In 1 Timothy 5:1–8, Paul moves into practical instructions for how Christians should live together. He talks about treating one another as family, speaking with respect and honesty, caring for widows, and balancing our responsibilities to our families with our responsibility to the wider community. Today we explore the idea that our theology should affect how we live together. What we believe about God should show up in how we speak, how we disagree, how we care for one another, and how we carry one another’s burdens.
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Good morning, friends. It’s good to be with you on this Friday morning. I hope you’re doing well, and I hope you’ve got some big plans for the weekend.
It’s a big weekend here in Starkville. State and Alabama are playing, so I think the SEC Network is coming to town. It’s going to be an 11:00 kickoff, so I hope you’re making your plans to come up to Stark Vegas and be part of all the fun happening around here.
And if you are planning to come to Starkville this weekend for the ball game, like I said last weekend, make plans to stay and worship with us at First United Methodist Church.
We had a great Sunday last Sunday, and we’ve got another great Sunday planned. I’m excited about what God is doing here at First Church.
So if you’re coming to Starkville for the ball game, bring your church clothes, stay the night, and make plans to worship with us at 10:00 on Sunday morning.
Starkville First, right downtown, right in the heart of downtown. Just come on down, and there we are.
We’d love to have you with us.
Today we’re starting 1 Timothy chapter 5. It’s a longer chapter, but it breaks up really well. So even though my Bible doesn’t necessarily divide it into all the sections we’re going to use, I’m going to break it up.
Today we’re going to look at verses 1 through 8. Monday we’ll look at verses 9 through 16, and then we’ll keep going from there.
Paul says:
“Do not speak harshly to an older man, but speak to him as to a father; to younger men as brothers, to older women as mothers, to younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.”
Then he moves into a discussion about widows and the responsibility of families and the church to care for one another.
Paul has given Timothy a lot of instructions so far.
Teach this.
Stay away from that.
Act this way.
Don’t act that way.
And chapter 5 is really practical.
That’s actually a pattern you see throughout Paul’s letters.
I made this joke in Bible study the other night, but it’s actually pretty true. Paul has a pattern.
First, he introduces himself: “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ.”
Sometimes he spends a little time defending his apostleship.
Then comes the second part: some wonderful theological statement or beautiful word of praise about God and God’s work.
And then comes part three.
Some correction.
Some practical instruction.
Usually a little fussing.
I saw a meme once that basically summarized it as, “I’m asking you, for all that is holy in the world, for five minutes, just act like you have some sense.”
And then, of course, part four is the greetings at the end.
“Timothy says hello.”
“Greet everybody for me.”
So we’re moving into the practical part of Paul’s letter.
And I think there’s something really important about that.
Our theology should affect how we live together.
What we believe should show up in how we treat one another.
Our theology can’t simply be something we believe in our heads. It has to affect how we speak to one another, how we work together, how we disagree, how we care for one another, and how we live together.
If our theology doesn’t affect our life together, then we have to ask ourselves whether we really believe our theology.
Because what we believe is ultimately demonstrated by how we act.
So Paul begins by talking about how we speak to each other.
Treat older men like fathers.
Treat younger men like brothers.
Older women like mothers.
Younger women like sisters.
In other words, how we speak to each other matters.
And I think that’s incredibly important in the life of the church.
We should speak kindly to one another.
But I don’t think “kindly” is the only word that matters.
We should also speak honestly.
And honestly, with love.
Speaking honestly doesn’t mean that we paper over every conflict.
Sometimes churches become unhealthy because nobody is willing to say, “Hey, we disagree about this.”
There may be theological disagreements.
There may be practical disagreements.
There may be things happening in the life of the church that aren’t working well.
And it can actually be unhealthy if we refuse to acknowledge those things.
So treating each other like family doesn’t mean that we pretend everything is always wonderful.
Families disagree.
Families have hard conversations.
Families have conflict.
But healthy families learn how to have those conversations with honesty, love, respect, and care.
That’s what I think Paul is calling us to do in the church.
And then he turns to widows.
Widows are an interesting part of the life of the early church.
You may remember in Acts that one of the early conflicts in the church involved widows not receiving the food and care they needed.
In this particular passage, Paul is talking about widows who have no other support.
If a widow has children or grandchildren, Paul says that the family has a responsibility to care for her.
But if someone is truly alone, without family or other support, then the church is called to step in and care for her.
And I think there’s an important principle here.
The church has a responsibility to care for people who are vulnerable.
But individuals and families also have responsibilities.
We have responsibilities to one another.
I think one of my primary responsibilities as a Christian is to care for my family—to care for my wife, to care for my children, to support them and make sure that they are taken care of.
But that’s not the end of my responsibility.
Once I’ve cared for my family, I’m called to care for others.
It’s not either/or.
It’s both/and.
Sometimes I’ve heard people say, “Well, we just need to take care of our own families.”
No.
That’s not the whole Christian story.
We’re also called to love our neighbors. We’re called to care for people beyond our immediate circle. We’re called to be like the Good Samaritan and see the needs of people around us.
But there is also a responsibility to our families.
And I think Paul gives us a healthy balance here.
We care for our families.
We care for our church.
We care for our neighbors.
We care for the people God places in our lives.
And here’s the other thing: there may come a time when I can’t take care of myself or my family.
There may come a time when I need the church.
There may come a time when I need my friends.
There may come a time when I need someone else to help take care of me.
And I want to be part of a community where we do that for one another.
Paul tells us elsewhere to bear our own burdens and to bear one another’s burdens.
We’re called to take responsibility for ourselves as much as we’re able, so that we can also help carry the burdens of other people.
Because eventually, every one of us is going to have a season when we can’t carry everything ourselves.
And when that time comes, we need one another.
So I think there’s a really beautiful picture of Christian community here.
Take care of your family.
Take care of one another.
Take care of the church.
Take care of your neighbors.
Speak to one another with honesty.
Speak with love.
Speak with respect.
And live out what you believe.
Because our theology should show up in the way we live together.
We’ll continue looking at Paul’s instructions for how we live together next week.
Thanks for being with us today.
And again, if you’re coming to Starkville this weekend for the ball game, come see us at First United Methodist Church on Sunday morning at 10:00.
Have a great weekend, friends.
See ya.