I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Timothy 5-6

Paul gives instructions here regarding the care of widowed believers by the Church which I believe can be our model for helping all who are unable to care for themselves.  Paul begins by saying that the family of the person in need should do all that they can to help them.  He continues by saying that every person should care for their own needs to whatever degree that they are able to do so.  Finally, the Church should care for those whose needs cannot be met by these first two options.  However, Paul puts some conditions on those for whom the Church should provide care.  I believe that the conditions which Paul lists are specific to the situation he was addressing and do not necessarily represent the conditions we should impose today.  That being said, they provide a model for conditioning assistance on the behavior of those receiving assistance.  

Paul recommends against giving assistance to those who are able-bodied because they will then spend their time gossiping and meddling in other people’s business.  Again we can see both that he is referring to a relatively specific situation and offering a model which can be applied more generally.  The assistance Paul is addressing here appears to be monetary and/or food supplies.  We see from that another way to address his concerns would be to provide assistance in the form of a job,  I do not want to go too far down that path.  Believers should aid those who require assistance to meet their needs, but that aid can, and should to some degree, be contingent upon actions by those receiving it.  We must always remember that sometimes material assistance is not in the best interest of those in need.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Timothy 1-4

Paul begins his first letter to Timothy by warning against false teachers, comes back to it in the middle, then again at the end (we will get to the end tomorrow).  At the beginning Paul writes that these false teachers spend all of their time talking about myths and spiritual pedigrees.  Then when he circles back he warns Timothy against arguing about godless ideas and old-wives tales.  I believe that the second is just Paul restating what he said at first in a different order.  From these pointless discussions they make up rules they claim we need to follow in order to be righteous.  Paul writes that rules, even the laws God gave to Moses, are for those who rebel against God.  Despite what some people argue, Paul is not saying that good is relative.  He is saying that one does not do good because one follows a set of rules.  One does good by loving one’s neighbor.

I never realized before that in many ways, Paul’s instructions for the type of people to select for leadership positions reflect a practical way to identify people who get the above.  Some of the things Paul requires of a leader just reflect someone being a good person with the skills needed to be a leader, but his instructions on judging them by their children tells us that they understand the above.  Children whose parents insist that they follow rules because the parents set those rules will be rebellious and troublemakers, looking for loopholes in the rules.  Children whose parents make clear that the rules they lay down are what they believe are in the best interest of the children will be well behaved and obedient.  (This does not mean that parents whose children misbehave and become troublemakers did not intend their rules to be in their children’s best interest, just that the children were not convinced the rules were in their best interest).