1 Timothy 5:1 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Timothy 5:1

Comments

Obviously, these are first and foremost instructions to Timothy as a pastor, and to all pastors. They are, of course, also instructions to all believers. It's quite inconceivable that God will require a code of conduct from the pastors and the shepherds of the flock, which he does not require of everybody. It's the same standard for all. The word ‘elder’ does not here refer to somebody holding the office of elder. What is being spoken about here is older people, younger people; older men, younger men; older women, younger women. ‘Rebuke not an elder’ – do not give harsh treatment to any older person, but entreat, implore that person as a father. In other words, Timothy, when he has to deal with some problem or some sin, must, certainly initially, go about it as if he were dealing with his own father, and that is a very difficult thing. Timothy is told, ‘You may have to reprove the person, you may have to take a person to task, but if it is an older man, go about it as if he were your own father. We can dilute the strength of this by saying vaguely, ‘Treat them as fathers.’ No, that's not good enough. ‘And the younger men as brethren.’ ‘Oh, but they are younger. Can't I laud it over them a little bit? Can't I talk down to the younger men a bit?’ Timothy may just be tempted to say. ‘The younger men need to be spoken to somewhat briskly. The younger need sometimes to be called to order, put in their place.’ No, not in the church of Jesus Christ. ‘The elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, with all purity.’ It must be done in all purity, not with ranker or anything of the kind, and not with any kind of sin.

Application

How do you treat people as fathers? Surely there can be no one more difficult to reprove than your own father or your own mother, and that cautions us. In other words, in the code of conduct in the church of Jesus Christ, great respect and great affection is to be shown to those who are older. Even though they may have to be reproved, it is nevertheless to be done with great respect and great affection. Of course, it may be that something very wicked has happened, and it may be that the person who is being reproved pays no heed, and as time goes on there may have to be firmer discipline meted out. But we are talking here about the way we go about things initially. There's no place in the church of Jesus Christ for rudeness, for lack of respect.

This is difficult for us because we grow up in a society today where there is very little respect or affection for people who are older, and the world and society around rubs off on us. We are commanded by the Lord through his word to be different from the world around. The Christian Church is to be a family in which there is great respect and affection for those who are older. And even in reproof, that is to be borne in mind. A father, any father, is just the same as your father, and that is what the Apostle Paul means. Do it with all the delicacy that you would have to use for a parent.

You are to treat younger brethren as brothers, as equals personally in the sight of God, even though you may be having to entreat them or exhort them or put them right on something, you do it as brother to brother. ‘But I'm the pastor’, Timothy may say, ‘how can I do it as brother to brother?’ You may be the pastor, but even you do it as brother to brother, and how much more should everybody else do it as brother to brother! These are instructions on the manner in which we respect each other in the church of Jesus Christ. There is no difference in God's sight between me and my brother or sister in the Lord. It doesn't matter if I've been saved forty years and that person's been saved a week. In God's sight, that person is a child of God – that brother, that sister – and we must constantly remind ourselves of these things and remind ourselves to show warmth, brotherliness, sisterliness, respect, affection. These are the standards in the church of Jesus Christ.

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1 Timothy 5:1 Commentary and Bible Study

The meaning of 1 Timothy 5:1 explained