Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Timothy 5-6.

Paul again warns Timothy against false teachers towards the end of this letter.  He describes them as being conceited and having an unhealthy interest in controversy.  Rather than pursuing godliness for the sake of goodness, they see godliness as a means to gain wealth.  Paul advises that we should be content with sufficient food and clothing, warning that those who who want to get rich run the risk of falling into traps and temptation.  In particular, Paul points out that the love of money has led many into sins of various sorts.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Timothy 1-4.

Early in his letter to Timothy, Paul writes that Timothy should command some people to stop teaching false doctrines.  He tells Timothy that these people want to be teachers of the law, but do not actually know what they are talking about when it comes to the law.  Then Paul says something to which I think we should pay more attention than we do: the law is not for the righteous, but for lawbreakers and the ungodly.  The law is for those who are constantly looking for loopholes.  You know, the people who constantly say, “Well, there wasn’t a rule against it,” as justification for something they have done which caused problems.  On the other hand, those who seek to do good, who seek to advance the interests of others do not need a set of rules which lay out what is acceptable and what is unacceptable behavior.  So, we do not create a righteous society by having the correct laws.  No, we bring about a righteous society by following Paul’s second piece of advice to Timothy; pray for all people.  If we want to transform society into the kingdom of God, and we should desire to do so, we must lift our hands in prayer, without anger or dispute.  Instead of adorning ourselves with expensive clothes and jewelry we should adorn ourselves with good deeds.  Let us pray for everyone, especially those in authority, not praying that they do what we think best, but that they do God’s will.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Timothy 5-6.

Paul instructs Timothy to treat everyone with appropriate respect, those older than himself as his mother or father, those his age or younger as brothers and sisters.  We should take this advice to heart and treat our fellow believers with similar respect.  I wanted to start off with that just as this passage does.  However, the main thing which struck me is Paul'[s final instruction to Timothy in this letter.  Paul finishes his instruction to Timothy by telling him to turn away from godless chatter and from ideas which some falsely call knowledge.  From this we see that even in the early Church there were those who styled themselves intellectuals who sought to deny the Gospel in the name of “{knowledge”, or “science”.  There will always be those who are sure that they know something which proves some aspect of what has always been taught as part of the Gospel is not so.  We should not get caught up in debating what such “{knowledge” says about our faith, instead trust that God has made His will made known and that those who went before us in faith were not fooled by man-made stories.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Timothy 1-4.

One thing that has often taken my attention, and that of many other commentators, is what Paul means when he tells Timothy to command certain people to not devote themselves to “myths and endless genealogies.”  I have seen several different interpretations of what sort of genealogies Paul meant.  However, today it struck me that it does not matter, because in his next sentence Paul tells us what the problem with them was.  They promoted controversial speculations which distracted from advancing God’s work.  So, any debate which does not promote the love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith should be avoided.  If we look for a reading of Scripture, for a loophole, to find how what we want to do does not violate God'[s law, we have missed the point.  If we do not see how what we want to do advances God’s work, we should do something else.

Paul goes on to give instructions for how we should behave and the qualifications for Church leaders.  He gives somewhat different instructions for men and women and we can debate whether what he writes means that Church leadership roles should only be filled by men.  However, I want to note that ALL of the things he describes can apply to all Believers.  Paul starts this section by requesting that we pray for, intercede for, petition God for, and offer thanksgiving to God for all people, but especially for those in positions of government authority.  Then he writes that men should pray and women should dress modestly, but really both men and women should pray and dress modestly.  We should adorn ourselves with good deeds rather than with fancy hairstyles, attention grabbing jewelry, or high fashion clothes.  Paul goes on to describe the attributes we should look for in elders (overseers as translated here) and deacons in the Church.  Even in the context it is clear that all of the qualifications he gives are so that those holding these positions of authority in the Church can be held up as examples for other Believers, especially new Believers, to follow.  We should be faithful to our spouse, self-controlled, respectable, and hospitable. We should be gentle rather than violent or quarrelsome.  We should not be lovers of money nor drink to excess.  We should strive to be worthy of respect and not talk maliciously about others.  Even the one qualification for the position of Church elder which not everyone should have is one at which we should all seek.  That one is the ability to teach.  We may not all be called upon to teach, but we should seek to be able to do so in case the occasion arises where we need to do so.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Timothy 5-6

Here Paul gives Timothy instructions for caring for widows.  I am convinced that these instructions can be easily extended to how we as Christians should care for all of those in need.  First, we definitely should care for those who have no one else to care for them who cannot care for themselves.  However, we should ask the relatives of those who cannot care for themselves to care for them before we, as the Church, get involved.  Also, those who are able to care for themselves should do so.  Further, those who we provide care for need to be respectful and kind to others.  If you are one of those who need help, you need to be grateful to those who give you that assistance. Further, while some among us have the gift to care for those who are ungrateful, none of us are obligated to care for those who treat us poorly.   I am tempted to write more here to try to clarify my points, but instead I am going to ask you to read the passage and see how Paul said it.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Timothy 1-4

Today’s passage begins and ends with Paul warning Timothy against false teachers who fill their time with meaningless discussions.  He speaks of how they spend time on discussions of myths and genealogies (the context seems to suggest that some people were claiming to have special insights into God’s will because of who their ancestors were, but it may also apply to those who claimed authority because they had been students of particular people).  Paul warns us against getting caught up in such meaningless discussions.  Instead of getting caught up in meaningless discussions we should pray for people, especially those in positions of government authority.  In times like these that last bit will help us avoid getting caught up in meaningless discussions which do nothing to help us, or others, live a life of faith in God.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Timothy 5-6

Paul gives instructions here regarding the care of widowed believers by the Church which I believe can be our model for helping all who are unable to care for themselves.  Paul begins by saying that the family of the person in need should do all that they can to help them.  He continues by saying that every person should care for their own needs to whatever degree that they are able to do so.  Finally, the Church should care for those whose needs cannot be met by these first two options.  However, Paul puts some conditions on those for whom the Church should provide care.  I believe that the conditions which Paul lists are specific to the situation he was addressing and do not necessarily represent the conditions we should impose today.  That being said, they provide a model for conditioning assistance on the behavior of those receiving assistance.  

Paul recommends against giving assistance to those who are able-bodied because they will then spend their time gossiping and meddling in other people’s business.  Again we can see both that he is referring to a relatively specific situation and offering a model which can be applied more generally.  The assistance Paul is addressing here appears to be monetary and/or food supplies.  We see from that another way to address his concerns would be to provide assistance in the form of a job,  I do not want to go too far down that path.  Believers should aid those who require assistance to meet their needs, but that aid can, and should to some degree, be contingent upon actions by those receiving it.  We must always remember that sometimes material assistance is not in the best interest of those in need.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Timothy 1-4

Paul begins his first letter to Timothy by warning against false teachers, comes back to it in the middle, then again at the end (we will get to the end tomorrow).  At the beginning Paul writes that these false teachers spend all of their time talking about myths and spiritual pedigrees.  Then when he circles back he warns Timothy against arguing about godless ideas and old-wives tales.  I believe that the second is just Paul restating what he said at first in a different order.  From these pointless discussions they make up rules they claim we need to follow in order to be righteous.  Paul writes that rules, even the laws God gave to Moses, are for those who rebel against God.  Despite what some people argue, Paul is not saying that good is relative.  He is saying that one does not do good because one follows a set of rules.  One does good by loving one’s neighbor.

I never realized before that in many ways, Paul’s instructions for the type of people to select for leadership positions reflect a practical way to identify people who get the above.  Some of the things Paul requires of a leader just reflect someone being a good person with the skills needed to be a leader, but his instructions on judging them by their children tells us that they understand the above.  Children whose parents insist that they follow rules because the parents set those rules will be rebellious and troublemakers, looking for loopholes in the rules.  Children whose parents make clear that the rules they lay down are what they believe are in the best interest of the children will be well behaved and obedient.  (This does not mean that parents whose children misbehave and become troublemakers did not intend their rules to be in their children’s best interest, just that the children were not convinced the rules were in their best interest).