How to Treat Elders in the Church

1 Corinthians 14.40, But do all things decently and in order. Some say it's the highest Presbyterian maxim is to do things decently and in order.

We have a way to do everything. But as we're going into this passage, what we're going to see is Timothy is going to be instructed on the decent and orderly way to interact and treat elders in the church. We've seen already in the first two verses that we're to treat one another like family.

We're to have a mutual understanding and a mutual respect with one another. Last month we focused on widows and how to treat widows and honor them. Now we are looking at how to honor elders in the church. Paul is going to talk about giving pastors who labor in ministry as a vocation, what our denomination calls a teaching elder or a pastor in the church, how to treat them, how to look out for them, care for them, and how to approach church discipline on an elder in the church.

I want to give an illustration that might frame our perspective on what an elder is. A man went to a business convention for his company. He was the keynote speaker. It was this big international convention where people were coming in all over the world.

There were millions of dollars poured into this convention. As the keynote speaker, when he arrived at the airport, his ticket was already booked. When he flew into the city holding the convention, he got to ride first class. When his plane landed, there was a man there with a car to take him to the hotel. Arriving at the hotel, he was already checked in. They rented a car for him.

This was already taken care of. He drove himself to the convention center and gave the speech. After his speech, they wrote him a check for his services to give this speech.

The next year, they let someone else be the keynote speaker. He wasn't the president of the company or anyone notable. He was just one of the employees. It was a great honor the year before to be able to be the keynote speaker, but now he was going to be a simple attender with everyone else. When he arrived at the airport, there was no ticket ready for him, so he had to book one himself. Realizing he had to pay himself, he booked a coach ticket instead of first class.

When the plane landed, there was no one waiting for him at the airport, so he had to go to the car rental and rent a car for himself. At the convention, people would recognize him and say, you were the keynote speaker last year. They'd say, yes, yes I was. They'd say, great, great. The keynote speaker this year is about to start.

Let's grab a seat and we'll listen. He would grab a seat with everyone else. He kind of started to question, where's the honor?

I had so much last year. With the plane ticket and the car and everything was already scheduled and planned for, where is the honor? And he realized that the honor he received the year before was not for him. The honor that he received was due to the position that he held at that convention. He was the keynote speaker. This year he's just one of the attenders. He got to witness the honor that's given to the keynote speaker as an attender that year.

He thought back to how nice it was to have a plane ticket and a rental car and everything already planned for him. But this year he was not honored in that way. He was an employee just like everyone else. And he realized that that honor really just belongs to that position. He only received that honor the year before because he was in that position.

And as he left that position, the honor would go on to the next person. I want to tell you tonight that is a lot like what being an elder is. Elders are Christians. We are regular members of the congregation. We are men that wake up every single day and pray, Lord your will be done. We fight sin in our lives.

We put sin to death just like any other Christian. We want to honor Christ just like every other Christian. And the honor that we have as elders is not ours.

It's not because of anything in us or anything in how we communicate. The honor is because Christ has given the position of elder honor. We receive a great honor to be ordained in the local church. And we serve God in the office that Christ has established within his church.

Because Christ has done this, because he has built this foundation on the prophets and the apostles and himself being the cornerstone. And as Christ now currently reigns in heaven, he gives us his word and he instructs us the elders have the responsibility to teach and preach within the church. And that role of teaching and preaching, Paul tells us that as elders are in this role, honor the men that fill the office. The honor is for the position of elder. And as men are in that position, they are honored as elders.

Let's begin at 17 and 18. Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the scripture says you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.

And the laborer deserves his wages. Elders used five different times in the Pastoral Epistles. That's 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. It's also used in Acts to refer to church officers.

And it can be used in a more generic way like we see in verse 1 of chapter 5. But here in this passage, it's clearly linked to those that labor in preaching and in teaching. Timothy and Titus would be two examples of men that are teaching elders within the church that they are called to serve certain regions, certain areas. Timothy is serving Ephesus here in 1 Timothy. And then when he sees men of qualifications, as we see in chapter 3, he calls congregational ruling elders out of the congregation to rule well in the church. But here the focus is on those who labor in preaching and teaching. Your translation may say word and doctrine, which word referencing preaching and of course doctrine referencing teaching. But the grammar in the original language actually implies that this was already being established back in Paul's day.

Back in Acts 20 when he was in Ephesus, Paul already laid this groundwork with that church. And so now Timothy is seeing this reinforced in this letter that it would be established in the church of Ephesus that elders would rule well both in family and in church. And as they fulfill this qualification of elder, they are worthy of double honor. This phrase, what is double honor?

In context, this concept of honor sort of has a double meaning as well as it means double in amount. First, the obvious meaning of honor is referencing respect and due to the man in the office that Christ has given his church. Men in the office of elder are called to preach, to teach, to communicate God's truth to God's people. We are ambassadors to the truth to all those that are visiting and lost. We are calling them to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are encouraging them to look to Christ and believe on him. But secondly, the word honor comes from the original language here. The word is teme which does mean compensation or stipend or what us ministers might call an honorarium. It's a reference back to the passage on widows. They are to be honored as older women in the church, but they're also, when they're added to the number, they're given an honorarium. They're given an amount to live on within the church.

And as ministers are overseeing not only the congregation and the widows, there is a responsibility on elders that they're saying, Paul is basically saying, there's a double honor, there's a double amount of compensation for those who teach and preach well within the church. But as I think back, you know, in seminary, there's opportunities to preach. Sometimes a pastor might be out of town and you get to do what's called pulpit supply. They ask the school, does anybody available on Sunday, they can come and do pulpit supply? What that means is you get an opportunity to preach as a student. And one time I heard a student yell out, is there an honorarium? And I wanted to say, shut up, you'd be happy to get an opportunity to preach.

You know, this is Christ's church. It doesn't matter if they pay you or not. But an honorarium is a little check for $100, $200. They're basically paying you for your labor.

They want to honor you for doing the work. And again, it's an honor greatly appreciated among students to be able to bring the Word of God to God's people. And as a minister, if you get to work full time or part time as a minister in the church, it is a great honor. I know some denominations, some different religions, I know the Mormons pride themselves on paying no one in the church, almost implying that it's sort of wrong or immoral to pay ministers. And I guess there's a kind of a form of humility there where they're saying we're not here for the money. And they might point to cases like Kenneth Copeland or many other prosperity gospels that Doug mentioned this morning.

Yes, they are definitely in it for the money. But at the same time, this is just not a biblical way of thinking. We look at God's Word to clarify this issue. We go back to the law of Moses. We go back to Jesus himself.

We have quotes clearly in Scripture that those who serve God's people in vocational ministry should be supported. Scripture says you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out grain. This is a reference back to Deuteronomy chapter 25 verse 4. Somewhat self-evident, but the idea is that an oxen is leading the farmer out as the farmer is sowing seed. Naturally, the ox will see this seed on the ground and feed off the seed that's being poured out on the ground. So the farmer might pour more seed to farm, yet at the same time as the ox works, he feeds.

He is provided for. So this is a principle that goes all the way back to Moses. Paul, in his second reference, is not referencing the Old Testament but referencing Christ himself. We see in Luke 10 verse 7, remain in the same house eating and drinking what they provide for the laborer deserves his wages. He says a variation of this in Matthew 10 verse 10.

The laborer deserves his food. Notice here, if you want to make yet another case for the Bible and yet another case to unbelievers about the sufficiency of God's Word, seeing both the Old Testament being referenced and the New Testament, we see that Paul is putting together Old and New Testament references to clearly illustrate we're not just limited to the Old or limited to the New. This is tying together these passages. Paul makes it clear though that ministers can be and should be supported in their labors. 1 Corinthians 9 verse 9, written in the Law of Moses, same verse, do not muzzle the ox. Verse 10, does he not certainly speak for our sake? He's saying that verse is looking out for ministers. If we have sown spiritual things among you, that is spread the Word and preach the Gospel, is it too much if we reap material things from you?

That is receive payment or compensation or to be covered vocationally as a minister. Paul makes another argument for this in Galatians 6, let the one who is taught the Word share in all good things with the one who teaches. Paul in Philippians 4, not that I seek the gift but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. Paul is seeking the result of this ministry that goes out. Sometimes missionaries or Ligonier ministries or some ministry will say, will you partner with us this year by giving a donation or giving a small tithe to our ministry? The idea of partnering, I thought, is that biblical? Is that language in Scripture?

Yes, it is. The idea here in I seek the fruit that increases to your credit, the idea is that Paul is seeking out those precious souls that will be added to the church. Our missions as money goes out to different countries, going out to Greece, going out to Prague, going out to Myanmar, as we go out and labor and as you donate to these things, you are contributing to the labor that goes out and gets us on a plane, gets us in front of people that have not heard Christ and we communicate that truth and we strengthen the local church and precious souls are added to the local church in these countries. So in one sense, you are either going down into the well or you are holding the rope at the top and as you donate, you are at the top holding the rope for our missionaries to go down into the well, going further in to spread the gospel. That is the concept here.

So as the local church, I want to encourage everyone to fund missions, fund and support those that go out and labor in the Great Commission. Secondly, we see in verses 19-20 how to treat an elder accused of sin. Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. For accusations against an elder, Paul is giving us certain criteria. Visions must not be immediately received as truth but proven to be true through investigation. How easy it is for anyone anywhere to say anything about anybody else and slander someone.

We must have criteria here. What Paul is saying, if one person comes forward with one claim, it's as though they can't get support from anyone else. Don't listen to them. Do not admit the charge as he says here.

But that's only because we have these two problems. Number one, they did not follow Matthew 18. Matthew 18 says that if you have an issue or a sin against someone, you go to them individually. If they reject your word, you bring a witness and then the two of you might go to this person.

If he rejects the word of two, then you bring the session in the leadership of the church to come in and to judge or rule over this issue. The idea, secondly, is that there must be a corroborating witness. There must be someone that can back up the original accusation. We're not operating on simple gossip but we must have evidence and other witnesses to testify to the truth of this claim. That's the error that Paul wants to avoid here is gossip, is slander in the church. Without any substantiating claims, without anyone to support the original claim, that's all this will be, is gossip.

At the same time, all sin with two or three witnesses must be taken very seriously. If we can get the witnesses, if we can get evidence to come forward, we must as elders in the church take this extremely seriously. Years ago, the resignation of Pope Ratzinger, aside from his health and many other issues, there were many claims where there were corroborating evidence and two or three witnesses came forward of abuse in the church.

It was viewed as an oversight. They overlooked things was the way they put it in the news, but the idea is that they did not deal with the sins of their bishops and their cardinals in the Catholic Church. They had the witnesses.

They had all the evidence stacked against them and still it was simply overlooked by its leadership. This is a moral failing in leadership in the church, that these men would go unpunished. Christ's honor and the protection of the church is at stake. So while gossip must be avoided at all costs, we must also have two or more witnesses that can verify and corroborate the truth of the situation and we must investigate. But what happens when the elder is guilty and yet they do not repent?

Follow me in verse 20 here. For as those who persist in sin rebuke them in the presence of all so that the rest may stand in fear. In the case that an elder is found guilty of an accusation, it must be publicly announced. Thankfully in our denomination this doesn't happen often. The goal is to have elders that do not get brought up on church charges and grievous sins, but the purpose of that public announcement to stand in the pulpit and to announce to God's people why this happened is to promote a healthy fear of sin and a healthy fear of the consequences of sin, which are excommunication. To be unrepentant in sin and in leadership is to be expelled from your role as elder, being cut off from the body of Christ.

That ought to shock us. That ought to alarm us that we might be cut off from the body of Christ due to our hard hearts and our unrepentant sin. It communicates to the congregation also that no one is above the law of God. Not even elders that are found guilty. Everyone is equal at the foot of the cross. Which leads me to my third point here. Do not be prejudiced or show partiality. In the presence of God and the Christ Jesus, the elect angel, I charge you keep these rules without prejudging.

Do nothing from partiality. Paul is calling on Timothy here and he is citing God to be a witness, Christ Jesus to be a witness, and all the elect angels that are in heaven. He is bringing the biggest charge against Timothy that he can. When you get ordained, one of the positions in the ordination process is someone to preach the homily and someone to bring the charge. The charge is a call to action to the new minister. Paul is giving Timothy here this charge with God and all the angels in heaven as a witness to him.

You must be just. You must show no partiality. You cannot, as it says pre-judging, literally it's prejudicial, partiality is you're inclined to show favor to one or the other. In a church discipline case, we must be very clear on what's going on.

Not listening to the gossip. Hearing the two or three witnesses. We must look at all the facts. We must uphold the ninth commandment. We must rule rightly in Christ's church. Remember the last words of David in 2 Samuel 23.

The God of Israel said the rock of Israel spoke to me. He that ruleth over man must be just, ruling in the fear of God. King David, dead yet he speaketh rule justly. Rule with righteousness.

Paul is telling Timothy the same thing here. Be faithful in your ruling as a local church elder. Do not pre-judge.

Don't bring in any prejudiced opinion against the person that is involved in the case. Don't let that sway what is good, what is right, what is true. Do not be unjust.

Show no partiality. Do not let what you like or dislike about the person sway your opinion. There are some men in church history that were excommunicated because people just simply didn't like the guy. And that was an unjust ruling by an unjust elder, session, group of bishops, whatever it may be. We must look at the case for what it is. Not let our emotions and our opinions that preceded the court case within the church guide us in the wrong direction. We don't declare anyone guilty before anything has been said. We don't declare anyone innocent before anything has been said. We let the case speak for itself. This passage is describing sort of a courtroom. And the leadership is to be a jury that is to decide what is this?

What is going on here? Has this real sin occurred or not? We need to entertain all things and make a judgment call. Elders are simply just not afforded the opportunity to be unjust. We represent the Lord Jesus Christ in our position, in our role, and we must be faithful as Christ is faithful. One commentator said, Do not treat any man in religious matters according to the rank he holds in life or according to any personal attachment you may have for him. Every man should be dealt with in the church as he will be dealt with at the judgment seat of Christ. Verse 22, how to treat potential leaders in the church. Look at verse 22. Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others.

Keep yourself pure. Paul is talking now about sort of preventative measures to take so that an elder isn't brought up on charges. One way to avoid an elder being brought up on charges is picking the type of elders that don't get brought up on charges. The laying on of hands here is referring to ordination, so when he says don't be hasty, don't be urgent to do this.

Don't rush to do this. This happens sometimes in churches. Some churches grow exponentially.

Some of these big churches will grow 20, 40, 100 a week. Some churches have exploded and you have 3,000 members. The idea is that we need more elders to look after God's people, so there's sort of an urgency within the church. We have to get more elders fast.

Paul is saying don't feel any sense of urgency. Call elders to the eldership as they present themselves within the congregation. If you have a future elder in the church, they might be young, they might be a recent convert. Give them time. Just as we see in chapter 3, Paul tells Timothy that an elder is not a recent convert.

Give them time. With time there will be age and growth and sanctification and a deepening of their faith. There will be less of a chance that they would be brought up on charges. There would be less of a chance that they would fall into any sort of sin that would result in church discipline. But also take no part in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure. A great essay by Charles Spurgeon that I would recommend not just to fellow ministers but to anyone is a minister's self-watch. This is in his book Lectures to My Students.

Very helpful. Elders must protect themselves against sin. We must guard ourselves. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 33, Do not be deceived. Bad company corrupts good morals. That applies to all of us. Prevent church discipline charges and leadership by being very deliberate, very careful in who you choose. Verse 23 we see Paul's medical advice to Timothy.

In my ESV it's actually in parentheses. I imagine it might be in yours. No longer drink only water, but use only a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments. Water in the ancient world was dirty. It was filled with bacteria.

It could cause disease and illness. We don't know exactly if Timothy abstained from alcohol. Perhaps the amount of water he was drinking brought in a certain amount of bacteria that made him sick. Maybe he was in leadership, so he wanted to abstain from alcohol to be a good example to certain members. He may have drank water only because he liked the Nazarite vow and thought that's a good idea and I'll do that.

We don't know. We have no idea why he did this, but Paul is saying don't just drink water. Have a little bit of wine. The alcohol content within wine might be able to kill some of the germs that exist in the water. Looking back in church history, Martin Luther used to drink beer with his students because the water wasn't clean.

Through the brewing process for beer or the fermentation process for wine, this can clean the water. He might even be denying himself, like in chapter 4, the asceticism where he wants to cut off every self-indulgence and perhaps Timothy wanted to cut off wine as well. Whatever the case may be, Paul encourages him to use wine instead of just water to help with his illness.

He's using it here as medicine. Finally in verses 24 and 25, the difficulty in detecting sin and good works. The sins of some people are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later. So also good works are conspicuous and even those who are not cannot remain hidden. Some in the church their sin is obvious.

Conspicuous meaning visible, evident. It precedes them. They're almost known for it and that's unfortunate because we as elders need to detect where we can encourage members of the church and point them to obvious conspicuous sin issues. Paul is saying, be aware of these men.

On the topic of electing elders, be aware of it. In others, they're going to hide their sin more. Nothing is hidden from God ultimately. God is all-knowing. He knows our hearts. He knows our actions. He knows our private actions. We must use His Word. As elders in the church, we use God's Word to see the qualifications, to see what Paul is laying out for Timothy and we prescribe these things that we might be able to add elders to the session, to the leadership of the church.

But also good works. In one sense, the right elder is the elder that doesn't come out and tell you how great he is. The right elder is the elder that secretly, privately does good works. Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount, don't pray to be seen, pray privately to the Lord, for the Lord will honor this.

Seek out good elders. We as the church, if we want to be led well, we must seek out men of character within the local church and we must find out who are these great men of God. Thinking back to the beginning of our text, Paul wants the church to honor elders, but as an elder myself, I want to say to you, the congregation, it's a great honor to serve you as an elder. The honor is mine.

I think about award shows when they go, I'm honored to be nominated, let alone win, or I'd just like to be a ticket holder. It's an honor to be among you. It's an honor to serve the church. I'm the speaker tonight and I'm honored to do that as well. But thinking back to that convention I mentioned in the intro, we all have a convention to attend one day. We will all be at a heavenly convention that we can look forward to. We won't want to be the speaker at that convention because in heaven we'll be greatly honored to be an attender and the greatest speaker that we could ever ask for will be there, that is the Lord Jesus Christ. He will reveal all things to us. He will be the greatest preacher.

He will reveal the greatest truths from Scripture. He'll be the speaker that we didn't deserve and we'll be thankful to hear His Word and for Him to reveal His truth to us. And the honor even just to simply be at the convention, to convene with the Lord, to be present with God will be a great honor. As it is an honor simply to believe, to be called, to be justified, to be sanctified, to be glorified one day in heaven, to be present with the Lord is a great honor.

We will be thrilled just simply to be in attendance. Let us look to that final convention in heaven with the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Dear Father, we come to you in the name of your Son and we as elders feel the particular burden of leadership. We know that as we preach and teach that precious souls are hearing the truth that they are coming to faith and it is a savor under life or they reject the Word and they step away. We pray that we would have a love for Christ that is undeniable. We pray that we would maximize the glory of Christ, that we would point out the loveliness of Christ, that we would point out the greatness of God the Father to send the Son into the world and that the Spirit would indwell us in our hearts, that we tell them of the bread of life, that we tell them of the life-giving message of the Gospel. We ask that you would write this truth on our hearts that we would love the Lord all the more. We pray for our leadership here at Grace Church. We pray for our denomination. We pray for the Church throughout the world that they would be led faithfully by faithful men. In your Son's name we pray. Amen.