First Timothy 5:21

The Bible says in First Timothy 5:21, “I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that you observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality.” Paul had just given Timothy instructions on several important practical matters to be used in various congregations. These matters had to do with which individuals would be helped financially, how much salary would be paid to pastors, and what to do when accusations were brought against pastors. When such decisions would be made, there would be a great effect on the lives of many people. In order to make the right decision in each one of these cases, two important principles had to be remembered that have to do with your attitude towards others.

The first principle is to not prefer one before another, and the second principle is to do nothing by partiality. Both of these principles have to do with the equality of believers. Whoever you are and whatever is your background, there is a great equality between you and every other member of the family of God. Timothy was told to “observe these things without preferring one before another.” This phrase “preferring one before another” comes from a Greek word that means to judge before-hand: to be prejudiced. If you are prejudiced against someone, then you have judged before-hand concerning some characteristic about them. Jesus said, “Judge not after the appearance, but judge righteous judgement.” Every person is an individual who should be evaluated based upon their own individual character, and behavior, and performance.

No one should be pre-judged or be prejudiced against based upon the group that he or she appears to belong to. Everyone should be treated equally. And no one should receive special favors. That is what it means when it says “doing nothing by partiality.” Do not incline yourself to someone because of who they are or who they seem to be. God is not a respecter of persons. Do not lift one person higher than any other person in your esteem. God loves everyone equally. Try to make your love more like God’s love. “Let love be without dissimulation.” If you love some, but do not love others, then your love is very much a human love, and not very much a godly love.

In First Timothy 5:22 the Bible says, “Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins: keep thyself pure.” Remember that the laying on of the hands was a symbolic gesture that had to do with the acceptance of someone as a pastor. There must be sufficient time in knowing someone in order to determine if they are really qualified and gifted for the responsibilities of a pastor. To choose someone too quickly before they are known well enough would not be wise. This is similar advice as that given by Shakespeare in Hamlet when a father said to his son, “Do not dull thy palm with entertainment of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade.”

The associations that you have are a part of the things that identify who you are and what you are involved in, and therefore are a part of your testimony in this world. That is why the Bible says, “Neither be partaker of other men’s sins.” There are certain things in the lives of certain pastors that should be rebuked. Your own reward and your own testimony can definitely be affected by the people you associate with. Psalms chapter 1 says, “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the council of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law does he meditate day and night. His leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” First Timothy 5:22 says, “Keep thyself pure.” You can become tainted by having the wrong associations.

In First Timothy 5:23 Paul wrote to Timothy, “Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities.” The spiritual is more important than the physical, but the physical is still important. God made the world work the way that it works. “Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?” Paul did not tell Timothy to pray about his apparent physical problems, what he called his “often infirmities,” and stop there. This Bible verse and others in the New Testament show very clearly that even the Apostles did not heal people at will. There is no such thing as a gift of healing that allows anyone to be healed at any time. There is no such thing as a gift of healing to allow anyone to be healed if there is enough faith. Timothy and Paul both had a lot of faith, but Timothy was not healed. He used medicines to try and improve his condition just as we often do. Of course, in the first century they did not have the quality of doctors and medicines that we do today, and so Paul said, “Use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities.”

Does this verse mean that it is alright to drink alcohol? No, this verse is talking about medicine. It is not talking about drinking alcohol as a beverage, and it certainly is not approving of social drinking. It also says, “A little wine for thy stomach’s sake.” Much sorrow awaits those who do social drinking or who abuse alcohol. If you never take your first drink, you will never become an alcoholic. That is guaranteed. The abuse of alcohol leads to great and expensive trouble for any society. Here are some of the results of the abuse of alcohol: thousands of deaths every year on the highways, broken homes, acts of assault and violence, abused children and wives, lost work and productivity, and many serious physical problems from ulcers to liver damage and brain damage. The best way to ensure that you will never abuse alcohol is to never drink it at all.

First Timothy 5:24-25 says, “Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after. Likewise also the good works of some are manifest beforehand; and they that are otherwise cannot be hid.” One of Timothy’s responsibilities was to rebuke sin in the church. In the text that we have been looking at Timothy might need to rebuke an elder if accusations brought against an elder were corroborated by at least two or three witnesses. Timothy himself was warned by Paul not to become tainted by association with other men’s failures. In regard to the sins that people commit, Paul had one last thing to point out. In our society sometimes you hear the statement, “Someone has gotten away with murder.” Such a statement is not true. This is what is true: Your sin shall find you out. Truth is like a bubble of water on the bottom of a lake. It will find its way to the top. It is just a matter of time. When anyone does wrong and does not repent, there are two things that can happen: 1. That person’s failure becomes known in this life. This happens to many people. There are many, many people who thought they were committing a secret sin, and then that which they thought was secret became public knowledge. You cannot suppress truth. Truth comes to light. 2. That person’s failure does not become known in this life, but God sees everything and He knows everything. No one will get away with anything. God knows and he is the judge. His judgment will be right and true. “It is appointed unto men once to die and after this the judgment.” “It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

The Bible says in First Timothy 6:1-2, “Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort.” The Bible does not support revolution, and it does not support rebellion. “The powers that be are ordained of God.” Satan rebelled against God and sin entered into the universe. Everyone is accountable to someone. It does not matter if those that you report to are believers or non-believers. They should receive the same honor and the same service. The respect and honor that you show those who are above you is tied to your testimony. The people of the world sometimes look for an excuse to speak against God and the teachings about God. God forbid that an attitude of rebellion on your part or on mine should be their excuse.

Notice that the reason the scripture gives for honoring the masters who are brothers is that they are “partakers of the benefit.” The “benefit” means “the good deed.” The good deed is the good deed that God did for us. Jesus suffered and died for our sins in order that we could be forgiven and have eternal life. God did something for us. He did the good deed. The word “partaker” comes from a word that means to receive. We must receive the benefit. We must enter into it. We must become a partaker of the good deed that God did. God has already done something for you. Have you entered in through faith in Christ to what He has done? God did a tremendous thing to send Jesus Christ into the world to suffer on the Roman cross. The next move is yours to pray to Him and to receive Him and to repent of your sins.

Paul wrote in First Timothy 6:3-5, “If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.” Paul puts the words that he wrote in this and other epistles on an equal par with the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. The reason that he can do that is because the words written in this book have been inspired by God. When Jesus spoke, every word was the Word of God. When Paul wrote, every word was the Word of God. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”

The Bible says, “If any man teach otherwise.” We have to be on our guard against false teachers. The way to recognize them is to listen to what they teach. If what they teach is not consistent with what Paul taught or what Jesus taught, then they are not to be respected as a teacher of God’s truth. Instead of teaching the truth, Paul said that they are “destitute of the truth.” The word that is translated “destitute” means that they have been deprived of the truth. No one can teach truth unless truth has been revealed to them. The reason that truth has not been revealed to them is because of the first thing that is said about them here: they are “proud.”

The effects of such people and their teachings cannot be good. When the truth is taught, it will glorify Jesus, and it will encourage believers and build them up and bring them together to love one another and to love God. Notice the effect of the teachings of these who do not know the truth: strife, envy, blasphemy, and evil thoughts. Their teachings will separate believers and cause divisions. There will be something humanistic about the teachings of the false teachers. Human teachings will bring out human nature: the dark side of human nature. Instead of brotherly love and unity, there will be strife and envy. Their teachings will separate believers from God. The false teachers teach things that are blasphemy. Because what they teach is false, they actually speak against God: they blaspheme. True teaching of the truth will result in those who hear the teachings having good thoughts. False teachings will do the opposite. False teachings come from the mind of those who have evil thoughts, and they share their evil thoughts with their listeners.

Why does someone become a false teacher? What path have they taken in life that has resulted in them becoming a false teacher? What is there about these people? What attribute or characteristic do they have that has caused them to be false and to teach that which is false? The answer is found in the very first thing that is said about a false teacher here in First Timothy 6:4. “He is proud.” “Pride goeth before a fall, and a haughty spirit before destruction.” The Bible says in Proverbs 6:16, “These six things does the Lord hate. Yea, seven are an abomination unto Him.” And the first thing listed is pride. Through pride Satan fell from heaven. The proud will not seek God, and therefore they will not understand the truth of His Word. We who are rightly related to the Lord are not proud because we understand the greatness of our own sins, and we understand that we are totally dependent upon the mercy of God and the grace of God that is found in Jesus Christ.

The last thing said about these false teachers and their teachings is found in First Timothy 6:5 and it says, “supposing that gain is godliness.” Remember that these are proud people who know nothing about true doctrine. They are not spiritual. They know nothing about the spiritual. They are material. They understand the material, they seek the material, and they emphasize the material and the human side of things. They themselves have probably gained materially a great deal. After all they have used religion to gain. There is nothing wrong with wealth if that is God’s calling for you, but wealth is not a measurement of God’s blessings. According to Jesus, the wealthier that you are, the less it is likely that you will even come to Jesus for salvation. God does not always demand that we give up our possessions, but He does always demand that we be willing to give them up.

God promises to supply our needs. If you walk with God and if you are spiritually minded, God promises each day to give you food to eat and clothing to cover your body. Godliness does not result in material wealth. If that were true, all godly people would be wealthy, but they are not. Be careful. You can turn on the television any day and see preachers who are teaching this false doctrine. The true riches are the riches of salvation in Jesus Christ. Thank God for such riches as these.

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