Serving One Another

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I was talking to one of my cousins a while back about what she believes. Her Mum is a Christian and took her to church while she was growing up, but my cousin's not. So I asked her, "What put you off it?" And she said, "Well, when you see the local vicar leave his wife for another woman in the church, and carry on in ministry without anyone else in authority doing anything… it totally undermines the credibility of Christianity." And that may be your experience. You may still be thinking through what you believe, and one of your big problems may be the way you've seen Christians – especially Christian leaders – misbehave. Or you may be a Christian who's moved to this church out of disappointment with church leaders elsewhere. Or you may feel disappointed with us who lead here. The leaders of a church will always affect others for good or for ill.

And that's why the apostle Paul wrote 1 Timothy – which we're looking at on Sunday nights – because the church in Ephesus, where Timothy was, had some big misbehaviour problems among its leaders. And Paul wrote this letter to help Timothy deal with them. So would you turn in the Bibles to 1 Timothy 3, and before we look at tonight's passage, let me remind us of the key purpose verse of this letter. Look down to 1 Timothy 3.15, where Paul says he's writing so that:

...you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.

In tonight's passage, Paul tells Timothy how to deal with the misbehaviour of some of the leaders of the church. So look over to chapter 5, verse 17 where a new section of the letter starts like this:

Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honour…

And my first heading for verses 17 and 18 is:

1. Godly Leaders should be Honoured and Financially Supported

Now verse 17 doesn't use the word 'leaders', but 'elders'. And the rest of verse 17 gives two clues about who they are and what they do. For one thing it says that elders 'rule'. Now that sounds a bit authoritarian, but the same word is translated 'manage' in chapter 3. So just look back to chapter 3, verses 4-5, where Paul says an elder:

…must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?

So the picture is that the church is God's family, and the elders are to manage it – in other words, lead it, plan for it, organise it, and care for its members – as a godly father does his own family. Back to chapter 5, verse 17:

Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honour, especially those who labour in preaching and teaching.

Some people think Paul was talking about two kinds of elders there:

  • Some who just do managing
  • Some who do managing and teaching

But in chapter 3, Paul says that all elders need to be 'able to teach'. And I think the picture is that elders all manage and teach – but in different proportions, depending on their gifts. The other thing to say is that the New Testament always talks about elders (plural). So the local church leadership shouldn't be a 'one man band' – that has all sorts of pitfalls. But it makes sense for one man to be the leader of the elders – because structures that claim to be 'flat', with no-one overall in charge, don't really work. So in this church, the elders include the ordained leaders. But others, both staff and non-staff, are included in the eldership here – for example, our church wardens Bob and Andrew. So that's who the elders are. And Paul says, verse 17:

Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honour, especially those who labour in preaching and teaching.

And "worthy of double honour" means 'worthy of honour in two ways.' One way is that godly elders should be appreciated and valued and respected. But the other way is that, if it's their full-time work, they should be financially supported, because verse 18 adds this:

For the Scripture says, "You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain"…

That's a quote from the Old Testament law, which says you should feed your ox while it's working for you. And Paul re-applies that to the full-time elders who are working for you. Read on in verse 17:

…and "The labourer deserves his wages."

That's a quote from the Lord Jesus in Luke chapter 10, about those whose full-time labour is to spread the gospel and build up the church. So until the Lord guided me into Plan B, my Plan A was to be a biology teacher. And if I had been, I guess I'd have led a small group in my church and given the odd talk, but there's no way I could have led the groups of groups which I have done, and trained the leaders and written the materials and prepared the sermons, and met the numerous people one-to-one which I have done. You have to be full-time for that, which means people have to support you financially. And I'm glad it's God's Word saying this, not just me – otherwise I'd sound like I was singing for my supper.

But that quote – from the Lord Jesus himself – is pretty strong, isn't it? He's saying, 'If you're a Christian benefitting regularly from the work of a full-time minister, then that full-time minister deserves your financial support – you owe him that.' So you may need to realise that for the first time, and start giving regularly to the ministry here that you benefit from. In which case, you need to visit the Giving area at the back after the service to find the information you need to do that, because we don't take collections in our services to support the ministry here. That's all done through our Giving Scheme. And if you're a Christian and belong to this church, that should involve being part of that Giving Scheme.

Now I know the sums of money being talked about at the moment – like a budget of £1.2 million; and the need for regular giving to go up by £150,000 over the rest of this year – those sums can make you feel, 'Well, what can I do? How's my little bit going to help?' But the answer is that every year God has met our needs as each of us has done what we can. He knows our different capacities for giving and he meets our needs as each of us does what we can. For example, the financial support you give me – for which can I say thank you – is roughly the UK average salary. So on average, any ten of you giving 10% of your income is me covered. And, under God, when everyone who should give gives whatever percentage he or she can, it will see everything we need covered.

So that's what Paul says in verses 17 and 18: Godly leaders should be honoured and financially supported. But why did it need saying? Well, remember: some of the elders were misbehaving morally. And that makes you think, 'Well, if my giving is going to them, I can't really trust it's going to be well-used.' And it makes you disillusioned with the whole idea of full-time leaders. It makes you think, 'Maybe the church can get along fine without any.' And so, financial support for having elders dries up. So can I say: if you're hesitant about giving to the ministry here because of issues of trust or accountability – or whatever it is – then please come and share your concerns with one of us. So that's Paul's first point here: Godly leaders should be honoured and financially supported. His second point is this:

2. Ungodly Leaders should be Disciplined

So look back again to chapter 3, verse 15, where Paul says he's writing so that:

… you may know how one ought to behave in the household [or family] of God

A godly family won't just be a place of love. It'll be a place of discipline, as well. And Paul says that goes for God's family, the local church, too. Now what Paul says next is that ungodly elders should be disciplined. I've widened that to saying, 'Ungodly leaders should be disciplined' – because we share leadership with many of you, so the integrity and credibility of the ministry here depends on your behaviour as well. And I could have widened it to saying, 'Ungodliness in anyone should be disciplined' – because the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 18 that if any believer falls into some settled, sinful behaviour, the job of a church that really cares for people is to pick them up on it, and try to help them out of it. So what principles for discipline more widely can we learn from what Paul says about dealing with misbehaving elders? Well, the first one is: be sure of the facts before you act. Look at verse 19:

Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses.

So for example, a while back someone in our church told me that one of our group leaders was letting the side down by drunkenness on some occasions. Verse 19 is the first principle you need in that kind of situation. It's lifted from Deuteronomy 19 – that Old Testament reading we had, and Jesus endorsed it when he taught about church discipline in Matthew 18. The principle is: be sure of the facts before you act. So you don't just listen to one person's criticism or allegation; you investigate, and listen to more than one. Worse case scenario: you find they are living in some settled, sinful behaviour, in which case, verse 20:

As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear.

That is, something has to be done publically, which the whole church knows about. Now if you know your Bible, you may be thinking: but in Matthew 18.15, Jesus said,

If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone.

And that's right. Where it's a private matter, step one is to pick the person up on it privately, in the hope that he or she will listen and accept your help in getting back on the rails, spiritually. But Paul is talking about very public matters – like the vicar my cousin mentioned, who'd left his wife for another woman in the church – and everybody knew about it. And in those situations, if nothing is done publically, then everyone is negatively affected.

Some people will be confused – because if they're not sure of what the Bible says on the matter, they'll probably think, 'Well, maybe this is OK, since no-one's doing anything about it.' That's how liberals have been bringing their 'new morality' into the church, recently. For example, men in active homosexual relationships have been ordained as elders – and it sends out the message, 'This is OK, because no-one's doing anything about it.' So some people will be confused. But others, Christians and non-Christians, will be scandalised because they know it's wrong – and that it's wrong that nothing's being done about it. That's why the public sin of public church leaders needs to be publically dealt with. Of course God still cares for that individual leader and their spiritual welfare, but the issues can't just be handled privately, because the spiritual welfare of the church is at stake. Now you may be thinking, 'That all sounds so judgmental.' But read on into verse 21:

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality.

That harks back to that key purpose verse, chapter 3, verse 15, which says the local church is:

the church of the living God

That's Paul's way of saying, 'God actually lives among you, by his Spirit, in the life of your church. The awesome, holy Lord and Judge is actually present among us and sees everything we do. So Paul says in chapter 5, verse 21, remember you're living:

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels

Back in chapter 3 when Paul says, for example, that elders must be faithful in marriage, and avoid drunkenness and so on – that's not him being judgmental. Those are God's judgments revealed in the Bible. It's God's judgment that any sex outside of marriage is wrong. It's God's judgment that marriage is only heterosexual. It's God's judgment that drunkenness is wrong. And so on.

Just like elders are to care for God's family by God's standards of care, they're also to discipline God's family (starting with themselves) to live by God's revealed judgments, or standards, of what's right and wrong. Now of course we'll always fall short of God's standards – on the best day of our Christian lives, let alone the worst times of going off the rails. And if we're trusting in Jesus, there is forgiveness for all past failure, through his death on the cross. But the point of forgiveness is not just that we're forgiven – but that we're forgiven back into relationship with God – and motivated by his amazing acceptance of us to live to please him, to live according to his judgments on life. So, one principle for church discipline is: be sure of the facts before you act, and another is: act remembering that God is the Judge of us all. That means sticking to his revealed judgments of what's right and wrong, however hard that may be, and it means, end of verse 21, handling discipline:

without prejudging, [and] doing nothing from partiality.

If you've had children, you'll know how they are a real training ground for that. For example, when I hear our youngest daughter Naomi crying, I find it so easy to wade into the playroom and accusingly ask her older sisters, Beth and Ellie, 'Why is Naomi crying?' with the false assumption, 'You've made her cry.' That's prejudging. Then, when I discover Naomi is crying because she tried to punch Beth or Ellie, but bent her finger back in the process – it's easy to switch on the sympathy because she does 'cute' so well – and to forget that she's the one in the wrong. That's partiality. But in the training ground of their own families – and in God's family, the local church, elders are to work at handling discipline:

without prejudging, [and] doing nothing from partiality.

So, Paul says: Godly leaders should be honoured and financially supported and ungodly leaders should be disciplined. His third point is that:

3. New Leaders should be Very Carefully Appointed

So far here, Paul has been telling Timothy how to deal with the existing leaders – good and bad. The bad are like a cancer in the church, which Timothy needs to do surgery on. But next, Paul goes on to tell Timothy how to appont new leaders, which is preventative medicine – to protect the church from bad leadership in the future. Back in chapter 3, we saw the criteria Paul gave Timothy for choosing new elders. Just glance back to chapter 3, verses 2-3:

Therefore an overseer [which is another word for an elder] must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent butgentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. [And so on.]

What's striking is that Timothy isn't told to look first and foremost for giftedness, but godliness. The only giftedness mentioned is 'able to teach'. Apart from that, it's all about the godliness which the New Testament actually expects of any Christian, because first and foremost, spiritual leadership is about setting an example of what a Christian should be. So, the crucial criterion is godliness, and the point is: it takes time and care to suss that out. By contrast, you can spot giftedness very quickly. For example, someone might give a brilliant Bible talk on our Holiday Club or in our summer series – and people think, 'Wow, we should get them doing more.' But if there's not tried and tested godliness underlying the giftedness, that would be a big mistake. So now look on to chapter 5, verse 22, where Paul says:

Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands

That was just the formal, public way that elders were appointed. So Paul is saying, 'Don't be hasty in appointing new leaders', because it takes time and care to suss out godliness. So, for example, the main way onto the church staff has been our Parish Assistant scheme, which gives a lot of time for us to get to know not just a person's giftedness, but their godliness. Then if appropriate, they can be appointed as junior staff, and well down the tracks, if appropriate, some can be ordained elders. That's all applying this principle of not being hasty.

And the same principle applies to appointing leaders throughout the church. So, for example, you may be a new Christian here, or newly moved from another church and you want to get involved in helping and leading something. That's great – but we need to get to know you first. So you may be disappointed that you haven't been invited more quickly into doing something (and I admit that may be our fault in being slow). But actually you should be much more disappointed if we did that too quickly – because that would show a real lack of wisdom. So in verse 22, Paul says to Timothy,

Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others; keep yourself pure.

Because when others in leadership are misbehaving, it's easy to be affected and let your own godliness slip. And then comes a verse that many people don't know what to make of. Verse 23:

(No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.)

So Paul obviously knows Timothy has a medical problem and small amounts of wine were seen as medicinal in his day. But why does he suddenly bung this piece of advice in brackets here? Well, it must have been prompted by what he's just said – which was, 'keep yourself pure.' One thing in the background was probably that some of the elders were misbehaving by getting drunk, and Timothy may have responded by going teetotal, so that people would perceive him as being totally different. And Paul would say: 'yes, it is a good leadership principle to think how people will perceive you. You are in the public eye, and you do need to think what effect your behaviour will have on people – what example it sets and how it might be perceived.' But in this case Paul says there's good reason for Timothy not being teetotal – even if some people might perceive that negatively. The principle being that a leader can't successfully guard against every wrong perception – and he won't please everyone who has an opinion about his choices in matters of freedom. But to wrap up what he says about appointing new leaders, Paul says in verses 24-25:

The sins of some men are conspicuous, going before them to judgement, but the sins of others appear later. So also good works are conspicuous, and even those that are not cannot remain hidden.

That's just a final reminder that it takes time to suss out godliness – and ungodliness. So, new leaders should be very carefully appointed. That brings Paul to the end of this section designed to help Timothy deal with misbehaving elders.

The first two verses of chapter 6 then move on to what looks, on the surface, like a very different subject from church leadership – the subject of Christian slaves and how they should be godly in their situation. But actually, under the surface, the issue is the same – because the big issue of this letter according to that key purpose verse (3.15) is: "how… to behave as the household of God". And whether we're the household of God gathered together like this (or in our many other groups and activities) or the household of God scattered across Tyneside tomorrow in our different walks of life, God's call is that we behave in such a way that people who aren't yet Christians are not put off but drawn to the Lord Jesus. So the last point Paul makes is:

4. Workers should Honour those they Work for – to Honour Jesus

Look at chapter 6, verses 1-2:

Let all who are under a yoke as slaves regard their own masters as worthy of all honour, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled. Those who have believing masters must not be disrespectful on the ground that they are brothers; rather they must serve all the better since those who benefit by their good service are believers and beloved.

Now in my heading I've already widened the application of these verses to 'workers'. But in the first place, Paul was speaking specifically about slaves. And that immediately raises an issue, which is that people who are critical of Christianity may say, 'One of my objections is that the New Testament is pro-slavery – at least, it's not anti-slavery; it complacently accepts the status quo – and that surely undermines the credibility of Christianity.' In fact that same assumption – that the New Testament is pro-slavery – underlies one of the liberal arguments for the 'new morality' that has been introduced into the church. The argument goes like this: 'The New Testament was wrong about slavery – and we've had to progress beyond it with the abolition of slavery. And, similarly, the New Testament was wrong about gender roles – and we've had to progress beyond it to a recognition of the total equality and interchange-ability of men and women in all areas of life. And, similarly, the New Testament was wrong about homosexuality – and we've had to progress beyond it to a recognition that loving, committed, homosexually active relationships are acceptable to God.'

But the assumption that the New Testament is pro-slavery is false. For a start, in 1 Timothy 6.1, Paul talks about those, "who are under a yoke as slaves". A 'yoke' was what a beast of burden – like an ox – would be hitched up to, to pull a plough or a cart, so it was a metaphor for something dehumanising, which shows that Paul's (and God's) attitude to slavery was negative. In addition, elsewhere in the New Testament, Paul encourages Christian slaves to gain their freedom, if they have the opportunity (1 Corinthians 7.21). So it's not true to say that the New Testament is pro-slavery. But that begs the question, 'Then why didn't Paul – or Jesus – call for a slaves' revolt, an uprising to free themselves?' And one part of the answer may be that it's easier to say that slavery should end than to see how, in a fallen world, it may be ended without major suffering. For example, in Jesus' and Paul's day there had been slave uprisings which were brutally put down by the Roman authorities, with thousands being killed on some occasions. Having said that, Christians may have been sinfully slow in pursuing the abolition of slavery, historically. But it is a fact that, ultimately, they did.

The point is: in what Paul says here in 1 Timothy 6.1-2, he is not approving of slavery, nor is he accepting it as a fact of life that ought to remain unchanged. He is dealing with it as a present fact of life in which many Christians were inevitably caught up – and those Christians needed to know how to handle that situation – "how… to behave in the household of God" (1 Timothy 3.15). It's also important to add that slavery took many forms in Paul's day, and that it's wrong to think of all forms of it then as like the worst forms of slavery resulting from the African slave trade. Many slaves in Paul's day were well-treated and often had quite high-status jobs in large households – or even in the Roman government. And most who entered into slavery were not captured into it (as in the slave trade) but bankrupted into it: they put themselves under obligation to a master out of financial necessity – which is not so far away, in principle, from how many of us work. We place ourselves under obligation to an employer out of financial necessity. Hence my heading, applying this more broadly to us: 'Workers should honour those they work for – to honour Jesus'. So what does Paul say to slaves (or, by extension, to workers)? Look at verse 1 again:

Let all who are under a yoke as slaves regard their own masters as worthy of all honour, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled.

You could paraphrase for today, 'Let all who are under obligation to employers regard those employers as worthy of all honour, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled.' In other words, Christians at work should work in such a way and with such an attitude to their employers that Jesus is honoured in the eyes of those employers. Those employers may be anything from very good to very bad – but the Christian's response is not to be a tit-for-tat one ('I'll work well if I'm treated well'); it's to be a response to Jesus, however the employer treats them. And Jesus calls us to regard our employers as worthy of all honour. (That is not to say that we may not seek fair treatment at work through things like union membership, employment law, complaints procedures, tribunals and so on – but that's a different subject and not the one Paul is addressing here.) And then in verse 2, Paul speaks to the situation where both the slave and the master are Christians:

Those who have believing masters must not be disrespectful on the ground that they are brothers; rather they must serve all the better since those who benefit by their good service are believers and beloved.

So the potential problem here was that a Christian slave with a Christian master would think, 'Since my master is a Christian, I don't need to look up to him as 'the boss' like other slaves do – after all, he's my brother in Christ, not my boss. And he should think similarly about me – after all, I'm his brother in Christ, not just his worker.' It was the potential problem of Christian slaves of Christian masters thinking that less was demanded of them in terms of standards of work, and regarding the master as not really having authority over them. But to anyone thinking like that Paul says, 'No', verse 2:

…rather they must serve all the better since those who benefit by their good service are believers and beloved.

In other words, the Christian slave with a Christian master should be thinking, 'Since my master is a Christian, I should be working as best I can for him – just as I'd want to do something as best I can if it was for my own family. Because, after all, my Christian master is 'family' to me in God's family, and I should see my work for him as a form of brotherly love towards him.'

The underlying truth here is this: if we're trusting in Jesus then we do belong to a new order of things, in God's family – where the world's distinctions (like whether you work or what work you do) are unimportant, and where what is of first importance is that we are all equally brothers and sisters in God's family. But we still belong to the old order of things – we still live in the world – where there are legitimate distinctions and authority structures such as the relationship between employer and employee or between senior and junior employee – and God calls us to respect those distinctions and authority structures – not least to honour Jesus in the eyes of others.

So this may apply very directly to you in your workplace. You may work for a manager or senior who is a fellow-Christian. That may add an extra, positive dynamic to your working relationship. But it mustn't subtract from you giving them the respect and authority and standard of work they deserve. It certainly applies directly to my workplace! Because it's tempting on a church staff, or in any Christian organisation, to think we don't have to look up to those over us in quite the same way, or to think that less is demanded of us in a working environment where grace should constantly be modelled and reflected.

And it applies to all of us who serve or lead in any way in this church – from sidesmen to small group leaders, children's leaders to church wardens. Because it's easy to have the attitude that, 'It's only church.' It's easy to think we can turn up a bit later than asked, 'Because it's only church.' Or to think we can prepare skimpily for our next Bible study or Explorers' session, 'Because it's only church.' But if we catch ourselves thinking, 'It's only church,' then we're not seeing church how 1 Timothy sees it. Because, to quote that key purpose verse one more time, the way 1 Timothy sees church is that it's:

... the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth." (1 Timothy 3.15)

And that means – as I've said already – that whether we're the household of God gathered together like this (or in our many other groups and activities) or the household of God scattered across Tyneside tomorrow in all our different walks of life, God's call is that we behave ourselves in such a way that people who aren't yet Christians are not put off but drawn to the Lord Jesus.

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