1 Timothy 5:20 Commentary and Bible Study

Those leaders ‘that sin rebuke before all’, which actually doesn't mean before all the church. Very few commentators think that. The structure of the original leads you to believe that it means rebuke before that body of office bearers, that others also may fear. If the rebuke of an office bearer is before the whole body of elders and deacons, the court, whatever it may be, before the whole church council, then other office bearers are warned that all office bearers have a responsibility to keep themselves pure before the Lord and to live conscientiously. We don't know, of course, what sin is in mind here. It might be something very serious, in which case it might warrant even the expulsion of an office bearer. It may be something not as serious as some moral infidelity, but it may be serious for an office bearer. It may be haughtiness or rudeness or neglect of duty or something of that kind, in which case the office bearer has to be pulled up before the others.