WWUTT 647 Honoring Seniors and Widows?

Psalm 68, 5 says that God is a father to the fatherless, and He is a protector of widows.

And He expects His church to reflect that character as well when we understand the text.

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Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. We continue with our study of 1 Timothy 5. Again today, we will be in verses 1 -8.

Paul writes to Timothy, who is at the church in Ephesus, Do not rebuke an older man, but encourage him as you would a father.

Younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as 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 to 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 relatives, and especially for members of his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

That's a pretty scathing rebuke there at the end of this particular paragraph. But these instructions that Paul is giving

Timothy, these are very, very tender instructions. As you can tell by the nature of what's being said here, this is especially pertaining to caring for one another within the household.

Yes, the household of faith, because that's the way we begin with how we are to encourage older men, older women, younger men and women.

But then it kind of filters into, here's how families should be caring for one another.

Families that are within the body of Christ, here's how they care for one another in their own households.

And as these instructions were given to Timothy to teach to the church in Ephesus, so the

Holy Spirit continues to teach these things now. This isn't something that exists in some cultural context vacuum, but we should be applying these principles even now to how we care for one another in the church body and also within our own households.

So as we looked at yesterday in verses one and two, Paul says, don't rebuke an older man, but encourage him as you would a father.

And we do this very tenderly. I even have an experience in my own church where there was an older man in our church, one of our senior members, one of the the legends in our church that our congregation looks up to.

And he rebuked me once and very wrongly. First of all, he didn't handle it in the right way.

Scripture gives us very clear instructions as to how we are to handle disagreements between one another.

You would go to somebody in private and one on one, you handle that disagreement. Or if you see somebody sinning and you need to call their attention to that, you'll do that one on one first before you get other people involved.

But that's not what he did. He instead decided to take his grievance public and rebuked me in front of other people.

But secondly, the thing that he was accusing me of wasn't true. I hadn't done the thing that he was saying

I was guilty of. But even though he chose to rebuke me in front of other people, I knew that I couldn't respond to this situation in the same way.

I was not at liberty to embarrass him by firing back at him the same way that he was speaking to me.

I knew the Lord had impressed upon my heart that this was an opportunity to exercise this very instruction right here in first Timothy five one.

Do not rebuke an older man, but encourage him as you would a father.

And so the two of us got together in a private conversation. And I said to him, look, I'm a fan of yours.

I am an admirer of the things that you have done and the ways that you have served this church over the last several decades.

I can't even hold a candle to the kind of work that you've done here. I would never be able to say enough of your service to God's church.

And I want to help you finish well. I want you to continue to be able to work and labor and enjoy the fruits of that labor here with this church.

But the way that you approach this situation, brother, this just isn't the way that scripture tells us we're supposed to handle these things.

And he was very apologetic, was was cut to his heart and he apologized and he said he would never do it again.

And in fact, he hasn't has never done that again to me and as best as I know, has never done that to anybody else.

In fact, our relationship even got better after that situation. And all of that was genuine.

And I wasn't putting on some kind of a face or butter him up somehow. I really did love this man and wanted him to continue to to grow and serve in this church.

I didn't want him to go anywhere and certainly didn't want to embarrass him in front of other people. I wanted him to continue to be that model servant for the rest of our congregation in the in the legacy that he had created with this church.

And so that that was a chance that I had in my life to be able to to put this into practice, encouraging this man, as I would encourage a father.

And we encourage younger men as brothers. We have many young men in our congregation because of the military influence, which

I've talked about related to our church before. We'll get a lot of young families in sometimes 18, 19 years old, just married a few months ago.

And here they are. Their first their first duty station is at Fort Riley, Kansas, and they're right there in our church.

So we've had plenty of opportunities to even exercise that encouragement to younger men and of course, also to older women as mothers.

There are some wonderful ladies in our church that likewise have done have contributed many great years.

I mentioned one of those women yesterday and we regard them as matriarchs within our church, people that are worthy of being looked up to.

Even men can look up to women and see the service that they have contributed to this church so that we might know how to be good servants to one another.

And then the younger women we treat as sisters. And I love that Paul tax on in all purity, which all of these instructions are supposed to be followed in purity.

But he taxed that on right after he says younger women as sisters. I grew up with two sisters.

I was very, very protective of my sisters. And so likewise, I'm going to be protective of the younger women in our church.

They're strong women. They are. Most of them are military wives, so they know how to handle themselves.

But nonetheless, I want to be able to protect and preserve and hold up those women who are fellow heirs of the kingdom of God, that they may be able to serve the church with all dignity.

And that's the way we are to treat one another with dignity and respect. This is the instruction that we have in First Timothy five, one and two in Titus two.

And this is a chapter that I've mentioned as we've been going through this study of First Timothy. But in Titus two, you have the order of mentorship in a church, older men mentoring the younger men and older women mentoring the younger women.

But in either case, in First Timothy five, one and two or in Titus chapter two, the picture that we are given is a church that is multigenerational.

You have several generations that are represented in a church body. Now, maybe not every church can do that, but as much as a church possibly can, it needs to be multigenerational.

We seem to place a lot of emphasis right now in our culture today. A lot of emphasis is being placed on being culturally diverse.

Some churches actually can't do that in the places where they are. There isn't a lot of diversity in their community.

And so the church can't be culturally diverse. Yet we're impressing that upon the church as though if the church isn't culturally diverse, then they're doing something wrong.

Where are all of the appeals for the church to be generationally diverse? Because that we explicitly see in scripture, but nothing in the scripture tells us we're supposed to be culturally diverse in some of these places where churches were being planted.

There wasn't diverse culture, with the exception of I think one one theme that we see over and over again in the epistles is

Jews and Gentiles worshiping together in the church. That's the multiculturalism that was there in a congregation.

But but as far as the the diversity in a church, it should certainly be diverse in terms of age.

We have the oldest generations and the youngest generations all the way down to our babies. But when it comes to calling the church to diversity, that's not the kind of diversity you hear preached about.

It's not being multigenerational. And what ends up happening is that our most senior citizens in particular are being forgotten.

They're not being considered. And we have a lot of churches that are generally pretty young without any kind of I won't say any kind, but there's certainly a a minimal amount of representation among that oldest generation that's able to help to train up the younger men and the younger women to provide those examples, to be a witness of somebody finishing well and remaining committed to a church over decades of time.

Many of these church plants certainly don't have the benefit of that. If you have a church plant that's in an inner city or is in a suburb outside a major city, usually that church plant starts with something that's called contextualization, like they have a certain idea of the kind of families they want to be reaching out to and growing the church that way.

And usually it's young families with kids. And once again, I'm not saying this is every church plant.

I'm just saying in general, this is usually how this goes. Young churches that are just getting started don't always have the benefit of multigenerational miss because they have that certain demographic that they're drawing in.

And so if you are somebody that, you know, the Lord is impressing upon you to plant a church somewhere, be mindful about being multigenerational.

Even when you're planting a church, you need to be thinking about reaching out to the elderly in your community as much as you would try to appeal to young families.

And most churches these days are geared to toward the young and toward the millennials. And we talk about the millennials more often than we even talking about than we talk about remembering the oldest generation.

They can just as easily, if not more easily, be forgotten than the youngest generation of a culture and of a society.

So let us be a church in which all kinds of ages, a whole variety of ages can be represented in the congregation, that we may be able to practice this very thing that Paul is saying that we should practice, that we would have fathers and mothers that we look up to in our congregation, spiritual fathers and mothers that grow us and and encourage us and admonish us.

And then we have the younger brothers and sisters in the faith as well.

I am blessed to be part of a multigenerational church. And one of the things that has been a blessing in being a part of a church that has members who are aging is we see those members finish well and then they pass away.

They die and go to be with the Lord in glory. And their funerals, every funeral that we've had, where we've had to say goodbye to one of those senior members, has been glorious because we're able to look back on a life of faith and hold that person up as an example of somebody who finished well.

One of the verses that you probably hear quoted often at a funeral for someone who gave many, many years to the church,

Psalm 116, 15, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.

And being able to reflect upon that is not something that a church is able to do unless they have senior members that are able to provide that kind of encouragement and admonishment to a body by their experience and by what they have gone through in their walk of sanctification.

So many more years of sanctification behind them than I have. And so I love to be able to look up to those members of a church body, treat them well, treat them with dignity and respect and honor one another in this work of faith that we do together.

As Paul goes on in verse three to say, honor widows who are truly widows. He qualifies that there.

We have some instructions that will come up later on about women whose husbands have died, but they're still young enough to get married.

Paul encourages them if they can, they should go ahead and get married. Further instructions related to widows in verse nine, let a widow be enrolled if she's 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 refuse 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 and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies saying what they should not.

So I would have younger widows marry their 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 truly widows.

So you have some of those young women who still have a lot of energy, still have a lot of gusto. And if they are widows, their husband has died and they get put on the widows registry.

Well, then they're going to they're going to sap resources from the church that really should be invested in those women who are truly widows, who have given many years to the church, who have washed the feet of the saints, as Paul puts it in first Timothy 510.

They're the ones that deserve the most care. There's no one else to care for them. The church cares for them.

But the younger women, if they're widows, they should go ahead and get remarried. They are they're not bound to a husband.

They're you know, the vow is till death do you part. Well, their husband has died so they can get married again, get married and have children and busy yourself with that work, being submissive to a husband and raising up children and give the adversary no occasion for slander.

Paul says some have already strayed after Satan. Some have become those busybodies and gossips, and they bring damage to the church, sucking the resources from the church.

And when somebody does that, when somebody takes resources from the church that's supposed to be used for those who truly need it, then those who need it can't be cared for.

Then everyone suffers. And this is really the reason why our welfare system in the United States of America is broken, because there are some people who are taking welfare that don't actually need welfare.

And those who really need it aren't getting the care that they deserve. Welfare is is a biblical concept.

We have a welfare system that was set up in theocratic Israel that we read about in the books of the law.

And so it's good for us to have that kind of welfare system and take care of those who cannot care for themselves.

There's supposed to be a welfare system even within the church, which is what Paul is talking about here. And if a person who doesn't need the help starts taking help from the church, well, they're draining resources that are supposed to be used on those who truly need it.

And and they're they are causing greater harm than they're probably selfishly aware of.

Not only are they taking from the pot in the church, you know, they're dipping their hand into the pot and taking it for themselves, but they're taking something that really belongs to somebody else who truly needs it.

They're robbing from somebody else. And so this is what Paul is warning against as it pertains to widows in particular.

Now, it says in verse 11, this might have looked a little confusing because in one sense, it seems like Paul is saying, don't let younger widows get married.

But then he says that they should get married. So in first Timothy five, 11, it says, refuse 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.

And then he says in verse 14, so I would have younger widows marry bare children, manage their households.

Well, which is it supposed to be? Is she supposed to get married or is she supposed to abstain from marriage? Well, what's in view here is that a woman, a younger woman who becomes a widow takes a vow not to get remarried.

So she's put on the widow's list in the church and is cared for as a widow and therefore has, in a sense, taken a vow that she's not going to get remarried.

Well, but when she does that and she has a passion to get married, though, she's taken a vow of celibacy.

Well, then she incurs condemnation for having abandoned this pledge or this vow that she had committed herself to.

And so Paul is saying to Timothy, protect these younger women by not letting them be on that registry.

Don't consider them as widows. There are other people in the church that can help to mourn with them as they go through the struggle of having lost a husband.

But then once they are able and once they're ready, they are certainly able bodied to be able to take care of themselves.

And when they can, if they can get remarried, then that's that's what they should do. Get married again, have children busy themselves that way instead of becoming busy bodies and gossips in the church.

Now, when it comes to these instructions we've been looking at in verses one through 16, I've gone kind of out of order here for the sake of keeping the context with within the instructions related to widows.

But we'll come back and finish off the rest of that paragraph in verses one through eight tomorrow.

And by the time we get to Wednesday, well, tomorrow, we'll have finished that whole section that even goes all the way through verse 16.

So let's pray. We'll wrap this up for today and then we'll come back to this section again tomorrow.

Our father in heaven, we thank you for the adoption that we have received through our

Lord Jesus Christ, who promised us that he would not leave us as orphans in this world.

He would come to us. And indeed, it's through the blood of Christ we've been adopted into your family and can call upon you as father.

You are described in the Psalms as one who cares for the fatherless and the widows.

And so as we desire to imitate God, Ephesians 5, 1, may we be those who care for orphans in their time of need and widows that they may not be forgotten.

And we look up to those who have gone before us in this walk of faith as good examples in remaining faithful to a church and serving the church, growing in sanctification, pursuing holiness and godliness.

And may we honor them for the faithfulness that they have shown to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It is the gospel that has saved us. It is our belief in the gospel that has brought us into the family of God.

And so may we continue to proclaim this gospel to the world that others would hear it and turn from their sin and become worshipers of Christ and so be saved.

Let us show the love of Christ among the brotherhood of Christ. In Jesus' name,

Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the Text. Pastor Gabe is the author of several short books on the essential doctrines of the

Christian faith. Topics include the deity of Christ, original sin, resurrection, Christ's incarnation, and many more.

Find these books in our bookstore when you visit www .utt .com.