Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadLange Commentary - 1 Timothy 5:17 - 5:25
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
1Ti_5:17-25
[No footsteps are to be found in any Christian church of lay elders, nor were there for many hundred, years. St. Paul, prescribing Timothy (1 Timothy 3.) how he should stablish the church, passeth immediately from bishops and ministers of the word and sacraments to deacons, omitting these lay elders, that are supposed to lie in the midst between them. The places of Scripture brought to prove this kind of government are three: 1Ti_5:17; Rom_12:7-8; 1Co_12:28. The two latter are too weak to prove the thing in question. Touching the first, some interpret it as noting two parts or duties of the presbyterial office, not two sorts of presbyters; some, that amongst the elders some labored principally in governing, others in teaching and preaching. Thus these words may have a very good and true sense, without pressing the late conceit touching lay elders. Field, “Of the Church,” B. 5, 1Tim 26. “The offices of ðñåóâýôåñïò and äéäÜóêáëïò were united, at the date of the Pastoral Epistles, in the same persons; which is shown by äéäáêôéêüò being a qualification required in a presbyter; 1Ti_3:2. But though this union must in all cases have been desirable, we find, from this passage, that there were still some ðñåóâýôåñïé who were not äéäÜóêáëïé ; i.e., who did not perform the office of public instruction in the congregation. This is another strong proof of the early date of the Epistle.” Conybeare and Howson, ii. 472. It must be allowed, however, while this notion of lay eldership has but slight warrant, if any, in Scripture, that the idea which prompted it is not to be lightly passed by. The whole tendency of the later Church was to forget the distribution of the ÷Üñéïìáôá , which was the most living feature of the primitive body, and to identify the Church with the clergy. It would be a great blessing to our modern Christianity, if we could have preacher, pastor, and teacher each in his own sphere. We have lost the flexibility of the apostolic age.—W.]
1Ti_5:18. For the Scripture saith, &c. The Apostle illustrates and confirms his doctrine by Deu_25:4. Comp. 1Co_9:9, where he has with great emphasis set forth the same argument still more minutely. In our text he cites the words of the Old Testament merely as an instructive parallel, and leaves to the reader the inference a minori ad majus in regard to a human laborer. This idea, at first suggested, is now clearly expressed: And the laborer is worthy of his hire. If the phrase ëÝãåé ãὰñ ἡ ãñáöÞ be connected with these words, the criticism is right which finds here a proof that the composition of the Epistle was of a later date. The Old Testament contains no passage which could have occurred here to the Apostle (Lev_19:33; Exo_24:14, cannot be meant); and that the saying of the Lord (Luk_10:10; comp. Mat_10:10) should already be cited here by Paul as ãñáöÞ , is as groundless a supposition (comp., however, Wordsworth, in loco). But it is wholly unnecessary to refer the words, ëÝãåé ãὰñ ἡ ãñáöÞ , to both parts of the verse. The last clause, ἄîéïò , ê . ô . ë ., seems simply a proverbial expression, which had been used before by the Lord. (Thus also Calvin.) This whole passage shows that the Apostle requires such a ôéìÞ for the presbyters as should be shown in a due provision for their temporal necessities (comp. Gal_6:6).
1Ti_5:19. Against an elder receive not an accusation. After Paul has shown how to act toward presbyters who are worthy of honor, he proceeds more exactly to define the conduct of Timothy toward the unworthy. It is obvious that the Apostle does not mean here, by ðñåóâýôåñïò , an old man in the general sense (Chrysostom), but distinctly a presbyter of the church, against whom any accusation might be brought. Timothy must receive no complaint in such cases, except ( ἐêôὸò åἰ ìÞ , a well-known pleonasm) before two or three witnesses. This number was required by the Mosaic law (Deu_17:6; Heb_10:28), and by the Lord Himself in a similar case (Mat_18:16). This decision may have occurred, perhaps, to the mind of the Apostle. Timothy was not to be disturbed by unproved private complaints, but to give due weight to the rights of the presbyterial office, and to condemn no innocent man unheard. “It might easily happen, in a church so large and mixed as the Ephesian, that one or another, from wounded feelings of honor, from mere partisanship, or some selfish motive, would seek to injure a presbyter, and drag him down from his influential position; and against this the precept of the Apostle was the best safeguard” (Matthies). It is noticeable that we have here not ἐðὶ óôüìáô . äýï ìáñô ., but simply ἐðὶ äýï ìáñô . If the preposition be here understood in the sense of coram, as ἐðὶ ìáñô . was often used by classical writers in the sense of before witnesses (Huther), we have here the rule that the personal presence of the definite number of witnesses must in each case be held necessary; a rule probably designed to save Timothy from the appearance of partiality. But we regard it as more probable that only the testimony of two or three men is here required (De Wette); and there is surely no ground to refer this exclusively (Huther) to complaints affecting the office of a presbyter, but to anything by which the character, public or private, might be in the least degree injured.
1Ti_5:20. Them that sin rebuke before all, &c. According to some, this denotes, in general, sinful members of the church; according to others, sinful presbyters. The last, however, is here the more probable, and the nature of the case itself requires that ἁìáñôÜíïíôáò should be specially understood of grosser crimes; indeed, of those which justly create scandal. The sinful persons are represented as still at the time living in sin, whence the present is used where otherwise the perfect would be expected. The question, again, is whether the following words, rebuke before all, that others also may fear, mean the other presbyters, or all the other members of the church. Grammatically, one is as allowable as the other, and both expositions have a sound sense. Since, however, a censure of the guilty presbyter in the hearing of the assembled church was not necessary, and might easily lead to a depreciation of the clerical office, it is perhaps better to suppose a censure coram consensu presbyterorum; a rule of unquestionable value, since the associates of the guilty man, who perhaps might be inclined to wrong, would thus be moved by a wholesome fear.
1Ti_5:21. I charge thee before God (comp. 2Ti_4:1). With this solemn attestation the just and faithful execution of all these precepts is impressed on Timothy. Perhaps the mention of the ìÜñôõñåò (1Ti_5:19) led the Apostle naturally to point his friend and scholar to the highest ìÜñôõò of his life and work. The subject was certainly weighty enough to justify the most solemn charge. Should Timothy forget it, the injury to the church might be incalculable. The cumulative style of the words also proves how heavily this lay on Paul’s heart. Bengel says well: “Repræsentat Timotheo suo judicium extremum, in quo Deus revelabitur et Christus cum angelis coram conspicietur.” He charges him not alone before God and Jesus Christ ( êõñßïõ is not genuine; see the critical note), but before God and the elect angels. Manifold expositions have been given of this verse, especially in regard to the striking ἐêëåêôῶí . Not to criticise the almost forgotten notion of those who thought this an allusion to distinguished preachers of Christianity, or to the presbyters of the church, we name only the view (Baur) which explains it by the Gnostic fancy of certain angels, who stand in special connection with the Redeemer; a view which would again give internal evidence of the later origin of the Epistle. This argument, however, proves too much, since this conception of elect angels, standing in a special relation to the Lord of the Church, is of genuine New Testament origin (comp. 1Pe_3:22; Heb_1:6, and other places). For our part, we hold it most probable that the Old Testament idea of different ranks and orders of angels passed before the mind of the Apostle, and that he here refers to the highest among them. Conybeare and Howson: “By the chosen angels, are probably meant those especially selected by God as His messengers to the human race, such as Gabriel.” The interpretation of the passage as only an epitheton ornans (Huther) seems to us somewhat tame. For other views, see De Wette in loco.—That thou observe these things. Ôáῦôá refers to the exhortation immediately before; that is, respecting the presbyters deserving blame (as well as to those worthy of honor?)—Without preferring one before another, ÷ùñὶò ðñïêñßìáôïò ; without hasty judgment, especially of an unfavorable kind.—Doing nothing by partiality, êáôὰ ðñüóêëéóéí . The unjust disposition is meant, which may easily lead us to look on the virtues or faults of others through a magnifying glass or a microscope. If ðñüóêëçóéí be the true reading (as Lachmann thinks, on the authority of A. D., and other MSS.), then we must infer that the Apostle exhorts Timothy to do nothing coram judice Romano, ethnico (Bretschneider), which would give but a very forced sense; and it is therefore simpler to regard this reading as a lapsus calami, and to adhere to the common one.
1Ti_5:22. Lay hands suddenly on no man. “Timothei erat, manus imponere presbyteris;” Bengel. But the question is, to what laying on of hands the Apostle here refers. According to De Wette, he means the admission of such as had been excluded from church fellowship. Without doubt the connection favors this opinion; and already at an early day the laying on of hands was practised as a sign of absolution for excommunicated or heretical persons restored into the pale of the church. It is, however, not capable of proof that this was customary in the apostolic age; and as the Apostle here, without further definition, speaks of the laying on of hands as a custom already existing, it is more natural to refer it to the ordination of a presbyter or deacon; an exposition which is also favored by 1Ti_5:24-25 (comp. 1Ti_4:14; Act_6:6). The laying on of hands was not merely the mode of communicating spiritual gifts, but a recognition from those who did it, a declaration that they would be accountable for those ordained. If the latter were unworthy, the former shared the guilt. For this reason the clause was added, neither make thyself partaker of other men’s sins. Timothy gave to each man, in the laying on of hands, evidence of his own esteem; and should it appear afterward that he was, through haste, deceived in the person, then he would reproach himself as in some measure answerable for the consequences of others’ sins. In the words, Keep thyself pure, the opposite conduct was recommended to him. The meaning of ἁãíüí is too much contracted, if referred merely to chastity and modesty (comp. 1Ti_4:12); yet it is too extended, if moral purity in its full extent is included in it. In this connection, purity in respect to the sins of others is here especially impressed upon Timothy. As to this whole precept (1Ti_5:22), Melanchthon’s words deserve citation: “Complectitur utilem doctrinam. Primum confirmat vocationem et ordinationem, quæ fit per homines in Ecclesia, quia approbat ordinationem, quam Timotheus faciebat imponens manus iis, quos Ecclesia vel ipse elegerat; altera admonitio hæc est, quod vult fieri explorationem doctrinæ et morum, etc.”
1Ti_5:23. Drink no longer water. It may seem, in a superficial view, that this counsel of Paul is of trivial value, and, in this connection, strange and without purpose. As to the last point, much must undoubtedly be allowed to the free, artless style of this letter to his friend and pupil; while again the words just before, Keep thyself pure, would give the Apostle a fit occasion, from the close union of soul and body, to prescribe to Timothy this change in his previous course of life. That Timothy in this respect may have been under the fetters of a false asceticism (Wiesinger), can hardly be supposed; and as little (Otto) that he was in danger of being warped in his judgment by the Gnostics, who forbade the use of wine, or at least required abstinence from it as necessary for progress in the Gnosis. It is more probable that the effort to check the excess of others by his own example, had led him gradually to too rigid a diet. But those who followed Gnostic or Essenian views might meanwhile make a misuse of his example, while his own health, apparently not very firm, was liable to injury. Hence the exhortation, Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake; literally, be no longer a water-drinker. According to Winer, Gramm., 6th ed., p. 442, ὑäñïðïôåῖí means, to use water as a customary and exclusive drink. Whoever drinks a little wine, of course ceases to be a water-drinker in this sense; and therefore ìüíïé need not be connected in thought with these words. The reason of this friendly advice is added in the clause, for thy stomach’s sake and thine after infirmities. Chrysostom: ὅóïí ðñὸò ὑãßåéáí , ïἀ ðñὸò ôñõöÞí . If this, however, be the only ground of this whole injunction, then there is not, indeed, the slightest connection between it and what precedes or follows. It is still possible that his fear lest Timothy might too strictly understand his command to keep himself pure, drew this advice from the Apostle. The conjecture (Heydenreich) is a desperate one, that this is an interpolation, to be thus explained: that the parchment was finished, and, for the rest of the letter, a new leaf was added at 1Ti_5:24. After all was done, this remark, contained in 1Ti_5:23, occurred to the Apostle; but there was no room on the last leaf, and therefore be wrote it on the parchment, closing with 1Ti_5:22, at the end of which a little space may have been left. “So might I have done, had I been Paul!” Better be content to read in this verse a clear proof of the genuineness of the Epistle, since surely it could never have entered the mind of any romancer for any conceivable purpose to have written it. [Paley has urged this keenly, as a proof of the genuineness of the Epistle. “Imagine an impostor sitting down to forge an epistle in the name of St. Paul. Is it credible that it should come into his head to give such a direction as this—so remote from everything of doctrine or discipline, of public concern to the religion or the church, or to any sect, order, or party in it? Nothing but reality, the real valetudinary situation of a real person, could have suggested it. … The direction stands between two sentences, as wide from the subject as possible. Now, when does this happen? It happens when a man writes as he remembers. In actual letters, in the negligence of a real correspondence, such examples frequently take place; seldom in any other production.” Horæ Paulinæ, 1Tim 12, No. 4.—W.]
1Ti_5:24. Some men’s sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment, &c. A general observation (1Ti_5:24-25), with which this part of the Epistle closes, and one which as truly proves Paul’s wisdom, and knowledge of human nature, as it was fitted for the wants of Timothy in church discipline, and especially in the appointment of the ministry. It would lead him to forethought, since a hasty judgment, whether favorable or not, would be followed by such frequent deception (comp. 1Co_4:5).—Are open beforehand, ðñüäçëïé ; not strictly, are manifest beforehand, but, before the eyes of all (comp. Heb_7:14, where the same word is used, not in relation to time, but place).—Going before to judgment, åἰò êñßóéí ; in other words, they go as heralds before them (as an evil report outstrips a man) to a judgment, which therefore is beyond all doubt. The Apostle would say, that with such men no special foresight is requisite; they constantly condemn themselves; but it is not so with others.—Some men they follow, &c, sc. åἰò êñßóéí ; i.e., their sins are first known after and by the judgment, not known beforehand, like the first-named. In regard to those whose character is not yet clear, circumspection in our judgment cannot be too strongly urged.—They follow after, ἐðáêïëïõèïῦóéí . “Interim patienter exspectandum, dum res se aperiat, nec inquirendum morosius. Fidelem servum tamen regit Deus, ut opportuna agat et dicat. Præpositio ἐðὶ dicit intervallum non longum;” Bengel. This verse has indeed the character, of a common proverb (Huther); but it does not follow that êñßóéò is to be understood in a merely general sense, much less that it signifies exclusively a moral tribunal (De Wette). We must rather believe that the Apostle means the judgment at the advent of Christ, as the goal toward which all sins and all good works proceed; some before their possessors, others after them; some before the eyes of the world, others hidden from men, until at the last judgment, whether known before or not, they are brought fully into the light.
1Ti_5:25. Likewise also the good works. What the Apostle has said above in regard to particular sins, he applies now to good works. Likewise also the good works are manifest beforehand. Some have been for a long time known, and there could be no doubt of them. It was not so, however, with all good works, and therefore he continues: and they that are otherwise, i.e., those good works which are not yet manifest, cannot be hid; they come earlier or later by their own true nature to the light. This is said as a consolation to Timothy, in case he should be troubled by the thought that the doers of many good works would remain perhaps unknown to him, and might thus be overlooked in the choice of presbyters in the church. If we interpret they that are otherwise as meaning evil works, the parallel fails, and we have only a weak repetition of 1Ti_5:24. The harmony demands that 1Ti_5:25 be explained as referring wholly to good works; 1Ti_5:24 to evil works. According to De Wette, both observations mean very little; according to Bengel, we have here, on the contrary, an insigne dictum et hodie observandum. We agree with the latter.
2. In respect to the proper discipline which, according to God’s word, must be exercised over the ministers of the church, there are two perils equally to be avoided. The maxims of espionage, of intimidation, of suspicion, of censure in regard to the most trivial things, have at all times borne bitter fruit. But there can be as little good from that moral latitudinarianism, that false indulgence which is so often seen on the other side. The best discipline for the spiritual office is, however, that which the pastor, by the light of the word and the Spirit of God, exercises over himself.
3. Even if t the word be purely preached and the sacraments duly administered, yet the church remains unfaithful to its calling if it has no desire or power to remove bad men from its midst (comp. 1Co_5:13). But, On the other side, those who rightly mourn over the decay of church discipline, often forget that the chief ministers of the church cannot judge upon reports without evidence; that they must have substantial proof; and that all things must be sustained by the word of two or three witnesses, who, when the trial comes, are usually missing.
4. The doctrine of various ranks and orders in the angelic world is no fruit of Jewish superstition or heathen theosophy, but of the Divine revelation (see the book of Daniel, and the different suggestions in Luk_1:19; Eph_1:21; Col_1:16). The error of the speculative gnosticism here lay in its results and its method, but not, however, in its ground-ideas. Even sound reason must find it probable, à priori, that the spiritual world, the realm of freedom, must be the scene of the richest variety. It cannot, then, surprise us that Paul in this place charges Timothy by the elect angels, when we reflect that, according to the Apostle’s own teaching, the heavenly powers have the most lively sympathy with the weal and woe of the Church of Christ (Eph_3:10; comp. 1Pe_1:12).
5. Christianity is as far removed from a sensual and epicurean view of life, as from a stoical and ascetic one.
6. He who, from the precept of Paul in respect to drinking water and wine, doubts the inspiration of this Epistle, must have the most superficial idea of inspiration. If, indeed, we suppose the Apostle moved by the Spirit to write mechanically and passively what it dictated, then sentences like the preceding are strange indeed (comp. 2Ti_4:18). But he who holds that the whole personality of the Apostle was filled and interpenetrated by the Spirit, so as to be guided by it as well in a word of advice to a friend as in the weightiest rules for the welfare of the church, or in revealing the mysteries of the future, will not even in such seemingly slight things deny the presence of that Spirit, to whom, because He is divine, nothing can be too great, nothing too insignificant. On this whole verse, compare further the seventeenth Homily of Chrysostom (De Statuis, ad populum Antioch.)
[7. The reading, “Be no longer a water-drinker,” brings out more fully the Pauline view of temperance. Indeed, this trivial allusion, like almost all the sayings of the Apostle, involves an ethical principle. Christianity commands temperance: but it plants the law of it in the character, and so makes the man able to judge between use and abuse. To put instead of this a law of total abstinence, is not gospel ethics, but the very asceticism which Paul rebukes in the false teachers of his time.—W.].
Starke: Osiander: The weaknesses of a minister of the church should indeed be so far kept from publicity, that the worthiness of his office of preacher may not be despised; yet great and manifest sins must not go unpunished, that the church may know that what is rebuked in the hearers, cannot be right in their ministers.—Hedinger: The holy angels are also in the assembly of the Lord, and hence we should be blameless (1Co_11:10).—Thou flatterest thyself thou hast not committed this or that sin; but if thou hast in any way helped it on, it is the same as if thou thyself hast done it (Rom_1:32).—Be comforted by this example, ye servants of God who are weak and sickly in body. Ye can nevertheless be useful to the Church of God.—Anton: There is no web so fine-spun, but at last it comes out in the sunlight.—Osiander: The church does not judge private and hidden things. What is manifest, we must reform; but what is hidden, we must leave to God, the righteous Judge (1Co_4:5).
Heubner: A moderate, scanty salary should be a school of discipline for the true, pure, heavenly spirit.—Church discipline is essentially different from civil or temporal.—An evil ground in the heart cannot long remain undiscovered.—A Christian judgment of the character of others.—Christianity throws light on the knowledge of men.—The worth of a good reputation.—Von Gerlach: It does not show regard for the ministerial office, when the offences of the pastor are concealed and gilded over, but when they are specially punished.—Lisco (on 1Ti_5:17-21). The love which should be shown to the ministers of the church: (1) Generous; (2) forbearing love.—The discipline which pastors should exercise over one another.—(Synodal Sermon) on 1Ti_5:22-25 : On true prudence in the appointment of the ministry: (1) In what it consists; (2) Why it is necessary.—A timely exhortation and a sure foresight.
Footnotes:
1Ti_5:18.—[The commonly received order of these words is Âïῦí ἀëïῶíôá ὀõ öéìþóåéò . Lachmann, after A. C., reverses it, thus: ὀí öéì . âïῦí ὰëïῶí .—E. H.]
1Ti_5:18.—[Instead of ìéóèïῦ —Recepta, Tischendorf, Lachmann—the Sinaiticus has ôñïöἢò .—E. H.]
1Ti_5:21.—Received text: And the Lord Jesus Christ. Êõñßïõ to be rejected, beyond question. See Tischendorf on the place.
1Ti_5:21.—[ ðñüóêëéóéí ; see Tischendorf’s note. Lachmann has ðñüóêëéóéí . Cf. Huther.—E. H.]
1Ti_5:23.—[Lachmann omits óïõ after óôüìá÷üí ; so also the Sinaiticus.—E. H.]