1 Timothy 5:1-15 - Who should we care for?

Last week we opened the sermon with prayer and uh just an extended prayer time, and I had several people ask me, Man, are we gonna do that every week?

I had a bunch of other people ask me, Are we gonna do that every week?

Um, and the answer is no.

And yes, like we always are gonna be praying, but it's not always gonna be the same as last week.

But we want to make sure that we are putting Christ first in all things.

Um and that's the biggest.

So let's uh let's pray right now.

And if you would join me.

God, thank you for um this weekend, thank you for um fun times, thank you for uh your provision of this new piano and uh just what that can do, Lord.

Um I pray for specifically just for Bill Jones uh this weekend um as he leads his services down at Bethel.

Um speak through him, give him a good night's rest tonight, and let him um just bring your word and and bring his congregation to honor you tomorrow as they have services.

Um and I pray for us right now at Valley Christian that you, um, as you are in our midst, I pray that we can understand your presence, that we can know that you're here, Lord, and that we can feel you move um in our lives.

Um Yeah, bless this time that we have, this time that we have together, Lord.

And it's your son's name that we pray.

Amen.

All right.

So our verses tonight, our scriptures from 1 Timothy chapter 5, 1 through 15.

1 Timothy 5 · chapter mention

So let's go ahead and read it.

It says, Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but extort him, or I'm sorry, not extort him, exhort him, exhort him as if he were your father.

Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters with absolute purity.

Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need.

But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion in practice, and by caring for their own family, and so repaying their parents and grandparents for this is pleasing to God.

The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and ask God for help.

But the widow who lives her pleasure is dead even while she lives.

Give the people these instructions so that no one may be open to blame.

Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever or unbeliever.

No widow may be put on the list of widows unless she is over sixty, has been faithful to her husband, and is well known for her good deeds, such as bringing up children, showing hospitality, washing the feet and the lore of the Lord's people, helping those in trouble and devoting herself to all kinds of good deeds.

As for younger widows, do not put them on such a list.

For their when their sensual desires overcome their dedication to Christ, they want to marry.

Thus they bring judgment on themselves, because they have broken their first pledge.

Besides, they get into the habit of being idle and going about from house to house, and not do only doing or not only becoming idlers, but also biddy bodies busybodies who talk nonsense, saying things they ought not to.

So I counsel younger widows to marry, to have children, to manage their homes, and to give the enemy no opportunity for slander.

Some in have in fact already turned away to follow Satan.

So there's this interesting, really intense scripture and very specific instruction.

And so it's interesting to take this thing that we have here that's written to a specific church in the first century.

And how do we manage that?

And how do we stay faithful to the text and yet apply it to us in the 21st century in the Western culture?

And so we first have to look at the audience.

Um, when Acts was rolling around, when you go through the book of Acts, it's the missionary journeys of Paul, starting about verse chapter 9, and it's the start of the first church, and that's what the book actually stands for: Acts of the Apostle or Acts of the Church, the actions that they took.

In chapter 19, uh, we first discover Ephesus, the church there.

Paul goes on this missionary journey and he finds Ephesus, or he goes to Ephesus, and he finds that there's believers there.

Now he didn't start this church.

It was already established once he got there.

But as he finds them and he talks to them, it says in chapter or in verse 1, he says, They found some disciples.

They had not received the Holy Spirit, only the baptism of John.

And this was a baptism of repentance.

So Paul talks to him, he says, Did you receive the Holy Spirit?

And they didn't know what it was, and so he teaches them what true what the baptism that Jesus talked about was, and then they received the Holy Spirit, and he taught about that.

It's an amazing story, and many turned from sin and magic they were doing.

Uh the church had established there were riots in the church that were happening, or I'm sorry, against the church that were happening at that time.

And also it starts off really well where they were strong in their faith and looking to what was happening.

But then, if we go along the journey, eventually in the book of Revelation, Jesus warns them, you've left your first love.

You've walked away from what you first love, and you've turned away, and you need to get back to that.

And so, in the meantime, from this journey from starting off really well to where Jesus says you need to return to your first love, Timothy is inserted into the Church of Ephesus.

Paul sends him there, and he says, You're gonna have to go against false teachers and come against heretical teaching that's happening there.

You're gonna have to take care of these widows, and you're gonna have to straighten this church out.

You need to set them straight, but you need to lead by example.

And that's kind of where we picked up last week.

And then you need to correct them with gentleness and love.

Now, as we started our section tonight, Paul first starts off in chapter five saying, Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as you would your father.

Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters with absolute purity.

See, Paul knew as he went into this, as he sent Timothy, that he was going to have to combat or go up against people that were teaching false things.

And he was gonna have to correct older gentlemen.

It was an assumption that he knew was going to have to happen.

And so the first thing that he did is he said, in chapter four, just before this, he said, first you need to make sure that you're living an example.

Before you try and correct anyone, you've got to set an example on the way that they live.

So when you correct them, they have nothing to say to you.

And then after you correct them, or when you correct them, you need to do it with proper respect and with pure attitudes towards others.

You need to offer respect to those older gentlemen, to those older ladies, and make sure you're treating them with the respect they deserve, and then with those who are younger, make sure that your attitude towards them is proper.

When we deal, and it goes on, and he tells us, when we deal with widows, this is the foundation we need to have.

We need to have proper respect and attitudes as we talk with widows, as we speak with elders, as we talk to employees and bosses, or in his language, slaves and masters in those days.

We need to do so, first of all, with proper respect and with a good attitude.

Now, Paul then goes on and he lays down this thing through verse 3 through 15, talking about widows.

Now, Scripture has a much to say about widows.

It honors them in a way that most cultures, especially in the first century, did not do.

See, in the first century in particular, a woman married to her husband had her identity only defined by that marriage.

And so if her husband died, she lost not only her spouse, but often her identity within the culture or within society.

In Scripture, though, we see the instructions that honors widows, orphans, aliens, or people without uh husbands or parents or homes.

They're valued not by their position any longer in society, but who they are themselves and within the body of Christ.

And so even here in verse 3 says widows deserve a special honor that they are supposed to be given.

And throughout the Bible, justice we see is demanded and love is demanded for widows.

In fact, God is described often, his admirable attributes sometimes are listed as caring for widows and orphans, like in some uh Psalm 68.5.

It says that he's a protector of the those who don't have fathers, of the fatherless, and he cares for the widows, a defender of the widows.

Now, we can gather from context that the church in Ephesus here, the early church, had a program to care for widows.

They had an organized thing where they would actually care.

You can see it here as Paul talks about the list that he puts them on.

You know, this is this group of women that you're to add to these women who are in need.

Also in Acts chapter 6, we see that there are two groups of widows, Jewish and non-Jewish widows, and the care that is taken to make sure that they are taken care of.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

Now, widows that were here not in need.

Oh, so they have this specific thing, this list of widows, and there have two people that are on there, two types of people.

First, Paul says widows that are truly in need in verse 3.

Then he also describes widows that maybe are women that do not have a husband, they've lost their husband, but they are not in need, and yet they were taking advantage of the church program.

So we have this idea that, okay, there's this list, this program that's been put in place, but there's some women that are in desperate need of it, and then some women who don't need it but are still taking advantage of it.

So Paul is writing to a very specific church problem and blessing, because the women that are listed as being on the list that deserve it are listed very admirably.

I mean, they're always praying and taking care of the Lord's people and serving and doing other things and list this whole thing of raising children and honoring God in all these different ways.

And so they have this group of people who deserves honor and respect, and yet within them there's also these women who need to be corrected and also others.

So Paul is writing the specific church with a specific blessing and a very specific problem, right?

And this is in the first century.

So how do we take this first century idea and translate it to us in the 21st century in a Western culture where things are very, very different?

Um, some of these things aren't going to work.

Like perhaps, or for an instant, verse 9, it says, No widow may be put on the list of widows unless she is over 60.

Now, 60 was that link.

Now, if I went to Karen after she turned 60 and I said, Karen, you're too old to function anymore.

We need to take care of you, right?

Karen would body slam me, right?

And deservingly so.

Like they would be, I mean, I wouldn't want, I would be not want to do that, right?

And and for a lot of you, rightfully so, you would be so offended if I was to do that.

And it wouldn't make sense in our society now, because as my mother-in-law likes to say, oh, sixty, like, you know, she d anyway, I'm not gonna get into that.

She's very excited about people at 16, how much we can function and how much longevity our life is going now, to where 60 is is just another age.

It's not over the hill at all, and yet it's the dawn of a new era.

And so it is so cool to see that happen.

So this doesn't apply, though, in that way.

It would be offensive, and rightfully so, if we did that to these widows or to these people, implying that they were old or doing that.

But the main principle that he applies throughout this scripture here is take care of those who can't care for themselves.

Sorry about the typo.

Take care of those who can't care for themselves.

Now, first of all, we see it throughout scripture.

These people who can't care for themselves are very close to God's heart.

They hold a special place.

Uh Psalm, like I said, Psalm 68, uh, verse 5 through 6, it says, Praise God.

So we're supposed to praise God in the first part of the Psalm, and the reason that we're supposed to offer praise to God is that he's a father to the fatherless, a defender of widows.

He is uh is God in his holy dwelling.

God sets the lonely in family.

He leads out the prisoners with singing, but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.

So he says, we are supposed to praise God because he cares for the orphans, because he cares for the widows, not just the people that can do something for him, but those who are defenseless, those who are without help.

Uh, in Deuteronomy chapter 10, verse 18, very similar, it says, He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow.

Deuteronomy 10:18

He loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.

In the Old Testament, all throughout it, we see in the scriptures, God taking place of widow or taking care of widows.

In the Old Testament, in Deuteronomy, he sets up his laws to care for the people.

He cares for them and sets up laws so the people, his people, will care for other widows.

The book of Ruth is about a widow or a couple widows who are faithful to God and how the system that God has set in place ends up caring for those people, and those widows, their descendant, is the Messiah.

I mean, God has such a heart.

Elijah and Elijah, two of the most profound, powerful prophets in the Old Testament, a great percentage of their ministry was caring for a widow.

And it's amazing what God has done.

Even Jesus, while he's on the cross, dying, being crucified, looks to his mother, who's a widow, and says, Listen, here, you are going to go take care of John, or John is going to take care of you.

And he looks at John, the disciple, and says, You take care of her.

So he makes sure that this widow, even from the cross, is taken care of.

And we see in the book of Acts, the apostles take seven highly amazing, great men who are highly skilled and dedicated guys, and they say, You guys are going to run this ministry for the widows.

The precedent that they put on the care for the widows throughout the Old Testament, throughout the New Testament, is amazing.

But in each one of those, it's caring for people who can't care for themselves.

And so we follow this thing, this same precedent.

Now, back to our scripture today, 1 Timothy in chapter 5, he labels these women that need to be cared for as truly widows.

In verse, I'm sorry, 3, 5, and 9, and 10, he kind of lists out these structures or these different qualifications for these widows.

He says, women that have lost a husband and then they are in need.

They don't have any family to care for them.

And so they depend solely on God.

And so he says, these are the women that we need to be taken care of.

Then he distinguishes women that have maybe lost a husband that are not in need.

In verse 3 and 4, he sets these women apart.

I'm sorry, verse 4, he says, but if a women widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn, first of all, to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family.

And so repaying their parents and grandparents.

For this is pleasing to God.

So if we had any doubt after looking through all the scriptures about God caring for widows and his prophets caring for widows, and laws being set up to care for widows, Paul does come out and says it.

For us as family to take care of our family first.

And this is not the church family taking care of one another, but our biological children and grandchildren taking care of those women who cannot take care of themselves.

And so again, he does this.

Now, um it's gonna look different if we put this into practice in the modern church.

How do we care for these people that cannot care for themselves?

The first thing that Paul says in verse 3 is giving them honor and recognition.

He says, give proper recognition, and the word there is a little tricky, recognition or honor, or time dedication to these women who are really in need.

So we need to break that down and give it to them.

This means caring for their physical needs, right?

In Acts chapter 6, we see the list of women that were widows there, were being fed daily and making sure they were cared for.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

Also, caring for their spiritual welfare.

Sorry, their spiritual welfare.

Paul says in verse 14 that he counsels women, younger widows, to do takes this step.

Basically, he cares for their needs.

Also, he says, these younger women, don't put them on the list because I don't want them to break their oath to God if they ever want to remarry.

And so he cares for their spiritual needs.

So not only for their physical, but for their spiritual well-being.

And so if we pull back on this section of Scripture, on chapter 4 through the first part of chapter 6, and we look at these as kind of a bigger, broader view.

First in chapter 4, it says that we need to live in such a way that we're an example, right, for those around us.

And then we need to take care of other people, take care of widows, take care of elders, take care of slaves and um and masters.

How do we do all this?

And it kind of brings up the question: who should we care for?

Who is it that we should be caring for?

Because there everybody, each one of us has different needs.

But it's not the church's job in particular to make sure those are cared for.

Yeah, we need to take care of one another.

We're commanded to do so, but not all things are demanded by God through the church to be taken care of.

So who should we care for?

Now, who do we need to care for in what order?

The first thing that we need to do is care for ourselves.

We need to care for ourselves.

And a lot of you kind of like, oh, wait, what?

Rightfully so.

Because there's in the last few years that really seems to be on the rise, this idea of I need some self-care.

And what that really means is I want an excuse to spend money on myself, right?

And oh, it's because I need this self-care.

I really need this new pump shotgun because, you know, I gotta take care of myself, right?

Or I mean that's maybe my Lillehouse.

Maybe for somebody else it'd be like, I really need that alone time in the bath with the bubbles and the cucumber slices, you know.

If you're Marcos, perhaps, you know, that's how he does care of self-profit.

But you know, and all these people on the ride, it seems more of this self-centeredness in this way.

And so it's more that.

That is not what Scripture talks about or what I'm talking about when I say we need to care for ourselves.

Scripture, when it talks about self-care, is making sure that we are right before God, that we are living righteous lives.

Jesus first starts us off in Matthew.

All right, in Matthew chapter five, I'm sorry, chapter seven, um, right during the Sermon on the Mount, and he says this, as he's talking to these people, he's given this sermon, and then he breaks into this one point and he talks about self-care, right?

And he says, Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and you pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

How can you say to your brother, Let me take the speck out of your eye, when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?

You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, then you will see clearly, and to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

See, if we're going to care for ourselves, we need to examine our own life and make sure that we are living righteously before God.

Before we get into help other people in our family, in the church, in other ministries, we need to make sure we are living in the right way that we should be, in a righteous way.

Paul also talks about this in 1 Corinthians chapter 11.

1 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

When he talks about communion, he actually says, everyone ought to examine themselves before the eat of the bread and drink from the cup.

Again, we're supposed to examine ourselves before, and this is on a spiritual level.

Now, Jesus teaches his disciples also to make sure they're caring for their needs as they're ministering to other people.

There's this point where Jesus takes his disciples, right, and he sends them out in Mark chapter 6.

Mark 6 · chapter mention

And he takes the disciples and he sends them out.

He goes, and okay, you guys are going to do ministry.

Go by twos, go out into the world, cast out demons, pray for, you know, heal the sick, do all the things you see me do.

And so the disciples go out and they come back and they're so excited, they're overjoyed to tell them.

They're pumped up, they're flying high.

Like, we can't wait to tell you what we did.

And the apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to them all they had done and taught.

Then, because so many people were coming, they did not even get a chance to eat.

And so they're doing this ministry, and all these great things are happening, and all these people want more from the disciples.

And what does Jesus say?

He didn't say, Look, there's more opportunities.

Keep going.

He says to them, Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.

There is this relationship between our spiritual needs and our physical needs that is very real.

And sometimes we need to make sure we can minister to other people that our physical needs, not our spoiling and that cucumber bath that Marcos needs, right?

Not necessarily that, but our basic needs are met.

I don't know who I'm going to pick on tomorrow.

You've got to come to both services, dude, right?

So but we need to care for ourselves in that way so that we can take care of others.

And Jesus says the exact same thing, right?

When he talks to the people, he says, or his disciples, he tells them, I am the vine, you are the branches.

Apart from me, you can do nothing.

Now, we are the branches, and we're supposed to be connected to Jesus, not just so we're connected to Jesus, all this is wonderful, but why?

So we can bear much fruit, so we can minister to other people.

So we need to care first for ourselves and make sure that we are connected to Him and that we are living in a righteous way.

Once we do that, we first have an obligation.

After we care and make sure that we are right with God ourselves, our next obligation, we need to help our families.

It is a very real necessity that your first ministry is to your family.

Because that is what God established in Genesis.

He said, for this reason, a husband or a man will leave his mother and father and cling to his wife.

This is what he established the family for.

And again, we see it all over Scripture.

In fact, in 1 Timothy, in our scripture today, verse 4, it says, But if widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family.

So repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God.

And we have that, but we have the Genesis.

Also, we have the Ten Commandments.

One of the commandments is obey your mother and father.

Your first ministry is to your parents when you're a kid.

And then in Ephesians and Colossians, we talk about the family not provoking our kids to anger, but instead raising them up in the way of God.

Proverbs, so many different scriptures about how we're supposed to raise and minister to our children.

And then also in chapter 5 that we're in now, but also in verse 8, says, anyone who does not provide for their relatives and especially for their own household has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Oh.

Yeah, if you're not saying, wow, if you're not checking yourself, you might want to check your pulse or reread this, right?

Because this is very harsh, brutal language to make us open our eyes, to sit up straight and go, okay, wait a minute.

I want to make sure I'm living the right way, and first of all, taking care of my first ministry.

So before we ask the church to take care of our family, we need to make sure we're taking care of our family.

Before we teach our kids or let them go to Sunday school, okay, go learn about these things.

We need to make sure that we are teaching our student our kids and our students.

And so we need to take care of these things, take care of our families, widows, teaching our kids, instructing them in the Lord.

So after we've made sure that we're walking righteously with God, caring for ourselves, and then we need to take care of our families, then we take care of the church.

Then we take care of that.

Now, this care for one another is throughout the New Testament.

There's over 50 scriptures, closer to 60 scriptures in the New Testament, that are talking about one another, things that we should do for each other.

We should love one another, care for one another, forgive one another, welcome one another, greet one another, grow one another, or with one another, encourage, correct, admonish, speak truth to one another, serve one another.

I mean, we could go through the whole list, but that's a couple sermons, right?

If you do want that list, I printed some out, and if you want a list of those scriptures to study, that's we're wanting you to do that because that's how we care and how we build up the church to what it's supposed to be is caring for one another's.

All right, caring for one another.

And this is also what we're trying to do and achieve through the home groups that we've started.

Now, home groups, of course, are nothing new.

They've been going on forever.

But we just started them fresh at our church, and those are getting going.

And if you haven't got connected and you're interested, as you exit today, there's a list on the wall of the four current home groups that are started.

And so if they're open, if you guys want to join one of those, there's contact information, there's areas like where you can go or where they're located.

If you're looking for one close to your house on a certain day, um, there's one if you're a young family, you've got young kids, and you want to be a part of that one with other young families.

Fantastic.

You know, and so there are different ones out there.

Go check it out, be a part of that.

And if you look through there and you're like, ah, none of these really fit, then start one, right?

Come talk to me about how you guys can get started with one.

Because we would love to see each one of us in one another's lives so that we can be ministering to one another.

Because that's what we are called to do.

So again, that list is straight out the door on the right.

If you have questions, let me hang it out afterwards.

But this is what we're called to do.

And this is what Paul says within this scripture is that we are to care for these things, right?

For ourselves, care for others, our family, and then care for the church.

For you, maybe you're kind of been hanging around the edge of this religious thing or this Jesus thing, and you're kind of like, okay, I'm not sure.

I kind of believe in God, but I don't know.

And you need to take that step and say, okay, this ministry, this group of caring for one another is something I want in on.

And so for you, maybe you need to take that step and say, you know what, Jesus, tonight's the night that I choose to follow you and start to care for one another and be part of that.

Or maybe for you, you've had people that you've been neglecting.

As you read through these scriptures, you go, you know what?

I am not.

I'm more that verse eight where I haven't been living up to what God has called me to do.

And you need to repent and care for somebody that you haven't been caring for.

Or maybe you've been caring for somebody and you're you're following God, but you're doing it with grumbling and complaining.

And you're like, okay, I guess I'm gonna keep doing this.

They can keep living with me.

And you need to change and repent from that and do it with a joyful heart and start living the way that God has called us to do.

Because God called us to care for ourselves, but care for our church or for our family and our church, but to do it in the same way that we do widows and orphans, that we are do it with proper respect and a pure attitude.

Making sure that we ourselves are first connected to God and then caring for those other people, for our families and those people around us.

Let's pray and we'll be worshiping.

God, as we take this message, this uh this scripture, Lord, I pray that we can take it to heart, that we can put into action your words, Lord.

That we can care for those who can't forgive for themselves.

That our heart matches yours for the for the fatherless, for the widows, for the sojourners among us.

As we worship you, Lord, let our mind and our our thoughts be completely focused on you.

And it's your son's name that we pray.

Amen.