1 Timothy 5:17

Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and in doctrine, for the scripture says, You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain, and the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not receive an accusation against an elder except from two or three witnesses. Those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all so that the rest may also fear. I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that you observe these things without prejudice. Do nothing with partiality. Do not lay hands on anyone hastily, nor share in other people's sins. Keep yourself pure. No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for your stomach's sake and for your frequent infirmities. Some men's sins are clearly evident preceding them to judgment, but those of some men follow later. Likewise, the good works of some are clearly evident and those that are otherwise cannot be hidden. (1 Timothy 5:17-25)

Why do we long to be pure, why can't we achieve it on our own, and what does that have to do with appointing elders?

The Human Drive Toward Purity

If you take time to think about it, you'll quickly conclude that we humans are amazing beings. One of the things that is amazing about us is an abiding internal drive, a desire to be pure, to be better. To my knowledge, we don't see this in any identifiable way in animals. Humans have this deep desire for purification, which begs the question: why?

If you look at the various views of why we have this drive—seen in every culture at virtually every time in recorded history—you find many ideas. One popular view in our increasingly naturalistic society comes from evolutionary psychologists. They theorize that as the human brain moved through evolution, it tripled in size, and most of the final evolution took place in a portion called the neocortex. This is presumed to be the place of complex phenomena that set humans apart—perception, thought, language—the precursors toward religion and morality.

A Naturalistic Story for Our Moral Sense

Those in this field believe early humans realized the need to stay together in groups or tribes, because in the pre-civil ancient world, if you were alone and exposed, you probably wouldn't last very long. Because we felt this need to survive and thrive, we gathered in groups. To remain together, we developed through social structure an inclination toward morality, working for the benefit of others. As time went on, we developed religious rituals and beliefs to help us join together, adhering strongly to them to maintain morality. To transgress meant being banished, and to be banished meant you probably die. So, the theory goes, this is why it's hardwired into us.

It sounds interesting. Perhaps that is how everything came to be. Really, these theories arise to try and explain what is. The scientific method observes reality as it is, then tries to deduce why. And what we observe is that every culture, as far back as we can study, in every place and time, has an inclination toward purity and morality, and is geared for religion. Since those in the social sciences believe everything came about through naturalistic processes, they must come up with a naturalistic explanation for what they observe.

A Theistic Framework

There are other theories. If, like me, you do not see morality and our inclination toward religion as merely socially derived—or you find evolution's answers inadequate—you might assume a different origin. In modern Western culture there are fundamentally two worldviews in conflict: a naturalistic framework, where everything came by random chance and mutation over billions of years, and a theistic framework. You have probably encountered that conflict in conversations with friends, family, neighbors, or co-workers.

Perhaps the advanced neocortex is not a product of naturalistic evolution but something designed. Perhaps our inclination toward morality and purity exists because we were created in the image and likeness of a God who is pure, who has called us to morality and written this inclination into us. That is why we have a conscience. One of the hardest questions for naturalists to answer is where the conscience came from. In line with the Scriptures, I would posit that we have a conscience and an inclination toward purity because God hardwired us that way, and that is why every culture orients itself toward religion.

Both frameworks are attempts to explain how things came to be. Since we have no time machine, we have theories. But the reality is that every human culture is religious—much to the consternation of many evolutionary atheists. Religion is not disappearing or even in decline. And even those who are ardently atheistic are religious in their atheism, with a compulsion toward purification. If you tell someone, believer or not, "You're not living up to your potential; you could be better," almost without doubt they'll agree. That aligns with what we innately know. Even Richard Dawkins, the famed atheist professor at Oxford, thinks there needs to be a purification of all that is bad and evil in the world—and he identifies religion as that evil. He is religiously committed to purifying it away.

"Keep Yourself Pure" in 1 Timothy 5

There is a compelling sense among humans everywhere to keep oneself pure. It is an essentially human desire. Here in 1 Timothy 5, Paul explicitly exhorts, "Keep yourself pure." He's writing to his young protégé Timothy, the newly ordained pastor of the church in Ephesus.

The context is intriguing. This exhortation toward purity follows a word about appointing and ordaining elders. Paul tells Timothy to choose them carefully—"Do not lay hands on anyone hastily." Not only should he choose them carefully, but hold them to a high ethical standard and reward them generously with double honor. Then, after this direction, Paul says, "Do not share in other people's sins. Keep yourself pure."

That brings us to our first point: we should be careful to maintain a personal purity. That statement aligns with the innate drive of all human beings and with the teaching of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. Leviticus 11:44 gives the standard: "You shall be holy as I am holy."

Whose Standard of Holiness?

The interesting thing about us is that we normally set the bar for holiness based on what we observe in other people—which is a problem, because you can always find someone worse off than you. That makes you feel good about your righteousness. If you're struggling, you can dig deep: "At least I'm not as bad as Hitler." But that's not the standard. God says, "Be holy for I am holy." Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, "Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect." Paul says, "Keep yourself pure." Peter says, "Be holy in all of your conduct." When you set God, who is perfectly righteous, as the objective standard, that is a high bar.

We interpret and apply this drive in various ways. Some purge certain things from their lives—if I just get rid of calories, carbs, and gluten, I'll be more pure. People can be pretty religious about this in 21st-century America. Others believe purity comes by separating from certain people or groups; frighteningly, this was the core mindset of the Third Reich. Still others say purity comes by not engaging certain ideas or speech—what we're witnessing on university campuses with "safe spaces" and classifications of "hate speech," a new religious endeavor with new holy ground. And still others pursue purity through denial and self-discipline, buffeting the body to remove anything contaminating.

We Are Not Naturally Pure

The exhortation of Scripture aligns with this internal drive: keep yourself pure. The simple question is, how? And it's essential, where the gospel is concerned, to acknowledge our second point: we are not naturally pure. Try as we may through asceticism, self-denial, self-discipline, separation, or safe spaces, the labor at our own righteousness will ultimately wear us out. As we endeavor to be holy as God is holy, we come to a clear understanding: I am not holy.

The Bible says, "Be holy," but Romans 3:10 also says, "There is none righteous, no, not one." Why would God call us to holiness and then tell us it's not possible? Is He messing with us? No—this is no cosmic joke. He is leading us to an important conclusion: we need God's supernatural power to acquire and maintain purity. This is the gospel message. Paul puts it in Romans 7: "The good things I want to do, I don't do; the bad things I don't want to do, I practice." Can anyone identify with that? We desire purity, we hold others to it, the Scriptures align with it, but we have no power in ourselves to make it a reality at the level our conscience desires, much less the level God demands.

The Context: Disciplining and Honoring Elders

What does this have to do with 1 Timothy 5? When I set out to teach through 1 Timothy, I planned six weeks. This is our 21st message—six weeks turned into six months. Over recent weeks I've been dodging this passage, not because I don't understand what Paul is saying, but because there's a verse in the middle that doesn't seem to fit.

Back to the context: Paul left Timothy to pastor the Ephesian church and get a church that was off course back on course. Paul had planted it, left, and returned about eight years later to find it had gone astray—largely because the leaders had led them astray. So Timothy, the newly appointed pastor, probably younger than the existing leaders, must now exercise church discipline over those leaders. That's a tall order, which is why Paul says, "Let no one despise your youth."

So Paul cautions him in verse 19: "Do not receive an accusation against an elder except from two or three witnesses." There needs to be due process and corroborating testimony before disciplining off-course elders. Don't go in guns blazing, turning over tables. But there also needs to be honoring of those who have done well (verse 17): reward good behavior, discipline bad behavior. Then verse 20: "Those who are sinning rebuke." Underline "sinning"—in the original Greek it's the present perfect tense, meaning those who are openly and continually practicing sin. "Rebuke" means to openly confront for the purpose of discipline and repentance, "in the presence of all so that the rest may also fear." And verse 21: do this without prejudice or partiality, because God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels are watching how the church is led.

The Verse That Didn't Seem to Fit

It all flows logically through verses 17 through 21. Verse 22 still fits: "Do not lay hands on anyone hastily"—don't ordain new elders too quickly—"nor share in other people's sins." The word is koinonia; don't have fellowship or communion with their sin. Keep yourself pure, Timothy.

Then comes verse 23: "No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for your stomach's sake and for your frequent infirmities." Followed by verse 24: "Some men's sins are clearly evident, preceding them to judgment, but those of some follow later. Likewise, the good works of some are clearly evident, and those of others cannot be hidden." That wine verse seems like a massive speed bump in the middle of a logical passage. How does drinking a little wine relate to ordaining elders? I have one of those minds that likes to go from A to B to C to D—so when I get A, B, C, M, I go, "Where did that come from?"

I read commentaries and asked Bible-teaching friends, and honestly didn't like any of the explanations. Then last week a friend who attends our church—a man who was a terrible alcoholic for the first half of his life and has been sober by God's grace for nearly 40 years—took me to lunch. As we talked about what he's learned over those decades of sober, Spirit-led living, I said, "I think this is providential." I told him both of us agree drunkenness is sin; the Bible makes that clear. But then I asked, "Would you agree that sobriety does not equal righteousness?" He said, "Yeah, you're right."

Sobriety Is Not Righteousness

You can be sober—a good thing the Bible promotes—and still be totally unrighteous. I think alcohol was a problem in the Ephesian context, as it is for many today. Paul exposes it in Ephesians 5:18: "Do not be drunk with wine, which is excess, but be filled with the Spirit." I have a theory—I could be wrong, and Paul can correct me in heaven—that the Ephesian elders were not given to wine, and yet they had led the church astray. They prized this standard, "We don't drink," especially in a culture where alcohol was a major problem. But sobriety did not equal righteousness. You can be not drunk with wine, but also not filled with the Spirit. That became their problem.

That's why Paul, in the middle of teaching about elders, throws out this aside to Timothy: "Drink a little wine with your water for your stomach's sake." Most commentators agree Timothy was probably a teetotaler. In that day, like in many developing nations today, water supplies were not sanitary, and people added a little wine to kill contaminants. The Ephesian elders and Timothy were against alcohol, but their standard was causing a physical infirmity. Paul says, deal with this problem, and don't think your standard makes you righteous—it doesn't.

That brings us to our fourth point: maintaining purity in the church is a corporate endeavor. Paul returns to the thought in verse 24: some men's sins are clearly evident, pushing their sin in a cart before them for everyone to see. You look and say, "That person isn't elder material right now." But the sins of others follow later—some hide it well. The same is true for good works: some look really good, while others' good works are quieter. So don't lay hands on someone too quickly. Often the very thing needed is time, to see the fruit of their life, because people can look really good on the outside.

Whitewashed Tombs

This is what we call Pharisaism. Jesus speaks against it in Matthew 23: "You clean the outside of the cup, but the inside is dirty. You're like whitewashed tombs—painted on the outside, but inside full of dead men's bones." It doesn't matter how good you make the outside look; it's still full of decay. People in church settings can look really good outwardly but not be good inwardly.

This makes clear our fifth point: private impurity will eventually be publicly manifest. You can't hide it forever. Numbers 32:23 says, "Be sure your sin will find you out." Jesus said in Matthew 7:15, "Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Every good tree bears good fruit and every bad tree bears bad fruit... Therefore, by their fruits you will know them."

The Fruit of the Spirit Is the Evidence

Having personal convictions about righteousness and purity is good. But those positions, rites, rituals, and traditions don't make you righteous. Christ makes us righteous—beginning internally and working out through our lives by the transforming of our minds, that we would show forth His good and perfect will in this world. We need God's supernatural power to acquire and maintain holiness.

In that context, the more important visible evidence is the fruit of the Spirit. Paul said, "Do not be drunk with wine, which is excess, but be filled with the Spirit." What do we want to see in people's lives—that they keep certain standards like "I don't drink," or that they are filled with the Spirit? We can be tempted to exalt people whose lives look good outwardly while paying little attention to what's happening internally.

Galatians 5 gives us the barometer for what God's Spirit produces. It's not religious ritual, church attendance, tithe records, or serving in children's ministry—all good things, but the evidence is this: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Those are what God is looking for, to show forth His glory. And those are what we should honor when we see them—perhaps by laying hands on someone, recognizing God's call and work in their life, so that churches would not be led astray.

That is exactly what we're going to do next week, a practical application of this. I've been observing a young man's life, watching him walk out these things, so we'll be appointing him to the work of the ministry. As followers of Jesus, we should be endeavoring to see this fruit grow in our lives by the work of God's grace and Spirit. Amen.

Closing Prayer

Father, thank You for this passage of Scripture, even though sometimes seeing the clear, logical thread through it is hard for my little mind. Thank You for the work of Your grace and Your Spirit to lead us into these things. I pray that any loose ends I've left, You would tie back together by Your grace. Thank You that it is not up to us to work our way up to You, because by our own strength and determination, even though what we human beings can accomplish through self-discipline is phenomenal, we'll never get there. Thank You that You came down to us and dealt with our unrighteousness perfectly on the cross. So work out Your righteousness in us as we follow You by faith.

Maybe as we're standing here today, you realize you've been trying, through church attendance or religious ritual, to make yourself pure and keep yourself pure, but you realize that's impossible by your own strength. I want to encourage you: Christ died for your sin so you could be forgiven and pardoned, so He could indwell you with His Holy Spirit and accomplish His good work in and through your life by grace. If you'd like to receive the forgiving grace of God today—His salvation, His indwelling Spirit—just follow along with me in this prayer:

Dear Jesus, I know I cannot make myself pure. I confess that I need You. Would You come into my life, forgive me of my sin, and help me to follow You by faith, for Your glory, in Jesus' name. Amen.