1 Timothy 5-6:2
“Do You Want Respect?”

I. Everyone Wants Respect
1. Businesses try to treat customers with respect because they will come back if they feel respected.
2. White racists disrespected blacks. Southern segregation was really about humiliation.
3. A great abominations of church history is that the whites treated blacks with disrespect in the church.
II. Respect As Family (5:1-16)
A. Treat Other Church Members Like Members of the Family (5:1-2)
1. The key to making that real, not just an empty slogan, is respect and concern.
2. Other church members aren’t just like fellow customers at a restaurant.
B. The Family As the First Church (5:3-8)
1. The family has the primary responsibility for the care of its members.
2. The life of self-indulgence is death. Service, to God through the family or the church, is life.
3. He who won’t take care of his family “has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” (5:8).
4. If a woman didn’t have a family to support her, the church was her family.
C. Widows Who Commit Themselves to the Church (5:9-16)
1. Someone who makes a pledge to serve the church deserves great respect. It’s not for just anyone.
2. They had better fulfill that pledge, or their passions are drawing them away from Christ.
3. God expects us to fulfill our vows, whether they be marriage vows or our church covenant.
4. Paul gives common-sense advice to protect young people against their short-sightedness.
III. Respect In the Church (5:17-25)
A. Double Honor
1. Honor God’s Word. If you really honor His Word, you’ll respect those who teach it to you.
2. All on a championship team deserve honor. The MVP (most valuable player) deserves double.
3. Christ rules His Church. The elders should direct the rest of us in the ways Christ is ruling.
4. In scripture, there are always “elders” – plural – in every church, not just one man at the top.
5. There is a special group of elders who not only direct but they labor in preaching and teaching.
B. Pay
1. We love the Word of God and so we should honor those who faithfully bring the Word to us.
2. To some degree, what we pay pastors is some indication of how much we honor them.
3. A pastor shouldn’t touch the money and the women! But we should provide for him adequately.
C. Protection
1. Elders should be protected from rumors and unfounded accusations (5:19).
2. Snipers will only shoot officers. Leaders are especially vulnerable.
3. “Do not admit” — accept or entertain — “a charge against an elder” unless supported by witnesses.
D. Passion for Purity
1. The flip side of an elder’s rightful protection from baseless rumors is his accountability.
2. If guilty, the elder doesn’t get off more easily. The Church is not a good-old-boys club.
3. John Calvin: “. . . the government of the church is conducted under the eye of God . . .”
4. Prevention is better than cure. Wait to see if there are sins that will pop up over time.
5. “Keep yourself pure,” but take care of yourself. We could use the problem of youthful zeal.
IV. Respect In the World (6:1-2)
1. Respect your employers. Don’t use your beliefs to feel superior to others. It makes the gospel reviled.
2. The gospel is blasphemed if we use our faith to escape our duties or take advantage of other Christians.
3. A smug, disrespect for authorities, denies that we have been humbled by the grace of God.
V. Invitation: Do you want respect? Then start by giving it. Do we want respect? Then we need to give it. That begins with God. Give respect to the Word of God. Give respect to the Word of God come in the flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ, the source of all that deserves respect. Do you want respect? Give it to the Lord now.