First Timothy lesson 27 end, 28 begin
1 Timothy · Mike Doyle · Aug 17, 2025
1 Timothy, No. 79
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261940327500

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

All right, let's finish up chapter 27. And just a couple of things here. Verse, did I say 27, is that right? Yeah. I'm sorry, lesson 27. So what we've been talking about is, reasons why women cannot be put on the list of widows who need help from the church. And we've talked about age and all these other things. And now in question five it says, why is feeling sensual desire a reason for not being on the list? Or as King James uses the word, wax wanton, like we know what that means. It could be because of faith in their desire. Yeah, it has to do with the impulse of sexual desire.

In the New American, in disregard of Christ, So it's basically the focus is not on Christ at that point. So they're not focusing on their spiritual life or anything. They're more in desire for a man. Yeah. They've lost their first faith. Isn't that what King James said? I would say that having the assault of the desire is not the problem. That's what you do with it once it's there. And so if it gets in the way of the service of the Lord that being a widow supported by the church requires, then you are disqualified. So it's not, you know. And it's interesting. It's left up to the woman. How do you know? Left up to the woman, how do you know that A 60-year-old woman has sexual desires. Unless she says something, how do you know?

So, how does this incur damnation? Now, this is a really, I ask this question on purpose because I wanted to point out the fact that the word damnation, krimah, It really means judgment. And it's one of those words that the King James and others would, the meaning of which, the meaning of which would at one time in history would mean one thing and today means a different thing. So they're not gonna be condemned in the sense that they're gonna lose their salvation and condemned to hell. But there's no sense here of future punishment.

See that? An example of obsolete word in the authorized version that just shows, but what really goes on here is the fact that they would incur judgment. And so the last question is, has to do with their previous pledge. What do they do to incur judgment? Well, let's make it simple. What was their first pledge? Okay. And then, so they break that pledge. Yeah. And so, They made a pledge to devote themselves to the Lord Jesus after they had become widows in the service of Christ in the church. That was their intent.

But when they got there, these wanton desires or sexual desires began to influence them. Now that doesn't mean that if you make a pledge to the Lord that you're not going to have temptation, because you are. I don't care what it is. You know, the fiery darts don't ever stop coming.

But they began to lean away from their initial, I'd use the word, commitment to Christ. And so when they do, How do I say this? Their first pledge was by faith, right? Now what motivates them? The other F word, feeling. Yeah, yeah. Motivates by feeling.

So question seven, what is their previous pledge? They pledged the Greek word is pistis, P-I-S-T-I-S, which means faith. which is normally translated faith. And if they marry again against Christ, they are practically denying the faith that they placed in him. So, last question.

Does that mean if you change your mind about something, you're in trouble? I mean, you, What I find with the Lord is if you go to Him and you say, well, I think the Word of God is calling me for X. Okay, I'm in. And then you change your mind 10 years later because of feeling or emotion. God still holds you to the first one. There are consequences. Yeah, there is. It's, let's say that the circumstance here is that this woman who made a pledge to Christ gets married. Gonna have a tough time having a happy marriage. Has a tough time what? Having a happy marriage. See that? Pretty, it's a... It's double-mindedness. Yeah, double-mindedness.

When you, well, it's like if you were a believer, you became a believer, and then through circumstances, you just sort of drift away. Your life is not gonna be very much fun. There are consequences for that. You're still a believer, you're still gonna be with the Lord, but boy, the blessing you're gonna miss is amazing. That's more just because in relation to the context of this section, is that she was put on the list and now she's now the feelings have drifted her off from all the pledges more I think in this instance based on you were put on the list because of all these different things and now you're seeing this guy and you want to get married and that's now you're not on the list and you're on the list based on all these criteria. It's kind of the feelings have drifted and gotten you off what would qualify you for the list. Is that the main issue here?

I think so. I think so. And I think also you can You know, like sometimes elderly people get married just for the companionship. Which there's nothing wrong with that, except that if I have sold out to Christ, I shouldn't go back on that. And that obviously in my mind is the work of the adversary to try to persuade us to go in some different direction. But I'm thinking, like on this one, if you're not on the list, it's fine for you to get remarried.

Oh, sure. Oh, absolutely. I think the whole context of this is that you're on the list, you've made the pledge, or you said, okay, I'm on the list because of all these qualifications. Yeah, I qualify, and I'm glad. To me, the pledge more is that you're a widow and you're being taken care of by the body, and now you're breaking that pledge of being a widow, I think is more the issue here.

Well, it's like the Apostle Paul said, woe unto me if I don't preach the gospel. Why is that such a big deal? Because he's called upon to do it, and he recognizes that You know, I better be a sticker and better stay. It'll work out the differences. You know, I never understood, as an example, why some churches have, you can become an elder for four years and you're done. If God calls you to be an elder, you're an elder from now on. Whether you have an office of it or not, that's your job. So JD, I'm done. Alright, lesson 28. Looking at the time. So let's get into some context here. What are we talking about?

I know that we've been kind of harping on the widows. That's what Timothy's talking about, or Paul's talking to Timothy about. But really, this has a lot to do with care for different groups of folks within the church. And I think that the spirit of what So the spirit of what Paul is communicating obviously has a focus on widows, but it has a lot to do with church community.

And how do we deal with that? And what does it look like? In verses 1 and 2 of chapter 5, we're looking at specifically 1 Timothy chapter 5, verse 13 in these following questions. But just to back up a little bit and get some context, Paul is instructing Timothy on how to address different age groups and what they're going through, what they're dealing with. Treat older men as fathers. Younger men as brothers. Older women as mothers and younger women as sisters.

And I think the whole point of this has to do with establishing a family-like relationship for believers within the church. And it doesn't exclude the family, but it increases the family with regards to the church. So there's a church community and it's based on respect. Paul says, this is how respect and this is how the boundaries work within the church.

And in verses 3 through 16, so chapter 5, 3 through 16, the majority of that entire passage has to deal with the church's responsibility towards widows. They're vulnerable. That's clear. The position of women without husbands in this society, in the ancient society, it had to be dealt with carefully. Do you agree so far? Yeah. I think Paul distinguishes three different categories of widows. We need to kind of like think about where they fit.

The first one is true widows, verses 3-5. They're those who genuinely are destitute. They are alone in the world. They place their hope in God, and they need continued prayer and supplication by way of support. So you've got the true widows, those that are genuinely destitute.

And then you've got widows with family. They've got family, and verses 4 and 8 and 16, what does it tell the family to do for them? care for them. If you can care for them, care for them. They should be cared by their children, their grandchildren. that duty to that widow through the family honors God. And Paul makes that pretty clear. So you've got true widows, you've got widows with family, then you've got the third category. And that third category is the self-indulgent widows. If we could say it that way. Verse six. Somebody read verse six for me. 5-6.

But she who indulges Herself in luxury is dead even while she lives. Dead even while she lives. Very self-indulgent, right? We've got examples of that. We're going to talk about that. But he really, I think Paul is establishing the criteria for widows and how they're going to be, for lack of a better term, enrolled in this list that we keep talking about. And it's in the Scripture. It's there. But I would like to say maybe, how are widows self-enrolled or enrolled, period, in the church's official support system? When does the church kick in? Where does family kick in? And what are those qualifications?

And we talked about, hey, maybe it's six years old. It says that there. So we're roughly giving that generalization. That's what the Scripture says. And they're six years old. They're faithful to their husband. They've got a reputation for good works. Whereas younger widows, younger than 60, should not be enrolled because they may desire to remarry. Potentially breaking that commitment they have to the church.

How does that work? Why would that be the case? Why does Paul focus on this so much with Timothy here? Repeat that question. Younger widows should not be enrolled because they may desire to remarry. And that's, you have to be 60 or under. Yeah. I think there's some really key principles here. Help me think through them.

What's the family's responsibility, first of all? We'll go through five things. Family responsibility. What is a Christian's primary obligation to care for their own family? Just that. Just that. You care for them. So there's a family responsibility, first of all. Even if they're younger. Even if they have desire to remarry, there's a family responsibility.

Then it goes to the second level. What's the second level? If the family can't do it, who steps in? Hint, hint. You. The church body steps in, and they function as an extended family, and they bring about a relationship, and they have a care for those widows. And then there's that third one, I call it proper stewardship.

Church resources should be directed towards those who are in genuine need rather than those who have other means of support. So where you have one who's supported by their family, and I was thinking about individuals within our body, and you can think about them as well. When you come alongside and these principles apply, When the family can't take care, the church body steps in and they care, under certain obligations and under certain principles. What are those principles? What are the qualifications for, in this case, a widow to be cared for by the church?

If she's abandoned, she could be abandoned by her family. Okay. How does that look like for a... The church would step in. No, I think you're exactly right, but the question I guess is, when we see the godly character of a woman, and we think about church leadership, they demonstrate care for and they provide care for that woman when she's in that, what we called the true widow's, the destitute state. But if they've got family, we support the family. When they don't have family, the church steps in. However, the third is that self-indulgent widow that we talked about in verse six, the one that you talked about, dead even while she lives. So there's a lot of generational thinking that's going on here, Mike.

Is there any American citizen that would qualify for this today? I ask is if they have a job, or were married to a person who had a job, they're eligible for Social Security. If they're indigent, they're eligible for Medicaid. The government here has pretty much instituted programs that keep them from Anybody can be a destitute. Now they may, because of other reasons, be destitute.

But, you know, who can live on Social Security. Who can live on Social Security, but if you... How do I say this? There is a Medicaid slot for everybody. If you served in the military, same thing. So, not to say that these programs are obsolete, but there should be very few times that a person qualifies for this in 2025. Well, there's physical needs. Yeah.

But what about the other side of it? What's the other side? Emotional? Spiritual? And the capacity of the family to take care of them. Yeah, and what if they can't supply those spiritual needs? I think that's something to think about as well. Just because a family can get in and help, say, get set up with Medicare, Medicaid, and the physical needs are being cared for, but you have a believer and she doesn't have the kind of spiritual welfare that Paul is talking about here. And what do you do as a body of believers?

Throw her in Sunday school. Well, spiritual growth is, you know, I was talking to my neighbor last night and he was very much explaining to me how he is trained, he's a teacher, both he and his wife are teachers, at a very prestigious school in the north of where we live, and he was explaining how much he had cared for them. and worked to bring them to a place of responsibility and that they got these different scholarships and there's all this success and I couldn't help but think, and I didn't say this out loud, but I couldn't help but think that has nothing to do with spiritual growth. We train these children up, and I know we're talking about widows, but the principle is still here. The application for us as believers is still here. What is the biblical principle of meaningful work and not remaining idle for the purposes of not just being productive in society, but for spiritual growth? That's what I was challenged with as I thought about this. You know, I think one thing in response to Mike's statements about government. Why are we at that point?

It's a failure of the church. It should never have been. And it's because of more you know, less church impact in the country and responsibility. Socialistic stepping in. Now, if the church fails, government comes in and will answer that call. Yeah, I was thinking about that with Mondani. Is that the right way to say his name? You know, we're not getting political. I think this absolutely relates because what we're talking about is we're not just trying to promote the material welfare of a widow, in this case, or any human being whatsoever.

The church has a responsibility towards spiritual growth. They care for the material needs. You get fed. But you're going to get fed not only physically, but spiritually. I know when I was growing up, hospitals, retirement homes, all were run by spiritual organizations.

Yeah, the Christian Church established much of that, and so did the Catholic Church, to be honest. Yeah, so they were doing what the Bible had called for them to do, you know. And if they couldn't, if one local church couldn't handle what they have, then they were joining forces. I know I went to school with the Jesuits, and when a Jesuit gets old or sick, they have two or three Jesuit homes for what I would call retired priests who are sick. And they live in a community. But they continue to be active. Yep. If you look at the name of most hospitals today, Saint something or other, Anthony, Mary, I was born in Saint Mary's. Where were you born? It's interesting.

So question number one, what is a further reason for not enrolling widows? Under 60, the possibility that they might become idle. We're going to talk about that as we get into the lesson more this week and the following weeks. If the church gives these widows support, the younger, under 60, what do they have?

What's their luxury? If they're younger, what do they have on their hands? They got time. And they're capable. So the question that I think Paul is answering here is that if the church gives them support, then these younger widows, they have time on their hands.

So it brings out some really interesting context, I think. Paul's concerned about idleness. isn't really necessarily unique to this passage. He talks about this in other places. Specifically, the importance of productive activity in 2 Thessalonians 3, 10 through 12. Someone will grab that for me. 2 Thessalonians. Switch around or Google it. Did you say second or first? 2 Thessalonians 3, 10-12. He talks about idleness there too.

It's not unique to Timothy in this particular instance. For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order, if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat either. Well, that has to do with he. How does that relate to she here? Well, it's contextually relative, like it relates, right? So being idle, you don't get to eat. It's what it says.

You're unwilling to work. and you're of an age and a capability where you can, so you should. That's what Paul's saying. from the political side now, that is totally tearing everything up about Medicaid, care, whatever. All of it. Well, they're putting a requirement that if you're able to work, you should work. At least 80 hours a month.

I mean, it's basically being biblical in that if you're capable of working, you should work. And, and, but look at the uproar right now because of that, you know, and Paul would not be very popular in this society. That's why Trump's not very popular. He wants you to work too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Guys were getting like 2,800 a month for five kids and dropped down to 350. What's going on here?

I think Paul is very convicted, evidenced by 2 Thessalonians as well as this passage in 1 Timothy, about the fact that purposeful activity is essential in Christian living. That's what I think. what a predicted retirement age at like 65? Roughly, yeah. What do you do after 65?

You golf. You know that. One of the biggest problems that I experience with a lot of peers is that they're retired six months or so and they talk to me on the phone and they ask me how they got my incentive So, you know, I would say, well, go ask the Lord to give you a job. He'll do it. Yeah, I think you said that. Might have been Monday night when we were on. Just ask the Lord what I could be doing, and turns out He'll answer you. Get ready. That's right.

Yeah, when you've got time on your hands, and I think that's what This passage in 1 Timothy 5 is really talking about, especially verse 13, it touches on a deeper biblical principle. Humans are created for stewardship. Where do we learn that? Genesis 1. Right?

He created, not only did he formulate the marriage relationship to be productive, he provided direction for each man and woman in terms of how they would be productive. And these particular widows that we're talking about now have time on their hands and they're dwindling it away. So what is the church's responsibility? You know, you're supposed to tend to creation.

That's Genesis 1. When that sense of purpose is removed and all of a sudden you're focused on other things that are more maybe personal to you, it could lead to what you may say is like a spiritual drift. Lack of stewardship leads to spiritual drift. That's a pattern.

What do you think about that? What do you do with time on your hands? You get in your head. You start doing and thinking. A clicker? I don't know what that is, but if you have a clicker, that's cool. What does that mean? I don't know what that means.

Oh Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah So Yeah in in the first century where Paul is speaking to Timothy about Kind of this Greco-Roman society and what they were dealing with They had considerable leisure time They didn't have phones They couldn't just scroll They got to talk and get together, spend time.

Even though that might sound like a good idea, it could lead to problems. One of the problems is that they would start talking about mystery religions, and they would start talking about social impacts and intrigue and things that they observed. It's like, you know, They didn't have magazines, so they made their own gossip column. That's what the Bible says. I'm not picking on women alone. I think men can absolutely, and I think there are principles that apply to men and women equally, but specifically here, these were things that became problematic in the church.

They had too much time on their hands and they talked way too much. And we're going to talk about those things moving into the next week here, but so far, go ahead Mike, I know you've got something on the top of your mind. Oh, no, it's just, that's 513.

At the same time, so quoting 1 Timothy 5.13, we'll close here, at the same time, they also learn, they learn to be idle. We're going to talk about that. What does it mean to learn to be idle? We're going to talk about as they go around from house to house. We're going to talk about that too. And not merely idle, not just idle, but also gossips and busybodies talking about things not proper to mention. That's going to be my favorite part to teach on at some point.

Is that like all the guys that go down to the coffee shop to drink coffee? Absolutely. It's the same difference. It is. In this context it had to do with, in this period of time, it had to do with the women largely being in that camp. But it applies to each of us. So we'll talk about that. I was trying to remember the quote in my parents or whatever. And I just Googled it or whatever.

Idle hands are the devil's playground. Or idle hands are the devil's tools. Idle hands are the devil's workshop. There was something my parents said. Idle hands are the devil's something. Whatever it was, it was bad. So it is. It's recognized. If you're idle, your brain is not focused on the Lord and it wanders and that's where the flesh comes in. So it's not a good thing to be idle. Question number two, and we'll get to this next time. What is one of the worst things a person can learn that is a determent to one's well-being? We're going to get into, as they go around the houses, from house to house, and they learn to do these things. And when I say they, I'm not just Although Paul is specifically talking about women in this case, it applies to each of us.

So let's pray. Father, how we thank you that you have given us stewardship over your creation and that you've given us a role, both men and women, and together collectively in marriage to serve you. And you've given us the church body to support us as we continue to understand what that means in our own individual lives. ultimately has everything to do with being wrapped up in You, being dependent upon You, growing in the intimacy of Your Word that You've given to us. And we stand privileged at this time in history to be able to look at the Scripture and see you personally and get to know you individually. And so Lord, I just pray that as we think about our work and the meaningfulness that you've given to us, even being retired or being right in the thick of it, you have given us a purpose. And we just pray that you would continue to reveal that to us as we know that it serves you and it glorifies you. we do it unto you, and that is what is meaningful. And so we thank you for that. Pray for the next session here we have, that Mike's voice would hold up and that we would learn from your word, that your spirit would illuminate us through that time. It's your name we pray, amen.