They were Stumbling blocks to me

 

1 Timothy 5: 19-25

“Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses.”

Growing up in small Baptist churches, 1Timothy 5:19 was omitted from the teaching, or if not omitted, it was ignored.  Now that was not the case in our home, my dad was a deacon who understood the Biblical role of a deacon, and it is my observation from a child vantage point that dad was a servant and friend to most pastors.  I do recall a group of men coming to our home more than once, and always at night, most were much younger than dad, and yet dad was only in his early forty’s, they also were deacons and they were there to let dad know that his support for the pastor was going to get him in hot water.  

When things like this happened, we were told to go to our rooms, adults were going to discuss things that children did not need to hear, mother also would go to her room after making coffee and offering dessert, and I must confess that being sent to your room and not getting to listen to the “Shadow knows,” or the Lone Ranger” was awful, but to think that those men were going to jump my dad, and mother was going to let them eat our dessert was more that this child could handle, it was appalling.  Now when the house you live in is 900 square feet and voice are raised, some in anger, and others just trying to be heard above the others, we hear it all, and it was men like these that made me wonder if what was taught at church was ever applied. 

My dad would tell us, if one of us was foolish enough to bring it up, that these men needed our prayers, that our pastor was doing the best he could with the resources he had been given.  In many of these small churches the pastor served at the pleasure of the deacon body, he was a fifth wheel, so to say, the deacon ran thing and they expected the pastor to do all the work of ministry, and the definition of ministry was decided by that small group of men and their wives.  I would hope to report that this is a thing of the past, but it is not, it happens anytime a deacon body has a wrong concept of it’s Biblical responsibility.

Paul in his third time to go to the church at Corinth has this warning; “Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.” (2 Corinthians 13:1)  He is making reference to the following taking place in the church, quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder.  This was a sad witness to the world, and it seems in this case that the root cause was past sins and no repentance, sins like sexual immorality and sensuality, that had been their practice.  Paul is not implying that these are elders being accused.  Each of us before bringing a charge against an elder, Pastor-Teacher, would be wise to listen to Jesus, and take the log out of our own eye before bringing a charge against anyone.

What those deacons should have done back when I was a child, and any that have that mindset today, is see what the Bible instructs about bringing a charge against an elder.   And in the case of elders, all of us should require two or three witnesses before even citing them.  And a note to the elders: go back often and read the qualifications God has set for your task of leading His church in 1 Timothy 3:1-7.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice