House Rule #13 Confront Sin in Love (1 Timothy 5:1-2) | Adult Sunday School

It's just because you took it away. It's just because you took it away. It's just because you took it away.

It's just because you took it away. It's just because you took it away. It's just because you took it away.

It's just because you took it away. I'm away from you, my

God. Fear's come with no warning. I trust that when the harvest time is over and I still see no fruit,

I will wait. I'll wait for you.

I'll wait for you. I'll wait for you,

Lord. I'll wait for you. I will wait for you,

Lord. I'll wait for you.

So Lord, watch me. I will wait for you.

For you. When my fears come with no warning,

I will trust in you. Faithful you are.

Faithful. In every trial and loss, my hope is in the cross.

Your compassion's never failed. Teach me,

O Lord, the way of your statutes, and I will keep it to the end.

Give me understanding that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart.

Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I did lie in it.

Incline my heart to your testimonies and not to selfish gain.

Turn my eyes from looking at what they say and give me life in your ways.

Confirm to exert in your promise that you may be feared, that you may be feared.

Turn away the reproach that I trade for your rules are good.

Behold, I long for your precepts in your righteousness.

Give me life. Oh, in your righteousness, give me life.

Good morning, everyone. Good to see each one this morning. We're going to open our

Bibles this morning back to 1 Timothy as we continue our study in House Rules for God's Church. This morning we arrive at chapter 5.

We'll be looking at the first two verses. Let's commit our time to our Lord and ask his blessing on our study this morning.

Our Father, we do thank you that we have this opportunity to be together, to open up your

Word and experience the ministry of your Spirit to teach us, lead us, and guide us.

Thank you for who you are and what you have done for us. Help us to learn from your Word this morning, to apply it to our lives, to be diligent, to be obedient to what we learn and know, and pray that you would change us, conform us to be more and more like Christ in how we think and how we act and how we relate to each other.

We thank you for the great blessing we have through your grace. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, this morning as we get into chapter 5, we're just going to be looking at the first two verses in chapter 5.

It is actually two verses in our Bibles but a single sentence, so it's going to be fairly short.

Most commentators actually take these two verses almost as a paragraph or a unit of thought, so that's what we're going to do this morning.

There's an outline for you to follow along, and if you don't have a copy of that, there are some back here, and help yourself to those.

This morning we're going to see house rule number 13, confront sin in love, from 1

Timothy 5, verses 1 and 2. Paul then tells

Timothy, 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.

This little sentence is really pretty simple. It doesn't take a whole lot for us to understand what's going on here, but what

Paul is doing here compared to what he's done so far in this letter is really, it's as if he's now focusing in on the inner workings of the household of God.

It's as if Paul says to Timothy, okay, we're going to shut the doors, we're going to gather in the living room as a family, and we're going to deal with some family issues here.

So these are some internal workings of the church. God, of course, is sovereign over this universe, and he's concerned with the vast movings of nations, and there's all those things that are out there in the world that we are also concerned with, but God is very concerned with his church.

He is very deeply concerned with how his church functions internally, and he's really concerned with each individual person within the church.

And so he really, this gets down into how the church relates to itself internally.

It's, again, like a family coming into the living room of the home. There's no one else there, and so now it's time for a family talk.

Paul established this model with his theme verse back in chapter 3, verses 14 and 15, which we saw, and we've gone back to it over and over again, when he refers to the church as God's house or the household of God, just like a home.

And, of course, with a home, it's not so much the house, the structure, that's important, but what's inside, the people inside.

So this is really what Paul is doing here to Timothy, through Timothy, to minister to the church at Ephesus.

Jesus really did lead the way in describing the church as a family. Thirteen times in the

Sermon on the Mount, he said, your Father, your Father. When the disciples asked him to teach them to pray, he said, pray like this, our

Father, as you well know. Even at the resurrection, John chapter 20, verse 17 records it,

Mary is there, and Jesus says to Mary, the resurrected Christ, do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the

Father, but go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my

Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Think of that identification he makes with these men, who the night before bugged out, right?

They're not even there, but Mary is. But that identification that he makes is based on who they are through faith in him.

In Hebrews 2 .11, another passage says, for he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source.

That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, I will tell of your name to my brothers.

In the midst of the congregation, I will sing your praise. In other contexts in scripture, the church is pictured in a variety of other ways, different kinds of metaphors.

The word church, ecclesia, the called out ones. Paul uses the metaphor of the human body in 1

Corinthians, as you know. Not everybody's a hand, not everybody's an eye or an ear, but they are designed by God to work together under the headship of the head in that metaphor.

And of course, the head of the church is Christ. The church is referred to as a flock of sheep needing a shepherd.

That's one of the metaphors, very common, well -known. And it's also called a priesthood, a holy nation, a kingdom, a vine, and also

God's people. But the picture of the church as a family may be one of the best pictures of what it means to be a believer in Jesus Christ, because it best pictures the relationship that we have with God as our father.

And because we have the same father, we have that family relationship with one another.

I think Paul is giving special attention here to how a local church or a fellowship is supposed to function, referring to the church as the household of God.

There were probably several house churches throughout Ephesus, big city, maybe 200 ,000 people at the time.

And so these fellowships were meeting in homes. And that's why Paul told the

Ephesian elders that when he met with them, he said, I taught you publicly and from house to house.

So he would have been going house to house to these people several years before he wrote to Timothy, ministering in these house churches.

And we get a little insight into the theology of this from Paul's letter to the

Ephesians in 2, 18 and 19. And he's speaking to Gentile believers. And there would have been a real, up to that point even, a built -in animosity toward Gentiles on the part of the

Jews and also from the Gentiles to the Jews. But now the church being made up of both

Jew and Gentile, that needs to be set aside. And Paul says, for through him, or Christ, we both have access in one spirit to the

Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.

In Galatians 6, verse 10, Paul tells those churches, so then as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Again, emphasis on the internal working of the church. So the church is called the household of faith, the household of God.

And as we know, the home designed by God to be a place of nurture, a place of growth, a place of security and love, it at times has to also be a place of loving discipline.

And I think most of us would probably agree if we heard about or knew about a child who was never ever disciplined in any way, shape, or form by the parents, we would probably say something to the effect of, they don't love that child, would we not?

And so even within the church, God's loving discipline is to be administered when it comes to the issue of dealing with sin.

And as we look at these two verses this morning, we're gonna see that the issue is not really the what.

In other words, it's not really an argument to do it. The issue is really, how do you do it? How do you go about doing this?

And so what we're gonna see this morning, there on your notes, we're gonna see two commands and there's four groups of people.

And so first thing we're going to see is the how, the how. How is sin to be confronted within the church?

Paul says, he starts out by saying, do not rebuke an older man, but encourage him as you would a father.

Now, a lot of what we're gonna be doing this morning is simply word study, okay? So it's pretty self -explanatory, but it's important for us to see how

Paul is using these words and how they're translated back and forth. We're really blessed to have excellent

English translations and all kinds of material that we can learn from scripture. So what we need to see here though, and it's important, is that word rebuke, this is

ESV. Now, if you have a new American Standard, it'll add the word sharply rebuke because they understand that this is a particular word, meaning a certain thing here.

This is also the single time it occurs in the Bible, okay? It's a single occurrence and Paul is negating it.

He's prohibiting it from going on. This is a word that is actually, it means to strike at, to rebuke with words.

It's a very harsh kind of response to somebody. Paul says, don't do that. So your first blank there would be, do not confront with harshness.

This word, and again, it only occurs here and it's being prohibited. It's not to be done. Epiplexus, you may hear our

English word, apoplexy in this, all right? And that's a word you may not hear too much anymore associated with medicine.

It used to be a medical term. And it means to sharply rebuke, to really verbally attack someone.

This is prohibited by the apostle Paul. A sinning Christian is not to be treated harshly, not spoken to sharply or violently.

Another thing we need to notice here when it says an older man, it's exactly the same word that's used later on in this same chapter to speak of an elder in the church.

Translated in ESV, elder. Do not admit a charge against an elder.

It's the exact same word, but the translators understand the context is somewhat different. It's not speaking of specifically an elder or leader in the church, although it was certainly applied to them, but simply a man who is older.

And Paul says, don't rebuke that man with sharp language, but encourage him as you would a father.

Again, back to this word, epiplexus, okay? Apoplexy, we would say.

Every time I think of that word, and it's just me, okay? I think of one man that I have seen pictures of in a video.

Do you remember Billy Martin, the former baseball player? And then he's passed away now, but he was the manager of the

New York Yankees for a while, okay? And all managers do this on occasion when they get a call that they don't like, but Billy Martin would get apoplectic.

And if you can find out little videos online of Billy Martin coming out of the dugout and going out to protest a call of some kind, usually the ump is this great big huge guy standing there, you know?

And Billy Martin is just, he's just red in the face and he's waving his arms.

And back then they didn't, you couldn't hear what he was saying, but you could kind of read his lips and he was just screaming and yelling.

And then you couldn't touch him, right? Can't touch him. But then he would just start kicking dirt on the guy and all kinds of,

I always think of Billy Martin getting apoplectic. That's what apoplectic means.

Now, obviously that's very extreme, but this prohibition would also include harsh language or something like that.

One commentator says this, although apoplexy as a specific medical term is not such a common term now, the word apoplectic certainly is, meaning furious and red faced with uncontrollable rage.

So -called because it's symptoms of flushed red face and loss of bodily control mimic those of apoplexy when it was more of a medical term.

It's often used humorously, such as apoplectic is how you might describe your parents when they see your grades.

If you're a student. So that's what that word is. It only occurs here and Paul prohibits it in any way, shape or form.

Certainly it can be applied to everybody in the church, but certainly an older man.

And then he says, don't do that, but encourage him. Now here we have to do a little bit, another, a word study.

This is the same word in its verb form. That's used in the noun form up in verse 13, as far as public reading of scripture to exhortation and teaching.

It's the word in the Greek word is para kaleo. And that's a compound word para mean alongside para.

We have para church ministries that come alongside the church. It's supposed to come alongside the church and kaleo to call out.

And basically to call alongside. That's what that word means. It means to call alongside, to speak to that person and what it, what you speak to them about can have a variety of applications.

Okay. So when you see the word here, exhortation, it means to basically apply scripture in some way, shape or form.

However, it needs to be applied. It could be a warning, could be a rebuke. It could be to encourage somebody or something like that.

It, it, it means depending on the context what the situation calls for.

And so this is what we are supposed to do. We confront with encouragement and I use the word encouragement there, but again, it simply means to call somebody alongside to speak to them, to produce a certain kind of result.

Okay. And sometimes very commonly in the in, in our

English Bibles, it's, it's the word comfort, the word comfort. But bear in mind, even the word

English word comfort comes from Latin. Comforte means with strength. Okay. Forte or fort, the strength of the enemy is the fort or fortress.

You musicians know that forte means strength, right? And so even though we are sort of been psychologized in evangelical

Christianity, we think comfort, I need comfort. Well, that word actually means to strengthen. Okay.

And so it, we need to understand how these words are being used here. You don't confront an older man or anybody else with harshness, but you call them alongside to accomplish whatever purse purpose you have for them.

And, um, that's just what Paul is telling Timothy to do in the churches at Ephesus.

Now remember what he had told them before. Um, he said, um, let no one up in verse 12 of verse of chapter four, let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.

Now can you imagine a scenario where Timothy would walk into a house church? He's a younger man.

Um, and he has this letter from the apostle Paul basically delegating apostolic authority to him.

And there are false teachers in these churches as we saw from chapter one. Um, and these churches have been there 10 to 12 years.

There's probably some older men in these churches teaching false doctrine. So you can see then how this sort of compliments what he told him.

Don't let anybody despise you. And if you confront an older man with his false teaching, but do not respond in a way that's apoplectic.

Okay. And, uh, so it really does compliment. Well, what he's already told him, this quite possibly could happen and maybe did happen when he went into these churches, encourage him as you would a father, this word exhortation is in the noun form.

It occurs 29 times in new Testament. And again, depending on the passage being taught, the exhortation make, may take the form of something to start doing something to stop doing maybe to be warned of the consequences of something and so on.

It, it has broad application, even though it's a, it basically means to call alongside and speak to that person.

And then there's a word here that we need to, we need to look at too. This word rebuke.

Now we just looked at what this word is here in the ESV. Do not rebuke an older man. But if you look down at the end of chapter five, verse 20, and back to the elders as for those who persist in sin, then rebuke them in the presence of all so that the rest may stand in fear.

That's a different word than that first word he uses, because that only occurs one time there. This is the word there and it's on your outline there.

It's the word to convict Elenco. It's often translated to convict it's due.

It's used in first Timothy five 20, which we just looked at and several other places there in scripture.

Many times it's used in scripture, but here's the thing. It's often translated rebuke.

And you may even hear people use that in, in evangelical circles.

Like, well, I had to rebuke somebody or boy, did I ever rebuke them? You know, and particularly with social media, the way it is now and being able to comment on everything, people can put their opinion out there and comment in.

And somebody might say, well, I really rebuked that person for their theological position or, or something like that.

Did they, here's the definition of it. A very excellent definition from the theological dictionary of the new

Testament to show someone his sin and to summon him to repentance.

The word does not mean only to blame or to reprove nor to convince in the sense of proof, nor to reveal or expose, but to set right, namely to point away from sin to repentance.

It implies educative discipline, right? You see the difference between doing that and just simply commenting on somebody and telling them that they're wrong or that they don't, you haven't really rebuked that person unless your purpose is redemptive for that person.

And it's designed to correct them and move them to repentance and to a more biblical position.

Okay. Have any questions about that? Or you see how that, uh, that word is to be used and understood.

Yeah. Dave. Yeah. Yep.

Yeah. And several others as well in scripture. We're going to look at one from Galatians here. Anybody from Acts 18,

Priscilla and Aquila privately dealt with a correction of somebody.

First in your mind or available so that you can show that person.

Yeah. Yeah. Good point. I mean, cause the whole person, the whole purpose of it is educative discipline.

If you simply point out their sin or point out there where they're wrong scripturally and you're not ready to explain how and why they're wrong, it's not a real biblical rebuke.

Okay. It's easy to just rebuke somebody in the sense of saying you're wrong.

That's not right. Or although all the worst things that you might see in comments, you know, I mean, it's, it's, it's pretty, uh, pretty clear.

Those are not what we would call a biblical rebuke. Okay. Um, after hearing the testimony of those who came off the mission field, as far as how the

Gentiles were being saved, the Jerusalem council then voted and all agreed that Gentiles are being saved exactly the same way

Jews are being saved. Okay. There's no distinction, but people were still trying to make distinctions.

And even Peter got caught up in this. Let's look at Galatians for a minute. Galatians chapter one and two.

Um, this is really an amazing example of what Paul is talking about here.

He did this exact, this very thing concerning Peter, that he records in his letter to the

Galatian Christians. Um, in chapter two, he's recounting his history and what he had done after the seeing for sure that the

Gentiles were truly being saved and that it's not necessary to bring them under the

Mosaic law and impose Jewish, uh, practices on them like circumcision, which is what the

Judaizers were trying to do. They believe that only Jews could be saved. Of course, only

Jews could be saved and Gentiles can be saved as long as they become Jews. Okay. That was the whole thinking behind it. And, um, in, in fulfillment of the

Abrahamic covenant, which is what Paul is doing here, which said that God is going to bless all the nations, all the families of the earth.

Okay. That's really the, the underlying theological position here. Paul is saying, no,

Gentiles are saved just like everybody else. But Peter had a problem with this. Okay. And he was kind of volatile and he was easily influenced.

But in chapter two of Galatians, Paul says, after 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas taking

Titus along with me. I went up because of a revelation and set before them though privately before those who seemed influential, the gospel that I proclaimed among the

Gentiles in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain.

But even Titus who was with me, Titus being a Gentile was not forced to be circumcised though he was a

Greek yet because of false brothers secretly brought in who slipped into spy out our freedom that we have in Jesus, in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery to them.

We did not yield in submission even for a moment so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.

And from those who seem to be influential, what they were makes no difference to me. God shows no partiality.

You gotta love Paul, right? He's so salty. You know, the, the, the celebrity, you know, stuff that people get all weak in the knees over nowadays and evangelical circles,

Paul didn't care. It doesn't mean anything to me who you are. God shows no partiality. Those I say who seemed influential added nothing to me.

In other words, his gospel and his ministry on the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised, for he who, who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the

Gentiles. And when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the

Gentiles and they to the circumcised. So there's a, there's somewhat of a division of labor here, simply to, to, to different people, groups,

Paul, to the apostle to the Gentiles, just like Christ had called him to do. And then verse 10, only they asked us to remember the poor the very thing

I was eager to do. The gospel didn't change at all. The only thing, you know, just remember the poor and you remember in the Jerusalem council, there was just some issues.

If you go to a town where there's Jews, just be careful. Don't do anything. It's going to offend the Jews. That was it.

That was the only the only restrictions or modification put on that. Other than that, the gospel is the same to Jews and Gentiles.

Okay. Now here, here's the issue. But when Cephas came to Antioch, that's Peter. Now here's how

Paul deals with his sin. I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned.

Why? For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the

Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back and separated himself fearing the circumcision party.

And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.

I've always was always puzzled early on, you know, how come, how come God added Paul, you know, because you had the 12, right?

And then Judas gone, but then replaced in Acts one by Matthias. So now the 12th is back again.

But how, why add Paul? I think this is Paul's finest moment right here. Everybody else, including

Barnabas who had witnessed the Gentile salvation, they're all moving toward wanting to add this, uh, uh, conditions to being saved through faith alone.

I think here Paul's like the last man standing. Who else is there but Paul. And here's what he did.

He confronted Peter to his face because of his hypocrisy. The rest of the

Jews acted hypocritically along with him so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when

I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all.

Okay. So he's personally face to face, but in front of everybody else, right?

And this is just absolutely a masterful argument. He's logical, but he's also theological.

It's just incredible. And he's not ugly. He's not apoplectic. It's just, and he uses questions.

Okay. If you, though a Jew live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the

Gentiles to live like Jews? We ourselves are Jews by birth and not

Gentile sinners. Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ.

So we also have believed in Christ in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law, no one will be justified.

But if in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is

Christ any servant of sin? Certainly not. Absolutely masterful confrontation to Peter in his sin, but in, in doing exactly what he says we are supposed to do and how we're supposed to do it.

It was personal, it was face to face, but it was also in presence of others as well. So this is

Paul doing exactly what he calls Timothy to do. And in fact, back in first Timothy, if you look at back in chapter, chapter five, once again, how does the church relate to elders as for those who persist in sin, rebuke them, this is the, this word for rebuke here in the presence of all so that the rest may stand in fear, the rest of the elders.

That's exactly what Paul did in this Galatian situation. So he's very consistent in his prescription for how

Timothy is to deal with sin and how people in the church are to deal with it. Do not confront in harshness, confront without harshness, but confront with encouragement, call them alongside and speak to them to accomplish a particular task, whatever it is.

I mean, it could be admonishment, it could be warning. Paul uses this word a couple of different times here in first, several different times in first Timothy, he uses it in chapter one, verse three, as I urged you, it's an urging.

Okay. That's that same word and so on. So this is a word that is very important.

It occurs 109 times throughout scripture and if you look at the context, you'll see that it's, it's used different English words many times, but it has to do with the context and it has to do with who you're talking to and, and what you are trying to accomplish as well.

But Paul did exactly with Peter what he's telling Timothy to do here.

He confronted Peter to his face in the presence of everybody else used extremely powerful argument, but it was logical, but it was also theological.

The purpose of the personal confrontation in the church is not to venture anger at an offense or to attack or embarrass a brother or sister.

So what not to do, do not sharply or violently rebuke anyone, but call that person alongside for the purpose of producing a particular effect.

You have any questions so far, comments here, Julie? Right. It is, that is church discipline.

Church discipline is a broad, right?

I would, I would categorize that as church discipline. Absolutely.

And, and, and I agree with you are our view for the most part of what is church discipline comes from Matthew 18 and, and because so many churches don't do it, that's the only thing they hear and see.

And that's their definition of it. Preaching the word of God from the pulpit is church discipline, right?

In the sense that's why in second Timothy four, Paul says, preach the word, reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction.

So there again, that word is in that context right there. So, so the church here again, we're back to Bible exposition, churches that don't do

Bible exposition, don't do church discipline. Absolutely.

And, and that's the thing. God mediates his discipline, his Lordship through his word by his spirit and that's how he changes us.

So in, in, in churches where the scripture is routinely preached and taught, there is going, that is a disciplinary process.

Is it not? Doesn't, aren't we rebuked in our sin? We should be. And, and even if it's privately, we don't need to jump up and say, wow,

I got rebuked in my sin today. Praise alleluia. You know, I mean, that's part of the growth process and discipleship, but I would categorize this as church discipline.

What Paul did with, with Peter was church discipline. I always wondered, you know, was Peter, did he have that knife, that dagger?

He was a little volatile, you know, I mean, he whacked that guy's ear off, you know, but Paul still, you know, so does that, does that clarify it?

I would put it in the category of church discipline, but I see church discipline as a broader disciple making process than just those.

Now those, those things are, those times are important. Of course, Matthew 18 is, is that, you know, if your brother sins go to him and so on as you're describing.

But right after that, Peter says, how many times should I forgive my brother if he sins?

How many times? Right. And the Lord takes him through that. And then he gives that parable of the, of the man who did not forgive.

And so that's the major part of that passage. That whole thing is a lack of forgiveness on the part of the person who's been offended.

That, that cures an awful lot of issues in churches is forgiveness. It doesn't always have to be a face -to -face confrontation.

What Paul did, that was, this was absolutely vital in the history of the church. The church could easily have gone and it split into two.

You could have had a Gentile church and a Christian church, but everything, everything that Paul did and everything that was taught is designed to say, no, there's one church, one body, one spirit, one

Lord, and so on. As he taught in Ephesians and many other places, that's the physical outworking of it right there to, to accomplish that.

So he did.

And the church was one, one body made up of Jew and Gentile, just like the

Abrahamic covenant. When God said, I will, I will, I will. He does.

And that was part of Paul's ministry to ensure that that was happening. Yes. I would say that in, in five 20, when he says in front of the rest,

I take that as the rest of the elders, but in Matthew 18, it says before the church would be the final.

So I think, I think even there in Matthew in first Timothy five, if the elder persists in sin, that still is confined to the elders.

I think a good basic rule of thumb that the, the rebuke or the confrontation should be no more public than the sin.

You know, if, if, and that's why, again, social media, you know, well, this guy really, man, he just, he don't know.

Really? You know, that is not a biblical rebuke. That is, that is somebody just inventing their wanting to garner support for their position.

Okay. Is that, is that clear? I would, I would keep a distinction between those two passages that way.

Peter, I think social media, there is an opportunity for a loving or somebody's not in sin, but maybe they're maybe saying something that's biblically inaccurate.

There's a loving way to publicly address their public statements in a way that's constructive and, and strongly encouraged to use scripture to back that up.

I think there is a proper and good way to do that because they're not in sin, but it's a, it's a,

Hey, let's talk about this theology. Exactly. Exactly. And, and it's like so many of these things, there's an opportunity for, for the tool to be used for good and flip side of that, as we all know for, for, but yeah, sure.

You wouldn't want to exclude that as an, as an, as a tool to use to communicate back and forth. It happens all the time in a very proper way.

All I'm saying is so much of what you see nowadays is, is not what is biblically appropriate.

I don't think so. Okay, Jim. Yes. Exactly.

Absolutely. And, and even with elders, they are in a more highly visible, and responsible position within the church, within the body of Christ.

But yeah, I mean, somebody publishes a work and somebody else publishes something, responds against it.

And then there's all kinds of people getting upset. And when you have to do that privately, this book is published very publicly and it's sold so many copies.

It's all over the place. Once you do that, then it's, it's fair game for anybody to comment on it. Yeah. Steve. So I have been remembering how many times it does not have to be hostility or disagreement.

I have been sharpened and, and I'm mentored and disciplined all in a way that would,

I think fall under that spectrum of church discipline, but it's just, it's a loving it is, it's exactly,

It's a loving coming alongside and saying let me show you, basically, a better way.

How do you consider this? Have you thought about this? What about this? It's an amazing...

there is no hostility. And there isn't even willful disobedience or disagreement.

But man, it is the sign of a healthy body. Yeah, and even in theological discussions, you have to sort of ask a question.

If a person disagrees theologically, why? Have they been a

Christian for a week and they've never been discipled? And they have all these concepts like we've all had in our thinking and they just need to grow?

Or are they a 45 -year -old tenured professor in a Bible college who has advanced degrees and he's very smart as to how he can communicate heresy and maybe even publishing books with it in there.

There's a gigantic difference. There's a massive, there's a broad spectrum there.

And this is why I think in Scripture, we have all these different ways, you know, and different scenarios.

1 Corinthians 5, I mean, Paul, that whole chapter deals with a man in the Corinthian church.

And I like the way Paul puts it. He had his father's wife.

You kind of, you sort of have to stop and go, okay, his father, his wife. It's like,

Paul didn't want to say what's going on here. But you get right down to the bottom of that. And basically,

Paul is saying, put him out of the church. There are times when church leadership needs to respond quickly for the sake of the flock.

You know, if it's a real wolf and, you know, they need to be asked whatever it might be. But there are also times when there just needs to be discernment and that person just needs to be brought along and trained.

This is why over and over again, teaching them to obey all that I've commanded. Preach the word, you know, reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction.

The whole, the whole idea of a teaching ministry is to bring people from where they are now to where God wants them to be tomorrow and the next day and so on.

So it is, it is a spectrum of things. And unfortunately, the idea of church discipline has kind of become something that and then some of those folks can also find examples of how it was done really wrong, really bad.

And somebody just is just hammered in and castigated for maybe a misconception that they had that they didn't really understand something.

And then it's, then it's all downhill from there. So, okay, it's a, it's a complex problem, but it's also very important.

But I think the answer is always back to scripture and just see how the Bible handles it and see how these people handle it. Yes. Yeah, I mean, it can be a serious problem, but like you said, you know, have you thought of this?

Have you thought of that? That's, that's a loving response. And I think that's the most important thing we have to think of if we have someone that we need to rebuke or if we are rebuked ourselves, that it's done in love.

Yeah. And a person who's growing in Christ will seek out the ministries, the teaching, the books, the preaching that in a sense corrects them and rebukes them.

You have a hunger for that because you go, oh, okay, now I see where I could be wrong here. I have been wrong in this area.

And so to, to submit yourself to the convicting work of the spirit is an important thing, you know, and so very, very important.

So the twofold command, do not sharply rebuke, don't get apoplectic like Billy Martin, call them alongside and speak to them.

And then he says throughout this, this little sentence here, as you would a father, there's the picture, as you would a father, you know, hopefully the, the older men will be encouraged as fathers.

Again, it's the word presbuteros. It's the same word used for elder, but here in the context, this is an older man.

It also used again, to speak of the office of the elder in the church. Again, Paul is, he's, this just works right into what he's already taught him.

How do you deal with these people? If you're going to go in and correct these false teachers and so on, again, he's going to be doing this in front of a congregation.

That's why he says, you know, set the believers an example in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity.

It all, it all just works together. If he goes in there and just, you know, vents his frustration at the false teacher in the church and, and then, you know, pats himself on the back for going in there and, you know, slaying this dragon, what has he accomplished?

Well, yeah, he's gotten a false teacher out of the church, but maybe he hasn't set an example in how to do it in front of the rest of the Christians. So that's important to Paul as well.

Older men as fathers. And as we all know from the Old Testament, how younger people relate to the elders is really important.

Some of the violations were capital crimes, you know, and so God takes it very, very seriously.

Don't deal with harsh, harshness. And then younger men as brothers. Same two commands also apply.

Really, even though there might be one command here, it's, it's then grammatically applied to every single person here.

So on your, on your outline there, I've just put down confront or encourage older men as fathers, confront or encourage younger men as brothers, confront, encourage older women as mothers, and then confront or encourage younger women as sisters in all purity.

Now, I use the word encourage because that's the one from the text. Remember, it's call them alongside to talk to them.

Whatever the purpose is or whatever the issue is, that's going to determine what you say to them, right?

But to call them alongside and, but don't do it with harshness. Brotherly love is the model and young men as brothers, as Paul told the

Roman church, Romans 12, 10, be devoted to one another in brotherly love.

Means sisterly as well. Peter in his first letter said, honor everyone, love the brethren.

And of course, in his second, in second Peter, last words to the church. Here's, here's what

Peter says. You remember his confrontation with Paul? Paul confronted him back concerning the issue in, with the

Galatians. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish.

This is written to Christians who are scattered, being persecuted all over the place and at peace and count the patience of our

Lord as salvation. Just as our beloved brother, Paul. Also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him.

Peter, at the end of his life, still counter Paul, the brother, right? Evidence of it right there of his.

Peter came a long ways, right? And that should be, I should encourage the rest of us. I know it does me.

And then older women as mothers and, and so on from Exodus 20.

Honor your father and your mother that your days may be prolonged in the land, which the Lord, your God gives you.

Listen to this Proverbs 23, 22. Listen to your father who begot you and do not despise your mother when she is old.

Through the old Testament, the respect and care and concern for, for parents and older people is all through.

And then finally, younger women as sisters in all purity.

Why do you think he added that for younger women? Some of you are smiling.

Obviously, clearly Timothy is, may have to deal with a younger woman. Ephesus, a city of about 200 ,000 people and prominent structure there was this great temple to Artemis, this false goddess.

It was also a cult prostitution temple. It was rampant throughout that city. This would have been a place for a young man.

And he was probably single that he could have really gotten off the track in many, many ways, many, many opportunities.

And so this admonition, younger women as sisters in all purity.

This is not the only place Timothy is exhorted to minister in purity. He says it here in this text and elsewhere.

He says to him, he warns him about his youthful lusts, flea youthful lusts and that type of thing.

Paul's admonishing him. Paul's a little concerned that he keep his life pure and dealing with women, younger women.

He needs to deal with them as sisters. Think of her as your sister in Christ.

That might prevent a lot of what goes on in some situations where the ministry then gets sidetracked for other things.

OK, so confront sin in love. Like like you said, Nathal has to be loving and that love might include a rebuke.

But that rebuke then has to be that which moves that person to repentance and their spiritual growth and development.

OK, have any thoughts or questions on what we've seen in these two two verses?

One sentence. OK, let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word today.

And we know that as we sit under the teaching of your word, the preaching of your word, we we need to do it with hearts that are open and ready to receive whatever admonition we receive and hear.

And we know that your spirit calls us alongside to move us in a direction that causes us to grow in the grace and knowledge of our

Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So we thank you for that ministry. We pray that we would continue to have open hearts and minds to your word and the ministry of your spirit.

And even if it includes repentance from sin, accomplish that work in every heart and mind.

And we will praise you in Christ's name. Amen. And we are his, we are his people.

And the sheep of his pasture make a joyful noise to the