Do NOT ignore needs in God's Church! 1 Timothy 5:3-8, part I

Frankly, when I’m with people from church, I don’t mentally process things before I say them.  I just say them.  They talk; I react. 

Sure, maybe there will be a little consideration of what I say before I say it.  But, I think if we’re honest, it’s very little.  And I think if we’re honest, when we consider how we treat people, even in the Church, it’s rarely on the basis of the Gospel. 

The Scripture we’re about to look at has to do specifically with how to treat widows in God’s Church.  And this is a subject we need to know about.  However, this passage also gets at the heart of how we treat people who are in hard circumstances. 

It’s easy to feel compassion on people in hard circumstances.  Yet, this passage goes beyond mere compassion. 

We are to treat Christians in hard circumstances in light of the Gospel. 

Honor widows who are truly widows.  But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God. 

            She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day; but she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives. 

            Command these things as well, so that they may be without reproach.  But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. 

This is a situation within God’s Church – God’s household.  Everyone involved has been brought together by the good news about Jesus rising from the dead – and salvation in him.  God has united this group as a family.  He has loved us, and expects his children to treat each other like he treats them, for his glory. 

And hard things have happened.  In that culture, widows were fairly helpless.  They couldn’t just get a job and take care of themselves!  They were financially lost if they had no husband. 

Sin exists in the world and it has brought with it death and suffering.  We can ignore those realities, or we can deal with them. 

And Timothy, the Pastor, is commanded to deal with them and to give commands to the Church regarding their care!  “Honor widows who are truly widows” – meaning take care of them - v. 4.  “Command these things” – v. 7.  This is the family of God – let us love who God loves.  We are not permitted to ignore our siblings in need and in pain. 

Yet, we must, in love, evaluate each specific situation.  We’re not allowed to be intellectually lazy or to make default choices. 

First, Pastor Timothy is told to evaluate whether the widow in question has family members that can take care of her. 

 If you’re like me, your instant thought is, of course – if someone can be off church assistance, that’s best for the budget!  But that’s not what Paul has in mind here at all. 

The heart of the issue is

1)  That children show godliness, that is, act like God and glorify him

2)  That children make a ‘return’ to their parents, honoring their position and authority – a thing that God has granted and used for their good

3)  That God be the ultimate object of this – it’s for his pleasure, not ours

4)  That Christians confirm the Gospel in how they live – you can’t claim to love God and not love your neighbor – especially those closest to you – in your own house! 

Here’s the situation in a nutshell –

A person, in this case, a widow, is in grave need. 

Her closest relatives, if believers, are to be motivated by the Gospel.  They are free in Christ from sin and from this world.  They are loved by God and now love others – especially those closest to them.  And they are to show God’s love by physical care for their relatives – for the glory and pleasure of God. 

If there aren’t believing relatives, though, the Church as a whole – as the family of God, as those adopted in Christ – must glorify God by taking care of those who are hurting. 

The widows themselves are to be evaluated as per their particular needs, however.  That, next time, God willing.  

For now, let’s consider a few questions. 

1)  Do I take action on needs I see in God’s family? 

2)  Do I consider what the Gospel would imply that I do within God’s family? 

3)  Do I care for my own family for the sake of the glory of God? 

Father, I do not love like I should.  I think too highly of myself, and I think too much about myself and my needs and wants and happiness.  But that is not demonstrating the love of Christ, and I’m sorry. 

            Thank you that Christ loved us and gave himself for us – and that in him, you’ve adopted us and given us a certain inheritance. 

            In light of that promise, cause us to walk in a way like Jesus did, in love, so that you will be glorified, and the Gospel will be lifted high for the salvation of all your people. 

            In Christ I pray, amen.  

DA Carson on Deeds of Mercy and The Gospel

Presbyterian post tomorrow, God willing, I'm tired.

But for now - DA Carson, NT professor of awesome, notes two things in answer to this question:

"Granted that we ought to be engaged in acts of mercy, what safeguards can be set in place so as to minimize the risk that the deeds of mercy will finally swamp the proclamation of the gospel and the passionate desire to see men and women reconciled to God by faith in Christ Jesus and his atoning death and resurrection?"

The two are...

"First, it is helpful to distinguish between the responsibilities of the church qua church and the responsibilities of Christians. Some writers flip back and forth between references to "Christians" and references to "church" as if there is no difference whatsoever. But many Christian thinkers, from Kuyperians to Baptists, have argued that if the church qua church is responsible for some of these substantial works of mercy, such works of mercy ought to come under the leaders of the church. It is very difficult to find any warrant for that step in the New Testament. Even before there were pastors/elders/overseers, the apostles themselves, according to Acts, recognized that they should not be diverted from the ministry of the Word and prayer, even by the inequities of food distribution among the faithful, so they saw to it that others were appointed to tackle the problem. Ministers of the gospel ought so to be teaching the Bible in all its comprehensiveness that they will be raising up believers with many different avenues of service, but they themselves must not become so embroiled in such multiplying ministries that their ministries of evangelism, Bible teaching, making disciples, instructing, baptizing, and the like, somehow get squeezed to the periphery and take on a purely formal veneer.

Second, one pastor astutely urged, "Preach hell." Two things follow from this. (1) By adopting this priority we remind ourselves that as Christians we desire to relieve all suffering, from the temporal to the eternal. If we do not maintain such a panoramic vision, the relief of immediate suffering, as important as it is, may so command our focus that we fail to remind ourselves of Jesus' rhetorical question, "What good will it be for you to gain the whole world yet forfeit your soul?" Read the closing lines of Revelation 14 and Revelation 20 when your vision becomes myopic. (2) As long as you are prepared to plead with men and women to be reconciled to God and to flee the coming wrath, you are preserving something that is central in the Bible, something that is intimately and irrefragably tied to the gospel itself—and those who want to shunt such themes aside and focus only on the relief of present suffering will not want to have much to do with you. Thus you will be free to preach and teach the whole counsel of God and to relieve all suffering, temporal and eternal, without being drawn into endless alliances in which people never focus on anything beyond threescore years and ten."

Social justice is just alright.

There's been a lot of talk about social justice recently within Evangelical Christian circles. Notably, a lot of this talk has come from people who are - or lean - to being Reformed, theologically speaking.

I think that's in large part a good thing. If we just look at the commands of our Lord, we see an intensity in his commands regarding taking care of peoples' physical needs. And these folks - the ones who are often touting the need for social action on the behalf of Christians - are often talking about it in the context of seeing people hear about and submit to Jesus.

That's good.

Here's the bad - social justice is often talked about as if it is part of how the Kingdom of God is expanding. It's not. The Kingdom is in no way physical now. Look here.

The Kingdom is the reign of Jesus as sovereign Lord of the universe. And he reigns in souls. That reign affects the outside world - but homeless shelters will be destroyed when Jesus comes back. So will soup kitchens. So will houses you've built for the poor.

Those things are good. And they are some effects of the Kingdom. But they are not the Kingdom.

Now... is this just semantic, theological nit-picking? No. Here's why. The poor, oppressed people that you help do not enter the Kingdom without hearing and believing the Gospel. They get judged by it. The don't enter the Kingdom of Heaven; they enter hell.

Taking care of the poor is good. It's the effects of the Kingdom. Or in normal language, it's merely obeying the King's laws. But the Kingdom is only expanded by Jesus' actions, through the Holy Spirit's activity in the preaching of the gospel, in the unseen souls of people.

And one day that faith will be SIGHT! And those of us in Christ will have what we wait for.

Look here.