Of Churches and Truck Stops – Part 4
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But refuse to put younger widows on the list, for when they feel sensual desires in disregard of Christ, they want to get married, thus incurring condemnation, because they have set aside their previous pledge [1 Timothy 5:11-12].
Similar sorts of predicaments faced the churches back in the times of the Apostle Paul. He makes reference to this in the Bible verses quoted at the start of this study. Allow me to present the context for your benefit.
Originally the Christians were all Jewish. The Jewish authorities rejected Jesus as the Messiah of Israel, so they persecuted the Christians. After all, being a Jewish Christian meant that the believer received Jesus as the Jewish Messiah.
In consequence the Jewish Christians were ostracized. They were not welcomed at the temple or synagogue. They were not hired for jobs and were fired from the ones they had. Aside from their fellow Christians—who also had no jobs or influence with the authorities—their friends were few and far between. No one wanted to be persecuted along with the Christians, you see.
When Paul took the Gospel to the Gentiles (the non-Jewish peoples), he started churches in various cities throughout the Roman world. The Roman world was pagan through-and-through, veritable card-carrying heathens. The motto of heathenism is that there are gods for everything and every city, and all gods are real and to be worshiped.
Well, this didn’t fly with Judaism or Christianity. The foundation of the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, is that there is one and only one true God, and His name is YHWH (or Yahweh or Jehovah). For Christianity this one true God reveals Himself as three Persons at the same time, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus is the Son.
So how do you think the relationship fared between Christians and heathens? Would you believe it didn’t! The heathens wanted the Christians to incorporate their God YHWH into the pantheon of all the heathen gods, and worship them all. The Christians refused and worshiped only Jesus.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the Christians also taught the heathens that they should turn from the false gods they worshiped and commit to Jesus alone. The nerve of some people, huh? So the heathen Gentiles denounced this upstart God named Jesus and persecuted His followers, the Christians. In consequence the Gentile Christians also often faced financial straits from unemployment.
Paul didn’t write about that general situation in 1 Timothy 5 though. He addressed a specific case arising from the general situation. Because the Gentile Christians faced social and financial handicaps, widows were hit especially hard. So the churches found it critical to create a list of needy folks, and then they did what they could to aid the needy folks.
We’ll conclude our examination in the next study. For the while we would be blessed to worship in the presence of our blessed Lord.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 5 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B00507WC86
