1 Timothy 5:8

But those who won’t care for their relatives, especially those in their own household, have denied the true faith. Such people are worse than unbelievers. In days before the welfare state, caring for relatives could be a massive responsibility, but Paul was clear that it was fundamental to Christian faith. It was usual in his society for families to care for one another, so it was crucial that the Christian Church didn’t lag behind. He could hardly have been stronger in his language. If anyone neglected their family responsibilities, they were worse than an unbeliever. It was unthinkable. Caring for our families is very different today. The state provides a huge range of care and pensions ensure that families are not alone in providing financial support for older people. Even so, the responsibility that families bear is still very great, and we should be grateful for the many charities that seek to help. One of them is Care for the Family, which offers a wide range of support for parenting, marriage and bereavement. However strong our families may be, there are times when we need encouragement, guidance and support from others. Eva Burrows, a former General of the Salvation Army, wrote: “In family life, love is the oil that eases friction, the cement that binds closer together, and the music that brings harmony.” These are great words, and families are a blessing, but that isn’t the whole story. We all know that families can be extremely hard work at times and create some of the most difficult tensions and challenges. That’s why churches need to be communities which actively support family life. We need to be honest with one another, joyfully celebrating the many times of joy and success but equally willing to share the times of brokenness and sadness. For Paul, Christian faith was never simply a matter of believing the right things and worshipping with fellow Christians. It was about living for God amid the storms and challenges of everyday life, and caring for the family was where it needed to begin.

Question How has your Christian faith helped your understanding of family life?

Prayer Lord God, we thank you for the gift of our families. Help us to love and support them through all the ups and downs of life. Amen

1 Timothy 5:1-2

Never speak harshly to an older man, but appeal to him respectfully as you would to your own father. Talk to younger men as you would to your own brothers. Treat older women as you would your mother, and treat younger women with all purity as you would your own sisters. In recent years, endless investigations have revealed that abuse exists throughout our society. Upon the publication of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse report in 2021, the BBC’s Mark Easton wrote, “There is barely a corner of this country’s institutional, cultural or spiritual life untarnished by the activities of abusers.” Easton noted that wherever the inquiry looked, it found abuse. Tragically, the churches came in for severe criticism, and every Christian denomination has had to take a hard look at itself. Treating people lovingly, graciously and wisely is a responsibility that we all have, but Paul was particularly concerned for his friend Timothy to get this right. Church leaders find themselves in a vulnerable position, so Paul’s advice is of great importance. Many ministries have been destroyed through foolish indiscretions, and Paul was eager that this shouldn’t happen to Timothy. Paul’s advice was fundamentally to encourage Timothy to think of the church as family. If he needed to say some challenging things to older men, he was to imagine that he was talking to his own father. It would be completely inappropriate for him to be strident and harsh, because that would immediately break the relationship and cause hurt. In the same way, he should speak to older women as if they were his own mother. With younger men he was encouraged to have a brotherly relationship and not to rule over them as if he was their boss. Paul urged him to treat younger women like sisters, with absolute purity. Just as you would never take advantage of a sister, so too should women be treated with dignity and respect. These are words of huge wisdom, and if church leaders had lived by them over the years, unnumbered disasters would have been avoided.

Question In what way do you find Paul’s advice helpful for your own relationships?

Prayer God our Father, help me always to be loving, gracious and wise in my relationships with other people. Amen

1 Timothy 4:12

Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith and your purity. By the time Paul wrote these words to Timothy, they had been colleagues for about 15 years, so Timothy wasn’t particularly young. The Greek word for youth used here can describe anyone of military age, which went up to 40. Timothy was probably in his 30s, but his older friend Paul knew that there would be people looking critically at the relative inexperience of Timothy, and Paul wanted him to do everything to resist it. Interestingly, Paul clearly wasn’t intending for Timothy to rebuke those who looked down on him. Timothy needed to respond to his detractors by the sheer quality of his life. By setting a good example in his speech and conduct, his critics would be silenced. His love, faith and integrity would let them know what sort of a man he was. I am sure that Paul would have thoroughly approved of our society’s sensitivity to age discrimination, but even though there are legal sanctions against it, it is still very possible for people to look down on others because of their age. We need to ensure that our churches are communities where people are valued for being themselves, whatever their age. I love seeing churches go out of their way to include younger people in their activities – in leading worship, welcoming, reading the Bible, praying and IT. If you consider that you fit into the younger category yourself, I urge you not to respond by rebuking your detractors but by modelling to them the sheer quality of your Christian life.

Question What is the most effective way of countering age discrimination within your church?

Prayer Lord God, help me to love and value people whatever their age, background or circumstances. Amen

1 Timothy 4:8

“Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.” There is a great deal of emphasis on physical fitness in our society, which is a good thing. Gym membership is higher than it has ever been, but just because people are members of a gym, it doesn’t mean they ever attend! One survey in the USA revealed that 67 per cent of people didn’t make any use of their gym membership, and suggested that gyms build their business models on the assumption of huge non-attendance. If you are into keeping fit, that’s great. Our bodies are a gift from God, and it’s important that we look after them. Paul acknowledged that physical training has some value, but it is vastly outshone by godliness, which he saw as being valuable for all things, bringing blessing both for this life and the one to come. If godly training is so important, we need to know what it looks like. Paul would have seen it as a combination of good teaching, worship, fellowship and service. He was very anxious about all the nonsense that was being taught by his opponents with their “godless ideas and old wives’ tales” (1 Timothy 4:7). Timothy needed to have a firm grip on the good news, but he also needed to work hard within the church to encourage sincere and joyful worship. That must have been a challenge within a church that was developing quickly and in which there were clearly many tensions. Day by day, Timothy needed to allow the Holy Spirit to guide him in his ministry and to enable him to serve effectively. While studying is important, godly training is always on-the-job.

Question What would you say are the most important parts of godly training?

Prayer Loving Father, thank you that you want me to be fully trained to serve you well. Help me to learn from you today. Amen

1 Timothy 3:1

This is a trustworthy saying: “If someone aspires to be a church leader, he desires an honourable position.” One of the key tasks for Paul and Timothy was to find good leaders. Without godly and effective leadership, the Church was never going to thrive. In this chapter, Paul spelt out the qualities that a church leader needs, and this list hasn’t really changed much over the past 1,900 years. A church leader still needs to have good relationships within their family. They must be faithful, hospitable, able teachers and gentle. It’s interesting that Paul felt the need to say that a leader shouldn’t be a heavy drinker, violent, quarrelsome or a lover of money, but no one could disagree with him. Paul also stated that a leader should not be a new Christian, and that people outside the church should speak well of them. Paul began these comments by speaking of those who aspired to be a church leader, and he wanted to encourage them. They were desiring an honourable position. I believe that is still the case. Ministers of the gospel certainly do not have an easy life and won’t always be popular, but to serve God is a wonderful thing to do and it should be actively encouraged. I’m grateful to those who, when I was a teenager, encouraged me to reflect on the possibility of becoming a minister. I was firmly convinced that they were wrong and headed off to study law. However, their kindness and persistence were a crucial part of me eventually becoming a church leader. We all need to be alert, looking out for those whom God might be calling to church leadership. With our love, encouragement and prayers, we will see a new generation of leaders who will be able to take forward the work of God.

Question What other qualities do you think might be necessary for a church leader in the 21st century?

Prayer Lord God, we thank you for those whom you call to lead your Church. Help us always to be there to love and support them. Amen

1 Timothy 2:8

In every place of worship, I want men to pray with holy hands lifted up to God, free from anger and controversy. Lifting up hands in worship has happened for thousands of years. The psalmists often referred to it. In Psalm 63:4, King David proclaimed: “I will praise you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer.” However, by itself, lifting our hands in worship says nothing at all about what is happening in our hearts. A person could be living the most immoral life and thrust their hands into the air. Paul wanted to know that those who worshipped God in this way were doing so in the right spirit – that their hands were holy, and that they weren’t angry or stirring up controversy. When we worship God, we must come in holiness. Our minds must be focused on God. It is so easy for us to come to worship with our minds distracted. For that reason, it is often very helpful to make sure we have a time of quietness before we worship God. In that time, we can deliberately lay down all the potential distractions so that we can place God at the centre of our thoughts. It's also impossible to worship God if you’re angry or in dispute with someone. You need to resolve the situation first and then worship God. However badly you have been wronged, you need to forgive the person who has hurt you, remembering Jesus’ words that if we don’t forgive other people then neither will God forgive us. What Paul longed for was congregations of Christian people who were sincerely and joyfully focused on praying to God without any distraction. He knew that prayer was the powerhouse of any church – and it still is!

Questions Do you find it helpful to raise your hands in prayer and worship?

Prayer Lord God, thank you for the incredible privilege of prayer. Help me always to come to you in the right spirit. Amen

1 Timothy 2:1

I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf and give thanks for them. A recent ComRes opinion poll revealed that twice as many people in the 18-34 age group prayed compared with those aged over 55. But regardless of age, the question is: what do we do when we pray? Here in our verse today, Paul encourages Timothy to have the right focus in his praying. Our natural condition is to be self-centred, so it is very easy for us to see prayer in an entirely selfish way. We pray for ourselves, our happiness, our health, our family, our future and so on. All of those things are perfectly proper subjects for prayer, but if they become the exclusive focus of our prayers, something has gone seriously wrong. Paul reminded Timothy that the priority of his life needed to be to pray for others, particularly those in authority. This was especially challenging at the time, because many of the rulers were violently opposed to Christians. However, Paul tells his young friend that they needed to be on his prayer list. Paul saw prayer as Timothy’s priority. There is no doubt that Timothy had many responsibilities as a leader. He had pressing issues to deal with every day. He needed to be robust in defending the truth of the gospel and particularly because there were many who were seeking to destroy the Church. He had an incredibly busy ministry but amid all his vital work, Paul told him that prayer needed to be his priority. That’s an important observation for us all because it is often tempting to see activity as our priority. We feel we should be busy. But what the Lord really wants is for us to be prayerful. In short, if we are too busy to pray, we’re too busy! I am convinced that prayer still needs to be our priority. We will all be busy with many different things, but prayer needs to be number one because this is God’s work, and in prayer, we show our dedication to working in partnership with him.

Question Is prayer your priority? If it is, rejoice! If it isn’t, think through how this could happen.

Prayer Loving God, please help me to take prayer more seriously and to place it at the heart of my life. Amen