It’s not always easy to get along in community, and yet, the Bible places a great deal of emphasis on doing just that. One of the main ways in which the New Testament encourages a good community dynamic is to frame the church as a family. That’s what Paul will do in the passage we’ll be reading in our study of 1 Timothy this Sunday. We’ll be reading ch 5:1-16.

Paul begins the section explaining how Timothy should be treating the various demographics of the church, and places it all in a family orientation. Why do you believe it’s important to view our fellow church members as family? How easy or hard is it to love your own family? What does the popular phrase “you can’t choose your family” mean to you in this context?

In the rest of the chapter, Paul outlines his instructions about caring for the most needy in the church. His specific interest is widows, which, in that time and place, would have been the most vulnerable people among them. However, in our world, we wouldn’t have such a narrow focus. The principle would be: care for the neediest among you.

In qualifying what constitutes a genuine need, Paul uses some language that is going to be quite uncomfortable to our modern ears – and part of the basis for his being labeled as misogynistic. I don’t believe Paul is anti-women, but we’ll need to carefully examine the cultural and social context of what he says in these verses…something we plan to do on Sunday morning.

Janelle and I will be doing a co-teaching this Sunday – I hope you can join us!