Herman Bavinck was a Dutch theologian writing in the late 19th Century/ early 20th Century. One of the reasons I admire him is because he was a brilliant theologian with a pastor’s heart.
He wrote a 4-vol. systematic theology but condensed that into a smaller 1-vol. work for young adults in his church. Then, he condensed that into an even smaller volume for high schoolers in his church.
I want to read a quote from Bavinck. This comes from a section on the authority of Scripture:
“For if a minister is not convinced of the divine truth of the word he preaches, his preaching loses all authority, influence, and power. If he is not able to bring a message from God, who then gives him the right to act on behalf of people of like nature with himself? Who gives him the freedom to put himself on a pulpit [a few feet] above them, to speak to them about the highest interests of their soul and life and even to proclaim to them their eternal weal and woe? Who would dare, who would be able to do this, unless he has a word of God to proclaim? Both the Christian faith and Christian preaching require divine authority as their foundation.”[1]
This quote makes me tremble. The only right that I have to speak to you about the deepest concerns of your soul and to proclaim to you eternal joy or sorrow is because of the authority of God’s Word.
The office of pastor is a high and holy calling. A pastor’s job is not to entertain. A pastor’s job is to proclaim to you that “‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’–and I am the worst of them” (1 Tim 1:15).
The Bible teaches that leaders in the church keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account (Heb 13:17). Pastors lead as those who are accountable to the judgement of God.
That’s a weighty, sobering reality. But it’s also joyful—because we know that when the chief Shepherd appears, faithful shepherds will also receive the unfading crown of glory (1 Peter 5:4). That, of course, is also true of all Christians who faithfully run their race.
We’re continuing our series through 1 Timothy and our passage this morning focuses on elders/pastors in the congregation. Our text is 1 Tim 5:17–25.
Before we read our passage, it’s important to remember the broader context of chapter 5.
Paul refers to the church as a family or the household of God (1 Tim 3:15). In chapter 5, Paul discusses relationships within the church. Relationships within the church are to be characterized by showing honor and respect to one another.
Older men and women in the church are to be regarded as fathers and mothers; younger men and women as brothers and sisters.
Then, Paul focuses his attention on specific groups of people within the church body. Last week, we looked at the church’s responsibility to care for widows in genuine need.
Today, in our passage, Paul turns his attention to the elders/pastors who lead God’s household.
In chapter 3, Paul provided the qualifications for elders, so he is not going to repeat that here. The question chapter 3 sought to answer was, “what are the requirements for being an elder?” The question our passage seeks to answer is, “what responsibilities does the congregation have toward the elders?”
Listen/follow along as I read 1 Tim 5:17–25:
17 The elders who are good leaders are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. 18 For the Scripture says: Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,, and, The worker is worthy of his wages.
19 Don’t accept an accusation against an elder unless it is supported by two or three witnesses. 20 Publicly rebuke those who sin, so that the rest will be afraid. 21 I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels to observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing out of favoritism. 22 Don’t be too quick to appoint, anyone as an elder, and don’t share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure. 23 Don’t continue drinking only water, but use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses. 24 Some people’s sins are obvious, preceding them to judgment, but the sins of others surface later. 25 Likewise, good works are obvious, and those that are not obvious cannot remain hidden.
Here’s the main idea of our passage: The church bears the weighty responsibility to honor, discipline, and appoint elders who lead.
I have three points that map on to the three main components of the main idea.
- Honoring the dignity of the office (vv. 17–18)
- Disciplining those who disgrace the office (vv. 19–20)
- Discerning character before appointing to the office (21–25)
If you want just three words, even simpler: dignity, discipline, and discernment.
- Honoring the dignity of the office (vv. 17–18)
Let me clarify right up front, when I talk about honoring the dignity of the office—I am not talking about putting a pastor on a pedestal. Don’t do that—that is foolish. When I talk about honoring the dignity of the office, I mean there is something about the nature of pastoral ministry that is honorable.
It’s appropriate to show honor and respect for the office and those who hold it; but we’re not putting anyone on a pedestal.
God’s Word teaches us that Jesus is the head of his church. The local church is governed by biblically qualified elders who lead the church, and the church is served by deacons who support the work of the ministry. (Acts 6:1–6, 14:23; Col 1:18; Titus 1:5)
The primary way elders lead the church is through prayer and the ministry of the word (Acts 6:4).
Word ministry is primarily a teaching/preaching ministry. Verse 17 begins by highlighting effective elders.
Verse 17: The elders who are good leaders are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.
Paul elevates the importance of quality leadership in the church. He singles out hard-working elders, especially those whose labor is preaching and teaching.
At River we have lay elders and staff elders. The staff elders are those whose full-time work is devoted to preaching and teaching, whose full-time work is devoted to ministry.
Good leadership is a great blessing from God. It’s not rocket science to understand that bad leadership is life-draining.
In 2020, I was deployed overseas and had a pretty miserable deployment, in large part due to poor leadership. There was passive leadership, lack of trust—it was bad. Oh, and by the way, this was the chaplain’s office.
Bad leadership had a corrosive effect on the entire team. Our house was in disorder, and everyone knew it. It greatly diminished our ministry effectiveness.
Contrast that with good leadership. Here’s how David describes godly leadership in 2 Samuel 23:3–4:
“The one who rules the people with justice, who rules in the fear of God, is like the morning light when the sunrises on a cloudless morning, the glisten of rain on sprouting grass.”
That’s the image the Bible uses to describe the effect of good leadership. A cloudless morning with the glisten of rain on sprouting grass. It’s like the spring mornings we’ve been experiencing.
We are blessed to have good and godly leadership at River.
That is not to say we are perfect or that we are the only ones doing things right. There are many great healthy churches in Wichita, and I pray for more of them. It’s right and appropriate for us to recognize the great blessing of good and godly leadership.
Godly effective leaders are integral to the health of the entire church. Because of that, Paul says those who lead well are worthy of “double honor.”
Paul wants the congregation to rightly honor those who lead well.
What does it mean to honor them? How is that concretely expressed? Through financial provision.
Paul supports that argument in verse 18 by quoting two passages from Scripture: First, Deuteronomy 25:4 “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.”
As oxen walked over sheaves of grain on the threshing floor, they would eat some of it. They deserve a little bit of food from their labor—don’t put a muzzle over their mouth!
Second, Paul quotes Jesus in Luke 10:7, “a worker is worthy of his wages.”
You honor the elders who lead well them by paying them well.
I understand that this might seem a little awkward, but it’s important to discuss. There are two errors for churches to avoid here.
Churches can overpay or underpay the pastors. Obviously, in our culture what comes to mind with overpayment are the prosperity preachers and televangelist/social media influencer megachurch pastors who live opulent lifestyles, etc. That’s wrong.
Equally problematic is underpaying pastors. I think there can be a mindset that ministry is supposed to be a sacrifice/ nobody gets into ministry to get rich, etc… all of which is true. But there’s nothing virtuous about underpaying someone, which is why Paul says a worker is worthy of his wages.
I want to commend the church and say thank you. You excel in this. Your generosity provides for 9 full-time staff members and our families so that we can devote our time to serving you.
At our staff meetings, when we get paid, Terry passes around the envelops with our pay stubs and we stop and pray to give thanks for God’s provision through you. Terry intentionally does that because in the days of direct deposit, it’s far too easy to not even think about that.
But this is far too important to forget about. That’s one tangible way as a church staff that we acknowledge your generosity before God.
That is incredibly humbling to me and it motivates me to work hard as unto the Lord (Col 3:23).
Here’s how I think about my sermons. And I know this is true of Terry, Rodney, Trace, and my dad as well. You deserve my best. You don’t deserve scraps. Your soul is more important than that. You deserve a steak. It is an honor and privilege to feed you with the Word of God.
That doesn’t mean every sermon is a home-run sermon (including this one); but it means that whoever is up here preaching is faithfully giving you his best, honoring the Lord and feeding you with God’s word.
This is why we honor the dignity of the office. It’s because the nature of the work is dignified. The nature of the work of eldering includes preaching and teaching. There is no greater privilege and honor than to stand as God’s man with God’s Word for God’s people.
Here’s how this honoring plays out in the life of the church. The church rightly honors the dignity of the office. The office holder, in turn, serves the congregation.
Honoring the elders of a church should not lead to pride and self-promotion or self-importance but rather humility and service.
Charles Bridges (19th Century pastor) beautifully captures this reality: “The ‘office’ will be ‘magnified’ in perfect harmony with the lowliest personal humility—and indeed never more eminently displayed, than in the exercises of genuine humility; the man invested with these high responsibilities sinking in the dust as an ‘unprofitable servant.’”[2]
If you excuse the 19th-century language, he’s saying the honor of the office is expressed in humble service.
If the church is called to honor the dignity of the office, what are the responsibilities of the church when an elder disgraces the dignity of the office?
- Disciplining those who disgrace the office (vv. 19–20)
In these cases, the church has a responsibility to discipline elders who sin in any grievous way that disqualifies them from ministry.
It’s important to see that discipline is another expression of honoring the office. Because we hold the office in high esteem, we discipline those who disgrace the office. Failure to discipline those who sin in this way would be a failure to recognize the dignity of the office.
When an elder, who should be leading God’s people, sins in such a grievous way, he brings reproach on Christ’s name, reproach on the church, and does great damage to God’s people.
Because this is such a big deal, Paul urges that this be done judiciously and impartially. He wants to protect pastors from unfounded accusations or criticisms. Hence verse 19: Don’t accept an accusation against an elder unless it is supported by two or three witnesses.
In context, Paul has just outlined how Timothy is to manage care and support of widows. In Acts 6, there was a serious issue with the church in Jerusalem. There was a legitimate complaint that the Hellenistic Jews were being overlooked by Hebraic Jews in the daily distribution (Acts 6:1).
Perhaps Paul is envisioning a scenario where an unfounded accusation is brought against Timothy in terms of his management of care for widows.[3]
Any charge or accusation needs to be established on the basis of two or three witnesses.
That’s alluding to OT law (Deut 19:15) and it conforms to Jesus’ direction for church discipline (Matt 18:15–16).
I think this means, if there’s an accusation, don’t gossip; don’t slander. But establish the facts. The church should be concerned with the truth.
As we see in verse 20, however, not all elders are free from sin.
What do you do with the elders who do sin? There’s a biblical process of church discipline for confronting a believer in sin (Matt 18).
First, you go to that individual directly and address the issue. If he repents, then you’ve won a brother. If he doesn’t listen, then you elevate the issue.
And you bring one or two others with you and confront the issue again.
If he continues in persistent unrepentant sin, then the issue is brought before the members of the church, and the person is then removed from membership (excommunication).
Obviously, there are some sins that are so egregious in nature that they warrant immediate removal from office.
In the normal course of church discipline, if something is elevated to the point of removal from membership, that doesn’t happen on Sunday morning. The “tell it to the church,” (Matt 18:27) refers to members of the church.
Our gathering on Sunday morning is public, so there are members and non-members present. Therefore, the Sunday morning gathering is not the appropriate place for that.
In the case of an elder who sins, however, verse 20 says to rebuke the elder publicly. The public rebuke corresponds to the public nature of the office. There are public ramifications.
The rebuke serves as a warning to others so that others may fear. Fear what? God’s judgement. Sometimes people say fear is not a good motivator for godliness, etc. But let me just say that Paul seemed to be okay with fear being a motivator sometimes.[4]
You rebuke the elder to protect the sheep. A failure to discipline is a failure to uphold the dignity of the office.
How does a church avoid having to remove an elder?
The church has a weighty responsibility in discerning moral character before appointing someone to the office.
- Discerning character before appointing to the office (vv. 21–25)
Why do I say this is a weighty responsibility? Because of the solemn charge in verse 21: “I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels to observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing out of favoritism.”
This is not just flowery talk. This language (God, Jesus, angels) is associated with God’s judgement.
Paul uses similar language in 2 Tim 4:1–2: “I charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge the living and the dead, and because of his appearing and his kingdom: Preach the word.”
In the background to all of this is the sobering reality that pastors lead under the judgement of God. They are accountable to God for keeping watch over their flock.
Paul urges Timothy—as you think about honoring, disciplining, and appointing elders—you do not do this with partiality or favoritism. This is work that will be judged by God. This is a solemn, weighty responsibility.
This is why Paul says in verse 22, “Don’t be too quick to appoint anyone as an elder.”
Churches should avoid choosing elders based on their personal charisma, skill, power, influence, prestige, etc.
The primary criterion for appointing elders is their personal moral character. That doesn’t mean competency (skills) are unimportant; they are just not primary.
We’re all familiar with stories of men who lack moral character, who are then put in positions of authority, and then they crash and burn, leaving a wake of devastation behind them.
The implication in verse 22 is that if you appoint someone who is not qualified, then you share in the sins of others. You bear some responsibility in this.
Paul tells Timothy, “you must keep yourself pure.” I think that means—avoid this. You avoid the wreckage of putting someone in a position he has no business being in by having a philosophy of leadership development. Time will tell.
You don’t just stick people into leadership because they have a degree, or they’ve taught Sunday School for decades, etc. You look at the fruit of their lives. What are they producing?
Are they growing to become more like Christ? Are they helping others do the same? Are they living a life of humility and service or are they interested in being platformed and recognized by others?
You can’t microwave character development. Too many men want the title of pastor without the time and character required to get it. They want a fast track. But character formation is slow.
When Paul tells Timothy to drink a little wine for his stomach in verse 23, it might seem like an out-of-place aside. What does this have to do with anything?
I think it reflects Paul’s holistic concern for Timothy. Paul understands Timothy is an embodied person! And as Paul alludes to, Timothy had a weak stature; he was prone to timidity and frequent ailments.
Imagine yourself reading this letter: Paul is talking about giving spiritual correction to older men in the church, managing support for widows in the congregation, how to deal with people who may be falsely accusing you, dealing with removing elders from leadership . . .
All of this is having a culminating effect making Timothy feel sick. Paul essentially tells him—take your medicine. Wine had medicinal value.
I think that just freely comes to Paul’s mind as he is dictating this letter. Then he returns to his main thought of not being too hasty in appointing elders in vv. 24: Some people’s sins are obvious, preceding them to judgement, but the sins of others surface later.
Paul’s point is just to say, Look, some sins are visible, others invisible, but God knows them all and eventually they will come to light in God’s time and under his judgement.[5]
I think this is meant as an encouragement. Timothy bears a weighty responsibility. He needs to be faithful and wise in his duties, but he can’t allow anxiety or stress ruin his health.
Paul is saying, you have a great and weighty responsibility, but ultimately God is the judge. There are some things that are out of your hands. There are some things that you’re going to miss. But God is the judge.
Paul wants to encourage Timothy, which is why he doesn’t merely end on the negative. Some people’s sins are obvious and others fly under the radar. Then Paul says (vs. 25), Likewise, good works are obvious, and those that are not cannot remain hidden.
Just as sin will eventually be exposed, so will good works.
Maybe your good works, your small, daily acts of faithfulness are unseen, unnoticed by others. This, too, will be revealed.
Jesus said, “And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Matt 6:4)
One day, everything will be exposed by the judgement of God.
If you’re not a believer in Jesus, you should fear the righteous judgement of God.
One day, all of your sins—public and private—will be exposed before the holiness of God.
Apart from Christ, you stand guilty and without excuse, condemned in your sin to suffer eternal punishment in hell.
Because of God’s love for us, Jesus bore God’s judgement by dying in our place. By the power of his resurrection, he declares all those who believe in him not guilty but righteous instead.
Believers, too, await the return of Christ and the final judgement.
All of our sins will be exposed before the holiness of God. But here is the difference.
The sins of believers will be exposed as forgiven sins, covered by the blood of Jesus.[6]
The Bible says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). If you’re not a believer in Jesus, turn from your sin and trust him. You can know the one who is both judge and savior.
[1] Herman Baivnck, RD 1:461.
[2] Charles Bridges, The Christian Ministry (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, [1830] 1991), 7.
[3] Robert W. Yarbrough, The Letters to Timothy and Titus (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2018), 291.
[4] Yarbrough, The Letters to Timothy and Titus, 293.
[5] Yarbrough, The Letters to Timothy and Titus, 299.
[6] Anthony Hoekema, The Bible and the Future, 258.