1 Timothy 5

     5:1-16.  This passage offers good practical advice on how to admonish those who need it (1-2), and rules for caring for the congregation’s neediest members.  There are obvious universal principles here, but some of the specifics are colored, and to some extent veiled, by the culture of the time.  Certainly on older woman with no family and little or no prospect of marriage was generally the very definition of destitute.  Right from the start, these women were put on the list of those needing aid, and the office of deacon was created to administer it (Acts 6:1-6).

     5:2.  The younger women . . . in all purity; Young pastors especially need to take great care to avoid even the possibility of improper behavior with the younger women.  No opportunity should be given to loose tongues.

     5:5-6.  I am guessing that v.6 may refer to desperate women who gave up relying on God as their hope, and so began selling what wanton men were willing to pay for.  This is the way of death of the soul as well as the body.

     5:4, 8, 16.  Family members who are able to care for their own should first do all they can before the church is burdened.

     5:9-10.  Permanent assistance is reserved for the truly destitute, and those who receive it should make themselves useful.  I do not doubt these rules were meant to be flexible, if the need were severe.   They are general guidelines.  The wife of one husband probably means, faithful in monogamous marriage.  Scripture many places approves second marriages after death ends the first (e.g., 14).

     5:11-12.  This probably refers to those entering into a vow to Christ to remain single and serve him (as in v.10), but find they have made the vow foolishly, and are unable to keep it.  Unfaithfulness to a vow is condemned as a sin, and so these young women are not to be allowed to make such a pledge.  They generally have better and less dangerous options (14; cf. 3:4a; 1 Cor.7:9).

     5:15.  To follow Satan; the heathen temples in Ephesus probably had employment for the right young widow.

     5:17.  Double honor; there is the honor of the respect due the office, and the honor of being paid for the work one does.  I doubt that it means being paid a double portion.

     5:18.   This principle is backed up by the word of the Law (Deut.25:4) and the word of Christ (Luke 10:7; cf. 1 Cor.9:14).

     5:19.  Cf. Deut.17:6; 19:15.  An accused elder deserves a fair trial and the benefit of the doubt.

     5:20.  I assume the subject is still the elder who sins, and that he is rebuked before the other elders.

     5:21.  Impartiality is the very essence of justice, and deserves a very solemn charge.

     5:22.  Do not ordain unproven men to the eldership, or else share responsibility for their sins.  (Ordination is the obvious meaning of laying hands on someone here, but cf. Acts 4:3, where the priests and the Sadducees laid hands on Peter and John — to arrest them.)

     5:23.  We learn here that Timothy was often ill.  Wine was often drunk three parts water to one of wine or so.  It may have made the water safer.  Note: a little wine (cf.3:3, 8).

     5:24-25.  Cf. Num.32:23; Rev.14:13.  Some things are evident now, and some await the exposure of the Judgment Day.  Our sins shall find us out like baying hounds, and our good deeds do follow after us like a loyal dog at heel.