Church Life
In the book How To Read The Bible For All Its Worth Gordon Fee says that the epistles are “Occasional Documents”. By this he means that they were written for specific occasions. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t passages in the epistles that are universal for all times and places; however, it does mean that some of the passages are quite specific to time and place. Today’s chapter seems to contain both kinds of passages.
In the culture to which Paul was writing women generally had little or no means of making a living and were basically dependent on securing a husband. Therefore, Paul doesn’t really mention the possibility of a widow getting a job; something which is quite possible in our present culture. Still, there are some basic principles here that would seem to be universal.
Grown children should feel a responsibility to take care of their parent once they become too old to earn a living. This is right because the parents took care of the children when they were too young to make a living.
The head of a household has a responsibility to work to provide for the household, not just to provide for his, or her, self.
The church should assume some responsibility for those who have no other means of help.
Those whose life has earned them a good reputation should be given greater consideration than those whose lives have been more profligate.
It isn’t good to make a rash vow to the Lord. Nor is it good to entice others to make such vows.
Those who serve the church in senior leadership deserve to make a living from such service.
Those who have risen to positions of senior leadership through faithful service should be given the benefit of the doubt against unsubstantiated slander.
Therefore, don’t elevate people to senior leadership in a hasty manner.
A little wine isn’t necessarily a bad thing and, yes, even people with books of the Bible named after them occasionally get sick.
This is church life.
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