The third chapter of I Timothy governs the selection of the church’s leaders. The qualifications are not aspirational ideals — they are observable, verifiable criteria that a congregation can apply. A man who does not meet them should not hold office; a man who does is…
Chapters four and five of I Timothy are a preacher’s handbook: how to identify and resist false doctrine, how to invest personal time and energy, how to set an example in the right areas, how to handle reproof without offense, and how to care for widows…
Chapter six of I Timothy closes the letter with a cluster of practical duties arranged around the theme of what is worth pursuing. The servant asks: worth honoring my master? The false teacher asks: worth teaching for money? The person minded to be rich asks: worth…
Money is not evil; it is a rival. The person who lets money be a rival of God has lost the capacity to use money righteously. The person who keeps money in its proper place — a tool for supporting life, caring for others, and honoring…
James’s one sentence — “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away” (James 4:14) — contains within it both the greatest urgency and the most clarifying perspective…
The Pharisees were the most religiously meticulous people in the ancient world. They fasted twice a week, gave tithes of mint and cummin, washed hands before meals, and prayed loud prayers at street corners. And Jesus called them hypocrites — whitewashed tombs, full of dead men’s…
“It is well to tell the sick of a physician; the poor of riches; the dying of life; the lost of a Savior; and the impenitent of hell.” The opening line is exactly right. This is not a subject a preacher enjoys. But silence on hell…
The eldership did not pass away with the age of miraculous gifts; because elders were not inspired men but qualified men, because their work of feeding and ruling the flock is still needed, and because God ordained the office and never repealed it, the eldership continues…
The eldership is an office of great responsibility, not mere honor: elders are warned against serving by compulsion, for money, or as lords; admonished to guard themselves and their households; charged to feed, oversee, and watch for the flock — and the flock, in turn, is…
God has placed elders in the church, named the office, and specified its qualifications in two lists — 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 — which overlap and complete each other, together drawing the full portrait of the man fit to shepherd God’s flock. This lesson…