First Timothy lesson 28 cont.

Okay, we're in Lesson 28. Everybody got their lesson paper out? Alright. So we did a bit of a review last week of the entire chapter of 1 Timothy chapter 5. And we're still working through this issue of widows and what that means to how Paul, in a pastoral way, is teaching Timothy to deal with these situations in the church. And there's a lot of things that relate to us in principle. And so we'll talk about the principle side of it as well as the practical application of what it meant to Paul and Timothy in that century.

So we're on question number two. What is the one or what is one of the worst things a person can learn that is a detriment to one's well-being based on the scripture there? So we're looking at verse 13. I'll read verse 13. At the same time, they also, talking about widows, they also learn to be idle as they go around from house to house, and not merely idle but also gossips and busybodies talking about things not proper to mention. We're going to break all that down, but what's one of the worst things? And there's a Greek word that has to do with, because in the last question, we really gave context to, well, the first question was, what is a further reason for not enrolling widows? And we talked about what kind of disqualifies and the theological implications having too much time on one's hand, or some of the things that we mentioned. So in this case, we're looking at, we're kind of starting out with, as they go around from house to house, what do you think that means? And I'll define it. in a moment.

Imagine what it would have looked like back in those days for a woman to wander around from house to house. It would have been like literally... I don't think so. This is a believing widow that's... Well, the word periechome, which really means to wander about, to go aimlessly. And so I think the The point that Paul is making is that as you wonder about and you go about aimlessly, you're not focused. you're prone to talk about anything and everything that's going on.

So I just imagine it as, I'm going to go have, this is how I imagine it. She's going to go have tea. She's going to have tea with this woman and she's going to talk about the things that are going on with that woman. Then she's going to go over to the other house and then she's going to talk about the things that are going on, you know, with the other family or the other kids or whatever.

Think about it this way, it's not purposeful movement but kind of a wandering without direction or really any proper intent about what they're doing. What's the opposite of that? Is going about from house to house necessarily the wrong thing? Or is it what your intent is? Because you could be sharing something positive and supporting. It could be a gospel focus. It could be mission-based. But here, go ahead. Here it is, gossip. Gossip, that's right. Yeah.

He's talking, Paul's talking about something that's fundamentally problematic in that age. It may not be the exact same for the way that we function today. We're all, I mean, I'm up in Thornton, you're down in Parker, you know, you're in the DTC, we're all kind of spread around, so we're not, but even in our own environments, Paul's talking about the fact that there's this problem of of wandering around. Here's where Vincent's commentary becomes helpful for us.

The word learn, do you see that? They learn to be idle. They see the damage you're doing Well, they're learning, but they're learning the wrong things, right? Mike? I have a friend who, I've never met this man face to face. We've been talking on the phone for 30 years. Wow.

His dad was a Presbyterian pastor. And his dad made it a point to visit every family in his church twice a year. And so he would go around just for a visit, not unannounced, you know, set him up. And he was concerned about, he wanted to know, you know, what was going on spiritually with them and the family and anything to pray about, that kind of thing, which is much different than what this is.

That's the contrast. Yeah. And he, and I thought, boy, you know, that's actually, a great idea. Now we have cell phones today. Yeah. Close communications about things that matter. And there is a society like we have where we're pretty wealthy in general. So it means we have a lot of time. Especially as you get older.

And you can evolve into this pretty easily, where you're gossiping, and, you know, did you hear about this or that? And they're all inane sort of conversations that have nothing to do with the Lord. Yeah. And for us today, it could be social media, it could be text, it could be the phone, and it might be physically wandering about and just like looking outside, seeing who's around, what could kind of juicy stuff can I get from my neighbors or whatever.

But I think this kind of creates a learning paradox. Instead of growing in godly wisdom, they were developing harmful habits and behaviors. And that's what Paul is addressing there. I just looked up the word, you know, for idle. And Zodiac is on this First Timothy passage with the idea they chose to be idle. This isn't something, you know, just happened. They're choosing to be idle.

Which I think adds a little bit to it. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Versus learn. Learn. This one is, yeah, they chose to be idle there. Yeah, I'm going to hang around and do nothing. You know, I could be doing something, but nah. That's good. I'm going to hang out and just go around later, you know, busybodies and gossips and all that.

They choose to do that, you know. Choosing to do the wrong thing. Choosing to do the wrong thing. Right, right. No, that's helpful. It says making the most of your time because the days are evil. Yeah. So we do have a choice how to use our time. But first we've got to learn how to listen to the Lord. And I think that's where that Bible comes in. I think that that's actually kind of pulled out.

If you look at 2 Timothy 3.7, where Paul describes the people who are always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. So there's a pattern that Timothy and Paul are dealing with in this case, and it's this learning activity or choosing activity, as we've kind of further defined it, without that proper direction and that proper discernment, it becomes spiritually destructive, and that's what's happening to these women. And Timothy has to be really aware of that.

So, What might have been, in this time, a legitimate church ministry like house-to-house visitation, which was, it became corrupted with the gossip and the things that we're gonna talk about. So why should we consider this type of learning so harmful?

I think four things. First of all, It replaces genuine spiritual growth with destructive habits, what you just talked about, Mike. And it damages relationships within the church. Because when you've got one person talking about another person in the church, gossiping and doing these things, we're going to break those words down a little bit further, it breaks down those relationships. And we've seen those kinds of things happen, right? We've seen when that kind of destructive commentary and gossip and even idleness enters a church and starts to break away families and things of that nature. Like he spoke in person, that included stuff.

Should I get married or should I not? that condemnation. And what's the result of that? In verse 15. Look at 1 Timothy 5.15. It can lead people away from Christ. That's the danger. The ultimate danger. But that's where desire comes in. How do you mean?

Well, they've got to make a choice whether Get married or don't. You can't just sit on the fence. Let's keep talking about that. We'll talk about the marriage piece in part, in a bit. Question number three, what else do they learn by being idle? There's a progression that you see here. I'm going to walk us through it, and there's a connection actually in Acts as well that we're going to talk about.

But what are they, by choosing to be idle, they're learning to be idle. Obviously that choice is an educational, like they learn more and more of what not to be doing. So what do they learn by being idle? What does it increase? Maybe flip that around. What do they learn by being idle?

It decreases intimacy with Christ. I'm looking the other way. I could ask the question a different way. God's put you there. It's allowed to happen. She's learned that all this gossip and stuff isn't the answer. Yeah, she's not learning yet, but your point would be if she were to learn from the Lord then it would increase intimacy and so This is just the opposite. It's just the opposite. She's idle. If you're not focused on the Lord, what are you focused on? Yourself or the world. And that becomes the next two, which are the busybodies and gossips. Yeah, and those are the behaviors that we're going to look at. So you've got stage one.

And I kind of pulled out the root meaning of gossips. And the root meaning, I'm not going to try to pronounce it, I did practice, but I feel like Mike's going to interrupt me and tell me how to say it. It means to utter nonsense. This is the root. To utter nonsense, to talk idly, to prat. That was one of the words that came up.

And it really describes this speech that lacks substance. What do you think the substance should be? When we say it lacks substance, well, I'm just talking about what happened last week. It's not a big deal, substance. When I say it lacks substance, as a tattler, that's one of the ways you might. Well, the substance is always about someone else and the judgment of that, right? That's what's related to this.

Think of it as being undisciplined speech patterns. It's like, I am not walking with the Lord, therefore I'm operating in the flesh, and I'm speaking about things that are not of substance, And they're not disciplined by the Holy Spirit because... And they're idle. They are idle. Okay. Yeah. I always thought that was a good thing. No. No, because... Not in this context. Yeah. Mike. I don't think idle... I don't know why I say this. God didn't build us to be idle. sit around and just deal with your own mind.

And I think especially as people get older, sometimes they're not as busy as they were before making a living and raising a family and that kind of thing. But I do think that a lot of believers that sort of reach that One of the big lies that our country sold to the public is retirement. There's no such thing as retirement in the body of Christ. You just go from doing this to doing this to doing this to doing that until the Lord takes you home. And so I think I've counseled a lot of people who say, look, why don't you just sit quietly with the Lord and say, what would you like me to do for you? What can I do right now? for that would honor you and glorify you. I don't care what it is. And trust me, he'll get you busy. Yeah. And I'm trying to put together the two things that were just mentioned from the two of you, Mike's.

The contrast of idol would be rest, I think. When you're resting in the Lord for direction, You're not idle, you're not looking for things that are non-substance. You're still busy, but you're resting. contemplative prayer or whatever, you empty your mind and let it fill. That's where, I think, where we get to in 14 or 15, you're giving over to Satan. That fits this pattern really well. If you idle in mind, where you empty your mind, what's filled with it is the flesh, Satan, perfect person.

But there is a magical principle. What is that? Decision-making by indecision. That's a form of logic. Well, yeah, the point is an idleness. If it's idleness, and I think the good contrast is rest, you're not just emptying your mind and you're idle. You're filling it, actually. You're actually filling it with bad things.

And that's what, actually I was looking at that word on the, a tattler, an idle and trifling talker, but I like this, one who boils over with impertinent talk. Empty chatter. Boils over with impertinent talk. It goes on, so that root word is in the word gossips, or gossips, yeah.

So there's like that stage one, stage two, there's kind of an escalation here. So this same word being built off the root moves from idle chatter to making empty charges. So now you're not just talking about things that don't matter, but you're making empty charges. And this is where it starts to get harmful as opposed to wasteful. So there's an escalation there.

Spreading unverified information, making accusations without proper knowledge or foundation to it. Paul isn't even concerned whether these charges are true or false. He's saying the issue is the etiquette and the damage that this kind of speech causes. It could be true, it could be false. But the fact that you started making these charges creates that level of what Paul is really talking about here in the word gossips. And we'll talk about why true or false is not really at play here.

Because you could be saying something true that should not be spoke about. And that comes in the latter part of this verse. Do you got something? Yeah, I was thinking that You know, I know people that say to me, you know, I just got to go be alone with myself. And I always think, oh, gee, that doesn't sound too exciting to me. My sin nature is not worth being alone with. You know, it's dangerous.

But in terms of conversation and discussion and visiting with people, I think one of the things you learn is to with that other person, what to pray for about them. That's really important, you know, and I mean, that's a good question to ask. What can I pray for about you? I think it's that secret garden only of the Lord.

And there's a fellowship that goes on, but the issue is, is the Lord the center of what you're all about, what you're talking about, or is it, you know, one sin nature tearing down another one. Yeah. And I think that's what this is. Even as believers, our sin natures can tear down other sin natures. And I flipped that on the side as well. The contrast is Christ in me has no issue with Christ in you.

But when you start one or the two of you start flipping that around, That's where you start getting into patterns like this. You get into the gossip, you get into the tattling, or tattlers, and then the next stage that the verse goes into is being a busybody. What do you think that means? You just said we're not supposed to retire, so why is busybody a not good thing here? I can go back to Zodiatis again. Go back to the meaning of the word.

I love the way he puts some of these. So this one is, use the people who scurry about fussing over and meddling in other people's affairs or rot with unnecessary care. Unnecessary care. I'm just going to get into your business. Oh yeah. We can deal business. Yeah, this word peri-argos, peri is the word around and argos is work. So it literally pictures someone whose work is going around, but not for productive purposes. You're just busy doing stuff.

Got to get out there, make things shake, shake it up. Yeah, shake that sin nature up. Kind of reminds me of those progressive commercials about you becoming a parent or whatever. Getting into all that money's business. Let me do that for you. Acting like your parents or whatever, which I think we're becoming, unfortunately. Okay, we have a confession. We're going to pray for you next week. Like sending letters in class. Let me do that for you.

Making a fire. There's one about making a fire, which is really hard at home, you know, trying to build like a campfire. And all the dads are out there looking at a young guy doing it. No, no, oh, no, oh, no, you need to, oh. Yeah. What kind of wood are you using? What's that? Oh, no. Oh, you don't use flint and steel? That's how you really do it if you're a man. Either a log cabin fire or a two-feet fire. Yeah, but that's what the busybodies do, is tell the young guy, no, you have to do it this way. Yeah.

I have this statement that these busybodies are actively prying into private affairs that don't concern them. Actively prying into stuff that does not concern them. Kind of like being nosy. That's really good. Yeah, it can be nosy, and then it becomes judgmental based on what you learn. So tell me a little bit more about that. Oh, that's so bad Yeah, they were not mining their own business Yeah No, they weren't so you got you got this root word of kind of its tattlers and then it escalates into gossip and then it escalates into a stage three of actively working to do this consistently and applying and getting into the lives of others in a way that they shouldn't. It doesn't concern them, but they made it their concern.

There's an Acts 19.19 connection.

Somebody read Acts 19.19. The same word is talked about here. I have my reference, right? Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and buried them in the side of all. Burned. Oh, yeah. Keep me straight, guys. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled 50,000 pieces of silver.

So, in Acts 19.19, Paul refers to this curious arts. You said magic, we could say curious arts, but in Acts, that periagos is referred to those involved in magic and occult practices, right? You use magic, cult, curious arts, but people trying to access knowledge that they shouldn't have.

Like T.N. Warwick, the palm reading, I remember driving by on a road in Denver where it says palm reading. Did you stop? No. The real question is did you go? There's no reason to. Well, this is just people trying to access knowledge that they shouldn't have.

And so this is similar to the busybodies. There's a similarity of words here. They're trying to get into people's lives in areas that they shouldn't. Really, the way you might describe this is an inappropriate curiosity about other people's private matters. It's an inappropriate curiosity. So there's kind of a destructive progression that we see here.

And the pattern is idle time. If I were still using the whiteboard, I'd write this out. I kind of got out of that practice. I used to do that all the time. So this thing, the screen was down each week, and so I was like, I can't work in this space. But now it's up, so I could probably write this out. Idle time. The next stage is idle speech. Then it progresses into harmful speech. then it progresses into active interference. So, idle time leads to idle speech, leads to harmful speech, which leads to active interference in people's lives. See that? Wrong source. Wrong source. Yeah.

They're walking by the flesh, and because they have that time, because they're widows, this is the progression that happens. Now the principle applies for you too. We might say personal restlessness, social disruption, church damage. It's another way of looking at it. You don't have anything to do, so you're restless, and so you go start messing up some social stuff, and all of a sudden, then it comes back to the church, and that's where the damage for the body happens. That's the pastoral perspective that Paul has in teaching Timothy, watch out for these things, because it was a real problem in his day, and it can still be a problem today. So that's question number three. Question number four. Got 10 minutes.

What would things, quote, things not proper to mention be? I really thought this was, I took a lot from having studied this question. What's some examples of things not proper to mention? It isn't truth versus false. That's the number one thing. And that's why I said we're gonna get back to this. But it's about propriety or etiquette in the things that you talk about. It's a very important spiritual principle. I think it applies to all of us.

But specifically in this verse, it goes beyond simple fact-checking while it's teaching that even true information can be inappropriate to share. What are categories of that kind of improper speech? Well, let me give you an example and then you can start. How about private family matters that don't concern outsiders?

That's definitely one of them. It may be true. It just may not be proper to share with everyone or maybe only some, right? Every family has skeletons. Yeah, and if I bring those out and they're true, it can still be improper for the church. It's not proper to mention. So family matters.

What's another one? About personal struggles. There aren't public knowledge to the church. Should it be dealt with in a private setting? Or should a widow go about, because she has time on her hands, and expose that? That would be a thing improper to speak on. That's what elders are for. That's what elders are for. They can disclose the truth. That's right. There's a counsel there.

I think sometimes, especially if you came to Christ A little later in life, you have a history in the flesh. And sometimes, at least from your perspective, you don't want to talk about that. Yeah. I don't want to romanticize the past. And somebody finds out about my past and does just that with other believers in the church. That could be improper to mention.

Also like marriages and relationships. Oh, have you heard? that they are separated, or they're living together and they're not married. Now, those things are not improper in the sense that they don't align with what the Lord is desiring for those believers, but these are the kinds of things that these women were talking about and being busy about it, bringing it up and boiling it up. You said the word boil, I think. you're talking about living together and not getting married. I'm talking about any kind of marriage relationship that's worse. But that's one thing that's happened to our society. Sure. Mike. I just had this thought.

If you're talking to another believer and the Lord is the center of the conversation, what you're moving towards is a solution, the right solution. And it may be prayer, it may be whatever, whereas without the Lord and a conversation, you can't solve the sin nature. That's a really good point. When the Lord is not in the conversation, You're wrestling with the sin nature that cannot be wrestled with.

It needs to go back to the cross. I got a few of these. Mike, can we speak later? What about financial situations? That could be a thing too that may be improper to talk about. And then I had listed past sins or failures. You know, kind of romanticizing the past about somebody. I think it overgrows the motive, too, and direction.

It's to get the information, and I'm going to spread it. I'm going to get this dirt, or I'm going to get this, as you said, juicy information, and I'm going to, boiling over, I'm going to get this out, because it's soaked. It's juicy. I got the knowledge. I got the stuff. I got the goods. You come talk to me and I'll let you know what's going on.

And that principle doesn't just apply to these women, it applies to you. I would say it makes me feel better about myself if I'm not doing all this stuff that other people are doing. Oh, right. Yeah. She's way worse than I am. Let me tell you about what happened in her past. Did you hear George is in jail? Yeah, well, that could be a present problem. But maybe George went to jail. So that all goes back to 12, you know. It does, actually. Because they cast off their first fee. That's right.

Yeah, you're not walking with the Lord, and you're creating this speech, and so I wrote down the necessity test. Quote, unquote, the necessity test. So Paul's talking about the things that are not necessary to talk about. So we could ask ourselves, does sharing this information serve a constructive purpose in the Lord? Does it build them up? or encourage them in the direction of the Lord or not.

If not, don't talk about it. Don't talk about it. If you're not conversating, it doesn't mean you can't talk about things that are of the nature, but when you're spreading it and you're looking for the juicy side of it in order to just get it and spread it without constructively coming alongside someone in the ward, then the necessity of speaking up, that falls into the things not proper to mention. It's where you keep it to yourself, right?

Does it build up the church? Does it help the people involved? If not, it falls into the not proper dimension category. The necessity test. that affliction that's one thing to bring you up if you were an alcoholic and you've come through it the Lord's helped you if you bring up you know somebody who's an alcoholic you can help them you're just spreading hey he was an alcoholic or do it yeah that's different but there is a there is a time I think with the body you know the grandkids where if you've gone through that you can help somebody in the rain and it goes to the motive Yeah.

The motive is to help the individual, not to spread gossip. That's it. I've got some juicy stuff, I'm going to spread it. No, I can come beside you and help you. Yeah. There's a big distinction between, you know, wanting to find out if somebody has it and you've gone through that and the Lord's bringing you beside them to help them. Yeah, but that isn't what's talked about here. This is coming to get the juicy information and spreading it and feeling you know, proud about their...

And that damages the church. Exactly. And the individual. And the individual. We're at time, but go for it. You think of the church and, say like George is in jail, instead of gossiping about it, you'll go visit him in prison. if there's a relationship there, you know, rather than spread it around church and then church, see, because we're to reprove.

We're to what? We're to reprove our brethren. You know, I mean, We've got to let them know they're doing wrong. There's a whole process about that, though, not just, I'm going to spread it around. There's, you know, go quietly with individual witnesses and to the elders, and so it's not like I'm going to broadcast. Again, it goes to motive. Yeah. It's motive to just spread the news versus, yeah, I'm going to go help George. That's a completely different thing. Right. Yeah, so not to disqualify.

That's where the church comes in. Yeah, well, and you may do it as a believer, as a friend, in your house with your friend or in their house or at the coffee shop. You may point them to the Lord and reprove in such a way that it builds them up to and points them to the truth, that's not what's going on here.

And there's an escalating danger that happens as this occurs in the body, and you'll see it in verse 14 and 15, and we'll talk about that next week. So let's pray. Father, how we thank you for Paul's teaching to Timothy and just the situation that he was dealing with in that time and how it applies to us today. I pray that we would just take heed of these words and recognize the danger of idleness and how the escalation of damaging the Church and creating problems Can happen and that we would stay close to you through fellowship So that those temptations would would not be areas that we would find ourselves getting carried away with and so Again, we thank you for your truth We thank you that when we spend time with you and we talk about you That that does develop that intimacy that you desire for us. And so and that's by your grace. Thank you for that It's your name we pray Amen.