Pastor's Bible Study

Peace and contentment are two things (concepts) that generally go together. When you think of one, you will often think of the other. When you have one, you generally have the other. But the similarity between the two is more than a partnership or relationship. The similarity is their nature. True peace is inward. When you have peace, you have an inner calmness despite outer circumstances or condition. True contentment is inward. It deals with a satisfaction that is in us more so than a satisfaction with stuff, money, material possessions, etc. (outside conditions).

Everyone is subject to authority, but do we submit to it? In the first two verses of the text, Paul is speaking to the issue of slaves/servants submitting to the authority of masters. In our day and age, these words can seem somewhat confusing and perhaps not applicable in our lives. However, what Paul says makes much sense in the setting and timing he was in (i.e. the early church age), and in terms of application what Paul says to servants in principle applies to us even today.

Paul encourages Timothy with how to relate to fellow elders in the church who serve with him in terms of paying elders, disciplining elders, and ordaining and selecting elders.

Paul chooses an analogy of family to illustrate how a pastor should interact with various members of his congregation. He purposefully used a term of family (e.g. father, mother, sister, brother) instead of business or government, because the church is a family. Church members share a common father. We look to Jesus as our older brother. We live in a household (church) with extended family. This is why we regard each other as brothers and sisters. We are family.

To be a good minister, Paul tells Timothy (in addition to pointing out the truth concerning apostasy) to do these things: exercise spiritually, make God your goal, be an example to the believers, give your attention to God’s Word and yourself so that you persevere for your own good and the good of others.

Between the two main sections of the book there are three verses that form a kind of pivot point where Paul pivots from one section to another. This link is very intriguing. It in essence teaches us that the church is to display the truth of God’s Word and bear witness to the person and work of Jesus Christ.

After Paul speaks about the qualities of a man necessary to fill the office of pastor, he turns his attention to the qualities of a man necessary to fill the office of deacon. Of the offices in the church, the most Christ-like is deacon. This is why the qualifications are stringent. Not everyone has what it takes to fill the office of deacon.

To say that the Bible teaches that all Christians must abstain from drinking wine would not be accurate. The Bible does not clearly teach against a Christian partaking of alcohol. There is no command in the Bible to not drink, but there is also no command to drink. There is liberty. However, just because you have liberty to do something doesn’t mean you have to. Exercising liberty (freedom) means freedom to do and freedom not to do. The more important question is not what am I free to do? But what is the wise thing to do?

Church leaders holding the office of pastor (bishop, elder) should be drawn from men who are spiritually mature. Paul in this section of Scripture gives Timothy of list of characteristics that could help the church determine if a man was spiritually mature and qualified to lead in the office of pastor.

Paul wrote these words to a male-dominated culture. As we read them, we need to understand that he wrote them not to limit women, but reassure them of the liberty they have. When we look at this passage of scripture through the lens of our American culture we can the see word "limited" stamped on it. But if we look at this passage of scripture clearly with no cultural bias, we see the word "liberty" stamped across it.