think that is correct, in that “be made for all men” applies to all the categories or types of prayer. Some translations have no comma there, so that thanksgiving for all men is the meaning. I don’t think Paul is saying we should give thanks for all men. That doesn’t make sense. While Paul may say pray for kings and those in authority, he does not say give thanks for Nero who was killing Christians on a massive scale. That just doesn’t make sense. Where you place a comma makes a big difference. It’s like the texted the a group text at Thanksgiving that said, “let’s eat Grandma” and forgot to put a comma between eat and Grandma. Grandma got a little concerned. So we can’t be dogmatic about the comma, but I think it makes more sense that the phrase “be made on behalf of all men” applies to all categories, and not just thanksgiving.

Thanksgivings are to be made to God for what God has done. Thanksgivings are an important aspect of our prayer. They are not some part of a secret formula by which you can get God to do what you want. Some people seem to teach this narcissistic view of God that just wants to hear us praise Him and thank Him all the time. He doesn’t care too much about anything else as long as we praise Him. I don’t think that is a true characterization of God at all. But we should be cognizant of all that God has done for us, and continues to do for us on a daily basis and we should express our thanks to Him. In other words, our conversation with God should not be just one sided, as in what we want God to do for us. If we have a mature relationship with Him, then it should be evident in our conversation with Him.

Now as I said, I believe Paul says we should pray on behalf of all men. That is our service to God and to one another. We are given the ministry of prayer for all men. We pray for all men, all people, all that we come into contact with. We are to pray for our church, pray for our families, pray for our neighbors, and even pray for our enemies. We pray according to the will of God, according to the word of God, in conjunction with the Spirit of God, in agreement with the Spirit of God. God wants to work with us, and our service of prayer is the means by which He does that. We are to pray for all men, for what they need, for God to work in their hearts and to save them.

Then more specifically, Paul says pray for kings and for those in authority. And perhaps that is the extension of praying for your enemies. Look at Vs 2, “for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.” Now as I said earlier, I don’t think Paul was saying that he should give thanks for Nero. Nero was a blood thirsty, insane tyrant. He was an enemy of the church. He had a young man about 14 years old castrated and he married him in a public ceremony. He tarred and burned Christians upon stakes to light up his garden. He set fire to Jerusalem and then blamed it on the Christians so as to justify persecuting the church. I don’t think Paul was saying we should give thanks for a demonic tyrant.

But I do think he is saying pray for tyrants, pray for those in authority whether they be good or evil, that they would leave us alone so that we might live a tranquil and quite life of dignity that we may live godly without persecution and have the freedom to proclaim the gospel. That is an appropriate type of prayer for those particular type of people. There was no recourse in Paul’s day to go to the polls and vote and hopefully get a new emperor in four years. You were saddled with a king for life in most cases. So the only recourse you had was to pray for them, that God would somehow prevail over the inherent evil that these tyrants brought to bear upon the church.

Romans 13 tells us that we are not to overthrow the government. We are to submit to the government as long as they are not forcing us to do something contrary to the command of God. So the only other recourse for us as Christians is to pray for the governing authorities. God is able to change the king’s mind as in the case of Abimelech.. God is able to make it possible for even an evil king to find other things to occupy his mind and leave the church alone.

So we should pray for all men, even our enemies, and the enemies of God, because Paul says in vs 3, “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” So we pray because that is the means by which we partner with God, we collaborate with God to bring about salvation for all men. Now of course, he is not indicating that all men will be saved. Peter said, God is not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. But the Bible tells us that not all will be saved. The scripture makes that very clear. Jesus made that very clear saying the way is narrow that leads to life, and few there be that find it. Not everyone finds it. But we are to pray for all to find it.

Now that’s an interesting dilemma isn’t it? That God’s will is that no one perishes, yet they perish. That reveals to me that God’s will is not intractable. But God has a perfect will, and a passive will. And man has a part to play in the execution of God’s will. Jesus when he taught the disciples to pray said, “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Our prayers facilitate the will of God on earth. But if God’s will was completely foreordained and intractable, then why are we told to pray for His will to be done?

Now the scriptures say that salvation is of the Lord, but we are tasked with participating in bringing salvation to men. I don’t pretend to know how all of this works. But I know that God works through prayer. God desires our prayer. And God wants all men to be saved. And so God sends us to proclaim the gospel to all men, everywhere. And He wants us to pray for all men to that end. So at the very least, we know that our ministry which we are given to perform is to pray for the salvation of all men. That is the service we are to give to men and to God.

I can tell you this. From what I have read in biographies of great preachers, and stories about great revivals, the success of both were preceded by a period of extensive prayer. Prayer is the essential sharpening of the axe before the first swing is ever laid against the tree. Abraham Lincoln was supposed to have said, “if you have 8 hours to cut wood, spend 7 of them sharpening your axe.” I think that can be applied to prayer in regards to evangelism as well. That is why we do the Jericho March before we enter every summer season on the beach. That season of prayer is necessary if we are to have a successful season on the beach.

The next part of prayer that Paul addresses here is the principle of through whom we pray. We are very much accustomed to end our prayers by saying “in Jesus name we pray, Amen.” We do that without thinking, for the most part. But what does it mean to pray in Jesus name? Why does that matter? Well for one, Jesus told us to pray in His name. In John 14:13-14 Jesus said, “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do [it.]”

And Paul addresses that same principle here in vs 5 “For there is one God, [and] one mediator also between God and men, [the] man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony [given] at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying) as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.”

The One to whom we pray is God the Father, but we pray through the Mediator, the man Christ Jesus. The scriptures teach that Jesus is both fully God and fully Man. In theological terms it is called the hypostatic union. But in layman’s terms it means that He is God in the flesh. And He was our Mediator in salvation by becoming our substitute, taking the wrath of God upon Himself that we might be given life and sonship in the family of God. But now, having risen from the dead and ascended to the Father’s right hand, He lives forever to make intercession for us. Rom 8:34 says “Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”

Now He intercedes for us according to the Father’s will. He intercedes for us by application of His blood for our sins so that we might be counted as righteous as sons of God. But He also intercedes for us as we pray in His name. God seeing His righteousness applied to our account hears our prayers as being sanctified by Jesus Christ.

Heb 10:19-23 says, “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since [we have] a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled [clean] from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” We come into the holy place to speak to God by the blood of Jesus Christ which cleanses us from all sin.

So what Paul says here to Timothy is that there is One Mediator between God and man, and only One Mediator is needed. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, through the sanctifying power of His sacrifice, so that we may have full acceptance at the throne of God. There is no need for any other mediator. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if you attempt to go through another mediator, you are in effect blaspheming Christ. If you attempt to go to God through Mary, then you are taking the honor and glory that belong only to Christ and giving it to a person, and a person who is dead at that. If you pray to a so called saint, you are praying to a person, and taking away from what is Christ’s alone. Christ, who alone was holy and righteous, died and shed His blood so that He might be our Mediator, and we dare not take away that which He shed His blood to procure. You do not need to go to God through a priest, or Mary, or a saint, but you can only go through Jesus Christ. In Him alone we have the right to enter into the throne of God.

Paul began this passage about the ministry of prayer by urging prayers to be made for every man. And he bookends this section with a similar statement in vs 8, “Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension.” And I think he is being in this case, deliberately redundant. He is emphasizing the importance and need for prayer by saying it twice.

Now some think that this reference to “every place” is a reference to the church. And so Paul is saying we should pray in the church. To that, I would agree without argument, that we should pray in the church. Jesus said “My house is to be a house of prayer.” Prayer, we have already said, is to be a priority in the church, and especially in corporate assemblies. Corporate prayer is powerful prayer. Remember how the church prayed for Peter to be delivered from prison and God sent an angel to release him.

But I think what Paul is saying is not limited to the church assembly. He wants men to pray in every place. You go back to Eph 6:18 and read that again, “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.” You can’t pray at all times and not pray in all places. Just be in a constant state of prayer. If we are walking in the Spirit, and living by the Spirit, then we must have constant spiritual communication irregardless of where we are or what we are doing. That doesn’t mean we have to fall on our knees at the bank and at the grocery store and at work, but it does mean we are in constant communication with God at all times, in all places, in all circumstances.

And as a reference back to the idea of praying for our enemies, or our persecutors, we pray without wrath and dissension. We don’t take our own revenge. We leave room for God to avenge us. James 1:20 says “the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.”

Our goal in prayer is to see others saved. If we give way to our anger we are not going to achieve that. We want to work with God, not against God. So let’s pray, lifting up holy hands. That is not speaking of a posture of prayer. Some people seem to think that holding up your hands has something intrinsically holy about it. Most of the time in the Bible when you see someone come in the presence of God they are flat on their face. They aren’t holding up their hands and dancing around. Holy hands is a reference to consecrated hands. Hands refers to the work of our hands, to our deeds. As we are holy in our deeds, consecrated to live righteous, godly lives for Christ, then we can win the lost to Christ by our example and not give cause for the gospel to be slandered.

Our prayer life is affected by our sin or the lack of sin. David said if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. So we make sure that we have repented of any sin, that we are living godly lives, and we pray in every place at all times, joining with God in accomplishing His will on earth. That is our service of prayer, our ministry of prayer which we render unto God and men.

God’s will is that none should perish, but that all should come to repentance. He desires all men to be saved. I trust that if you have not accepted His free gift of salvation, then today would be the day that you surrender to Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and receive new life in Him.

We are all probably very familiar with the word ministry. It’s often used as a synonym for the church. It’s derived from the root word minister, which often is used as a title or job description for a pastor. But ministry is really just another word for service. Depending upon the translation you use, you will see either ministry or service used in vs twelve.

Vs12 “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, or ministry.” I think I prefer the translation as service. Because ministry is a word that has connotations of something pious, perhaps a little lofty, sort of out of the realm of mundane day to day things, and indicating something religious and spiritual. And of course, ministry should be religious and spiritual, but that can sometimes lead us to think of it as detached from the realm of day to day life.

But when you say service, that has an altogether different connotation. That is something that borders on the mundane, the practical, even, God forbid, duty. We sometimes speak of our men and women in uniform that they are in the service. And we know what we mean by that, don’t we? It means they are in one of the armed services of our country. They are in the service of our country. They are under the authority of the Commander in Chief.

But that word service can have an even lowlier connotation. It is very much associated with the word servant. To be a servant is to be someone who is in service to someone else. He is at their command. Sometimes in old houses, you would see a sign around the back indicating “service entrance.” That could mean the servants entrance, or it could mean those that serviced the house for whatever mechanical needs there might be.

So in the original language, the word translated ministry does not indicate some high, pious position, but it simply refers to working for and serving someone. And to that extent, we are all called to serve Christ. In this new life, we have been given a ministry, we have been called to be servants to the kingdom of God. Not all have the same position in service, but all are called to serve, even as soldiers in spiritual warfare. Not all soldiers are given the same rank, the same responsibility, yet they all serve the same King.

Paul said he was grateful for this ministry which he had been given. I would say that gratefulness was his primary motivation in ministry. And that was because God had saved him from a person dedicated to destroying the church, and by God’s grace and mercy had made him someone who would establish the church.

So how are we put into the service of Christ? The answer is, the same way as Paul was entered into service. Now what follows in vs 12-15, is a sort of resume by Paul. And as is typical of most resumes, the job title you are presently in is listed first, and the order that follows goes backwards in your career. So most resumes usually read from the greatest to the least. You list that at present you are working as a graphic designer for some big design firm, and then the job you had before that, and so forth until way down at the bottom of the page, the first job you had, which was a French fry cook at McDonald’s.

Paul’s resume sort of follows that pattern. But I would like to look at it in reverse. Let’s start with vs15, because this is where we all start as well. This is one area that we all have in common. Paul says in vs 15, “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost [of all.]”.

This is all of our condition prior to salvation. There is none righteous, no not one. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All of us were enemies of God. All of our righteousness was as filthy rags before God. None of us were any better than any one else, or more deserving of heaven than anyone else. Paul said he was the chief of sinners. I said last week, that was until I came along. But the fact is, there really isn’t any difference between you and me or Paul, for that matter when it comes to the matter of sin. We all were enemies of God under the condemnation of death.

Paul said he was a former blasphemer and persecutor and violent aggressor of the church. In Acts 26:9 Paul said of himself and these activities against Christ and against His church, “So then, I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them. And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities.”

So Paul was indeed the chief of sinners, in that he not only persecuted the church, but he tried to get them to blaspheme Christ and deny Christ. But as great as his sin was, God’s grace was greater. He says, “Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus.” That phrase ‘more than abundant” is the idea of super abundant. As Romans 5:20 says, “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.”

But what I like about Paul’s confession here is that he says he was “formally a blasphemer and so forth.” When Paul was converted on the road to Damascus, he was changed, converted. What he was formerly, he was no longer practicing. What he was ignorant of, he now knew. What was done in unbelief, now he by faith believed the truth. The point is salvation is conversion. It’s like the line in Amazing Grace, “I once was lost but now am found, was blind, but now I see.” A change in belief results in a change of behavior.

When I was a kid growing up in church, we used to have an evangelist named Billy Kelly who would come do a series of nightly meetings every couple of years or so. Billy Kelly probably weighed 400 pounds, and was a freckled face red haired giant of a man from the hills of West Virginia. And as a preacher’s kid I had to sit through many a long night of preaching as I was growing up, but when Billy Kelly came to our church he was one preacher I looked forward to hearing. He played the piano as well, and he was known for singing one song in particular, which is called “Thanks to Calvary.” He always sang it after giving his personal testimony of being the town drunk and how some men dragged him to a revival meeting one night after sobering him up with coffee and he was saved after listening to the message. He used to sing that song with tears rolling down his face, which told the story of his little boy hiding behind the door when he would come home drunk, but now that he was saved, he said, “Son, have no fear, you’ve got a brand new daddy now. Thanks to Calvary I’m not the man I used to be. Thanks to Calvary things are different than before.” After he got done singing that song, he had the whole church in tears.

But the truth is that when God saves you, he changes you. And in Paul’s case, he who was the foremost persecutor of the church, was made the foremost establisher of the church, as a testimony to the super abundant grace of God. And so Paul explains in vs 16, “Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.”

What we can learn from Paul’s salvation, is that no matter how great your sin, God’s mercy is greater. There is no degree of sin that you can sink to that God cannot save you from. There is no depravity that God cannot redeem you from. As much as you have descended into depravity, God is able to raise you up to greater heights than you can imagine. He is able to make the lost, found. The blind to see. The lame to walk. The dead to live. There is no sin that is beyond His ability to save you from.

But there is just one caveat to His mercy and grace. And that is, you must recognize and repent of your sin. When Paul was confronted with the truth, when he saw his sin, he repented of it and was forgiven of it. He didn’t try to excuse it, or to cover it up, or to say that it wasn’t really sin. No, he said my sin is worse than anyone else’s. I am the worst of sinners! And that is the key. There is no sin which is confessed and repented of, that cannot be forgiven. Christ came to save sinners. That is a trustworthy statement. You can bet your life on that statement. But you better recognize you are a sinner if you want Christ to save you. Because He came to save sinners, not the self righteous.

That realization brings Paul to express a confession of faith in Christ and praise Him for His mercy towards sinners. He says in vs 17, “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, [be] honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” Paul said in Romans 10:9, “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus [as] Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

That confession is what Paul states in vs 17, “the King” is Jesus Christ the King, the Lord, our Sovereign. To confess Jesus as Lord is to confess Him as your King, as the One to whom we owe our lives, to whom we honor and serve and obey. We lay down our lives in service to our Lord and King. And this King is eternal, immortal, He was raised from the dead and now stands at the Father’s right hand. To Him deserves all honor, all glory, as we give our lives in service to Him forever.

That comprehension on Paul’s part was the impetus for his ministry, his service. And God would use him and enable him and strengthen him and equip him to do what he called him to do. So that all the praise and glory go to God, and not Paul. But Paul’s gratitude for what God had done for him, was the motivation for his service to the church.

Now there were other ministers in the church. Paul’s office as a minister was an apostle. These were other offices or positions. As I said, in the service not everyone has the same office or position or area of duty. The next one mentioned in Paul’s letter is Timothy. Timothy is a minister, a servant of the gospel. I suppose we might call him the pastor of the church in Ephesus. I think he was perhaps more like a regional pastor, but we can’t be dogmatic about such things. But my understanding is that there were more than one church in Ephesus. They were house churches, each with their pastors/teachers. And Timothy was acting as an agent of the apostle Paul, as overseeing the churches in Ephesus. I can’t say that for sure, but that’s what I pick up from reading between the lines.

But nevertheless, we do know that Timothy was in service to the church at Ephesus, and he had a position like a senior pastor over the church or churches there. So Paul says to him in vs 18 “This command I entrust to you, Timothy, [my] son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith.”

So what is this command, or this charge to Timothy that Paul refers to? It is the charge given in vs 3-11 of this chapter, the command to stay on at Ephesus, and to instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths or endless genealogies that give rise to speculation rather than faith, to instruct them not to teach a twisted version of the law, about which they make confident assertions, but which they don’t know what they are talking about. So in short, Timothy’s ministry to the church is to teach the teachers, to correct them, to rebuke them.

Paul gives a similar command or charge to Timothy at a later date in 2 Timothy 4:1-5 “I solemnly charge [you] in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season [and] out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but [wanting] to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

Now one more thing to note about this command to ministry that Paul gives to Timothy, is he says it’s in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you. What exactly Paul is talking about we’re not sure, but he speaks of it again in chapter 4 vs 14 “Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery.” He goes on to say, persevere in your teaching, pay attention to it, take pains with it, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.” So we can surmise that preaching and teaching is the spiritual gift that was given to Timothy by the Lord, and was confirmed by the laying on of hands by the elders, presumably the elders of the church in Jerusalem, which is a reference to the apostles. He was commissioned as an evangelist, a preacher of the gospel, by the Lord and confirmed by the apostles. So that was Timothy’s ministry.

But there is one more category of ministry that is alluded to in vs 19, and then the perpetrators named in vs 20. Let’s pick it up again in vs 19, “keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, so that they will be taught not to blaspheme.”

These are ministers that have suffered shipwreck in regards to their faith. That’s a pretty scary thing to say about teachers in the church. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a shipwreck, or been involved in one. From the little I know about boats, things can go wrong pretty quickly on a boat and yet at the same time seem like they are happening in slow motion. One problem is that the boat is in motion due to the wind or current or even from the motor, and there are no brakes on a boat. So once something is in motion it keeps on going even though it is destroying itself. If you want to have some fun, search for ships hitting the dock on YouTube and you will see what I’m talking about. They can’t stop, and they just destroy more and more until they sink or are absolutely ruined.

Paul had been on a few shipwrecks in his life, real ones. There is a really frightening description of one in particular in Acts where they end up having to grab a plank of wood and try to swim ashore in the middle of a fierce storm while the ship is stuck on a shoal being torn apart by the waves. So Paul knew what a shipwreck looked like and the damage that can happen from losing your bearings.

These men, Hymaneus and Alexander, have suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. That means that they had abandoned or abused the truth in favor of another gospel, a more speculative gospel, a more dramatic gospel that was not founded on the truth. And the thing that Paul is very concerned about was they were teaching that false doctrine to the church and leading others astray.

Isn’t that what he said about these men in 2Tim. 4:3-4 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but [wanting] to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”

There was another element to their false teaching which was it had become blasphemy. Blasphemy is speaking evil of Christ. I would think that somehow their doctrine had deviated from the truth to the point that they attributed some sin to Jesus. There are people today that teach that Jesus had a wife, usually saying it’s Mary Magdalene. That’s the sort of speculation that these teachers seemed to be guilty of, contriving myths and speculation from some vague reference in scripture. The point of such blasphemy though would be to excuse their own sin.

And so Paul says he is handing these men over to Satan so they will be taught not to blaspheme. I think a lot of people don’t like to consider the reality of what Paul is saying there. But he speaks of the same sort of thing in 1 Cor. 5, about a man who was committing immorality with his father’s wife, and was blatantly unrepentant about it. And so Paul says there in vs “5 [I have decided] to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”

What that means is for the person that continues in sin, there may be a time when God releases you from His protective care as a child of God, to suffer the consequences of sin. And the devil is free to destroy your flesh through that sin. Because that is what the devil does. He is the destroyer. He goes about as a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. The sin that so easily besets us will eventually destroy us.

Paul indicates these men are saved, but they have returned to their sin like a pig that has been washed returns to the mire. And the key is that they are unrepentant. They claim that God doesn’t care about this little peccadillo. What I’m doing isn’t really bad. God made me this way( there is where the blasphemy comes in) or God made this and so it really can’t be wrong. And so God allows Satan to destroy the flesh, though the spirit is saved in the day of judgment. That’s why in the verses that talk about the sanctify of taking the Lord’s Supper, Paul says many of you are sick and a number sleep. Sleep there refers to the death of the believer.

Listen, if you became a servant of the King through conversion, then you have been set free from the captivity of sin and cleansed from sin. But when you return to it, you trample underfoot the blood of Jesus Christ, you regard it as worthless. And God will discipline those who are His. If you’re not His, then you are already condemned to death, and under the captivity of Satan who will destroy you. But if you are a child of God, and you choose to go back into sin, and are unrepentant of it, then you are given over to the control of Satan by your own free will, and God gives Satan permission to sift you like wheat, with the goal of destroying you. God’s purpose in allowing that is not to destroy you, though if you persist that may happen. But God’s purpose is to restore you, to use suffering in the flesh to bring you to repentance.

We that are saved have been given a ministry, we are servants of the King. Our life is not our own, we are bought with a price. Therefore, we cannot return to our prior captivity without suffering the consequences of that dominion of darkness. But as Paul has pointed out so clearly in this passage, God is merciful and gracious and desires to restore us and make us the polar opposite of what we were by nature, if we will just repent and surrender to the Lord, confessing Him as Lord of our lives.

Let us make this Psalm of David our prayer this morning as we examine our heart before God. David wrote in Psalm 139:23-24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if [there be any] wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

As a general, overarching theme in this epistle, James has been contrasting the wisdom which is from the world, with the wisdom which is from above.  He has shown that contrast in a variety of ways.  For instance, James spent a great deal of time talking about the use of the  tongue, or our speech, as the evidence of which wisdom you follow – whether it’s the wisdom of the world or the wisdom from above.  You can tell by one’s speech.

But he really begins this epistle by talking about wisdom. And in those opening verses, we get some clues that I believe will help us properly understand the passage before us today in chapter five.  Notice in chapter one he talks about having faith through the trials of life, and the wisdom to do so which he says comes from God.  But then he contrasts that wisdom with the one who doubts.  The one who has faith has the wisdom from God, the one who doubts doesn’t really believe the wisdom of God and is instead following the world’s wisdom.

He then continues that contrast saying in vs 9, speaking of the brother of humble circumstances  and he contrasts him to the rich man.  Once again, we can assume that the humble follow the wisdom from God, the rich man follows the wisdom of the world.  And I think in that passage James sets the rich man as an example or illustration of one who lives by the wisdom of this world.

And again and again as we read this epistle, we see James characterize those who live by the wisdom of the world as being the rich.  In chapter 2, for instance, James contrasts the rich man with those whom he says are the poor of this world.  And again we see the parallel;  those who are poor in this world he says are actually rich in the faith, whereas the rich man oppresses the poor.  So in a broad sense, I think James is using the rich man as a metaphor for those who follow the wisdom of the world and treasure the things of this world, and he uses the poor as a metaphor for those who are rich in faith but poor in the riches of this world.

There are other examples of that as well, but I think I will let you study that out for yourselves and we will work on chapter five from that perspective; that the rich are illustrative of those who  follow the wisdom of this world, that live for the pleasure and the things they can get from this world.  That’s the default wisdom of this world, that if you work hard, if you do this, or do that according to the wisdom of this world, then you can enjoy all that this world has to offer – you can be content, satisfied, and live a comfortable, happy life. You can be rich in the things of this world.

And so we follow the wisdom of the world and we tell our kids to get good grades, send them off to a good college, to get a degree in a field with high paying jobs, and to pursue the American dream and promise them fulfillment and happiness.  Now, just to be clear,  the “American” part of that dream is not necessarily a bad thing.  It’s the same dream in Europe or Asia.  They just call it by another name.  However, in America we seem to have a better chance of accomplishing it.  We are told that we can accomplish anything we put our minds to.  And here we have enough freedom to be able to come closer to making that a reality than they might have in other countries.

So as we delve into chapter five and James rails against the rich, we need to understand that he is not necessarily pronouncing some horrible judgment on those who happen to end up with a lot of money at some point in their life.  But he is proclaiming judgment on those who live by the wisdom of the world, who have set their sights on acquiring material things as a means of finding happiness and fulfillment in life. 

Now one more difficulty this passage has is we can’t know for sure specifically who James is speaking to.  He doesn’t address the rich as brothers, or brethren, so some commentators see this as only applying to the unbeliever. But I’m not so sure that Christians can opt out of this criticism so easily.  Because I believe number one, that we have a default mechanism in our behavior even though we may be believers, which is to rely on the wisdom of the world more often than we realize.  And number two, I think all of us qualify as being rich by the metric that most of the world goes by.  Even those who live below the poverty level in America would be considered rich in many other places in the world.  But it’s not so much the amount of money or possessions that James is talking about, but the perspective of the world that believes in and follows the wisdom of the world, a wisdom that has materialism as it’s goal.

So James is condemning the world’s wisdom, the world system, while at the same time rebuking the same tendencies within the heart of the believer. He is exposing the materialistic perspective of the world, but he also knows it’s possible for believers to be just as materialistic and self-centered and indulgent and guilty of the same sins. 

So he begins with a scathing rebuke to anyone who has adopted the world’s wisdom saying in vs 1, “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you.”  On the one hand, he is calling for repentance from those who hold to that false wisdom, and on the other hand, he is warning of impending judgement upon those who hold to such a world view. James says, you may think you are rich, that you have obtained happiness and fulfillment in life by living according to the world’s wisdom,  but you should be mourning for what you have lost, and crying out for the misery that God’s judgment will bring upon you.

It’s the same sort of rebuke that James offered in chapter four when he called out those who sought friendship with the world, but ended up becoming the enemy of God. To be rich is to be a friend of the world, to live in agreement with the world system which is engineered by the devil and produces every kind of evil.  

James speaks of a coming time when God will judge the world. He says in vs 3, it is in the last days that you have stored up treasure for yourself.  He goes on to speak in vs 7 and 8 saying that the coming of the Lord is at near.  So the misery that is coming upon the rich is the judgment of the Lord at His second coming.  The first coming of the Lord He came bearing mercy, the second coming He comes in judgment.  And James says that the day is near.

So James goes on to speak of four sins of this materialistic, worldly wisdom in this passage that will bring about the judgment of God. The first sin is what might be called the sin of hoarding.  Wealth was held in those days in three primary forms, and he says that in all three areas, they were guilty of hoarding it. 

One form of riches was corn and grain.  We find that example in the parable which Jesus gave concerning the rich man who built more barns to store, or hoard his crops.  There’s nothing wrong with storing corn or grain— the problem James points out is the fact that because they stored more than they could ever eat— James writes, “your riches have rotted” . . . literally, they’ve spoiled.  You didn’t use it for good, for the glory of God, and so it has become foul and putrid before the Lord.

Another form of wealth was clothing. There are many examples of clothing in the Bible being used as money.  For instance, Samson gave changes of clothing as payment for whoever solved his riddle.  James is talking here about people who had so many garments they could never use them all, and so they stored them away. They can only store them away in bigger boxes; bigger garages; bigger attics; bigger rental units; bigger barns.  It’s amazing to me to see how they keep building more and more storage units.  People have huge houses, sometimes two houses,  big garages, and yet they need to rent a storage facility to hold their excess.

Notice what James says next in verse 2. Your garments have become moth-eaten.  Again, the point made is that in storing it away and not using it, the moths ruined it and destroyed it.  I remember once years ago when I was an antique dealer.  I was at these people’s house trying to buy some things, and they told me that they also had some Navajo rugs.  We went back into a bedroom and under the bed the pulled out some boxes in which they had stored these Navajo rugs which today would be worth a good bit of money.  But when we pulled them out and unfolded them, it became obvious that moths had gotten into the rugs and laid their larvae which then ate the wool.  There were large gaping holes all throughout the blankets.  They were completely ruined because they had not been stored correctly.

That’s what James is saying here, the garments that the rich had accumulated and stored away, had no value anymore because they had been ruined by moths. Jesus said that if you had two coats, you were to give one to him who had none.  Garments that are used for the Lord’s purposes do not get moth eaten. But these selfish rich people who stored up their wealth in garments found they were worthless in the day of judgment.

The third way of storing wealth was gold and silver. He writes in verse 3, “Your gold and your silver have rusted, and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure!”  One of the things that makes gold and silver valuable is that they don’t rust. What James is probably referring to, since the judgment is the context here, notice the last phrase of verse 3 where James says that they have stored up their treasure in the last days – what he is referring to is that it will be as if their gold and silver have turned to rust.  In the judgment, the world’s gold and silver will be as worthless as rusted iron.  When iron rusts, it becomes like the moth eaten garments – it just denigrates in your hand.

The point James is making is that the currency of the world is worthless in heaven.The things that are valued in the world’s wisdom have no value in the kingdom of God.  At the judgment, those things that you hoarded, you valued, which you sold your soul for will have no value whatsoever, and in fact James says they will be a witness against you and will fuel the fires of hell.  It’s an echo of what Jesus taught in Matt. 6:19-21 saying “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;  for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

I don’t know if you remember a few years ago some mortuary company had these billboards that promised you could be buried with your motorcycle or car or whatever it was that you treasured or which defined you while you were living.  I don’t know how that worked out for that funeral home.  I haven’t seen any of their billboards lately.  But I read a story not long ago about a man who had a similar ambition. His chief purpose in life was to get as much money as he could. He not only loved money and everything it could buy, he hoarded it all for himself.

In fact, this guy wouldn’t let his wife spend any of it. He made her promise that when he died, he wanted her to have all of his money buried with him in the ground. It was his and he wanted to keep it all for himself. And unbelievably, his wife promised him she would do what he asked. When he died he was enormously wealthy. At his funeral, attended by his wife and just a couple of her friends, just before the casket was lowered, the wife put a large box on top of the casket before it was lowered into the ground. The wife’s close friend said to her, ―”You’re not foolish enough to keep your promise to him, are you?” She said, ”But, I promised him I would.” Her friend protested all the more, ”You mean to tell me that you kept that selfish demand of his —you actually put all that money in the casket with him?” The widow said, “I sure did … I wrote him a check.”  

So following hoarding comes the second sin of materialism, which is defrauding.  James says in vs 4,  “Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, [and] which has been withheld by you, cries out [against you;] and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.”

In this case, James is describing those who in the wisdom of the world to use people, to take advantage of people, in order to climb and claw their way to the top.  The end justifies the means, and if that means I have to step on others then so be it.  That’s the wisdom of the world  that says “go for all the gusto you can get.”  “You can have it all if you’re willing to sacrifice everything.” 

James uses the example here of a day laborer, who was according to Jewish law supposed to be paid at the end of the day, instead, he says the rich man held back his pay, and he was in danger of never getting paid at all.  I once worked for someone many years ago like that who used me to paint a house in Greenwood.  I was in a pretty desperate place at the time and really needed the money. It took me several trips back and forth to finally finish the job, but the company who hired me kept finding fault in what I had done.  So I went back and redid a large portion of it. That happened again, until I finally realized that they were just putting me off not wanting to pay me.  Then when I finally confronted them and they gave me a check, I went to their bank to cash it and was told there was insufficient funds in the account.  Turns out, that was the modus operandi of this company, to hire people to do a job and never intend on paying them.

Now that’s an extreme example of what James is talking about.  Most people aren’t that crass and obvious about it.  But there is a wisdom of the world that values making a buck over treating people fairly. And that is what it means to defraud someone.  James says the Lord of Sabaoth hears the cries of those that were taken advantage of.  That title is also translated in some versions as the Lord of Hosts.  It means the Lord of armies.  God’s might is able to rectify and repay those that do injustice to others.

The third example of the materialistic worldly wisdom is self indulgence. That’s found in vs 5, “You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.”  

James speaks of a life lived in luxury and wanton pleasure.  That’s the goal of the wisdom of the rich man.  These people are using their wealth to gratify their love of luxury and to satisfy their lusts for sexual gratification.

Back in James day, the Romans were notorious for gluttonous feasts and sexual orgies.  They actually had these latrines built into the temples where they indulged in these festivals so that when they had gorged themselves on food, they could throw up in the latrine and then eat some more.  In contrast to that, the Christians were displaced from their homeland, they had often lost their occupations in the process, and were probably wondering where they would get their next meal. 

From a human perspective, it looked like the rich, worldly wise people were living the best life possible, enjoying every pleasure in abundance, but James says that they are actually fattening themselves for the day of slaughter.  He likens it to the farm animal that eats and eats but doesn’t realize that it is only so that they might be slaughtered later.  He is speaking metaphorically about the judgment that will be greater because of their self indulgence. It’s interesting to think about how so much that we consider essential, that we work and spend our money on, is actually a luxury that would be inconceivable to people living a hundred years ago.  And we try to justify our lifestyle in the name of providing for our families, when really we have to have all these luxury items that we think are essential.

Just compare the average house of the generation that lived in the 50’s and 60’s in comparison with the average house today. You can’t even find a builder today that will build a house like that.  It’s not marketable unless it has a top of the line kitchen, walk in closets, a two car garage, and all the modern conveniences.  I’m not saying we have to live in a hut to be spiritual, but I am saying we have bought into the world’s wisdom for what is an acceptable standard of living.

There is a final characteristic James speaks of concerning the worldly wise rich man, and that is ruthlessness. He speaks of it ruthlessness in vs 6, “You have condemned and put to death the righteous [man;] he does not resist you.”  

More than likely James is speaking metaphorically here about putting someone to death.  But in Jewish legal terms, taking away the livelihood of someone was the equivalent of murder.  One rabbi a couple of centuries before Christ said it this way, “As one that slays his neighbor is he that takes away his living.” 

Having even a little experience in our legal system, it’s not hard to see that the rich are able to take advantage of the courts, whereas the poor are not able to afford to defend themselves.  I think using the legal system to their advantage is  what James is speaking of.  Remember back in chapter 2 vs 6 James said, “But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?”

What he is talking about is that the innocent man is personally abused, beaten down and ruined by a court, that instead of dispensing justice, is able to be controlled by the rich. And according to the wisdom of the world, all is fair in love and war and business, even if it means taking everything from the innocent to stuff the pockets of the rich. Those that follow the world’s wisdom are ruthless, taking advantage by every means possible to keep themselves rich and add to their riches.

Notice at the last part of verse 6, James says that the righteous man does not resist you.

This can mean one of two things: one,  that the righteous man doesn’t have the

ability to show up in court. He doesn’t have the  money to hire a fancy lawyer; he doesn’t even have the ability to photocopy the paper to file his complaint.  There is a man that I have befriended in prison that I’ve seen this happen to again and again.  He has lost so many court battles simply because he didn’t have access to a phone, or to a lawyer, or even able to get things photo copied.  The prison charges him money to make copies, and he has no money, so he can’t make the copies and loses the appeal.

The other possible option is that the righteous man doesn’t even try to fight back legally, and chooses instead to be ruined and leave his vindication up to God.  We can’t be sure, but that latter interpretation is very likely the one James had in mind, given the use of the word righteous as a description of this innocent person.  

In that case where I painted a house in Greenwood and the business that hired me gave me a bad check, I remember I called them and asked for them to pay me what they owed me.  The guy on the telephone became so vile, so filthy mouthed, he cursed me up one side and down the other.  It was actually unnerving to hear the hatred in his voice.  I was very upset and considered all the ways I could try to legally get my money.  Then later that night I began to pray about it and asked the Lord to show me what to do.  The next morning, I wrote this guy a letter.  I said I knew that they owed me the money but I had decided I was going to forgive them for defrauding me, and I wasn’t going to take any legal action against them. I said I had also owed a debt that I had not been able to pay, and the Lord had forgiven me, and by His example, I had decided to forgive them. I tried to use it as a means of witnessing to them their need of salvation.  I never heard from them again, and I don’t doubt but that they laughed over the idea that they thought  they got away with it.  But I know that the Lord will vindicate me, that he saw what I did, and I believe over the years He has restored so much more than I lost in that deal.

Listen, the wisdom of this world says that the end justifies the means, and the goal in life is he who dies with the most toys wins. The wisdom of this world says that there is no God, or that God doesn’t care, or even that if there is a God, He just wants us to be successful in the things of this world, and so we are justified in cutting corners, or we’re justified in being ruthless or stepping on people in our pursuit of the goal.  Of course, nothing can be further from the truth. God sees, and God will judge the world for every deed, and even every careless word that they have done.

Rather than trusting in the wisdom of the world, Paul told Timothy in 1Tim. 6:17-19 “Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. [Instruct them] to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.” 

Jesus told us how we are to gain that life in Matt. 16:24-27 and it is the opposite of the world’s wisdom.  He said,  “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.  For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.” 

I pray that if you are following the wisdom of this world today, if you are rich in this world, then you will repent, weep and howl, and ask God for forgiveness, for Him to transform your heart, so that you might escape that judgment which is coming on all the world.  Renounce the riches of this world, renounce the wisdom of this world, and in exchange the Lord will give you the next world, and the wisdom which comes down from heaven, that you might have life and have it more abundantly.  That you might obtain  an inheritance [which is] imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.