December 14 - 1 Timothy 3:1-6:10

Good morning everyone,

In chapter 1 Paul talked about the the church and her message. Chapters 2-3 the members of the church. In chapter 4 the church and her ministry. Today in chapter 5, Paul addresses the church family, widows in particular. He starts by saying, “Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father.” You will remember Timothy was young and sometimes young men, women too, can get a little bit cocky with the power they have, feeling as if they know it all. I mean really, remembering back to your twenties ( kind of hard for me) who of us did not “know it all?” It was only with the passing of years, walking through life with the Lord, that we realized we don’t have all the answers. We are not as smart as we were back then. :-) Paul didn’t want Timothy to to go there but instead show the respect to the older men, perhaps they had something to teach the young buck.

Paul also wanted the Christian families to be as self-supporting as possible. He was quite insistent that the children and grandchildren take care of the elderly and especially the widows. There was no social security, no pensions, no life insurance and remember this was a society where there were very few jobs for women. Paul stressed the importance of each family caring for the needs of it’s own when at all possible leaving the resources for the church to take care of those widows who had no family to help with their care. 

We should learn from this. We should all have enough love in our hearts to care for our senior citizen parents, grandparents and even aunts and uncles. Those who spent so many years, countless hours taking care of us when we were young. Use your mind’s eye to look back on how much time and energy you yourself put into your children and grandchildren; how many diapers you changed, meals you made, homework you helped with, clothing you bought them, well these elderly folks did the same and more for you and for me and now it is their turn to be taken care of. Consider it an honor to do so. Right on?

Just real quick here , 6:10 says, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” Money in and of itself is not evil. It is greed, the want of more and more that is the killer. If God has allowed you to be in a position in life where you can have a ton of money, that’s awesome, but know this ….. are you listening? Money does not, I repeat, does not bring happiness! You see more suicides, more depression more discontent in the wealthy society then in those who depend on the Lord for their next meal. I won’t bore you with the statistics but it’s true. The Bible tells us, “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.” 

What ever station God has you in life be content and do your very best in it. It is amazing the work God will do through you when you just rest and joyful in where He has you. Amen?

Have a great day and to God be the glory.

God bless you all …..