I Timothy 5:1 Rebuke not an elder, but intreat him as a father; and the young men as brethren.
Do you learn about the home at church, or do you learn about the church at home? Well, the answer is yes. One informs the other. Both of these institutions that God has ordained are mighty important, and if one is important to me, the other will be. For instance, if I say that my family is a priority, then I am going to make sure that my family is in church. Being a part of a local church will help, strengthen, and guide us as a family.
Now, I am the one who is primarily responsible for my children’s wellbeing. I can’t expect the Sunday School to teach them all that I should be teaching them. However, I cannot honestly say that my family is a priority if I am not actively involved in the church that can help all of us know and do the right thing.
The bottom line is that your home is a training ground for life. I Timothy 5:1-2 says, “Rebuke not an elder, but intreat him as a father; and the younger men as brethren; the elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, with all purity.” God is assuming here that the way to know how to treat people in church is to learn that at home. Doing right by those at home will help us do the right things at church.
When the Bible says that I am not to rebuke an elder at church, but “intreat him as a father,” the Bible assumes that “as a father” means something. Indeed it does. Thousands of years later and in a totally different culture than that of the first readers of this epistle, “as a father” means exactly the same thing as it did then. It means “with respect.” Now how can I respect those in my church who are worthy of it if I never learn to respect my father at home?
I am to treat “the younger men as brethren.” Have you ever heard of brotherly love? If I don’t learn that at home, then how am I possibly going to be a blessing when I get to church?
The older women I am to treat as I would my mother. This passage goes on to tell us exactly what that means. I won’t know how to treat another person’s mother at my church if I have not learned how to treat my mother in my own house.
We are to treat the younger women as sisters. It is interesting that this is the only one of these four commands with which God gives a little bit of explanation. It is almost as if He wants to make dead sure that we know what He is talking about. We are to treat “the younger women as sisters, with all purity.”
Think about a young dating couple whose all-consuming question is, “How much can we get away with on a date and still be okay before God?” Well, the Bible doesn’t give a rule here; it gives a principle. The young man is to treat young ladies as he would his sister. If you are doing what you should be doing at home, that should help you be exactly what you should be with young ladies at your church.
Your home is a training ground for life. If I am going to be the blessing I should be to my pastor, young men and ladies, and older men and ladies in my church, then I should learn at home. The way to do what I should do at church is to learn how to behave when I am at home.