Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How Do You Treat Elders? | New Testament | 1 Timothy 5

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10 minute Bible talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. In Prince Harry's autobiography spare, he spares hardly anyone. He castigates his father, his aunt, his grandmother, his great aunt, and virtually every other elder in his life. He calls them racist, classists, uptight, backwards, unwise, and far worse. So perhaps it's no surprise that it's been a bestseller. Because if we're being honest, we live in an age that loves youth and discount. age. We live in an age that is iconoclastic. We want to destroy everything that came before us. We're

Starting point is 00:00:43 cynical about received wisdom. We see those who are older than us as people from a backwards generation. Obviously, that's a little extreme. The truth will always be more complex. But most young people and middle-aged people don't have any or many older sages in their lives, who they look to to learn from, to draw wisdom from. And the same cynicism often extends to the elders and pastors in our churches. They may not be elderly themselves, but they do represent a form of authority and wisdom that we sometimes want nothing to do with. Or perhaps we do kind of listen, but always with a critical ear. If that pastor says something I don't like, we get critical. If that elder says something we don't like, we gossip. Again, I see myself in this. I'm a millennial. My generation is

Starting point is 00:01:28 anti-institutional. We're the generation of Occupy Wall Street. We're the generation that brings matches to a problem and says, we know the answer, let's just burn it all down. I feel this anti-institutional sentiment deep in my bones some days, and yet I'm always trying to question it. Why? Because the Bible is clear in Old and New Testaments. We are called by God to have healthy respect and deference to the elderly and to our pastors and to our elders. When Paul writes to Timothy, a young pastor in Ephesus, he encourages Timothy to respect elders and to listen to his elders, even though he's a pastor, he's not allowed to bring matches. Instead, even when someone older than him is doing something wrong, he is to show respect. First Timothy 5-1, don't rebuke an older man harshly,

Starting point is 00:02:14 but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters with absolute purity. Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need. The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. Paul seems to be riffing on the Fifth Commandment, which says to honor your father and mother. But this is far from the only place in the Old and New Testament that call young people, even young leaders and pastors like Timothy, to show respect and honor to their elders, which should make those of us in the modern era pause and ask, well, why? After all, we are obsessed with youth. Middle age people will spend hours at

Starting point is 00:02:54 the gym trying to look like they're still in their 20s. We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on skin care and hair treatment and Botox and plastic surgery to make ourselves look young. We become so obsessed with the so-called wisdom of young people that we end up with bizarre phenoms like Greta Thurnberg. We idolize pop stars in their late teens and early 20s who feel equipped to pontificate on every issue. We don't just respect youth. We love it. And we often ignore our elders. But Paul seems to go the opposite direction. Why? Because wisdom really does come with age. wisdom really does come with life experience. Does that mean that every elderly person has wisdom? Well, no, not exactly. But those who walked through trials of life with humility and repentance and perseverance

Starting point is 00:03:40 know much more and have seen much more than a 20-year-old pop star on the red carpet. They've known more and seen more than Greta Thurnberg, or whatever young person we want to idolize, whatever young person we want to try to make ourselves look like. I've experienced the wisdom of elders in my own life. God has blessed me with older mentors throughout my Christian. journey. They've guided me through my late teens, my 20s, and even my 30s. They've helped me to learn and make wise choices by sharing their failures with me and also their successes. They've enriched my life with wisdom and discernment. But here's what I've discovered. They only do this if they're asked. And you only reap the best fruit when you show them honor and respect and deference.

Starting point is 00:04:20 Not because they're proud people, but because when any older person sees an eager, younger person who wants to learn and grow, they almost can't help but pour themselves out. if they actually have wisdom to pour out. Do you have sages in your life? Do you have spiritual authorities and elders and pastors in your life? How do you treat them? As a nuisance to avoid or as a well of living water? As an irritant that you can just swipe away

Starting point is 00:04:45 or as a gift from God to guide your path? As a serious source of wisdom, which you ought to honor, or as a crackpot with mediocre advice. You can honor the young people, the celebrities, the self-help gurus. You can ignore the sages and the elders in your life, but you do so at your own peril. You are declining a divine gift. Instead, seek out and cultivate relationships with sages and elders. Find them, request their presence, invite them into your life.

Starting point is 00:05:14 You'll be surprised what beauty God will use them to cultivate in you.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How Do You Treat Elders? | New Testament | 1 Timothy 5

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