Page 57 - Pastoral Epistles I & 2 Timothy, Titus

1 Timothy 5:1-2.

1 Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger
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men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.
We need to remember that the church is sometimes referred to as “a
family.” In the church family, we have mothers and fathers and brothers
and sisters and grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins. As leaders,
we should not be insensible but instead, we should be caring. We should
treat our older people with respect, gentleness, and affection. We should
interact with people of the opposite sex with self-control and purity, and we
should love each other in the way that God intends for us to love each
other. And yet we are not to look the other way when someone in the church needs correcting.

What does Paul means with the phrase absolute purity?
1 Timothy 5:2.

Is there such a thing as purity without it being absolute purity? Is it possible to be only
partially pure?

1 Timothy 5:3-16.

God always cares for the down-and-outers. God has a special place in his heart for poor people and people who
are not easily accepted in the community. He has established certain structures – the church and the family – to
provide help and compassion for those who are left alone. But each church and each family has specific
responsibilities for how they handle God’s resources and distribute those resources to people in need.
Just because someone has a need does not mean the church must help.

Just because there are widows, does it mean the church has a responsibility to care for them?
What other criteria does Paul mention? V9-10.

For widows who are really in need, we have a responsibility to personally care for our parents and grandparents.
In Western cultures, this is not accepted by everyone. Most parents and grandparents do not live with their
children, as they do in many eastern cultures. Westerners tend to rely on government programs. What is your
experience?

V5-6. Worthy and unworthy widows.
 Puts her hope in God.
 Prays night and day for help.

 Unworthy widows live for pleasure.
V7-8. Christian obligation.

8 Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has
denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
If a widow has living relatives who are believers and they neglect to care for her, the church is not simply to pick
up the slack and assume the family’s responsibility. The first thing the church should do is to correct the family
and hold it accountable for its lack of love and the way its actions are hurting the reputation of the church.

They are acting worse than an unbeliever.
V9-10. Qualifications.

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