1 Timothy 5-6:2, “Do You Want Respect?”

1 Timothy chapter 5, starting in verse 1, beginning in chapter 6, verse 2, hear the word of the

Lord. Do not rebuke an older man, but encourage him as you would a father. Treat younger men like brothers, older women like mothers, young women like sisters, in all purity.

Honor widows who are truly widows, but if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God.

She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day, but she who is self -indulgent is dead, even while she lives.

Command these things as well, so that they may be without reproach. But if anyone does not provide for his own relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than 60 years of age, having been the wife of one husband, and having a reputation for good works.

If she has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work, but refused to enroll younger widows, for when their passions draw them away from Christ, they desire to marry and so incur condemnation for having abandoned their former faith.

Besides that, they learn to be idlers, going about from house to house, not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not.

So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander, for some have already strayed after Satan.

If any believing woman has relatives who are widows, let her care for them.

Let the church not be burdened, so that it may care for those who are really widows.

Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching, for the scripture says, you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain, and the laborer deserves his wages.

Do not admit a charge against an elder, except on the evidence of two or three witnesses, as for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear.

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.

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

No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments. The sins of some men are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later.

So also good works are conspicuous, and even those that are not cannot remain hidden.

Let all who are under a yoke of slaves regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, 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."

May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his holy word. R -E -S -P -E -C -T.

Find out what it means to me. Do you want respect? Just a little bit?

You don't have to answer that. Everyone wants respect. You know, businesses, particularly the deal with, you know, customer service kind of businesses, deal with the public, treat customers with, learn, they better learn to treat customers with respect, because even if they charge too much or they make a mistake in the product, customers will come back if they feel respected.

Some wives, however, think that they can prove their independence or whatever they're trying to prove by disrespecting their husbands, maybe talking constantly about his failures or insulting him, maybe jokingly or maybe not.

Nothing good ever comes from that, okay? Children get, especially when they grow to be teenagers, get older, they get where they dislike and they get a little sensitive to their being treated with disrespect by their parents.

The way you used to treat them as little kids, now they begin, they understand that they're being disrespected.

And sometimes they end up wanting to move out just because of that. People love respect and hate to be insulted, ignored, or patronized.

People love respect and to be deprived of it eats away at our soul.

White racists understood this and understand this. The one thing that they were determined to do was deprive black people of respect.

They would call grown men, boy, to disrespect them. Southern segregation was never really about segregation.

Segregation means to be apart, keeping the races apart. You know, in the South, whites and blacks always lived in close proximity, working together with each other daily, sometimes in the very same households.

Southern segregation was really about humiliation. You make them ride in the back of the bus, you make them drink from inferior water fountains or use inferior bathrooms, go to lesser equipped schools.

Even in the churches, originally, they were integrated. That is, blacks and whites went to the same churches.

But in what is one of the great abominations of all of church history, the whites made their black brothers and sisters, you know, sit in the back of the church or in the balcony if the church had one, and never let them be part of the church leadership.

They judged them by the color of their skin, not by the content of their character or faith. And so as soon as the black

Christians could, mostly after the Civil War, they understandably formed their own churches, because we all want respect.

The question is, how do you get it? We see that here, in three major parts, respect as family, respect in the church, and respect in the world.

Well, 1 Timothy, I mean, I got to say that right, that's the name of the book, isn't it? First, Timothy, treat the members of your church like family.

Notice that in the first two verses. Respect an older man by not rebuking him, it means, like, intensely scolding him.

You wouldn't scold your grandfather, would you? You'd just be out of place. That doesn't mean that he is never,

Timothy, never to correct an older man, that the church is, after all, as we saw last week, a gymnasium of godliness, a place where one goes to be trained, to live reverently for God.

No one gets past the need for training, but that does mean that older Christian men are not to be severely chastised, to be scolded like they're rowdy children, stop that, that kind of thing.

They deserve, by their years of training to be godly, to be treated with more respect. Treat the other members, too, of the church like members of the family, not as servants to whom orders can be barked, not as employees who are hired to do a job, to give you the music or to give you a lesson, to entertain you on Sunday morning, not as women who can be picked up, like at a bar.

A lot of churches like to say, we are family, and we see here in the first two verses that that is very biblical to aspire to, but the key to making that real, not just an empty slogan, is respect and concern as if we're family.

Other church members aren't just like fellow customers at a restaurant. You don't think of the other guy in the booth next to you at Applebee's as your family, but that's not the church.

It's not just like fellow spectators at a movie, you're just kind of coincidentally there watching the same show. That's not the church.

The church is people you treat as family, older men like fathers, younger men like brothers, older women like mothers, younger women like sisters.

Not only is the church to be a family, the family is to be, in a way, the first church.

It is the family which has the primary responsibility for the care of its members. And those who have families, he says in verse four, notice that they exercise their godliness.

This isn't even the way we think today. What does it mean to exercise your godliness, show your godliness? How do you do that?

When you come to church, you think maybe you pray, you read your Bible, that's how you exercise your godliness. Here, though, not only that's all true, that's one of the ways of exercising your godliness, but also you exercise your godliness by the care for the members of your family.

Those who have families should, he says in verse four, exercise their godliness, show their reverence for God, show that by providing for your family.

It's as simple as that. We often don't think of that as a way to show your love and fear of God, but it is.

And we can hear these words here in this chapter about a life totally dedicated to prayer, seeking

God day and night, and we can get a very kind of otherworldly, you know, live in a monastery and just hum, chant things all day long, get a very otherworldly view of what

God wants out of us. That's what it means to be spiritual, is just to be totally unconcerned about anyone around you, just you and God.

But for most of us, for most of our lives, God wants us to serve him by serving our families.

He says, for this is acceptable to God, is what the inspired apostle says in verse four.

This is acceptable. So what? This is what God wants, a life in which we serve him by serving our families.

That's what God respects. And in verse six, he tells us that the one who is living for pleasure, you know, the girl who just wants to have fun, doesn't care about raising children or grandchildren, or the person is just, you know, going to live for the weekend, or maybe even a little more respectable in our view, saving up his money because he wants to just live a life of retirement in a hammock, you know, doing everything he or she wants to do, enjoying everything, only thinking about himself or herself.

Such a life, Paul says in verse six, is dead. The life of self -indulgence, what many people in our culture think, that's what you work and you save for, right?

So you can retire and live someplace where everything's about you and every day you just wake up late and do whatever you feel like doing for yourself.

That's life, isn't it? Isn't that what we're all working for? It's what our culture says. Paul says it's death.

It is service, either to God through the family or to God through the church, that is life.

This is so much so that the one who deserves the least respect, deserves no respect, is the one who will not take care of his family.

In verse eight, it says he has denied the faith. Think of that, he's denied the faith.

He's not talking about some cult that's out there, you know, doctrinally disagreeing with the fundamentals of the faith, of the

Apostles' Creed or whatever. He's saying the person who won't take care of his family has denied the faith by his very life and is worse than an unbeliever.

It's a fundamental Christian duty to provide for our family. If we don't do it, Paul tells us that we're worse than unbelievers, because even the pagans in Paul's day recognized that caring for one's family was a basic duty.

The famous philosopher Aristotle said it would be better to starve than to let your parents go without food.

In the case when a woman didn't have a family to support her, then the church was her family.

Widows, you notice he repeatedly talks about widows who are real widows, and that seems kind of odd to us.

What do you mean real widows? I mean, you know, your husband dies, you're a widow, that's how you, no, he means real. They have no other family to support them, and they committed themselves to the church.

They're the real widows. Widows who are godly, who have trained in this gymnasium of reverence, who have no other means of support, who give themselves to a life of prayer and service, those are the real widows.

They're to be honored, they're to be respected. They have, as he says in verse 5, set their hopes on God.

Like the widow Anna, you know, God respects Anna. You know Anna from Luke chapter 2, verse 36 -38, remember her?

She was there when Jesus was brought to the temple. She spent her time in the temple, worshiping and praying day and night.

Why does Luke tell us that story? Not only something about Jesus, but also this is a life of Anna that God respects.

Seeking God day and night, dedicating the last years of her life exclusively to the Lord, and it was such a lady that God honored by revealing the real identity of the baby

Jesus when he was brought there. We are to honor such people too. People who in the latter years of their life are more and more seeking the

Lord. They more and more realize the value of eternal things, not just the value of a good doctor.

More and more enraptured with the Lord that they are going soon to see. In Timothy's church, they were to be honored by being practically cared for, these kinds of widows, while they gave themselves to spiritual things.

Practically cared for, that means money, right? Means food, right?

Taken care of. Now, someone who makes that pledge that the church will be their family from now on, that commitment to pray in the church and help the church in what it needs, they deserve great respect.

And those kinds of people deserve so much honor that we have to be careful about who we let do that.

If we let anyone pledge that they will give the rest of their lives to seeking God, to helping the church, and they later then go back on that pledge, they decided, that guy down their street looks pretty good to me.

They bring in to disrepute all who make that commitment. Paul says that they have to meet certain high qualifications.

So with these real widows, they must be, he says in verse 9, they got to be over 60 years old, okay?

They have been faithful to their husband when they had one. They have a reputation of good works. What people think of them, they help people out, they have responsibly brought up children, they were hospitable, he says washed the feet of the saints, they did the practical sort of serving things that needed to be done for people.

They have been humble, they've been unselfish, they've shown genuine care for others. They're not to be the kind of people who will use kind of the unstructured life of prayer in church because they're going to give their life to prayer.

There's not a time clock there when they start praying and then they stop. There's not a boss there overlooking making sure they're continuing praying and doing the practical things.

It's unstructured. They're not to be the kind of people that would use that, Paul says in verse 13, to be idle.

You know, they turn on the TV, what's on the soap operas this afternoon? And go around from house to house, supposedly doing visitation, but really just spreading gossip, talking about everybody, indulging in an undisciplined, destructive chat.

That deserves no respect, Paul says. Now, serving the Lord in the church is not something you do a little bit on the side kind of for as long as you feel like it until something more interesting comes along, until it's not fun anymore, until some other gentleman, you know, maybe you get married to him.

It's a pledge to Christ himself, he says in verse 11. Notice that. Because you think these ladies are committing to the church,

Paul says it's a pledge to Christ himself. If someone makes such a pledge to spend the rest of their lives in prayer and practical support of the church, then he says they better fulfill that pledge.

Or else their passions are drawing them away. Notice verse 12. They made this pledge to the church and something happens, they get drawn away, they're supposed to be spending the rest of their lives in prayer, practical service for the church, then in verse 12 some passions draw them away and they have been drawn away from what?

In verse 12. Not just the church. From Christ, he says in verse 12.

Notice that. Notice two things about that. They're drawn away from Christ. First, the commitment they thought was just to the church was really to Christ.

When they broke their pledge to the church, which is the body of Christ, they broke it to Christ.

So they, you know, they have, and he even calls it, they followed away from, they broke away from their first faith.

Second thing to notice, God takes integrity very seriously, doesn't he? This pledge that some of these women have made, he expects us to fulfill our vows, whether they be marriage vows or oaths of allegiance, you know, we enter the military or even our church covenant.

Certainly our own commitment to God. We cannot make such commitments and then kind of go about our business, nice words, but we go about our business as if we're not bound by them.

This is just decoration. When we enter into a commitment, it's like putting water in our hands.

If you open your hands, you break your word, you lose the water, you lose your integrity.

Better never to make a pledge at all than to make it and then break it. You want respect?

Then keep your commitments. This is why he says in verse 14, that younger widows, he doesn't want them to make the pledge.

Raises the age level to 60, all these requirements. So there's a lot of women out there. You're not even, we're not even going to let you make this commitment.

It's better for you. Go find a man to marry, rule over a house. You're young enough, bear more children, raise children.

We sometimes demean being a housewife, but that too is highly honorable. And here for Paul, it's a common sense advice that is best for the ladies.

It's best for reputation of the church. It's kind of common sense advice. What do you do?

We got a younger widow. She wants to give her life in prayer and service to the church. Uh, no better for her to, you know, what do you think?

That's just great. She's on fire for the Lord. She's zealous. No, it's not. She may be caught up in her zeal for now, but something may change.

Common sense advice, protect the young people against their short -sightedness, protect them against what they think right now they want to do, but that in the long run things will change.

It's common sense advice to give people a practical way to serve God in their families, not away from it.

It's also advice in striking contrast to the rage for celibacy that later developed in the history of the church as foolish people supposed that celibacy was the ideal.

And they did. That became the, for a thousand years and still is in some places, the ideal. If you're a serious

Christian, that's what you strive for. And of course that gave the opposition a basis to mock the church just as Paul said it would.

And it did. Do you want respect? Then live as a family, providing for yours, respecting the church as, as if it were found a family, which it is.

What do you want? Respect. Then the second thing in the church, honor

God's word. If you really honor his word, you'll respect those who teach it to you.

This may sound very self -serving for the next few minutes, but that's the way it is. I can't help that. Paul challenges Timothy in verse seven.

Notice that in verse seven, Paul's commanded to Timothy, challenged to Timothy, command these things.

Now, Timothy may be treating everyone like their family members, but he is in a position to command.

And Paul expects, as we see in the second half of the chapter, that in the church, respect would be given to those who lead.

In verse 17, and here we're going verse 17 onward, all true elders in the church deserve honor.

But here there are some who are gifted in leading, leading the church and are diligent at their calling.

And they, he says, deserve a double honor, in other words, twice as much honor if they're leading well.

Think of a world championship sports team, maybe like the NBA Golden State Warriors.

All the players on the team deserve honor, right? They all get a ring. But Kevin Durant, the new star of the team, ah, he's hailed as worthy of double honor, right?

He's the MVP. Well, elders are worthy of respect because they lead God's church. Now, sure, it is

Christ who rules his church. It's the responsibility of elders to direct the church in the ways that Christ is ruling.

Elders are sort of God's lieutenants, those of you who are in the military, God's lieutenants who pass on God's orders from on high to us enlisted

Christian soldiers. Of course, we all have direct access to God. Elders or pastors are not priests.

They do not stand between us and God. You don't have to go through me. You know, God's not back there and you're here and I'm between you.

It doesn't work like that. There's no room back there anyway. It's outside. We do not have to go to an elder in order to get to God.

However, when we are saved, God calls us into a church and we are responsible to follow the leaders in our church as they are following Christ.

So elders lead, which implies that we are to be following. Now, some might say, oh, that's not like a cult.

You're talking like a cult, especially if you're white. That's what you're thinking right now. Following a man blindly like that.

Well, that's true maybe, but that's really not what scripture is saying. First, we do not follow a man.

In scripture, there are always elders. You notice here, right here. Elders, plural, in every church is not just one man at the top like a pyramid -shaped structure, but there's multiple men.

They collectively lead the church as a team. Second, we might follow, but not blindly because we are to be led by them to see the will of Christ from his word.

After all, they're bringing to us the word. What does the word say? And that's how they're leading us.

And if they're leading us away that's away from his word, well, we don't follow them anymore.

In verse 17, we see there is a special group of elders who not only direct, but they, you notice he says, they labor in preaching and teaching.

Notice the word, there's several words here, key words. First, though, especially, otherwise, respect, honor, elders who lead well, they deserve a double honor if they lead well, especially, so I think of us concentric circles, there's elders, some will lead well, and even a smaller group in it, they, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching, and they're worthy of double honor.

Actually, so there's a, there's a subgroup in there, those who labor in the word of God.

There's a work, and the word for work there means to toil, to work hard, strenuous labor that results in weariness and fatigue, at least over time, it makes you want a vacation after a while, please, after I finish the next chapter, oh, you may think it doesn't look tiring.

I'm used to it. You know, I did a distance runner, you watch a distance runner and you think anybody can do that, it's not impressive, but try it mile after mile after mile.

You may think preaching doesn't look hard, I can talk too. Try it week after week after week, it gets tiring after a while.

So this is not the kind of work one can do on the side, sort of a hobby, merely after completing, you know, you've completed your job, you know,

I like to watch ESPN, or I like to do volleyball, or I like to golf, and this other guy, he likes to preach, okay, you do it after, no.

Work suggests it's full -time work, do we honor it? There are three telltale signs of what we truly honor, particularly if we honor the word.

Three of them, pay, protection, and a passion for purity, right,

Noah, I got some alliteration in here, it's the only bit you'll get, but here it is. Pay, now it's obviously a delicate issue for me to be addressing, but it's necessary to show you what the passage says.

This passage tells us practically how we give respect, and we do it practically with pay.

Don't tell me you respect me if you're not going to pay me, period, I don't want to hear it, you're just wasting my time.

It's through the word of God that God reveals his son Jesus to us, that he saves us, that he trains us in this gymnasium of godliness, through the word of God that he enables us to grow, and as a church, you know, that's what we're in business to do.

So we need the word of God to do that, and we need those who will present the word, apply the word to us.

Those who help us do that by applying the word to us, Paul says here, they deserve pay like an ox deserves grain, they need to eat, okay?

They deserve pay like a worker deserves a wage, right? If you don't give your worker, if any of you employers here, if you don't pay your worker, the government's going to get on to you, because they deserve it.

And to at least some degree, what we pay, elders, pastors, those who labor in preaching and teaching, or that we pay them adequately, is some,

I won't say it's the degree and the only indication, but it's one indicator of how much we honor them.

How we handle our money, where our treasure is, says a lot about where our heart is.

It's a great indicator of what and who we respect. Now I know, obviously again, money's a delicate issue for me, particularly for me, and I, if I want respect,

I as a pastor have to be accountable, because I'm paid by the church, that's why we have deacons and try to consult them about the expenses of the budget of the church, that's why

I don't handle the money, right, I don't go back there and count the offering and see who's given what, and normally I have no knowledge of how much any individual gives.

If you want respect, there are two things a pastor should not touch, the money and the women, right.

The second expression of honoring, except for one, he has a wife, the second expression of honoring the word in faithful biblical preaching is a protection for elders.

Verse 19 says that elders should be protected from rumors and just unfounded accusations.

We have a thing in our culture where people think they can just make up anything about a leader and it's true just because they make it up.

I could go on a lot about that, especially in current events. But I saw a World War II movie about snipers at the

Battle of Stalingrad, you know, Stalingrad in Russia, there were the Russians versus the

Germans, the movie's called Enemy at the Gates. Now the main character is this Russian sniper and he said he won't even shoot a private, he won't even shoot a regular foot soldier, he says it's not worth his trouble, it's not even worth a bullet.

He shoots only officers, he understands they could do a lot more damage to the German army by destroying its leadership than just by picking off privates here and there.

In some way, in the same way, the church's enemies go after the leaders.

So a biblical church must be aware of the way that leadership is especially vulnerable, sometimes to criticism, to suspicion, of being assumed guilty until proven innocent, which they probably could never really do, and will work to protect those who deserve respect.

So here, notice verse 19, do not admit. The word there, admit, can mean don't even accept, in other words, what are you admitting into your mind that forms your opinions, that shapes the way you see things?

Don't even entertain ideas, don't accept a charge against an elder, except on the evidence of two or three witnesses.

In other words, just one guy shows up and starts telling you these things, he's an elder, and this is just what he says, you don't even admit it, it doesn't shape your opinion, unless there's others that say the same thing.

You don't assume it's true until the elder is proven innocent.

You don't even assume it's worth considering, unless there are other witnesses who cooperate it. And this is also a cultural issue, if I could talk different cultures here, we have at least three major cultures represented here.

One culture represented here, you white people, has a special problem with honoring leaders.

Our culture teaches us, the mainstream American white culture, that it is fine to say anything you want against a leader.

That's even the law in this country, you understand? You can say anything you want against a national leader, you can't get sued for it or penalized for it, at least not officially, by the government.

And other cultures though, you live in other cultures, you understand there's often very different, they assume that their leader should be protected.

Ebenezer Baptist Church, which is about a mile down the road here, has had only six pastors since it was founded in the 1840s.

That averages over 30 years per pastor, okay? Many white churches will go through more than six pastors in 30 years.

At one time I visited numerous Chinese churches in North America, and all the churches that I have heard of in Singapore, not once have

I heard of a Chinese church where there was a split or a pastor who was run off because of rumors that were just sort of instigated from the congregation.

Yet that kind of thing happens all the time in white churches. It happened all the way back to Jonathan Edwards in 1750, who was driven out of his church and fired because of nothing.

And it has characterized white American church life ever since. It's rooted in a basic lack of respect for leaders.

I like to tell a joke on this, sort of on this, related to this. You know in the black church they call the pastor's wife?

Call her the first lady. And the Chinese church, they call the pastor's wife Mrs. Pastor.

And the white church, they call her, to tell her the bathroom is dirty. Only the non, some of you, many of you don't get that.

Now on the flip side, the elders' rightful protection from baseless rumors is the third expression of honoring the word.

That is the elders' call to a passion for purity. No one is above accountability in the church, not even the elders who may have once been worthy of a double honor.

Here the apostle Paul specifically gives us directions for discipline against any elder. When an elder is caught in a sin, that is two or three witnesses have shown something to be true and it's gone through the church's discipline process, he doesn't get off more easily than other members.

He is protected as long as he's innocent. But when charges are proved true, then he is even more severely disciplined.

Paul says that his sins are to be exposed before all the people in verse 21. So the church is not a good old boys club where the problems with, you know, the favorite, the few powerful people or their relatives, those are covered up.

Ultimately, it's not the man that we respect, ultimately it's the word of God that we hold in highest honor.

And when that word exposes the sins of anyone, even the men entrusted with leading the church, we hold them accountable.

So, you know, like the directions, because what I've just described to you doesn't look a whole lot like almost any other church you will find around us today.

And it's like the directions we talked about two weeks ago. A lot of people just today in the church just totally ignore these instructions here.

But here they are, notice by Paul, they're urged on us. Where does he say, you know,

I can't find it right now, I'm looking at it. He tells Timothy, do these things in the presence of God, in the presence of verse 21, in the presence of God, God the

Father and of Christ Jesus and to the elect angels in their presence, they are witnesses.

I charge you. This is very serious. Just because it's ignored, which it often is today, doesn't mean it's not serious.

It is serious. Paul insists on them, on these instructions. What we've just heard, calling

God and the angels to witness. Timothy has been warned, in other words, this is solemn. Now we've been warned.

The great reformer John Calvin preached about this. The man who is not shaken out of his carelessness and laziness, we have a lot of that about the church today.

Carelessness, you know, they don't pay attention to what the word says, laziness, they don't they didn't spend the time to think of these and these things.

The man is not shaken. I charge you in the sight of God and of Christ and of the angels, he's shaking us.

The man is not shaken out of his carelessness and laziness by the thought that the government of the church is conducted under the eye of God and his angels.

Must be worse than stupid and have a heart harder than stone. Right. Prevention, he says,

Paul says in verse 22, is better than cure. You know, it's elder sin.

They have to be disciplined. How are you going to avoid having wrong men as elders? Men whose sins will only appear after, especially some of the men's sins will only appear after some time.

If that's the case, then it's better to wait and watch. Don't jump to make some young man an elder just because he may be successful in his career or because he's a doctor or a lawyer, got a good income, he'll tie, he'll stay with us.

We make him an elder because it's just because he's willing. We're flattered. But some man wants to wants to be part of it.

No, it's just wait a while, let his life show up. There are sins that will pop up over time as positive and respectful as we want to be with people.

We do. We want to give people the benefit of the doubt. We're getting to know them. But be careful not to be taken in by the smooth talker who makes a great first impression.

You know, sometimes those who are slick on the outside are that way because they are filthy on the inside and they've just learned how to put out a presentation of themselves that kind of wows most people.

If we get taken in by the slick, smooth talker and he turns out to be a charlatan, we'll lose respect.

You want respect? Then keep yourself pure. Paul tells

Timothy at the end of verse 22. But then Paul seems to remember about something about this particular young man,

Timothy. As with there are many Christian young people, he also needs to be warned about the dangers of going overboard in his zeal for purity.

You know, in church history, some leaders like the young Martin Luther have had such a burning passion for God, for purity, that they actually afflict their bodies so much that they'll end up damaging their health.

That happens. Apparently Timothy was one of those people, so zealous for the

Lord that he denied himself and abstained from drinking anything but water, a compassionate

Apostle Paul, fatherly, kind of comes to him, you know, Timothy, you don't need to do that.

Take some wine. Relax a bit. Even today there are people, especially young people, who have such a burning zeal for God that they fail to take care of themselves and their own practical needs.

Maybe they're too absorbed, they're going to college, but they're too absorbed in their Christian clubs or their church to study.

And so their career, their grades first, and later their career can suffer for it. Maybe they're just too lofty standards for a spouse, you know, that won't date anyone that doesn't agree with every particular theological point they agree with and has to, you know, almost have a

PhD in theology. Too lofty standards to allow people to grow.

Maybe they're so zealous, they're just so committed to their ministries or committed to their church. They won't even think about taking care of their social needs.

Their zeal is commendable, but we see here sometimes that mixes with wisdom and most things the

Christian way is moderation, not just total radical abstention. But here's a problem, if you ask me, this is a problem we need.

I'd like more of this problem. These kind of people you can correct, like Timothy.

We need the problem of youthful zeal. I'm looking forward to the day when

I have to advise some young man that, you know, I admire your fiery zeal for the Lord, it's great, but your passion for prayer, for evangelism, the fact that you're here every time we have a meeting, that's great, but you know, you might be fasting too much.

That you might ought to save, great that you're giving so much, but you might ought to save some money, not give it all away to missions, the church, you know, take a little bit better care of yourself.

I'd much rather have to advise a young person that he or she needs to practically do something about getting a spouse, go on a date for once, for crying out loud, rather than to have to plead with some young adult that they need to be careful because they're being seduced by some boy or girlfriend that they never should have gotten involved with in the first place.

Are they're being distracted from their commitment to the Lord or the church by their quest, their longing for the relationship.

Any living movement produces young zealots who sometimes need to be reined in. You know, we need young zealots.

And the church respect one another like family members, especially respect those who give themselves over to seek the

Lord, to serve the church, respect the word of God. And then in the last two verses of the passage, the first two of chapter six,

Paul moves out of the church and into the work -a -day world. Here's respect in the world.

Respect your employers, even slaves, a lot of about one third of the people in the Roman Empire, about one third of them were slaves in that time.

They were to regard their masters as worthy of all honor, treat them with respect.

Today, respect your boss, your teachers, your coaches.

Learn to say, yes, sir. Yes, ma 'am. It won't hurt you. It really won't.

Every Christian is a missionary. Every Christian is an example to the world of what kind of lives the gospel creates, of who

Jesus is. To use our belief in God, you know, the belief that we have the truth.

We've been given a revelation. Other people have it. Our belief that we've been forgiven and made children of the king, kind of then as a basis to feel superior to others, to feel over them.

Now we can treat them with contempt, even if they're our teacher. You foolish liberal professor, blah, blah, you know, that kind of attitude makes the gospel to be reviled.

It is literally blasphemed because we use our religion. That's the gospel.

The word of God, Christ himself is blasphemed. People talk slanderously about him.

But if we use our religion to lord over others, to treat our professor with contempt because, you know,

OK, he doesn't understand Christianity, fine, to escape our duties, perhaps even to take advantage of other

Christians. You can't make me work now. I'm talking about the things of God, you know, with this person on the phone.

I'm reading my Bible, even if I'm on the clock, you can't make me work. You Christian boss, you can't take me away from the work.

You can't fire me. I'm your brother in Christ. Even if I don't show up for work.

You're not respecting those that God put over you. Your service to the Lord should make you a better employee.

Do we want respect? Then we need to give it. And that begins with God, kind of a smug disrespect for authorities, denies that we've been humbled by the grace of God, that we are the recipients of mercy that we know we don't deserve.

When we've been to the cross, as the great hymn writer Isaac Watts put it, on which the prince of glory died, my richest gain

I count but loss and poor contempt on all my pride.

You want respect and start by giving it. Show the world that you know that you are not the source of all that is good in the universe, that there is a shining light of sun, a shining sun of light and goodness.

And we're not him. That he shines that goodness on many others.

Give respect. Give it to the elderly who have been striving to serve God for decades.

Sure, you can see the lingering effects of sin and their weaknesses, but they still might just have a thing or two to teach you.

Give respect to the needy by showing that their needs are worth more than your luxuries.

Give respect to the church, the one you committed to, that is worth more than a date or sleeping late or making a few extra dollars.

Give respect finally to the word of God, that it's worth you paying attention to, that it's worth you attending to, that it's worth providing for, that it be presented to you and to others.

So by doing that, give respect to the word of God who came in the flesh.

Jesus Christ, our Lord, the source of all that deserves respect.