Treatment To Each Member

1Title: Treatment to Each Member
Text: 1 Timothy 5

Introduction
Paul after exhorting Timothy in how he is to become a minister, he is now instructing Timothy how to treat each members of the body of Christ. His treatment should be impartial and should exemplify as a good leader. The following tells us how are we going to treat

The Older Men
Do not rebuke an older man HARSHLY. Exhort him as your father. Here we see that we have to give respect to older men inside the church. Anyone who is older than you is worthy for your respect and this means that even if he is not a good man.

Note that Paul did not just say, “do not rebuke older men”. In other words, the phrase suggests, “if we are to rebuke older men, we have to rebuke them with love, not harshly.” By doing this, they will be able to see things more clearly and that they will be less defensive than if we will not be showing them respect.

In addition to this, this passage means, that older men are not the highest authority inside the body of Christ. This means that if they have a certain suggestion about a project, they are not the one who is to decide whether to pursue the project or not. In our case, it is the decision of the body as represented by the servant leaders/council.

The Younger Men
Treat the younger men as your brothers. We are to treat younger men as our brothers. This is to show them love. How do we treat our younger brothers? Do we love them? Or do we hate them so much?

If we really love the younger generation, then we ought to do what we have to do. To guide them to live a life worthy of God’s calling. We are to teach them and admonish them how to treat younger women. To show them love so they will also show the same love to others.

There are lots of young men who are lost because they have not felt that they are loved in homes. They were not taught to love. Their parents work so hard in the field that they no longer have time to be with their children. They were thinking on what are the things that they can do for their kids, but have not taught to give time for them. I do hope that we will love the younger men as our sons, as our brothers.

The Older Women
Treat the older women as your mothers. We are to give due respect to older women. This is the same as what we have said for the older men. But how do we treat older women? Do we treat them without respect?

Sometimes, the younger generation makes fun of our older buddies especially if they already have “Alzheimer’s Disease”. We are mad at them especially when our grand parents are already bed ridden. Sometimes, we use to laugh at them when they can no longer go to the bathroom to do their thing.
Here in the Bible, it clearly says that we have to give them still our due respect.



The Younger Women
Treat the younger women as your sisters. There are millions of young women around the globe aging from 14-20 who have experienced sexual contacts outside of marriage. Many of them resulted to unwanted pregnancy, unwanted wedding, and worst of all abortion.

Minds of our younger women are now corrupted with all the things that surround them. They have become equally worst than that of men. When I was young, they say that men are more aggressive sexually than women. Now I would say that both of them are equally worst.

This is why we have to guide them and show them love. We have to teach them how to treat young men. Instead of flirting with them, we have to teach them how to respect them and to act as an honorable woman.

The Widows
Paul have given emphasis in this portion. In verse 3, we are to give recognition to widows. Note that these widows are those who are really in need. Those who still have children, they have family, they are to be taken care of by their families. The family are to show them their religion to be put into practice. Here we see that religion is not just a set of beliefs, but it is actually how we apply those beliefs and put that into practice. That is religion.

Who are the true widows? The true widows are those widows whose husband or wife died, don’t have any children, don’t relatives to take care of him or her, and don’t have any property to live on. In this case, Paul urges Timothy to help the real widows, to assist them to provide for them.

This means that not all widows qualify for this privilege. There are widows who have professional children. Paul said allow the children to take care of their widows, or relatives to take care of their widows.

Paul even set up a measuring stick for the real widows. She must be over 60 years old (v.9), she should have been faithful to her husband, she should have a reputation of taking care of the strangers, serving the saints (God’s people), helping those who are in trouble, and those who have devoted their lives doing good deeds. If there is a widow who does not fit with these requirements, then she should not be included in the list of widows to whom the church will help.

Younger widows were encouraged to remarry than committing themselves wholly in the service of God for there is a big possibility that their sensual desire will again flare up then they want to remarry. Now again, what Paul is saying is that, they have to sure if they really want to commit the rest of their lives serving the Lord or to marry again. For if they have committed themselves fully for God’s service and then later on they will remarry, it is good as giving judgment for themselves.

In addition, younger widows where encourage to have their own family, to have children and to take care of them. They are not to become idlers and slanderers. Instead, they are to watch themselves not to fall on this. For there are widows who became like this.

The Elders/Overseer/Bishop/Pastor
In many cases, churches teach the members how to live by faith. Indeed, the Bible teaches the members of the body especially the pastors to live by faith. In here, we mean to become dependent to the Lord for our financial needs.

The problem with many churches however, they do not teach this thing completely. Many pastors are guilty of going only to one side of this teaching. Now here we are talking about the support of the pastor.

In verse 17, Paul says: ”17The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching.” Here we can see good thought here. First, let us start with the question, “who is worthy of double honor?” Verse 17 says, the elders who direct the affairs of the church WELL. This means that not elders direct the church well. Not all elders are worthy of double honor. There is a prerequisite here. He must be able to direct the church well and that is working on “preaching” and “teaching”.

There are pastors who strongly demands to have “double honor”, but is not directing the church well. He does not even preach, he does not even teach. Sometimes, he preaches but do not teach. We understand that pastors work ARE preaching, teaching, and directing the church. Some pastors are too lazy to work. This is why their churches does not have evangelism, their churches is not in a good standing, the church is even divided among themselves.

On the hand, if he directs well, and he preaches and teaches, then he is worthy to have more than what he should have.

Paul, even gave emphasis to his statement by quoting two passages from the Old Testament and from Jesus’ teachings, “Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain, (Deuteronomy 25:4)” and “The worker deserves his wages (Luke 10:7).”

Accusation against an elder should not be entertained unless there are two or more witnesses. Being a pastor is like being in showbiz. Sometimes, even the simplest mistake that a pastor did will mean a lot to the church. But here we can see that Paul is giving a higher requirement if there will be one who will accuse the pastor. He should have two or three witnesses.

But if, there will be someone who will be found guilty of sinning, he is to be rebuked publicly so that others may take warning. Now we see why there is a higher requirement if you will be accusing a pastor. It is because, the discipline process is much harder than that of ordinary members.

Who then should discipline an elder? This is the main use of organizations like our Association and our Convention. They are the “check and balance” of our pastors. If there is a sinning (proven to be sinning) pastor, local members can go to the Association or to our Convention, then these bodies, which also composed of pastors, are the one to discipline the sinning pastor. They will form part of the discipline committee.

Here we also see the disadvantage of the “lone ranger” churches, the independent churches. If their pastor is sinning, they cannot do anything except to transfer to another church.

Conclusion
Finally, Timothy should do the following:
1. To be impartial in the implementation of these standards.
2. To be careful in laying of hands, watching himself not to share with the sins of others.
3. To be taking care of his health.

24The sins of some men are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them; the sins of others trail behind them. 25In the same way, good deeds are obvious, and even those that are not cannot be hidden.