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| 1 Timothy 5:02 |
The elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters,
with all purity.
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Note:
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1 Timothy 5:1-8
1 Rebuke not an elder, but intreat him as a father;
and the younger men as brethren;
2 The elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, with all purity.
3 Honour widows that are widows indeed.
4 But if any widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to
shew piety at home, and to requite their parents: for that is good and
acceptable before God.
5 Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in God, and
continueth in supplications and prayers night and day.
6 But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.
7 And these things give in charge, that they may be blameless.
8 But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own
house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.
THE DUTY TO REPRIMAND
If you have occasion to reprimand an older man, do
not do so sharply, but appeal to him as you would to
a father. Treat the younger men like brothers; the
older women as mothers; the younger women as
sisters, in complete purity.
IT is always difficult to reprimand anyone with
graciousness; and to Timothy there would sometimes
fall a duty that was doubly difficult – that of
reprimanding someone older than himself. The
fourth-century Church father John Chrysostom writes:
‘Rebuke is in its own nature offensive particularly
when it is addressed to an old man; and when it
proceeds from a young man too, there is a threefold
show of forwardness. By the manner and mildness of
it, therefore, he would soften it. For it is
possible to reprove without offence, if one will
only make a point of this; it requires great
discretion, but it may be done.’
Rebuke is always a problem. We may so dislike the
task of speaking a warning word that we may avoid it
altogether. Many people would have been saved from
sorrow and disaster if someone had only spoken a
word of warning in time. There can be no more
poignant tragedy than to hear someone say: ‘I would
never have come to this, if you had only spoken in
time.’ It is always wrong to hold back from speaking
the word that needs to be heard.
We may reprimand a person in such a way that there
is clearly nothing but anger in our voice and
nothing but bitterness in our minds and hearts. A
rebuke given solely in anger may produce fear, and
may cause pain, but it will almost inevitably arouse
resentment; and its ultimate effect may well be to
drive those who are rebuked even more firmly into
their mistaken ways. The rebuke of anger and the
reprimand of contemptuous dislike are seldom
effective and are far more likely to do harm than
good.
It was said of Florence Allshorn, the great
missionary teacher, that, when she was principal of
a women’s college, she always rebuked her students,
when the need arose, as it were with her arm around
them. The rebuke which clearly comes from love is
the only effective one. If we ever have cause to
reprimand anyone, we must do so in such a way as to
make it clear that we do this not because we find a
cruel pleasure in it, not because we want to do it,
but because we are under the compulsion of love and
seek to help, not to hurt.
THE RELATIONSHIPS OF LIFE
THESE two verses lay down the spirit which the
relationships between different age groups should
display.
(1) To older people, we must show affection and
respect. An older man is to be treated like a father
and an older woman like a mother. The ancient world
knew very well the deference and respect which were
appropriate to age. The Roman orator and statesman
Cicero writes: ‘It is, then, the duty of a young man
to show deference to his elders, and to attach
himself to the best and most approved of them, so as
to receive the benefit of their counsel and
influence. For the inexperience of youth requires
the practical wisdom of age to strengthen and direct
it. And this time of life is above all to be
protected against sensuality and trained to toil and
endurance of both mind and body, so as to be strong
for active duty in military and civil service. And
even when they wish to relax their minds and give
themselves up to enjoyment, they should beware of
excesses and bear in mind the rules of modesty. And
this will be easier, if the young are not unwilling
to have their elders join them, even in their
pleasures’ (De Officiis, 1:34). Aristotle writes:
‘To all older persons too one should give honour
appropriate to their age, by rising to receive them
and finding seats for them and so on’ (Nicomachean
Ethics, 9:2). It is one of the tragedies of life
that youth is so often apt to find age a nuisance. A
famous French phrase says with a sigh: ‘If youth but
had the knowledge, if age but had the power.’ But
when there is mutual respect and affection, then the
wisdom and experience of age can co-operate with the
strength and enthusiasm of youth, to the great
profit of both.
(2) To our contemporaries, we must show
brotherliness. The younger men are to be treated
like brothers. Aristotle has it: ‘To comrades and
brothers, one should allow freedom of speech and
common use of all things’ (Nicomachean Ethics, 9:2).
With our contemporaries, there should be tolerance
and sharing.
(3) To those of the opposite sex, our relationships
must always be marked with purity. The Arabs have a
phrase for a man of honour; they call him ‘a brother
of girls’. There is a famous phrase which speaks of
‘Platonic friendship’. Love must be kept for one; it
is a fearful thing when physical matters dominate
the relationship between the sexes, and a man cannot
see a woman without thinking in terms of her body.
~Barclay's Commentary
This verse is a continuation of verse one
where we spoke to the subject of elders and young
men. This one speaks to elder woman and younger
woman in the congregation.
This verse has three parts:
1] The elder women as mothers. What is being said
here is, "Rebuke not an elder woman, but intreat her
as a mother.
2] the younger as sisters. Which is to say, "intreat
the younger woman as sister in the congregation.
3] with all purity.
I want to read the Jamieson, Fausset, Brown on the
first two verses first as it should help us to
understand the rest of the commentaries. We
read this in our lesson on verse one.
Here the apostle gives rules to Timothy, and in him
to other ministers, in reproving. Ministers are
reprovers by office; it is a part, though the least
pleasing part, of their office; they are to preach
the word, to reprove and rebuke, 2 Timothy 4:2. A
great difference is to be made in our reproofs,
according to the age, quality, and other
circumstances, of the persons rebuked; thus, and
elder in age or office must be entreated as a
father; on some have compassion, making a
difference, Jude 1:22. Now the rule is,
1. To be very tender in rebuking elders - elders in
age, elders by office. Respect must be had to the
dignity of their years and place, and therefore they
must not be rebuked sharply nor magisterially; but
Timothy himself, though an evangelist, must entreat
them as fathers, for this would be the likeliest way
to work upon them, and to win upon them.
2. The younger must be rebuked as brethren, with
love and tenderness; not as desirous, to spy faults
or pick quarrels, but as being willing to make the
best of them. There is need of a great deal of
meekness in reproving those who deserve reproof.
3. The elder women must be reproved, when there is
occasion, as mothers. Hosea 2:2, Plead with your
mother, plead.
4. The younger women must be reproved, but reproved
as sisters, with all purity. If Timothy, so
mortified a man to this world and to the flesh and
lusts of it, had need of such a caution as this,
much more have we.
~Jamieson, Fausset, Brown
Now to the commentaries...
THE ELDER WOMEN AS MOTHERS
The elder women as mothers
- Showing still the same respect for age, and for
the proprieties of life. No son who had proper
feelings would rebuke his own mother with severity.
Let the minister of religion evince the same
feelings if he is called to address a “mother in
Israel” who has erred.
~Barnes Notes
The elder women as mothers
- Treating them with the respect due to their age.
~Adam Clarke
The elder women as mothers
- When they offend in any point, they are to be
reasoned, and argued, and pleaded with, as children
should with their mothers; see Hosea 2:2 and are to
be considered as mothers in Israel, and to be
treated with great tenderness and respect.
~ John Gill
Quoted verse:
Hosea 2:2
...plead with Judah
Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my
wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore
put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her
adulteries from between her breasts;
The elder women as mothers
(presbuteras ho¯s me¯teras). Anarthrous again,
“older women as mothers.” Respect and reverence once
more. ~Robertson's Word
Pictures
THE YOUNGER AS SISTERS
The younger as sisters
- With the feelings which you have toward a sister.
The tender love which one has for a beloved sister
would always keep him from using harsh and severe
language. The same mildness, gentleness, and
affection should be used toward a sister in the
church. ~Barnes Notes
The younger as sisters
- Feel for every member of the Church, old and
young, male and female; consider them as fathers,
mothers, brothers, and sisters; treat them all with
gentleness; and labor to keep them in, not to expel
them from, the Church. ~
Adam Clarke
The younger as sisters
- using the freedom as a brother may with a sister;
and considering them as sisters in Christ, and in a
way becoming the relation, tell them their faults
freely and privately, but [with
all purity].
~John Gill
WITH ALL PURITY
With all purity -
Nothing could be more characteristic of Paul’s
manner than this injunction; nothing could show a
deeper acquaintance with human nature. He knew the
danger which would beset a youthful minister of the
gospel when it was his duty to admonish and entreat
a youthful female; he knew, too, the scandal to
which he might be exposed if, in the performance of
the necessary duties of his office, there should be
the slightest departure from purity and propriety.
He was therefore to guard his heart with more than
common vigilance in such circumstances, and was to
indulge in no word, or look, or action, which could
by any possibility be construed as manifesting an
improper state of feeling. On nothing else do the
fair character and usefulness of a youthful minister
more depend, than on the observance of this precept.
Nowhere else does he more need the grace of the Lord
Jesus, and the exercise of prudence, and the
manifestation of incorruptible integrity, than in
the performance of this duty. A youthful minister
who fails here, can never recover the perfect purity
of an unsullied reputation, and never in subsequent
life be wholly free from suspicion.
~Barnes Notes
Note: This
admonition for "all purity" remains an important
element to this day. The subject of purity and the
command to indulge in no word, or look or action
that could in ANY way be misconstrued is important
to every member of the church and especially the
ministry. Being single, my own ministerial policy is
to not counsel a divorce situation or a single
women. Currently married ministers should see to
those cases. In my humble opinion, it makes
spiritual sense and conforms to this biblical
concept of purity.
With all purity - With
all chastity. See the note on 1 Timothy 4:12.
There are some who seem to take a barbarous pleasure
in expelling members from, the Church. They should
be continued in as long as possible; while they are
in the Church - under its ordinances and discipline,
there is some hope that their errors may be
corrected; but when once driven out again into the
world, that hope must necessarily become extinct. As
judgment is God’s strange work, so excommunication
should be the strange, the last, and the most
reluctantly performed work of every Christian
minister. ~Adam Clarke
Quoted verse:
1 Timothy 4:12
Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example
of the believers, in word, in conversation, in
charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. See the
lesson on this verse.
With all purity - in
such manner as to preserve chastity in looks, in
words, and actions. ~John
Gill
with all purity —
respectful treatment of the other sex will promote
“purity.” ~Jamieson,
Fausset, Brown
The younger as sisters, in all
purity - No sort of behavior will so easily
make or mar the young preacher as his conduct with
young women. ~Robertson's
Word Pictures
What does the Bible say about Purity?
1 Timothy 4:12
Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example
of the believers, in word, in conversation, in
charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.
Psalm 119:9
Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by
taking heed thereto according to thy word.
Hebrews 13:4
Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed
undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will
judge.
1 Thessalonians 4:3-5
3 For this is the will of God, even your
sanctification, that ye should abstain from
fornication:
4 That every one of you should know how to possess
his vessel in sanctification and honour;
5 Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the
Gentiles which know not God:
Colossians 3:5
Mortify therefore your members which are upon the
earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate
affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness,
which is idolatry:
Colossians 3:19
Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against
them.
Pure
2 Timothy 1:3
I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with
pure conscience, that without ceasing I have
remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day;
2 Timothy 2:22
Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness,
faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the
Lord out of a pure heart.
Titus 1:15
Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them
that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure;
but even their mind and conscience is defiled.
Hebrews 10:22
Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance
of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
James1:27
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the
Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows
in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted
from the world.
James 3:17
But the wisdom that is from above is first pure,
then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated,
full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality,
and without hypocrisy.
1 Peter 1:22
Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the
truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the
brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure
heart fervently:
2 Peter 3:1
This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you;
in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of
remembrance:
1 John 3:3
And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth
himself, even as he is pure.
Revelation 15:6
And the seven angels came out of the temple, having
the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen,
and having their breasts girded with golden girdles. |
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