60IN60 Day 24 - Wed Sept 25

It's Day 24 and we're in 1 Timothy 5.

One reason to be in the Bible regularly? It provides the answers to life's most pressing questions: "Why am I here?" "What value does my life have?" "What does God want out of me?" "What does a life well spent look like?" For all the time we spend daily on trivial things, it's essential that we spend some time on the big questions.

 

Where God Spoke To Me:

- Verse 22 - We bear part of the responsibility when we put the wrong people in leadership positions. That's one reason we need to be careful and prayerful about those choices.

Help:

- Verse 9 - There was a list of widows who received financial help from the church and Paul is here talking about the requirements for being on that list.

- Verse 12 - "previous pledge" - Apparently getting on this list involved taking a pledge, perhaps to devote yourself to more prayer or something like that.

- Verse 23 - Timothy had some medical problems and Paul advises him to use a little wine to help with that.

If you want to read the chapter online, here's a link.

If you have a question or comment, email me at butcher@ymail.com.

Your Questions and Comments:

- "1 Timothy 2:12/1 Timothy 1:11 - I see these verses used by what you might call the 'Christian Pharisees' to discriminate against others and push them away from the church. However, it seems that these words of Paul are not consistent with the core teachings of Jesus: Love, Acceptance, and Equality. What should we make of this, and how can we be proactive when faced with the challenge of others abusing this scripture?" - That's a big question. I'll try to summarize the major contours of the issue briefly.

a. When facing the challenging teaching of 1 Timothy 2:12, there have been a few different approaches. Some have said it literally means what it says and it should be obeyed in that way. Others argue that often in Paul's letters he is addressing specific situations within the churches of his time and that instruction was for that moment and not mandated for all churches of all times to literally obey. (An example of this is Romans 16:16, where Paul instructs the Romans to greet one another with a "holy kiss." You may have noticed most churches today aren't greeting each other with a kiss on the cheek.)

b. A second issue at play here is the role of women in the church. Some Christians interpret the New Testament teaching in a way that is called "egalitarianism." That is, men and women are completely equal and are free to fill any roles in the church (i.e., for instance, it's ok to have women preachers). Others believe in what is called "complementarianism," which is that men and women are of equal value spiritually but have been called to different and complementary roles. Those believing that would argue, for instance, that the role of pastor is limited to men. There has been a lot of debate about this issue over the last 50 years.

c. Third, what was the specific problem here? Many argue the issue was that the women in the particular church Timothy was dealing with were being contentious and his instruction is not that they are not to say a single word ever in church (I don't know a single church that argues that) but that they weren't to cause problems.

d. You are right that this is a verse that can easily be abused and misused. I think the biggest safeguard against that is that we should not focus on one single verse but we should read the New Testament as a whole and bring all the relevant verses together in a way that provides a complete picture. We can get in trouble when someone just focuses on one verse and then doubles-down on that without looking at the rest of Scripture. Scripture helps us interpret Scripture.

As I said, this is a brief summary to a question that could easily have a book-length answer. I'd be happy to provide additional resources for those interested in studying deeper.

- "1 Timothy 4:3 - Is this implying that something like vegetarianism is bad?" - No. Back in Paul's day there were people who were trying to add conditions and requirements onto salvation. One example were the Judaizers, who believed you needed to believe in Jesus AND follow the Old Testament Mosaic Law to be saved. That's troubling because it's adding to the simple plan of salvation.

In this verse, there were people who were arguing that you couldn't be saved if you were married, so they were forbidding people to marry. There were others who were arguing that you had to abstain from certain foods (and of course they made that list) in order to be saved. We read something similar elsewhere in the New Testament when Paul talks about people who argued that the Christians of that day couldn't eat food sacrificed to idols or they'd be in spiritual danger.

So the point is not that vegetarianism (or something similar) is bad. Rather, it's that adding conditions to salvation (like, you can't eat certain things) is bad.