1 Timothy 5

Verse 23: “Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.”


Seriously, this is a verse directly from the bible.

Apparently Timothy had a stomach issue that could be healed by drinking a little wine. Wine was the first century Pepto-Bismol!

2,000 years ago wine was mixed with water, 2 parts wine to 3 parts water. Most people didn’t drink to get drunk; drinking wine was just a treat.

Some days I get home from a stressful day and need something to relax. I’ve never had a beer in my life, but I do love a glass of cold chocolate milk, it goes straight to my soul.

What is it that you need? Are you treating yourself? Are you treating yourself too much? There is a difference between treating yourself and becoming addicted to something.  

Everything God created is good, but some things need to be enjoyed in moderation.

1 Timothy 4

Verse 4 "For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, provided it is received with thanksgiving..."

Life is pretty hard at times, we all struggle with pain, loss and anxiety. I am really tired of commercials that use the line "in these economic times..."

But there are good things in life too, a lot of them. Life is full of good things, like relationships and love... and food.

Paul urges us to enjoy the good things in life, but does it mean to reveice them with thanksgiving? Here is what I think.

Firstly it means that we need to realize that all the good things in our life, everything that brings us joy and satisfaction, comes from God. We are not entitled to anything, everything we have is a gift from our Maker. Our jobs, our family, our friends, the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the cars we drive and the air we breathe, we have because God is good.

Secondly, we should share all the we have. We have been loved, we should love others. We have been blessed with food and clothes, we should share with those that don't have enough. The more we are blessed the more we should share. No person or country should monopolize God's gifts.

Finally, we should give thanks. When we give thanks to God for what we have been given, we make every gift sacred. The things we have are holy because they are God's, not ours.

Just like we are holy, because we are God's.

1 Timothy 3

Verse 15 "If I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth."

The whole purpose of this letter to Timothy is to tell the members of the church how to behave so that the church can do what it is supposed to... so that the church can complete it's one major task... to be the pillar and foundation of the Truth.

I believe Paul means two things in that statement.

The church is to be the pillar of the Truth, which, I think means the church is to hold the Truth up so that everyone can see. Lutherans would say that the Truth of God is revealed to us on the cross, so the easiest to way to lift up the Truth is to lift high the cross.

Also, the church is to be the foundation of the Truth, which, I think means the church is to support the Truth against all storms and adversaries. There are always enemies of the Truth, wanting to squash it, wanting to rain on some one else's parade.

I think there are very few people in America that haven't heard about Jesus, but there are a lot of people that have heard the Truth and it was not relevant to them. They have heard the Truth and they have heard the enemies of the Truth, and they just gave up trying to figure it out. They give pastors a chance and hear how gay people are going to hell and how Jesus wants to build a 50 foot wall between Mexico and the USA.

That's not the Truth, that's the Truth mixed with someone else's egenda.

We need to get back to the Truth. We need to lift it high and we need to defend.

What is the Truth?

Look at what Jesus was like and you'll see what God is like. God is love.

1 Timothy 2

Paul writes to Timothy "A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.^”  (Verses 11-12)

Paul would not have lasted long in my house growing up! This is one of those chapters that I cringe at every time I read it. I wonder, if Paul knew that this letter would end up being in the bible, would he still would have written it?

Here is what I think Paul is doing/thinking.

At the time that Paul was writing this letter women were not looked as people, they were property.  Paul does not want a church that is counter-cultural to the extent that it changes the way the world is, because Paul does not want the church to have one agenda.

In his letter to Philemon, Paul does not write to abolish slavery, but openly condones it. (At that time slavery had nothing to do with race) When Paul meets the philosophers at Mars Hill, he does not pass judgment on them for their worshipping of many gods, he just tells them about Jesus.

The Christian church at this time was in its infancy. If it had become known as the church for women’s liberation, it would have turned into something that it was not meant to be. It is supposed to be a place that worships God and makes disciples. Once the church grew in numbers and influence, then it absolutely was called to speak for the oppressed, for the people who were considered property. (Again, I think is what Paul thought, this is not what I think)

I believe Paul’s view in this chapter is that of temporary regulations for a given situation, nothing more. I believe his permanent view is that of Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

From the beginning, women were vital to the growth of Christianity. Mary gave birth to Jesus, Mary Magdalene was the first to see the Risen Christ, and Priscilla was a valued teacher in the early church. Women are still vital today, the church needs women leaders and pastors!

Paul may have just been a jerk, who really knows for sure?

What I do know is this, there is no room for chauvinism in the church today, even if it is biblical.

1 Timothy 1

In the opening chapter to his letter to Timothy, Paul warns him against heretics, or false teachers. People who claim to know the truth about Jesus, but, moved by arrogance, their truth was created to fit their agenda.

Paul's main opponent at this time was Gnosticism. What is Gnosticism? I'm glad you asked.
 Gnostics, as I understand them, set out to answer big questions like: Where did the world come from? And if God is good, why is there evil in the world? Questions we still struggle with today. There answer was this, matter existed before creation, that matter was imperfect or evil, and that is what the universe was created with and since God was good, He could not touch the evil matter, so a distant representative for God created the world, one that knew very little about God.  

That means we were created with evil stuff and our bodies were evil, so it doesn't matter what our bodies do, it's only our souls that matter. So... Viva Las Vegas! (I know that good people live in Las Vegas, I'm just using the stereotype of the "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" commercials, which is paid for by the people of Las Vegas.)

Or they went to the other extreme, people  were not allowed to marry and followed strict dietary laws, since the body was evil it's desires needed to be ignored. So... Viva La Monastery! (I realize some are called to Monastic life, I have a great deal of respect for them and do not wish to trivialize their oaths in any way... Although it is not for this guy!)

Paul wasn't buying it. He believed that we were created by God and that God looked at us and called us "good." He also believed that when we are resurrected like Jesus, our bodies will be resurrected like his, not just our souls.

Humans don't need to live in either of the two extremes, the Vegas life or the Monastery life, to be saved. We just need to believe in the grace and mercy of God. 

God is good, and the blood of Jesus made us good too.

Titus 3

Verse 9: But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless.

Paul thinks arguments and quarrels about the law are unprofitable and useless. I can't imagine a church-body without arguments and quarrels... it's almost a fantasy.

So are we wasting time or is Paul wrong?

Yes and yes... I think.

Paul wrote letters to churches that he helped get started. He helped them get organized and told them what to do. His letters told the Christians how to do and be church. They didn't need to argue, because Paul would tell them what was right and that would be the end of the discussion. Paul was the man in charge, just like Peter was the man in charge of other churches when he served as the first pope.

We, as Lutherans, do not have a pope, we make decisions together. Decisions involve discussions, which sometimes get heated and become arguments and quarrels... but decisions do get made.

I think the process of making decisions is necessary for the health of the church.

Unfortunately while necessary, the decision making process can often be unprofitable. Even when the process is done right there is always someone who gets their feelings hurt and often takes their ball and goes home... or starts another church. Division in the church is not a good thing.

Arguing, while unprofitable is sometimes necessary, but not as necessary as we think it is.

We would have a lot less to argue about if we realized that our church is God's church. We are not in charge, God is.

It's not about what we want, but what God wants and there isn't much to argue about when it comes to the mission of the church.

Titus 2

Verse 7-8 "In everyting set them an example by doing what is good... so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us."

I read this a number of times thinking it was a very powerful statement until it hit me just how powerful it really is.

As Christians we are called to live good lives, with God being the one that decides what is good. So we strive to live the way that God wants us to, so that no one can say anything bad about us.

Did you catch that? You need to live a good life because we don't want anyone saying anything bad about us... US!

Christians are connected. If one Christian says or does something stupid in the name of God then all Christians are fair game to be pointed at. Many people hear something that was written or said in God's name and walk away from both God and the church, thinking the two are the same, and they never come back to either.

We are in this together, we succeed together and we fail together. Each of us is as important as the next. Churches have been destroyed by one person, or two people... usually in a bed.

It is an awesome responsibility to be a Christian, to bear the image of God... it could be an impossible burden, if we had to do it alone. Which we don't!

God is with us every step of the way, to guide and forgive us when (not if) we make mistakes. How we act after our mistakes is what's so important. My colleague Tim Jahn hit the nail on the head when he wrote "I think as Christians, we can teach people a lot more about Jesus by how we act when we find out we’re wrong, than how we act when we’re convinced we’re right."

Admit when you're wrong, learn from your mistakes, and always do what is good.

I want to finish this blog by saying I will promise to try if you promise to try, because what you do effects me and what I do effects you, but I hear Yoda in the back of my head saying "Do or do not, there is no try." So there goes my ending.

So instead I'll just quote Larry the Cable Guy: "Git-R-Done."


  

Titus 1

Paul writes a letter to Titus, telling him what qualities to look for when picking church leaders. Paul lists a number of good qualities, but he sums it all up when he writes "he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good."

What does it mean to love what is good?

What is good?  Did the Nazi Youth think they were doing good when they were doing what they were told?
Do terrorists think they are doing good when they have been brainwashed to be a suicide bomber? Good isn't always good. 

Who decides what is good? In reality, each of us do. Our culture and family influence what we believe is good and what isn't.

When we each decide what is good, goodness gets perverted by our agendas and egos.

God's goodness has never been perverted, because God's agenda is love.

If we are going to love what is good, we have to love what God believes is good.

The best prayer we can pray is for God to change us, so that our understanding of good is the same as God's.

Lord knows we all need to be changed for the better.