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1 Timothy 5:18 – Pay the Man

Picture of an ox treading the grain. (Grok)

For Scripture says, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves his wages.”

Summary: Paul uses an Old Testament farming law to make a blunt point about how the church should treat its leaders.  

We have spent a lot of time looking at how the church should manage its expenses when it comes to helping widows. Paul was incredibly careful, almost clinical, about making sure the church didn’t pass out free food to people who didn’t qualify.

Now, he turns his attention to a completely different line item in the church budget: paying the leaders.

In the verse just before this one, Paul says that the elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of “double honor,” especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. Then, to back up his statement, he quotes two sources.

One source is the Old Testament law: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain” (Deuteronomy 25:4). The other source is actually Jesus himself, quoting a common-sense proverb: “The worker deserves his wages” (Luke 10:7).

Let’s look at the ox first.

Imagine you are a farmer two thousand years ago. You use an ox to walk in circles over your harvested wheat to separate the grain from the chaff. As the ox works, it sees food right at its feet. If you put a muzzle on that ox to keep it from eating any of the grain while it labors for you, you are being cruel. You are using its strength to feed yourself while denying the animal the very fruit of its own labor.

Even under the Old Testament law, God made a rule against that kind of cheapness.

Then Paul couples that farming image with a quote from Jesus about human workers. If a man comes to work in your field, you pay him. You don’t make excuses, you don’t shortchange him, and you don’t expect him to work for free out of the goodness of his heart.

Why does Paul have to say this to Timothy?

Human nature doesn’t change. Just like people have a tendency to take free food if the church offers it, people also have a tendency to want something for nothing.

It is easy for a congregation to look at an elder who is pouring his life into preaching and teaching and think, “Well, he is doing God’s work, so he should do it purely for the spiritual reward.” Meanwhile, the man is struggling to pay his bills and feed his family.

Paul is putting a stop to that kind of thinking. He is getting back down to those brass tacks we talked about earlier. If a man is laboring to feed us spiritually, the very least we can do is make sure he is fed physically.

It is a matter of common-sense. It is also a matter of love. 

Application: Support those who labor to teach you the truth. 

Food for Thought: Why do you think people sometimes expect spiritual leaders to work for less than they would earn in a secular job?

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1 Timothy 5:17 – Double Honor

Picture of a man leading a bible study (Grok)

The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. 

Summary: Paul points us to the obligation we have in the body of Christ to honor those who serve the most.   

Here is an interesting fact: If we look back at 1 Timothy 3:1, the text reads: 

“Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task.” (NIV)

The word “overseer” in this passage is sometimes translated as “bishop,” and, in a few cases, “elder.” For the purposes of our discussion here, let’s not pick nits. Let’s assume Paul means that people who are in leadership positions are worthy of double honor. 

Now, before going any farther, let’s review what it means to be in a ‘leadership position.’ 

First of all, Jesus has something to say: 

“Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, ‘Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.’” (Mark 9:35)

Humility before God and man is the first requirement for ‘double honor.’ You can tell who is qualified at this level simply by how they interact with people. Pride is easy to spot and hard to mask. 

Next, let’s review what Paul says about church leaders: 

“Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect.” (1 Timothy 3:2-4)

These are also personality traits that are easy to spot and difficult to fake. 

Finally, there is the obvious requirement that a leader has to be able to discern and defend the truth: 

“He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.” (Titus 1:9)

Given what is involved in achieving this level of maturity and knowledge, I have to agree with Paul. They are worthy of “double honor.” 

Application: Respect those who are worthy of respect.  

Food for Thought: What is involved in “preaching and teaching” that sets such leaders apart? 

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1 Timothy 5:16 – Free Food

A picture of a bowl of soup and two slices of bread on a wooden table. (Grok)

If any woman who is a believer has widows in her care, she should continue to help them and not let the church be burdened with them, so that the church can help those widows who are really in need.

Summary: Paul continues his instructions about caring for widows.   

One of the things I like about the Bible is the underlying common sense. 

God knows who we are. He knows our hearts and knows how we think. Nothing surprises him. So when Paul talks to the church about taking care of widows, he is not given to sentimentality. 

In fact, it is exactly the opposite. 

Paul is clear-eyed about the practical realities of offering people free food. 

After all, imagine if you were offered free food. Wait, let’s make it more interesting. Imagine that you lived two thousand years ago. There are no social safety nets. People who don’t work starve. 

If you can’t find work to do, you go hungry. Some people get so tired of being hungry that they sell themselves as slaves simply because at least a slave has food to eat. 

Take the Prodigal Son for example (Luke 15:11-32). He took his inheritance and thought he was a rich man. Then he spent all his money on “wild living.” He might have thought he would be okay, even if he had to work for a living, but there was a severe famine in the land (v 14). Food was scarce, and the young man found himself with nothing to eat. The Bible says he worked on a farm feeding pigs. He was so desperate: “He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything” (v 16). 

Now, imagine you are that hungry, and someone offers you free food. Are you going to take it? 

Of course you are! 

What if, later, when the famine has passed, and you can save a little money, you are still offered free food? Do you still take it? 

Human nature suggests that you will. 

People are like that. 

That is why Paul is so cautious about letting the church pass out free food paid for by the gifts of the believers. When others have real needs, there might not be money left to help them. 

And so, Paul counsels that women who have been caring for widows should continue to do so. 

Is that fair? 

Is it fair to grow old and not have anyone around to care for you? The church is there for the truly needy, but Paul is careful to guard against envy and gluttony. 

Application: Managing what God gives us requires discernment and wisdom.  

Food for Thought: How do you define “real need”?

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1 Timothy 5:15 – How God Sees, Part II

 Some have in fact already turned away to follow Satan.

Summary: Looking at this passage from the perspective of church discipline reveals both a need and a solution.   

In Part I of this meditation, we looked at how God sees us as if we were made of glass. He can see into the very center of our being. He knows what is in the closets of our minds, even the things we have forgotten are exposed to his eyes. God knows us better than we know ourselves. 

We also looked at the limits of human perception. I cannot know what is in your heart any more than you can know what is in mine. I can observe what you say and do, and I can sometimes see a hint of what you are thinking, but I cannot know you as God knows you. 

In this meditation, Part II, we will look at how these two realities, God’s unlimited vision and the limits of what we can see, influence church discipline. 

First of all, there are two kinds of churches. One is the “church invisible,” the Body of Christ. This is the church that Jesus sees, regardless of the theology we adhere to or the place where we worship. 

The second kind of church is what we might call the “organizational church” or “local church.” This is the group you attend that you worship with. When we talk about church discipline, this is the arena we are talking about — the local, organizational church.

If you have someone in your congregation who turns away to ‘follow Satan,’ how does that affect the rest of the congregation? In biblical terms, I am assuming ‘following Satan’ is not limited to Satanic worship. It could be as innocuous as dividing one’s worship between Jesus and a false religion, as the Israelites did in the days of the kings (1 Kings 11:4). 

People learn from watching each other, and when it comes to authority, noting what is allowed and what is condemned. If church leadership ‘allows’ behaviors that run contrary to biblical principles, what are people to think? Are those behaviors okay? 

Church discipline doesn’t mean that everyone who strays is ‘handed over to Satan’ (1 Corinthians 5:4-5). In fact, God’s word stresses that discipline should be enforced gently.* Yet, it must be enforced. Not because we are able, by our own power, to save someone from hell, but because we want to protect the church from false teaching and ungodly behavior, and because those who wander need to be restored if they are to live a life that honors Jesus and not simply one that escapes “as one escaping through the flames” (1 Corinthians 3:15). 

Application: Faithful living requires discipline, beginning with self-discipline.  

Food for Thought: Compare a church without discipline to one that applies discipline. What do you imagine the difference would be? 

*Galatians 6:1, 2 Timothy 2:25, Hebrews 5:2

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1 Timothy 5:15 – How God Sees, Part I

 Some have in fact already turned away to follow Satan.

Summary: This passage provides an excellent opportunity to explore how God sees us and compare God’s view of humanity with our own.   

How do you react to Paul’s words in this passage? Does it feel like God is losing the battle and Satan is winning? Do you fear that someone is bound for hell who should have been saved? 

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1 Timothy 5:14 – Antidote

Picture of a candle flame, courtesy of Pixabay.

So I counsel younger widows to marry, to have children, to manage their homes and to give the enemy no opportunity for slander. 

Summary: Life is hard. Adam and Eve’s sin left us with a genetic defect that opened our eyes to sin (Genesis 3:5). In this passage, Paul provides an antidote.   

Paul’s missive to Timothy has so far ranged from passionately personal to highly technical. This section on caring for widows (1 Timothy 5:3-16) is one of the more technical aspects of his letter. 

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1 Timothy 5:13 – Sound in the Faith

A greasy blob descends through clear water leaving a trail of contamination (Grok)

Besides, they get into the habit of being idle and going about from house to house. And not only do they become idlers, but also busybodies who talk nonsense, saying things they ought not to. 

Summary: This passage, at first glance, sounds like an offhand comment about bad behavior. Digging deeper, we find an existential threat beneath the surface.   

Our last meditation on 1 Timothy 12, “Serious Stuff,” emphasized the spiritual risk of turning our back on Jesus. In this verse, Paul talks about something that seems insignificant by comparison. In verse fourteen, he counsels young widows to do things that “give the enemy no opportunity for slander.” Finally, in verse fifteen, he notes that some have turned to follow Satan. 

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1 Timothy 5:12 – Serious Stuff

A warning sign says "DANGER AHEAD" (Grok)

Thus they bring judgment on themselves, because they have broken their first pledge. 

Summary: This passage is an extremely blunt warning against turning our back on the Lord. 

One of the things that I find interesting about the Bible is not so much what it says, but what is not said. For example, an Old Testament prophet might be given a prophecy, but we, the readers, are not told what it is. Then later, when the prophet delivers the message, we hear the rest of the story (1 Kings 14:1-20). 

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