1 Timothy 5:17-25 | Doubly Honor and Discern

Introduction and Scripture Reading

If you have a Bible, grab it and open it to the book of 1 Timothy. If you don't have a Bible, you can use the pew Bible in front of you. And if you don't own a Bible, we would love for you to take that copy home with you so you have a copy of God's Word. We are continuing to go through the book of 1 Timothy. As we wrap up chapter 5, Paul turns his attention from honoring and supporting widows, those who are needy in the church community, to show honor for the church's leaders.

So again, we'll be looking at 1 Timothy, chapter 5, verses 17 through 25.

The elders who are good leaders are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says: Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain, and, “The worker is worthy of his wages.” Don’t accept an accusation against an elder unless it is supported by two or three witnesses. Publicly rebuke those who sin, so that the rest will be afraid. I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels to observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing out of favoritism. Don’t be too quick to appoint anyone as an elder, and don’t share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure. Don’t continue drinking only water, but use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses. Some people’s sins are obvious, preceding them to judgment, but the sins of others surface later. Likewise, good works are obvious, and those that are not obvious cannot remain hidden. — 1 Timothy 5:17-25 (CSB)

Let's pray. Lord, we pray to you this morning as the God who does reveal all the thoughts and minds of our hearts. So we ask, Lord, even this morning as we think about honoring our leaders, Lord, that you give grace to me as I think about the heavy responsibility of leading this church. I pray, Lord, that you would help us as a congregation to desire to honor you in the way that we honor each other. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

The Uncomfortable Task of Honoring Pastors

If last week was the most challenging passage in 1 Timothy to preach, which I think it is, the passage this morning might be the most uncomfortable to preach. For me, being a pastor who preaches about how you should treat him, and in particular how much you should pay him, is like a pastor walking on a tightrope and having people sawing away at the cables and shooting bullets at you from both sides. This is an uncomfortable thing. There are very few ways that you could talk about a passage like this that can't come off either condescending or entitled or selfish.

But I think that God intends for us to talk about this, about honoring the pastorate. And not only that, He intends pastors to teach this passage. Paul is writing this letter to Timothy as the pastor, and Timothy needs to lead the church in talking about how to treat himself. Not only to talk about pay, but about the office of the pastor or elder, and the dignity that it deserves. That's really what this passage of Scripture is ultimately about. We talked last week about how honoring widows is, yes, about financial assistance, but it's about more than that; it's about dignifying these people that would be neglected in society. In the same way, when Paul talks about the pastorate, he's talking primarily about this idea of honor, about the dignity of the office.

Paul wants us to honor the pastorate, to honor the pastorate. And because of the dignity of the office, Paul wants to do three things for your pastors: First, he wants you to provide for your pastors. Second, he wants you to protect your pastors. And third, he wants you to preserve your pastors.

Provide for Your Pastors

To start with point number one, provide for your pastors. Look again at verse 17.

The elders who are good leaders are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says: Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain, and, “The worker is worthy of his wages.” — 1 Timothy 5:17-18 (CSB)

Paul teaches Timothy to care for, to provide for the elders of the church. And if the pastors are leading the church, they are good leaders. And if they are good leaders, if they lead well, then they are worthy of double honor. As we looked at last week, that word "honor" is ultimately about dignity and respect, about honoring this office or honoring these people. And by extension, it also has to do with provision. Paul tells the widows to be honored, and by extension, he explains the conditions for financial support. And here, Paul uses that same word to talk about the pastorate, but says that pastors who lead well or rule well are worthy of double honor: extra honor, an abundance of honor. And here, in the same way, he talks about how "the worker is worthy of his wages."

But Paul's first concern isn't just about what you should do or how much you should pay. His primary concern is about how you think, what you think about. He says here that pastors who are good leaders are to be *considered* worthy of double honor. Do you notice that? It doesn't just say "show them double honor." He says to *consider* them worthy of double honor — that you care or you think, you consider them worthy. This isn't just about a paycheck; it's about how you think about your spiritual leaders. We want to honor pastors who do honorable work, for those who are good leaders, because good leaders are honorable leaders.

God himself affirms this in 2 Samuel 23. He says,

The God of Israel spoke; the Rock of Israel said to me, “The one who rules the people with justice, who rules in the fear of God, is like the morning light when the sun rises on a cloudless morning, the glisten of rain on sprouting grass.” — 2 Samuel 23:3-4 (CSB)

You see, good leaders, good spiritual leaders, aren't just the ones that are impressive from the front or preach good sermons. The best leaders also create flourishing around them. It lifts up others like the rising ocean tide. They renew life and refresh the soul. And that happens through faithfulness. If a pastor uses that authority that he's been given well, then he is an honorable leader, a leader worthy of that honor, and worthy of being thought of as an honorable leader.

Not only is his leading worthy of double honor, his teaching ministry is especially worthy of double honor. Those who are tasked and responsible for the public teaching and preaching of the church should especially receive the support of the church. You can think of these pastors as the ones who work on the public teaching, like preaching sermons, like what you're hearing right now. See, right now at First Baptist Artesia, we have a total of one pastor and one pastor emeritus. But in the future, I would love to have pastors that are here serving the church because we raised up leaders within our church to serve our body. I would love for us to have pastors that are on staff, and those who aren't on staff because the Lord just raised up men that are qualified to serve the body of the church. In that case, there will be those who especially or particularly labor in public preaching and teaching in the church.

And all of that work, all that leading, all that teaching, takes time. It takes time and effort. I don't rub a crystal ball to figure out what I'm going to talk about on Sunday sermon. I don't pat myself on the back every single time that I stand up and walk off the pulpit and think that I did myself a good job and wonder what I'm going to do the next week. I spend deliberate, focused time. It takes effort. And because of that, we want to support and honor those pastors to reflect the work that they put in.

And supporting a pastor in Paul's mind is inherently self-beneficial. It really is an uncomfortable thing to talk about supporting the pastorate when you're a pastor. But it's important that we get this idea across. And how Paul views supporting the pastorate as inherently beneficial for the people. And it gives us illustration about Paul, or Paul uses this illustration about Deuteronomy, about oxen. Moses commands Israelites not to muzzle an ox while he's treading out the grain. So you would collect grain from a farm and you would collect it during a harvest time, and you need to separate the grain from the husk. I'm not a farmer, but apparently this is what they do. And the way that they would do that is by having oxen that tread out the grain or separate the grain from the husk as they work. And what the oxen would do if it wasn't muzzled as it's treading out the grain is it would be eating the grain. It would be chewing on food as it's working.

Now, if you're doing a pure cost-benefit analysis and looking at the numbers of a spreadsheet and analyzing the work that this cow is putting in, you would want to stop him from eating that grain. Because that's a net negative. They're dipping into the pot while they're working. Imagine a farmer going out collecting strawberries, eating strawberries as they're collecting harvest. That affects your bottom line. And so you might want to muzzle or block that ox's mouth. And Moses in Deuteronomy commands Israel not to muzzle the ox that treads out the grain. Because muzzling an ox makes an ox do a worse job. He won't tread as much grain and it separates his effort, his work, from the benefit that he receives. In other words, Moses isn't just focused about this random rule about whether or not you block a cow's mouth or not. He's trying to get into the heart of the person who owns property as they're trying to do work. Just because you benefit from harvest doesn't mean that you should be preoccupied with pinching every single penny. It's counterintuitive to try to muzzle the ox that's treading the grain for you, and it's the same for your pastor.

Paul picks up this exact same verse when he talks about pastoral compensation in his letter to the Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians chapter 9, Paul says,

For it is written in the law of Moses, Do not muzzle an ox while it treads out grain. Is God really concerned about oxen? Isn’t he really saying it for our sake? Yes, this is written for our sake, because he who plows ought to plow in hope, and he who threshes should thresh in hope of sharing the crop. If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it too much if we reap material benefits from you? If others have this right to receive benefits from you, don’t we even more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right; instead, we endure everything so that we will not hinder the gospel of Christ. — 1 Corinthians 9:9-12 (CSB)

Or as Martin Luther would say, "We know that this verse isn't about oxen because oxen can't read." What is Paul trying to explain? That "the workman is worthy of his wages." If you muzzle an ox, it's transactional. You're trying to minimize costs and maximize benefit. And that negotiating, transactional approach is the exact opposite to the approach that we want to have about pastoral compensation. Paul is saying that you should never have an attitude that you keep a pastor poor so that God will keep him humble.

So how do you make sure that we support elders or pastors with double honor, this idea of double honor? Three things: First, recognize qualified men. It's a real danger with a verse like this that you would have a pastor that uses expectations of honor to lord it over their congregation or use it as an excuse for wealthy living. And I just want to say, if you don't trust your pastor with money, you have bigger problems than just their salary. You should actually get rid of those pastors. Or more than that, you shouldn't recognize pastors who are greedy. This is especially important when it comes to talking about a pastor's pay. The only thing that would enable me to stand behind a pulpit and talk about my pay with a trust that I'm not going to come off like I'm greedy or grubbing for money is if I demonstrate with my life and the way that I talk about money that I'm not greedy for money. That has to be evident. That has to be obvious. That's actually an appropriate expectation for you to have for your pastors. 1 Timothy 3 says that a pastor cannot be greedy. And 1 Peter 5:2 says,

Shepherd God’s flock among you, not overseeing out of compulsion but willingly, as God would have you; not out of greed for money but eagerly; — 1 Peter 5:2 (CSB)

A greedy pastor is not qualified to be a pastor. That doesn't mean that the church needs to humble the man who becomes a pastor. It means that you have the responsibility of evaluating a man before he becomes a pastor and evaluating him as he pastors. But you don't suss out the greed with his pay, or by trying to short him and see the way that he reacts. That's not the way you do that. You do it by evaluating his life. An honorable office tends to come with honorable pay. And because of that, there are going to be people who come in with ulterior motives to try to fleece the flock. There are going to be people who come in with an attitude to minimize their work and maximize their pay, in which case the church needs to be discerning to be able to figure out whether or not their pastors have an ulterior motive. That's number one: you have to make sure that your pastor is honorable. If not, it's going to make everything else in the process necessarily a negotiation. But if you have an honorable pastor, someone who's qualified, someone that you trust, then that frees up the pressure when you talk about the rest of the process.

Number two. Determine a pastor's wage based on the value of his work. Paul quotes Jesus in Luke chapter 10, verse 7 in saying that "the worker is worthy of his wages."

Remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they offer, for the worker is worthy of his wages. Don’t move from house to house. — Luke 10:7 (CSB)

It's a quick side note: If you've ever wondered why the New Testament is considered Scripture, one cool thing to know is that your New Testament treats the New Testament as also Scripture. Paul quotes Luke chapter 10, verse 7 and says, "Scripture says this." It says that the worker is worthy of his wages. If you're going to honor good leaders who work hard, we want their compensation to be based on the value of their work, not based on their title. In other words, if you think that pastors get paid too much, then that reflects on your assessment of the value of the work that pastors do. But if you think that pastors' work is valuable, then you will reflect that in their compensation. In other words, if you underpay for a pastoral position, you will either get a man who is unqualified for that kind of position, or you will get a man who can't minister at his full capacity because he'll be concerned about how to provide for himself. That also means that we don't provide compensation purely based off of the need of a pastor. What I mean by that? It's entirely appropriate. I wouldn't even dare say necessary for a church when they hire a pastor to make sure that they compensate him in a way that he's able to pay his bills. But the metric that Paul uses for compensation here isn't need, but honor, value. In other words, this means that you don't purely pay based off of the seniority or the title that a guy has, but based off of the value of the work that they provide.

Number three, you honor them. You don't haggle with them. The purpose of double honor shouldn't be in order to squeeze as much value for as little money as possible. Again, you don't want to muzzle the ox while he treads out the grain. The disposition should be to free him from worrying about financial provision while also showing double honor through the respect and compensation that we give pastors. Give qualified, competent pastors quality compensation. That's the idea. Jamie Dunlop in his book *Budgeting for a Healthy Church* gives six example commitments for a church when they honor their pastors. This is like examples of commitments that a church might make and want to honor their pastors for the work that they do: We will pay pastors such that they can support a family on this income alone. We will pay pastors such that they can afford to live near where our church meets. We will pay pastors such that they can save for retirement. We will pay pastors enough that they can give money away. We will base a pastor's total compensation package based on one or more suitable external benchmarks. And lastly, we will err on the side of being generous. Those are good values for a church to have when they think about compensation.

So, how does this work at First Baptist? How does this work at this church when you think about a pastor's pay? Well, it's important for you to know that I don't set my own salary. I don't come in with a number or an expectation. I don't come in with some kind of negotiation. We don't call an HR to do this. I actually think that that's not appropriate for me to set my own salary. I can lead, but I don't get to make that decision myself. So, later this year, what happens is that the finance committee and I will meet up to set the budget for the next year. And in the beginning, after we set our projected income, I sit down with the finance committee and I talk about how I'm doing. They'll ask me questions about my life. I'll tell them how I'm doing. I might explain like upcoming needs that I may have or particular things or different problems that may be coming up. I just want to call to their attention. And you know what I do after I do that? I leave the room. I get out of there. Why? Because they should be able to set whatever compensation they think is appropriate. Then I come back into the room and we establish the rest of the budget together, and then the budget is presented to the church to vote. That's the way it works at this church. I don't get to set my own pay. The church does. And it happens through two levels. The first is through a finance committee that isn't paid by the church. They get to talk with me. They get to set the numbers, but they aren't beholden to me in any way. And I have no authority or ability to then punish them if I'm dissatisfied wherever it may be. They give me a number. I take it. The second level is through the church, all of you, the members of the church. When you pass the budget every year, you are also approving what my salary will be. And there's no question as to how much I get paid. It's there. If you're a member of the church and you get a finance report, you get to know exactly how much money I receive as a pastor.

And the reason why we do it like this, the purpose of a process like this, is for three things: accountability, trust, and honor. It's important. We provide accountability because in cases of emergency, you as a congregation need to have the ability to put a stop to a wolf who comes into the church to suck the life out of the church. It's important that the finance committee has the ability to set a compensation that I might not be happy with or even disagree with. It's important that the congregation can reject a budget with a salary that doesn't accurately reflect what a pastor should be paid, whether it's too much or too little. It's important that we have those backstops of accountability. I am not the Pope of the church. Jesus is the chief shepherd. I'm caring for the sheep that he cares about, and we are all ultimately accountable to him. Second, this process allows for trust. Trust, because I trust those who are tasked with caring for me. In other words, conversations about compensation, even texts like this, should never feel like a negotiation. It should never feel like you're negotiating or trying to bargain around pay. At the same time, I don't mind being honest about how much or little I get paid, and I trust that the finance committee loves and cares about me. I trust that they're not trying to squeeze me or take advantage of me. I just trust that they care about me. They want to make sure that I'm okay. And by extension, the congregation generally trusts the work of the finance committee, because they understand intuitively that it would be a weird thing to kind of look through every single one of my bank statements and see every single financial transaction I ever do. They trust the work of the finance committee in evaluating an honorable salary. And lastly, you have accountability and trust, and lastly, you have honor. Because every compensation package, every budget, every paycheck reflects the value that this church places on the ministry of their pastor.

That makes sense. The reason why we financially compensate guys like myself, who work in teaching the word, is because we value the word. It's you as a church saying, "Hey, we would rather have Pastor John work during the week on preparing a good sermon than working at the Gap in Cerritos mall," or working in a career that's better for him than to divert his energies and his hours on serving the flock. It's a self-beneficial thing. It's a particularly important thing for pastors to teach, because pastors need to care more than just going with what's comfortable or avoiding awkward topics like talking about a pastor's pay. There are fewer things in life that draw out the sins or selfishness of people than talking about money. It happens on both ends, and yet I think the neglect of talking about salaries actually does a disservice to churches. It does a disservice to churches on a number of fronts. It doesn't serve the pastor when they have genuine needs. I say that as a pastor's kid who grew up in a pastor's home. My family was so poor with the way that my father was compensated when I was a child. We played with paper before we hit the age of 10. I remember my dad telling me stories about Christmas. His older sister was five and asked my dad for a Barbie. He drove literally to the outside of a toy store on Christmas Eve and looked through the window sill and saw a Barbie doll and wept, because he couldn't afford $5 to buy a gift for his daughter. I don't think that reflects well on the honor and reputation of Christ.

On the other hand, I think it also does a disservice to churches when a church improperly compensates their pastor. If the pastor lives in poverty, that reflects poorly on society. It also doesn't serve those churches well. We talk to churches all the time when pastors are poorly compensated and do not have the ability to retire. Even when their own competence starts to get outrun by the needs of the ministry, they feel an obligation to hang on to their job because they're not able to let go because of their financial needs. That is the fault of the church, not the fault of the pastor. On the other hand, you have pastors that are willing to talk about money and then manipulate scripture because the congregation is unable and unequipped from scripture to know how to discern proper ways to support their pastor. We want to avoid those things, and the way that you avoid those things, the way that you prevent a wolf who takes financial advantage of a church and the way that you prevent yourself from dishonoring a pastor who may have needs that you don't necessarily know about, is by talking about it. It's by teaching it, by looking at scripture like this. There should never be a scenario where there's a dad on Christmas who's unable to get his child a toy. There should never be a scenario where pastors are dishonored by their churches because of lack of pay, and there should never be a church who feels ill-equipped or ignorant about how to handle their church's finances as they honor their churches. And the honor that you show your pastor extends beyond just his salary. It also is about his reputation.

Protect Your Elders

This brings me to point number two: Protect your elders. Look at verse 19.

Don’t accept an accusation against an elder unless it is supported by two or three witnesses. Publicly rebuke those who sin, so that the rest will be afraid. — 1 Timothy 5:19-20 (CSB)

Pastoral work doesn't just come with difficult work; it also comes with scrutiny. And with that scrutiny can come accusations, whether it's misunderstandings or demonic divisions or simple ill intentions, accusations come from anywhere. That's the nature of leadership. If you lead any group, you will naturally have questions or even accusations from those who are under your authority. And dozens of pastors have used verse 19 as a simple cover for their own sin. They've used verse 19 as a shield. We see this all over the news. Different pastors will use biblical justification to try to silence their own sin. Abusers have covered up horrendous evil by pointing to this procedure in order to hide their sin. For a non-Christian, I wonder if this is how you think about spiritual leadership. It's hard not to be cynical when you see so many negative examples of spiritual leaders who use spiritual rationale to cover up satanic evil.

So let me be clear about what Paul isn't saying. Paul isn't telling Timothy to stick his head in the sand, ignore obvious evils going on around him. He also isn't telling Timothy to avoid investigating serious accusations against pastors; serious accusations about serious sins deserve serious investigation. That's precisely why Paul tells Timothy here to publicly rebuke those who *do* sin. In other words, if a pastor is found to be in actual unrepentant, disqualifying sin, you don't sweep it under the rug, you bring it to light, you address it publicly. The church should call a members' meeting and fire that pastor. My heart just aches when I think about the amount of spiritual leaders who have gotten away with this type of terrible sin and convinced their churches not to bring sin to light, somehow making it seem as though they would be tarnishing Christ's reputation if someone found out something bad happened, as if Jesus' reputation would be negatively affected if people were to find out that pastor was a sinner. And believe me, a pastor who gets caught in terrible sin is awful. But you know what's worse? If that sin doesn't get addressed, that is worse. As John Owen said, "If a man teach uprightly, but walk crookedly, more will fall down in the night of his life than he built in the day of his doctrine." It is more important that you do the hard thing and address a pastor's sin.

Publicly rebuking a pastor caught in serious sin shifts the fear from being a fear of being caught or the fear of being exposed to a fear of the Lord. It's a difference between wanting to hide versus wanting to be holy. It prioritizes righteousness over someone's reputation. A church guards against a reputation of Christ and the honor of the office of the pastor by conviction of sin, not covering up sin. That's a bigger evil in my mind.

But all that being said, if the accusation isn't credible, then it's supposed to be rejected. Paul says to not accept an accusation against a pastor unless it is supported by two or three witnesses. In the Old Testament, when there was a dispute, it needed to be corroborated. The accusation needed to be validated by having two or three witnesses – people who say, "I saw that." In the facts of the case, it needed to be confirmed by more than one person. If there is one person who's going around trying to spread rumors about a pastor or disparage his ministry, it seems like it's just the accusations or the thoughts or the opinions of one person. Then what you do is you don't assume that they're right. You don't accept it. You don't assume guilt. At most, you should investigate the matter for yourself, but certain accusations that come up are simply not worth the time. If every single misunderstanding that happened in the church required a full court case adjudication, then nothing would get done. You would just not be able to have ministry done. The discerning between an incredible and a credible accusation is really hard and requires wisdom. That's why Paul urges Timothy here to be wise. You can see that in verse 21.

I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels to observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing out of favoritism. — 1 Timothy 5:21 (CSB)

Paul tells Timothy to observe these things without prejudice, without bias. Look at a situation and evaluate it properly without any favoritism. Because bias is inevitable, and Timothy needs to notice those biases and make sure that he doesn't act out of favoritism. Because what ultimately matters isn't what Timothy thinks, but what God thinks. He's to exercise his authority under the sight of his heavenly authority. The heavenly angels are witnesses to our behavior. Jesus, the chief shepherd, watches what we do and he's a pastor's example. And God is our judge who will hold us accountable for every single thing that a pastor will do. All pastors have heavenly accountability. And God will see every honorable and dishonorable deed we ever commit, and he will judge us accordingly. And that is why there is no room for prejudice or favoritism. You don't assume a pastor's fine just because you like him. You don't assume that he's guilty just because you dislike him. Because the church is not the pastor's kingdom. We don't get to set the rules for how a church should operate. The church is an embassy of God's kingdom and we want to be faithful undershepherds of Christ. And if you want to protect the office of pastor from dishonorable sin, if you want to be able to protect the reputation of the pastoral office and lead without prejudice, you need to be able to slow down.

Preserve Your Elders

Which leads me to the last point. Number three, preserve your elders. Look at verse 22.

Don’t be too quick to appoint anyone as an elder, and don’t share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure. Don’t continue drinking only water, but use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses. — 1 Timothy 5:22-23 (CSB)

You have to slow down. Paul's concern for Timothy isn't just that he makes the right decisions, but the pace, the speed of his decisions. Don't be too quick. Slow down. Be patient. Timothy seems to be so stressed by the work of the ministry. He seems to be working so fast that he is getting stomach aches and is falling ill frequently. Do you ever do that? Run so fast that you're running on fumes. You know, most pastors I know are not alcoholics. Actually, none of the pastors I know are alcoholics. But most are workaholics. We don't get high on substances. We get high off of being useful. Our drug is ourselves. And our work makes us rush. We get so caught up in the needs of the church, we forget about our own needs. And Paul as a loving father is telling his spiritual son Timothy, "Slow down. Drink a little wine to help with your stomach," which is the common medical practice in the ancient Near East. He's basically telling him, "Slow down and take care of your body."

Not just in addressing your own needs, slow down when addressing the church's needs. Don't appoint elders too quickly. Don't appoint someone just because you need it or because someone's charming. The pastoral office is an honorable one and is worth honoring through deliberate discernment. Not only should Timothy watch his physical needs and the church's needs, he also needs to watch his spiritual needs. It says, "Don't share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure." Burnout sucks the joy out of the heart, even while you do good things. When there's a vacuum of delight in the Lord, that's when Satan loves to tempt us with a promise of temporary, sinful pleasure.

I'd love to say that I do well in these things. But I don't. I mean, it was funny. I was prepping this text, and Friday night, I had to get up three times because of intense stomach aches. I don't know what it was. It might have been the kicking crab I ate for dinner, but I was just paying the piper. I couldn't sleep. Shortcuts in ministry are an ever-present temptation. Sin lurks in the shadows of the world and in the corners of my own heart. This text isn't just uncomfortable because I have to talk about my pay. It's uncomfortable because it's so real. So I don't know how else to apply this. Would you pray for me? Pray that I would slow down and trust in the Lord and not myself. Pray that I'd rely on the Lord for discernment and rest in him. One of the rules that pastors have when they preach in sermons is just don't talk about yourself that much because you have to talk a lot. You have to talk every week. And if you get in the pattern of talking about yourself, you just end up creating a church revolving around you. But I feel like I have to say, I need your prayers. Please pray for me.

Paul knows this feeling. He's familiar with it. He's not just talking to Timothy as a father. He's talking from experience. In 2 Corinthians chapter 11, Paul says that he feels the daily burden, the anxiety for all the churches. And Paul tells Timothy here to slow down and trust the Lord's work with time. Not just with his body, his soul, or the church's leaders, but with the people as well.

Time Reveals All

Let's close. Let's look at verse 24.

Some people’s sins are obvious, preceding them to judgment, but the sins of others surface later. Likewise, good works are obvious, and those that are not obvious cannot remain hidden. — 1 Timothy 5:24-25 (CSB)

I'd love to say I can fix everything, but I can't. I'd love to say that I can see everything, but I can't. I'd love to say that I can do everything, but I can't. And that is good news. Some people's sins burst out into the open right away and demand your attention and your effort. But other sins spread like cancer beneath the surface. And Paul is saying, "Time will tell." You can't work your way out of that. You can't work yourself to the point where all sin gets eradicated in every crevice of the church's life. You can't assume guilt, and neither can you assume that everything's okay. When it comes to sin, you have to trust that time will reveal everything. Both will be judged by Christ. And the same goes for good works.

There's faithfulness that stands out and brings glory to God, where you're just able to rejoice and be amazed at all the Lord does. There are other days where honestly, I work really hard and no one says anything. You ever feel that way? You're like doing work to honor Christ and no one sees it. And Paul is saying, "Listen, time will tell that too. It will bring honor to Christ. He sees it, and he will reward you for it." Time erodes every sin, every facade, every fake appearance of godliness, and time will surface sin for its ugliness. And time will expose all the good works, all the faithfulness, all the labor that brings glory to God's name. There is an inevitable ability, an objective, affirmation, and condemnation that comes when you follow Christ. Because all of our days are pointing towards the judgment day of Christ where everything will be revealed. Every evil deed will be exposed. Every honorable act will be exalted.

Do you live in light of that judgment day? Are you ready for the day when everything will be brought into the open? Will you crumble in the face of God's holiness when all of your sin is brought to light, when no stone will be left unturned? Will you be able to stand before an almighty, holy God in light of your sins? Because you will not get away with it. Judgment can be delayed, but it cannot be dodged. Or will you stand in the grace of Christ? Will you be able to say that your righteousness is found not in yourself but in Christ alone? Will you be able to point at Jesus as your Savior and say, "I have placed my faith in Him who died for my sins and rose victorious from the dead?" Can you say with sincerity that you took up your cross to follow Him? Will your good works exposed on that day reveal the honor of your work reflecting the honor of the Savior that you serve?

Time will tell. And the pastor doesn't need to do all of that because the judge will. The Lord in his time will, whether it's sin or good works, time will tell. Which is why pastors and Christians can work and they can rest. Christians are trusting, working people. We work because the work we do is worthy of honor. And we can rest because we trust that the Lord is also at work in our work, bringing all things together for His own glory. Because that's the point of all we do anyway. Everything that we do is to bring Him honor. And when we stand before the Lord on that day and all of our effort is brought to light, we can look at our Savior, our King. We'll look at Him in the face and say, "It was all for you."

Let's pray. Lord, we pray before you as a holy God, reveal the hidden sins of our heart. We encourage us as we seek to do good work. And we ask that you bring glory to your name in our lives and our life as a church. Help us to be able to honor our pastors. Help us to live in step with godliness. And we need your Spirit to do it, so we ask that you would help in Jesus' name. Amen.