" Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity." (1st Timothy 4:12)
Paul wrote this letter to his protege, Timothy, a half-Greek and half-Hebrew believer in Christ, to lay out the proper conduct of the church and it's leaders. Paul points out that false teachers, bad practices, and unqualified leaders can harm the church. He does not mean to encourage cynicism and the distrust of church authorities, but he does want us to defer to Scripture over the authority of men, Scripture sets the standard that we are to use to provide a good example for the church.
Paul's first instructions concern worship and prayer. He asks women to dress and conduct themselves with modesty in the church. In one of the more controversial passages in Paul's letters - at least, in modern times - He also forbids women to teach or have authority over men. These verses must be read very carefully and in the context of Paul's other writings. Whatever one's interpretation, the passage clearly does not mean that women cannot participate in ministry; as in the other letters he refers to certain women as "fellow workers" and a "servant of the church" (or "deaconness," see Romans 16:1,3). Paul then gives instructions and qualifications for those working in the church. He says a church authority should be "blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous" (I Timothy 3:2-3). He tells Timothy, "Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity." (I Timothy 4:12). And he ends his letter with a double warning about the power of money to spiritually sidetrack any believer (I Timothy 6:5-19), and a last warning about straying from the faith through "profane and idle babbling" (I Timothy 620).
Paul's first instructions concern worship and prayer. He asks women to dress and conduct themselves with modesty in the church. In one of the more controversial passages in Paul's letters - at least, in modern times - He also forbids women to teach or have authority over men. These verses must be read very carefully and in the context of Paul's other writings. Whatever one's interpretation, the passage clearly does not mean that women cannot participate in ministry; as in the other letters he refers to certain women as "fellow workers" and a "servant of the church" (or "deaconness," see Romans 16:1,3). Paul then gives instructions and qualifications for those working in the church. He says a church authority should be "blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous" (I Timothy 3:2-3). He tells Timothy, "Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity." (I Timothy 4:12). And he ends his letter with a double warning about the power of money to spiritually sidetrack any believer (I Timothy 6:5-19), and a last warning about straying from the faith through "profane and idle babbling" (I Timothy 620).
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