1 Timothy 5:1-2

1 Timothy 5:1-2  Do not rebuke an older man harshly, 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.

2 Corinthians 6:3  We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited.  Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; IN PURITY, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.  

Paul cautions young Timothy about the strong drink of authority.  When one has authority over people, he or she must be careful of its intoxicating effect.  Authority, power, and status can play on the weaknesses within people.  In my own life, I have known men corrupted by authority.  Some of them lived reckless lives when they were young and in college, but adulthood seemed to calm their passions, but when given authority, made the "boss," they once again fell into lives of impropriety.  Recently, we have seen a governor and senator experience this kind of failure.  When I was teaching high school, I was privileged to have a lovely young student in class whose dad became a principal.  In this position her dad was unable to remain faithful to his wife and children.  She was a very sad young girl; the divorce of her mother and father was her constant companion.  I knew her dad when she was just a baby, and at that time his wife and kids were very important to him, but he failed to carry the mantle of authority well.  He betrayed his loved ones by his promiscuity.  I have known, sadly to say, quite a few others who have traveled that same road.  Paul is warning Timothy of that pitfall.  He knew Timothy to be young, with the hormones and urges of any young man, so he warns Timothy about treating women WITH ABSOLUTE PURITY.  He did not want any STUMBLING BLOCK to be put in the way of the message of Christ in Ephesus; therefore, he urged Timothy not to get involved with women in any impure way.  

Since he gave Timothy the power to instruct the Ephesians in the Lord, he did not want Timothy to abuse that power and to interact arrogantly with older men or to condescend to older women.  He wanted him to treat younger men as equals, not as inferiors.  They should be treated as brothers, equal in eternal inheritance.  This is a warning to all Christians who have any authority within a body of believers.  They should be humble, kind and long suffering, portraying the best characteristics of a faithful servant.  Anyone serving in the church should follow Jesus Christ's example.  Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant.  (Philippians 2:5-7)  If leaders don't exemplify Christ, then who will within the church.  I have always said that I want to be around church leaders when they are building something and hit their thumb hard with a hammer.  We will then see the true qualities of that person.  What comes out of his or her mouth first will indicate what is in the heart.  When things in the church don't go just as planned, when feathers are ruffled, then we know the true nature of our leaders.  Leaders should be consistent in season and out of season, when things are going well and when they are not.  Timothy was being groomed by Paul to be a true leader, a reliable shepherd.  Thank God that the Holy Spirit is never through with us; we are his workmanship.  He is grooming us well, and He will PERFECT THAT WORK WHICH HE HAS STARTED IN US.