SELECTING CHURCH LEADERSHIP
(I Tim. 5:22, 24-25)
Overview of I Tim. 4:1-5:25
4:1-2 How False Teaching Enters the Church
4:3-5 Common Grace
4:6 Word of God in Life of the Believer
4:7a Godliness – Divine / Human Role
4:7b Train Yourself to be Godly
4:7c Spiritual Disciplines (The Word of God)
4:7d Spiritual Disciplines (Devotions, Worship)
4.7e Spiritual Disciplines (Church Attendance, Journaling, Practicing Presence of God)
4:8-9 Why Godliness Has Great Value
4:10 Putting Our Hope in the Living God
4:12 Setting an Example for Believers
4:13 What a Christian Worship Service Looked Like in the First Century
4:14 Neglecting the Spiritual Gift God has Given Us
4:15-16 Getting Home Before Dark
5:1-2 So, How Should We Describe the Church?
5:3-16 God’s Tilt Towards the Disenfranchised
5:3-16 Sorting Out those Worthy of Relief – A Biblical Approach to Social Welfare
5:3-16 The Biblical Rationale for Providing for Relatives
5:5-16 The Tale of Two Widows – A Biblical Approach to Pleasure
5:9-10 The Good Works of a New Testament Woman
5:11-14 The Younger Widows – Breaking Celibacy Vows
5:11-14 The Younger Widows – Gossiping False Teaching
5:15 Satan’s Effort to Keep Jesus from Fulfilling His Mission
5:17-18 Honoring the Work of Elders
5:19-20 How NT Church Discipline Illustrates Cultural Formation
5:21 Partiality – A Christian Problem?
5:22-24 Selecting Church Leadership
5:23 The Christian’s Use and Abuse of Alcoholic Beverages
17The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. 18For the Scripture says, “Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves his wages.” 19Do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by two or three witnesses. 20Those who sin are to be rebuked publicly, so that the others may take warning.
21I charge you, in the sight of God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels, to keep these instructions without partiality, and to do nothing out of favoritism.
22Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, and do not share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure. 24The sins of some men are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them; the sins of others trail behind them. 25In the same way, good deeds are obvious, and even those that are not cannot be hidden.
INTRODUCTION:
“The passage before us contains practical principles for the regulation and maintenance of a church’s leadership” (Towner, pg.124).
What we have studied:
5:17-18 Honoring the Work of Elders – (Serving as pastor and elder is hard work and deserves remuneration)
5:19-20 How NT Church Discipline Illustrates Cultural Formation – (We, too are influenced by our culture. We need to carefully analyze our Christian practices, attitudes and beliefs to make sure we are basing them on the Word of God and not merely absorbing the lifestyle and beliefs of our culture.)
5:21 Partiality – A Christian Problem – (We are to be conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8) and one of the supernatural aspects of Christ’s life is that He was impartial.)
5:23 The Christian’s Use and Abuse of Alcoholic Beverages – (The edification of fellow believers and the extension of the kingdom of God always trumps personal freedom.)
5:22-24 Selecting Church Leadership
One suggested breakdown of the passage:
Honoring Elders (17-18)
Protecting Elders (19)
Rebuking Elders (20-21)
Selecting Elders (22-25)
Five qualities in dealing with others:
Appreciation, Fairness, Impartiality, Caution, Discernment
I. OBVIOUS SINS – OBVIOUS JUDGEMENT
24The sins of some men are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them; the sins of others trail behind them. 25In the same way, good deeds are obvious, and even those that are not cannot be hidden.
Obvious – evident, “before the eyes,” notorious
“Reaching the place of judgment” = pointing to judgment, leading to judgment or as heralds, crying out the sins which accuse the perpetrator.
Place of judgment: Greek “krisis,” not a slap on wrist:
21“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment’ (Mt. 5:21).
15I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town (Mt. 10:15).
22But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the Day of Judgment than for you (Mt. 11:22).
24But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the Day of Judgment than for you.” (Mt. 11:24).
II. HIDDEN SINS – JUDGMENT TOO!
… the sins of others trail behind them.
“Paul emphasizes the need for caution … It is that human beings are frequently different from what they appear at first sight. They may seem initially either better or worse than they really are, for both their good and their bad points may take a while to surface. … It is the iceberg principle, namely that nine-tenths of a person are hidden from view. … Attractive personalities often have hidden weaknesses, whereas unprepossessing people often have hidden strengths” (Stott, pg. 141).
The emphasis …. Slow down so that you can be truly discerning.
No matter how careful we are, we won’t see everything. Some “hidden sins” will only be manifest on judgment day:
Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God (I Cor. 4:5).
What is not said throughout this section, of course, is what sins are involved. But the close proximity of the final indictment of the false teachers in 6:3-10 makes one wonder whether the hidden sins might not have been their pride, unhealthy desire to argue, jealousy (6:4), and especially, their avarice (6:5-10) (Fee, pg. 133).
Selecting individuals for church leadership demands discernment on the part of each individual Christian in the church.
III. GO SLOW IN CHOOSING CHURCH LEADERSHIP
22Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, and do not share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure.
“…laying on of hands” does not mean fighting, which I thought it meant at one time. “Lay hands suddenly on no man …” (KJV).
The laying on of hands is for ordination: I Tim. 4:14; Acts 6:6; Acts 13:3; II Tim. 1:6; Titus 1:5).
Who ordained the elders? “First, the apostles ordained elders (Acts 14:23). So did close associates of the apostles, such as Timothy and Titus (Titus 1:5). In the third phase, the existing elders in a church ordained other elders (I Tim. 4:14). (MacArthur, pg. 224).
One of the key problems in the Ephesian church was church leadership. Hosea the prophet said, “Like people, like priest” (Hos. 4:9). Churches do not rise higher than the level of their leadership” (MacArthur, 216).
“What makes leadership so solemn a responsibility? One part of the answers is implicit in this passage: the importance of the church community’s trust in its leadership. A member’s mistakes may affect only the member, but a leader’s mistakes affect the whole church” (Towner, pg. 123).
“In a critical world the church can not be too careful in regard to the kind of men whom it chooses as its leaders” (William Barclay, pg. 118).
It is obvious that Paul chose and appointed the original church leadership for Ephesus …. And made some mistakes. Some of the men listed in I and II Timothy were probably personally appointed by Paul e.g. Hymenaeus, Alexander, Philetus. Is this why he puts a lot of emphasis on going slow, screening carefully.
ILLUSTRATION: During times of revival and fast church growth, it is easy to appoint faulty leadership. LTimorese Revival in the early sixties and some leaders perpetrating falsehood. The water into wine incident, the light in a room – the presence of God.
IV. SHARING IN THE SINS OF OTHERS
…do not share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure.
Don’t appoint people to church leadership positions too hastily. If a person is involved in some serious sins, you don’t want to become an unwitting accomplice. In any event, keep a close check on yourself (I Tim. 5:22 –The Message).
Anyone who took part in ordaining an elder who later proved to be unfit for the position shared in the blame for negative effects on the church. If Timothy ordained a man who became a liability because of his persistent sinning …. Timothy would actually participate in those sins by compromising himself” (Life Application Bible Commentary, pg. 111).
Since we share in the selection of church leadership, then we also share responsibility for their sins.
ILLUSTRATION: Eli in I Samuel placed his sons in leadership roles and permitted them to continue in those roles even though they made themselves contemptible, were rebellious, knew not the Lord, treated the offering with contempt and even lay with women at the door of the tabernacle. God was going to judge Eli’s family forever “because of the sins he knew about … and he failed to restrain them” (I Samuel 3:13).
If you “lay your hands” on a person, ordaining him for ministry, you can not “wash your hands” of that person.
Saul Bellow, an American novelist who recently passed away, wrote of the “ordeal of freedom” or “burden of democracy.” One of the burdens of democracy in the church, is that we have to make choices in who will lead us. When they fail we can’t say, “Too bad, it is not my responsibility, it is not my problem.”
ILLUSTRATION: If the Pope or bishop appoints a priest who is a pedophile, the local catholic parishioner is not held responsible. That is not the case at Sun Valley Community Church and in congregational type churches. We all bear responsibility for the moral failings of our leaders. We chose them.
V. KEEPING MYSELF PURE INVOLVES CHOOSING GOOD LEADERS
…do not share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure.
“Purity” in this verse has nothing to do with asceticism, that is avoiding the drinking of alcoholic beverages. Nor does it have anything to do with avoiding immorality.
To keep myself “pure” here means to not choose a leader who is obviously living in sin. It means going slow to avoid choosing a leader with hidden sins. For if a leader I choose ends up living a sinful life, I, to a certain extent, am made impure by his actions. I “keep myself pure” by only choosing good, moral leaders.
“This concept of sharing in the sin of another (whether by tacit approval or by apathetic failure to take a stand) rests on an important theological premise. We might call this a ‘theology of separation,’ though we must develop it with balance” (Towner, 129).
This possibility of “sharing in the sin of others” is compounded by the fact that we are one body in Christ and not an island to ourselves. What others do, especially those we have put in leadership, does affect us.
So in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others (Romans 12:5).
Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf (I Cor. 10:1).
SO WHAT????
1. All sins, the obvious as well as the hidden, will be judged someday.
2. Your ability to discern a person’s character will depend on how long you have known the individual. Remember the “ice burg principle.”
3. The “burden of democracy” rests on the shoulders of every church member in a congregational type church.
4. We share in the sins of the leaders we select. Thus we need to go slow and be careful in making recommendations for Christian leadership positions.