Our text this morning will be in 1 Timothy 5. 1 Timothy 5. We have been studying here Paul's letter to his young apprentice Timothy. And a lot of the instruction was very sort of personalized instruction for Timothy in terms of how he should conduct himself and the ways that he should interact with and teach God's people. But here in chapter 5, Paul deals with some issues. There were some problems, some very specific things that Paul needed to address and wanted Timothy to address in this local church. And so we dealt the last two weeks with the issue of widows. Kind of a multifaceted issue. Paul spent quite a bit of time there walking through that with Timothy and how the church should respond and how widows should live. And then this second part here, the end of chapter 5, is on the issue of elders. And again, it too is a complex issue. There's a couple different facets to it. We'll spend a couple of weeks looking at it. I do want us to remember as we look at the text this morning that Scripture is not conveyed in a vacuum. In other words, these are not just sort of theoretical instructions, but there's a backdrop, there's a setting, there's historical context. that caused Paul to write what he did. And actually when we think about the elders in the church in Ephesus, there's actually some other encounters that Paul had with these elders. There's history here that we would do well to sort of think about. So here Paul's writing to Timothy. Some things had come up in the church. But 20 years previous, Paul had interacted with the elders of this church. He was coming back from one of his missionary journeys. He was in a bit of a rush, so he didn't want to stop in Ephesus. He was afraid he would get delayed. And so he called for the elders of the church in Ephesus to come and meet him at a third location. And he spent some time just walking through some things with them, challenging them in some specific areas. And in that meeting, Paul issued a prediction. He issued a prophecy, a warning to the church, to these elders. He said this, "'I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore, be alert.'" So Paul says the church is like sheep, right? And there's going to be some wolves that are going to come in that are going to attack the sheep. And so you as elders, you need to be careful to protect the flock. You also need to realize that some of the problems, some of the attacks are going to come from within. So he says, not only the wolves from outside, but even from your own selves will arise men, speaking twisted things to draw away disciples. And so Paul warned them at that time that there was going to be some problems, and particularly some problems in the area of false teaching. And now here we are 20 years later, Paul's writing to Timothy, and these things have come to pass. That there are some elders, some influential people in the church who have led some astray. We know from the letter here, we've already looked at this, that some of these influential false teachers had begun to move away from the Gospel, the message of salvation, through the work of Jesus on the cross. And they had begun to move towards a religion of human effort, urging people to do certain things to earn their salvation. And Paul says that is a distortion an abandoning of the Gospel. It's false teaching. So this is the issue. And Paul's going to get into some of the ways in which these elders need to be challenged and confronted. But here at the outset, he rehearses the congregation's responsibility to the spiritual leaders in the church. So we're just going to look at these first two verses of this section here today. beginning here in 1 Timothy 5, verse 17. 1 Timothy 5, 17. Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain. And the laborer deserves his wages. So Paul begins, before he gets into some of the other problems, he just wants to reinforce the church's responsibility to spiritual leaders. There's three phrases here in these two verses. Each of them builds on the other, and I want to convey them to you again as responsibilities of the congregation towards its spiritual leaders. So the first phrase is what I call the command. It's really the backbone of what Paul wants to say here. We should honor spiritual leaders who lead well. We should honor spiritual leaders who lead well. Now we could go to a lot of different Scripture passages to sort of see this principle unpacked. Romans 13 is one of those texts. I've put in your notes for you today. Romans 13 addresses this in a very general way. Paul is writing about authority, governmental authority. And he's urging believers to function under the authorities that he has established, the human authorities that he has established. So he says, pay to all what is owed to them, taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. So this is a big deal in Paul's teaching, in the teachings of Peter. They're quite consistent in reinforcing this whole issue of authority. God has established authority. So they deal with it in the context of children needing to function under the authority of their parents. There's wives who need to function under the authority and leadership of their husbands. There's employees who need to function under the authority of their employer, or slaves and masters. Here in Romans, Paul talks about governmental authorities, that we all have authority that we are called to function under. God has established these things and we need to respond to them. And one of those arenas, one of those other arenas, is in the church. So we have other texts that talk specifically about that. 1 Thessalonians 5. Paul writes, we ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you. So again, this issue of respect. Respecting those who've been placed in authority over you within the church, who are in a position to challenge you, to spur you on towards love and good works. You are to respect them. Hebrews 13, a writer to the Hebrews, "'Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account.'" Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you." So not only are believers to respect or to come under authority, but they're to do it in a cheerful manner. They're not to be cantankerous. These individuals, these spiritual leaders, have been given a charge from God, a responsibility, a heavy responsibility. their life miserable. This is kind of what the author is saying here. So this is the vein in which Paul is writing here in 1 Timothy chapter 5. Talking about the responsibility of the congregation to honor those who are in spiritual leadership. Now we need to clarify who is being described here. Who are the elders? The elders is just one of the terms used for spiritual leaders in the church. There's actually three terms. There's the word elder. It's used most often. It speaks of some measure of maturity, life experience. And then there's the term overseer, or the King James says bishop. It has to do with authority. It speaks to the authoritative nature of the role of the office. And then there's the word for pastor or shepherd. It's shepherd imagery. And it speaks of the ethos of leadership. that these individuals are to lead in a certain way, not as dictators, not as kings, but to exercise loving, concerned leadership as a shepherd would exercise leadership for his sheep. So all of these are used here interchangeably. This is who Paul is talking about. Now, what does it mean to convey double honor? The idea for honor here certainly is often used to speak of financial remuneration, compensation, pay, support, financial support. And certainly that is part of what's being conveyed here when we look at it in context, but it would certainly be a broader concept of conveying respect. What about double honor? What does that mean? Some spiritual leaders might want that to mean double pay. But alas, that is not what it means. It simply is a way of saying that they should receive care from the church, that they should be recipient of the church's generosity in taking care of their needs and compensating them for their labors. Some commentators have tried to think about the relationship here, what the double would indicate if there's more to this. And some have suggested honor and honorarium. In other words, the remuneration, the honorarium, the expression of honor, and then the honor itself. This is double honor. Homer Kent, an older commentator, he writes this, one honor goes to him, to the elder, because of the position which he occupies. Extra honor goes to him if he serves with distinction. So in other words, there's a certain honor that's just expected of all who are in that position of spiritual leadership. But the double honor comes into play when someone really serves with distinction in an extraordinary way, goes above and beyond. In any regard, there should be this generous honor extended. What about ruling well? What does it mean to rule well? Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor. Here we have Paul's favorite word. I think every week we find this word. It's the word kolos. That he's wanting to commend and recognize elders who rule with excellence, who rule beautifully, who rule with a sense of nobility and grace. This is an aesthetic word. So it's not just saying that they ought to be morally upright, ethical in the way that they conduct themselves. Yes, they should. But this goes beyond that. This is a beauty word. This is an aesthetic word. It speaks of the way in which they go about their leadership responsibilities. And interesting to think about what would constitute ruling well, right? It's a little intimidating as a pastor to think through this. Usually there's some 300 people who each have their own ideas of what the pastor should be doing, right? What would constitute a good allocation of his time? What would really make for a good pastor? Sometimes it's a little hard to please everyone, is it not? Do I have an amen? It is a little hard to please everyone. Fortunately, Scripture kind of gives us some context to think about what it would look like for an elder to rule well. If we go back into chapter 4, beginning in verse 6, Paul says to Timothy, if you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus. That's the word again. A noble and excellent servant. And he goes on to unpack some aspects of lifestyle that should be evidenced in Timothy's life. He should not just again rule with an iron fist, but his very life ought to be such that it can be emulated, that he can be put forward as an example in the way that he handles his finances and all of these different ways. So I think we have a bit of a view at least as to what Paul would be targeting here and the type of service that should be honored So we should honor spiritual leaders who lead well. Again, there's kind of the backbone of the text. That's Paul's command. It is a command. It's an imperative command to the congregation to honor spiritual leaders. You undoubtedly know at least something of Winston Churchill. Churchill was one of the main voices concern in Britain when Hitler and the Nazi forces were advancing across Europe. Everyone else was in kind of sleepy mode, you know, as country after country is being sort of absorbed into the Third Reich. Hitler is raising the red flag or not Hitler Hitler wasn't raising the red flag actually well. He was raising his red flag But Churchill was the one who was raising the flag and saying you know beware beware And it's interesting Churchill was was really in in relative obscurity at that time in Britain He had taken some political views that were not very popular and he was sort of in the doghouse as it were in the 30s and But as this began to come down the pike, Churchill began to be more and more outspoken in drawing attention to this. When Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister, resigned, Churchill was assigned to that post. And his speeches and radio broadcasts helped inspire British resistance. Eventually they listened to Churchill and they began to arm themselves and prepare for what was certainly going to be war. He was the first person, in recognition for his noble service, he was the first person to be named and made an honorary citizen of the United States. And it's interesting to think about, only eight people have ever been named an honorary citizen of the United States, and only two of them while they were living. Winston Churchill and Mother Teresa. That's a pretty good list. Lives of distinction. And Churchill was recognized because he ruled well. because He exercised His authority and His influence for the good of the nation. And even our country recognized His contributions, recognized His courage, His valor. And Paul says here that those who serve in spiritual leadership in the realm of the church should be honored and recognized and valued. So the second phrase here is what I call the qualifier. We should particularly value the arduous work of preaching and teaching. We should particularly value the arduous work of preaching and teaching. Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching." There are a number of texts to draw in this idea of the study and the teaching of God's Word as labor, as a trade, as something that 2 Timothy 2, here Paul writing to Timothy, he talks about this as a trade. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker or a workman, a craftsman who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the Word of Truth. So this idea of handling Scripture is seen to be something that is to be undertaken with great care. It requires a great deal of energy, skill, and effort. The word here is labor. Those who labor in preaching and teaching might be translated toil. It means expending yourself to the point of exhaustion. That's why I translated this kind of funny word, arduous. That there's to be particular honor given to those who undertake the arduous, painstaking, emotionally taxing, exhausting, stressful work of preaching and teaching. He wants to draw attention to that. What distinction is being made here in this text? It seems that Paul has in mind two different groups of elders. And to be honest, we're not exactly sure. We can't say with any degree of certainty. But there are elders who the primary foundational core responsibility of the elders is authority. Overseeing. Guarding over the church. But then it seems that there are some who are given in an intensive way to the work of preaching and teaching. It could be that this is even sort of the distinctions we have of lay elders and vocational elders. Paul isn't stating it in such overt terms, but we begin to see some distinctions perhaps within a group of elders in a local church of some who are particularly given in a very intensive way to preaching and teaching. I found myself wondering as well, looking at this text this week, of why Paul had to make a point here. Why would there perhaps have been a tendency to devalue the ministry of preaching and teaching? Living in the first century, it could be that people didn't view preaching and teaching as work, as labor, right? Living in more of an agrarian type culture, most people maybe worked with their hands, didn't exactly maybe think of preaching and teaching as something that would really demand such high honor. We live in a different sort of culture, don't we, where many of you work what might be called white-collar jobs, right? You're crunching numbers as an accountant, or you're an educator of some sort, or an engineer who's designing products on a computer. You don't necessarily have calluses and blisters every day. So we at least recognize there's a variety of forms of work. And if you do the little life prognosticator online, you can find out how long you're going to live, right? And if you have a doctorate or if you make a certain salary, then you can reduce your lifespan by five years or something, right? We recognize that certain forms of white-collar labor are very stressful. They're not kind to the body or to the mind. But we at least have categories to understand that. It could be that, you know, think about the synagogue. The elders in the church, it seems to be roughly modeled after the pattern of the synagogue, the Jewish synagogue. They would have a plurality of elders who would give leadership. And of course, those elders were supported by the nation of Israel. It was a process of tithes and different means in which the nation would collect monies and the religious leaders would be funded. Well, guess what? Israel wasn't supporting the church. So the church in some sense was going to have to care for their own leadership. So Paul was having to make a point of this. We're not sure exactly why Paul had to emphasize it, but he did. He had to help them to understand that this is their responsibility. And it should be valued. My Uncle Grant. was a lineman. He worked for Consumers Power. And he was one of these guys that had to carry the heavy 100-pound roll of wire with the spurs and be climbing poles. And he was called away when there would be outages either in his area or in other areas. He worked long hours. It was a demanding job. My Uncle Grant is probably 6' 3", and just an ox of a guy. He was really strong. He was well-suited for that sort of work. And he was paid well. It wasn't anything that he just sort of took on the chin. He was paid well for his labors, but he's had several back surgeries since. It was sort of a cost that was paid for that. And a lot of people were appreciative. He used to tell stories of people and how much they appreciated him being out in all the weather conditions and those sorts of things to restore electricity, to restore the flow of power into people's homes, shorten the time of outages. And I found myself thinking as Paul's writing here that Paul's saying we ought to value the flow of the Word of God into the life of the church. You look at the various images and metaphors for Scripture, right? It is milk. It is bread. It is the Word of Life. This is something that ought to be valued. Those that would stand and give attention to study and proclaim and articulate and teach the Word of God ought to be valued in the church. It's the lifeblood of the church. So we should honor spiritual leaders who lead well. Specifically, we should value the arduous work of preaching and teaching. And finally, what I'm calling the rationale, we should respond to God's clear expectations regarding work and compensation. We should respond to God's clear expectations regarding work and compensation. So here, Paul turns to the issue of motivation. He's stated the command. He's narrowed the focus a bit. And now he wants to address the issue of the will. He wants to drive the point home. And he draws on two specific Scripture passages to reinforce His command. The first has to do with the ox. It's a portion of the law taken out of Deuteronomy. And he says there that the ox should not be muzzled while it is treading out the grain. Now I had to talk to my kids a little bit about what a muzzle was. Kids, do you know what a muzzle is? I could put some kids on the spot today. Any kids know what a muzzle is? No? At least nobody that's brave enough to say. So a muzzle would be something that would be put over the snout of an animal. Right? Like if a dog was known for biting, then sometimes the owner might put a muzzle over the dog's snout so that they couldn't bite. In this case, the muzzle was to keep the ox from eating. Because if the ox is working and treading out the grain, what do you think the ox might want to do? Take a big bite. And the law says that is okay. That should be permitted. The ox is doing this work. He should be able to have a bite every now and again. That's just fair. So the threshing of the wheat, you'd have a long stalk, and then at the tip of that stalk would be the seeds, the actual wheat, the kernels of wheat, and they're in kind of hard husks, a hard shell. And so they'd pile up all of this wheat on a hard surface, and then they'd let the ox come in and just trample it down. And he would crush those hard shells and break it all up. And then they'd come in with a big kind of a pitchfork and they'd throw it up in the air and the wind would blow the stalks and the little husks, which were very light, the wind would blow those things away and the seeds would fall back down onto the hard surface. And then you'd collect the seeds. You'd collect the wheat. So while the ox is undertaking this labor, it's appropriate for him to be able to take a bite. Paul makes a big deal of this in 1 Corinthians 9. He draws attention to this same Old Testament law. It is written in the Law of Moses, you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain. Is it for oxen that God is concerned? This is a very interesting question to ask. What does this text say about animals and our treatment of animals? Paul says, does He not certainly speak for our sake It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope, and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop. So Paul says there's a principle here that goes far beyond the ox, and that is that a person who labors should gain the benefit of their labor. They should be compensated for their labor. So he draws on the animal world, and then he draws on the very words of Jesus. And he talks about the laborer. Luke 10. Jesus was sending out all of His disciples on a mission to take the Gospel. And He says to them, don't take a money bag with you. Don't take any resources with you. Because wherever you go, whoever hears the message should provide for your needs. They should take care of you. The laborer is worthy of his wages. So they should put you up for the night. They should provide a meal for you. This is only fitting. So Jesus taught this with His own disciples. So Paul is appealing to these various sources to drive home the point that the church has a responsibility to care for and compensate spiritual leaders for their work. This is an interesting topic to think about. Maybe some of the ways in which we might rob people or not compensate them appropriately. One of the areas in our current culture is copyright infringement. There's a lot of numbers going about trying to quantify how people are often taken advantage of. So they might be a musician, right? And they compose a song or they record an album, and then people maybe buy the album and then they copy it for three or four of their friends. Right? That is stealing. It might be a movie that you're able to find a pirated copy. And instead of paying at Redbox to watch that movie, you just watch the pirated copy. You are taking something from someone that doesn't belong to you. You're not compensating them for their labors. They estimate that in the United States, individuals lose about $16 billion in income because of copyright infringement. We wonder why artists are starving, right? So that's a big issue, and God feels very strongly about this. I have two passages here, but I want to look at the James passage. Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. So he's writing against the rich. Not just the rich who have earned a good living. He's writing against the rich who've gotten rich by dishonest gain, by taking advantage of other people. So, come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts." So he says, you've gotten rich, alright, and you've gotten rich because you haven't paid your workers. You've held it back. You've cheated them. And God has noticed. This is not simply a vocational workplace issue. This is a spiritual issue. And God is concerned about those who are not adequately compensated for their labors, who are taken advantage of, whose wages are withheld. And so Paul appeals to this to sort of, again, raise the ante, to drive home his point that we should respond to God's clear expectations regarding work and compensation. Of course, here the focus is very specific on elders. This is Paul's point, that those who labor and work on behalf of the church for the church's good should be compensated for their efforts. But think of all the different applications of this principle. that there are waitresses that should be properly compensated and tipped when they provide good service. We should be generous in acknowledging and placing a value upon that person's life and their vocation and their service to us. Contractors. I remember talking with people who would do work and then would not get paid for it. It's a big problem. Even if you have some dispute with the work that was done, there ought to be compensation for the work that has been performed and maybe some type of mediation to sort through that, but you cannot withhold what that contractor deserves. Musicians and other individuals who have intellectual properties, copyrighted properties. Certainly the principle that Paul is establishing here has far-reaching implications. But at the very least, and most to Paul's point, it has implications for the church and the church's responsibility to care for its spiritual leaders.