Post by Admin on Jun 27, 2019 6:53:47 GMT
Paul deals with two major areas of church leadership in the passages we discussed tonight: first, how to sort out the members that truly need support by the church, and second, how to be effective in criticizing. We approached tonight’s scripture in these two topic areas separately, reading and discussing 5:1-16 first, then reading and discussing 5:17-6:2.
There was no mystery to how Paul characterizes how Timothy should minister to the congregation: treat everyone like family, with the love and respect one would give family members and bearing the responsibility of care that one would give family members. We talked for some time about the cultural expectations of Timothy’s time, particularly for Jews, who would be expected to support their parents and grandparents; yet Jesus himself (Mark 7:9-13) criticized the Jews for finding exceptions and loopholes from supporting their families, and it seems like the types of family stresses and ruptures we see today would have been experienced in Paul’s day. Although we have an idyllic concept of the early church living joyfully in a communal way, that picture from Acts was not reality for most of the congregations. Particularly congregations started by Paul with a hybrid of former Jews and gentiles like in Ephesus, congregations of old were much like ours: a mix of old and young, families, working people, business owners, people with issues and problems, people dedicated and enraptured by the Holy Spirit. The congregation would hardly be in a financial position to support everyone who claimed to need welfare, which is why Paul clarifies strict criteria for considering which few widows to support. On the other hand, as we discussed, if all the members undertake as their Christian responsibility to care for their own families, then in essence the congregation DOES take care of its own. Paul also shows again his keen understanding of human tendencies and the dangers they pose; for example, a young able-bodied woman who receives financial support without bearing any responsibility to handle a household is getting set up for silly and sinful time-wasting.
The next major segment of the letter deals with how Timothy needs to handle the elders, and by extension any member of the congregation. Again, love and respect are the foundational principles. In verses 19-20 Paul cautions Timothy against quick reactions to complaints; once verified, however, he also advises transparency and decisiveness – no one should get away with inappropriate behavior, regardless of his stature or position. The final verses of chapter 5 likewise advocate for patience and forbearance – never reactiveness – because the truth of situations and behavior take time to emerge.
Verses 1-2 at the beginning of Chapter 6, in which Paul directs Timothy to remind slaves and masters that they must respect their earthly roles despite their shared childhood in God, was a great analogy to modern life. Several people shared stories of dealing with “masters” such as work bosses and feeling like “slaves” as employees – including many incidents which tested our strength as Christians.
There was no mystery to how Paul characterizes how Timothy should minister to the congregation: treat everyone like family, with the love and respect one would give family members and bearing the responsibility of care that one would give family members. We talked for some time about the cultural expectations of Timothy’s time, particularly for Jews, who would be expected to support their parents and grandparents; yet Jesus himself (Mark 7:9-13) criticized the Jews for finding exceptions and loopholes from supporting their families, and it seems like the types of family stresses and ruptures we see today would have been experienced in Paul’s day. Although we have an idyllic concept of the early church living joyfully in a communal way, that picture from Acts was not reality for most of the congregations. Particularly congregations started by Paul with a hybrid of former Jews and gentiles like in Ephesus, congregations of old were much like ours: a mix of old and young, families, working people, business owners, people with issues and problems, people dedicated and enraptured by the Holy Spirit. The congregation would hardly be in a financial position to support everyone who claimed to need welfare, which is why Paul clarifies strict criteria for considering which few widows to support. On the other hand, as we discussed, if all the members undertake as their Christian responsibility to care for their own families, then in essence the congregation DOES take care of its own. Paul also shows again his keen understanding of human tendencies and the dangers they pose; for example, a young able-bodied woman who receives financial support without bearing any responsibility to handle a household is getting set up for silly and sinful time-wasting.
The next major segment of the letter deals with how Timothy needs to handle the elders, and by extension any member of the congregation. Again, love and respect are the foundational principles. In verses 19-20 Paul cautions Timothy against quick reactions to complaints; once verified, however, he also advises transparency and decisiveness – no one should get away with inappropriate behavior, regardless of his stature or position. The final verses of chapter 5 likewise advocate for patience and forbearance – never reactiveness – because the truth of situations and behavior take time to emerge.
Verses 1-2 at the beginning of Chapter 6, in which Paul directs Timothy to remind slaves and masters that they must respect their earthly roles despite their shared childhood in God, was a great analogy to modern life. Several people shared stories of dealing with “masters” such as work bosses and feeling like “slaves” as employees – including many incidents which tested our strength as Christians.