The Real Church

1 Timothy 5:1-3, 5, 8, 24-25
Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity. Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need… The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help… If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever… The sins of some men are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them; the sins of others trail behind them. In the same way, good deeds are obvious, and even those that are not cannot be hidden.

In the days when Paul wrote this letter to Timothy advising him on how to be a better pastor the elderly, the children, the youth and the widows were treated with less respect than adult men. Widows were the outcast in society and people lived only considering themselves and their desires, not those of their families and people around them. Times have changed and people regardless of age, sex or situation in life are now considered equal in most parts of the progressive world. In these days, what is the need for God to remind us of something as basic as this? Do we not love and respect everyone around us and give charity to organizations that support the poor, homeless, suffering, etc? Is there more that we need to do? We do not have the time, resources or energy to do more than we already are, right?

What Paul suggested to Timothy was a culture change and showed the heart of God. The Church is less an organization and more the representation of God’s love. It is not a corporate body or a physical structure, rather it is a group of sinful and helpless people brought together by the love of God, saved by the grace of God, for the purpose of giving God the glory and supporting and upholding each other in the process. The church is not a body that represents the world and it’s sinfulness but is a representation of God and his forgiving nature and is an oasis of hope to the world. Do we consider anyone less deserving of our love and if so, is that what God would desire of us? Are there any in our families who need caring and we have failed to notice because we are caught up in the busy-ness of our lives? Are we living outwardly as christians but inwardly lost and therefore trashing our testimony of God’s grace in our lives? Lets take the plank out of our eyes before we point at the dirt in others lives.

In His Loving Service,
ServantBoy

Proverbs 10:9 He who walks in integrity walks securely, But he who perverts his ways will be found out.

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