In today’s reflection, Andy looks at 1 Timothy 5:17–25 and Paul’s advice about church leadership, ordination, spiritual formation, and integrity. Andy reflects on why the church should not ordain people hastily and why the formation of a minister’s character is ultimately more important than the public skills of preaching, teaching, or leadership. He also shares personally about the sacredness of ministry, the generosity of God’s people, and the responsibility of receiving income that comes from people’s acts of worship. Ultimately, this passage reminds us that talent should never outpace integrity and that faithful ministry is formed in the quiet work of prayer, accountability, mentorship, and spiritual growth.
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Good morning. It’s good to be with you on this Tuesday morning. I hope you are well today and that your week has started off well.
It’s great to be with you as we continue our time in 1 Timothy. We’ve broken chapter 5 up into several sections, and today we’re going to finish out chapter 5. Tomorrow we’re going to look at one of the more challenging parts of 1 Timothy. There are a couple of challenging passages in this letter, especially when Paul talks about women, which you can go back and read if you want to. Tomorrow we’ll talk about what Paul says about slavery, and there’s a lot to unpack there.
But today, we’re going to finish chapter 5 as Paul talks about elders and those who lead the church. So let’s read 1 Timothy 5:17–25.
“Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching; for the scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,’ and, ‘The laborer deserves to be paid.’
“Never accept an accusation against an elder on the evidence of two or three witnesses. As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear.
“In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels, I warn you to keep these instructions without prejudice, doing nothing on the basis of partiality. Do not ordain anyone hastily, and do not participate in the sins of others; keep yourself pure.
“No longer drink only water, but take a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.
“The sins of some people are conspicuous and go before them to judgment, while the sins of others follow them there. So also good works are conspicuous, and even when they are not, they cannot remain hidden.”
There’s just some general counsel here that Paul gives Timothy, and then we get this interesting little verse in verse 23: “No longer drink only water, but take a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.”
I don’t want to delve too deeply into all the biblical stuff about alcohol, but the people of that day knew that wine had certain medicinal properties. They didn’t necessarily understand why it worked. They just knew that it helped.
One of the great examples is the story of the Good Samaritan. The Samaritan finds the man on the side of the road who has been beaten and injured, and he pours oil and wine on his wounds. They didn’t understand everything about germs and infection the way we do today, but the alcohol in the wine could help kill bacteria and clean the wounds.
Apparently Timothy had some stomach problems. As somebody who has some stomach issues myself, I understand that when your stomach is hurting, life is no fun. So Paul is giving Timothy a little medical advice: “Hey, maybe drinking only water isn’t helping you. Take a little wine for your stomach.”
John Wesley actually wrote a book of ailments and home remedies called Primitive Physick. He drew on some of the medical knowledge of his time and offered various home remedies. So there’s a little connection here between Paul saying, “Hey, Timothy, do this for your stomach,” and Wesley later offering practical remedies for people in his own day.
But then Paul gets into something that I think is really important. He says that the sins of some people are obvious, while the sins of others follow them. The same thing is true of good works. Our lives eventually reveal who we are.
And then there’s this verse that really catches my attention:
“Do not ordain anyone hastily.”
And then he says, “Do not participate in the sins of others.”
In other words, just because somebody else is doing something doesn’t mean you should do it too. As our parents used to say, “If someone jumped off a bridge, would you jump off too?”
No. You don’t just follow somebody because they’re doing something.
And I really appreciate what Paul says about ordination: “Do not ordain anyone hastily.”
I was talking with someone one time about ordination in our connection as United Methodists. I told them that, from the time you start the process—really, if you start the process before you even enter seminary—it can be at least six or seven years before you are ordained, and probably longer depending on when you accepted the call.
Even after you finish seminary, in our tradition it is a minimum of three more years, and it can be as many as five years before you are ordained.
And you know what?
That’s a long time.
And it should be a long time.
I used to sit on our conference Board of Ordained Ministry, the group that helps approve people for ordination, and I really believe it should take a while.
If the church is entrusting you with the care of other people’s souls, that should be something that takes time.
Not just for your education, although obviously education is important. But for your spiritual formation.
You need to be formed by the church. You need to be formed to lead, to pray, to preach, to care for people. And preaching is important. It really is.
But to me, as a pastor, spiritual formation and maturity take precedence over the skills—the things you see, the public parts of ministry.
Today, everybody sees the preaching. Everybody sees the videos. Everybody sees the podcasts. Everybody sees the public parts of ministry.
But honestly, that’s not the vital formation of ministry.
The vital formation of ministry is the quiet formation that comes through prayer and study, accountability, mentorship, coaching, and relationships with people who are willing to speak truth into your life.
And those things don’t stop when you’re ordained.
I’m still being formed in the same way I was when I was going through the ordination process.
I was ordained in 2006, so this is my twentieth year in ordained ministry. And I’m thankful for it. But I’m still being spiritually formed by mentors in many of the same ways I was when I was going through the ordination process.
And it should be that way.
Don’t ordain anyone hastily.
If you’re in ministry, or if you’re entering the ministry, you shouldn’t be afraid of people testing your call. Bishop Swanson told us years ago, “When someone questions your call, that’s an opportunity for you to explain your call story.”
And I think that’s exactly right.
We should be tested.
People should ask us questions. People should lean into our calling. People should make sure that what we say we are called to do is actually being lived out in our lives.
Because Paul says, “Do not ordain anyone hastily.”
Then he talks about those who lead being worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.
He says, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The laborer deserves to be paid.”
I’m not going to say too much about that from my own perspective because, as a pastor, I don’t really want to spend a lot of time talking about my salary or things like that.
My dad was a truck driver.
I’m doing okay.
I’m very thankful. I’m very thankful for the life that my churches have afforded me, and I’m incredibly thankful for the generosity of God’s people.
But I’ll tell you something that I share with my staff, and I think about this a lot.
I take very seriously the sacredness of ministry.
And I understand that every dollar I’ve ever been paid by the church—whether it’s my salary as a pastor or an honorarium for speaking somewhere—is sacred.
Why?
Because it was the gift of someone’s worship.
Someone gave their tithe and offerings to the church as an act of worship. And those gifts are what pay the salaries of the clergy and the staff.
So I try to impress upon my staff not only the sacredness of our task, which is incredibly sacred, but also the sacredness of our income.
The dollars that we receive are sacred because they were given by the people of God as an act of worship.
So when I read this passage as a pastor, it humbles me.
It really does.
I’m humbled by the faithfulness of God’s people and by the grace that God’s people have shown to me throughout my years of ministry.
I’ve been under appointment since 1999. I was preaching before I was ordained. And I am so humbled—so humbled—by the goodness of God’s people who have allowed me to serve them.
It’s humbling to come to you each morning and spend this time in reflection.
So thank you for allowing me to do it.
Paul tells Timothy that our ministers should be tested and tried.
They should be.
And we as ministers shouldn’t feel bad about that.
And if you’re a layperson, you should want your clergy to be tested.
You should want your clergy to be people of integrity.
There was a podcast a few years ago about a pastor who essentially imploded, and there was a line from that podcast that has stuck with me ever since. It said:
“His talent outpaced his integrity.”
That has always stayed with me.
I want to make sure that my integrity always goes first.
Because the public parts of ministry—the preaching, the teaching, the podcasting, the videos—those things are important.
But they are not the foundation.
The foundation is who we are when nobody is watching.
It’s the quiet work of prayer.
It’s the spiritual formation.
It’s accountability.
It’s integrity.
It’s becoming the kind of person who can be trusted with the care of other people’s souls.
So Paul’s words to Timothy are good words for all of us: don’t ordain anyone hastily, don’t participate in the sins of others, and make sure that your life is being formed in such a way that your character can carry the weight of your calling.
Thanks for being with me today. Tomorrow we’ll pick up one of the more challenging parts of 1 Timothy, when Paul talks about slavery.
There’s a lot to unpack there, so we’ll spend some time talking about it.
Thanks for being with me. Have a great day, and I’ll see you in the morning.