Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Timothy 5:22

Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure.

22. Lay hands suddenly on no man] Better perhaps hastily; the adverb has a similar use in the words of the Unjust Steward, Luk 16:6, ‘Take thy bond and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ Compare the clause in the Litany ‘from battle and murder, and from sudden death,’ i.e. a death into which we are hurried unawares. The passage has by a large preponderance of ancient and modern commentators been referred to the ‘imposition of hands’ in ordination; and so the first Ember-Prayer of the English Prayer-Book, ‘Guide and govern the minds of thy servants the bishops and pastors of thy flock, that they may lay hands suddenly on no man, but faithfully, &c.’ Bp Ellicott’s objection that the context only speaks of men ordained is partly met above 1Ti 5:17, and is not of so great force as the objections to his own rendering ‘No penitent is hastily to be absolved by imposition of hands and readmitted to Church fellowship.’ For (1) when the phrase is so brief, it is unnatural to interpret it except in accordance with its clear meaning in the other two places where it occurs in these Epistles, 1Ti 4:14, and 2Ti 1:6; and (2) there is no certain proof of the other use of the imposition of hands, i.e. in absolution, so early, although Eusebius, Hist. ii. 2, calls it ‘an old custom.’

neither be partaker of other men’s sins ] Nor yet be a partner in. The verb as used in N. T. with a dative implies a fellowship in life and spirit. Compare the simple usage, Luk 5:10, ‘the sons of Zebedee which were partners with Simon,’ and the derived, 1Pe 4:13, ‘ye are partners in Christ’s sufferings,’ and 2Jn 1:11, ‘he that giveth him greeting is partner in his evil works.’ This clause takes up again the dealing truly with the ‘error in religion’ and ‘viciousness in life’ of those already ordained; with this fresh thought perhaps; ‘the solemn laying on of hands connects you inevitably with the character of those whom you will ordain: but neither can you in your position be free from danger to yourself by laxness in regard to those who are already ordained; libera animam tuam; “use the authority given you, not to hurt but to help” your own account before God as well as theirs, by “driving away erroneous doctrine” and evil-living.’

keep thyself pure ] This thought follows on: ‘there is danger too from your own temptations; see that you “deny all worldly lusts and live soberly” yourself.’ The order in the Greek is thyself keep thou pure. The word here used for ‘pure’ occurs in that locus classicus of ‘personal religion,’ 1Jn 3:3, where Bp Westcott well distinguishes the three separate Greek words for ‘pure,’ ‘holy’ and ‘clean.’

Hagnos ‘pure,’ hagios ‘holy,’ and katharos ‘clean:’ ‘ hagnos marks prominently a feeling, the result of an inward effort, and katharos a state, coming by the application of some outward means; hagios that which is holy absolutely, either in itself (as God) or in idea (as man in virtue of his divine destination). It is in respect of our Lord’s human life that He can be spoken of as hagnos, and in respect of His true humanity it can be said of Him that “He is pure” and not only that “He was pure.” The result of the perfection of His earthly discipline (Heb 5:7 ff.) still abides in His glorified state.’

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Lay hands suddenly on no man – Some have understood this of laying on hands to heal the sick (Koppe); others of the laying on of hands to absolve penitents, but the obvious meaning is to refer it to ordination. It was usual to lay the hands on the heads of those who were ordained to a sacred office, or appointed to perform an important duty; notes, 1Ti 4:14; compare Act 6:6; Act 8:17. The idea here is, that Timothy should not be hasty in an act so important as that of introducing people to the ministry. He should take time to give them a fair trial of their piety; he should have satisfactory evidence of their qualifications. He should not at once introduce a man to the ministry because he gave evidence of piety, or because he burned with an ardent zeal, or because he thought himself qualified for the work. It is clear from this that the apostle regarded Timothy as having the right to ordain to the ministry; but not that he was to ordain alone, or as a prelate. The injunction would be entirely proper on the supposition that others were to be associated with him in the act of ordaining. It is just such as a Presbyterian father in the ministry would give in a charge to his son now; it is in fact just the charge which is now given by Presbyterians and congregationalists to those who are set apart to the sacred office, in reference to ordaining others.

Neither be partaker of other mens sins – This is evidently to be interpreted in connection with the injunction to lay hands suddenly on no man. The meaning, in this connection, is, that Timothy was not to become a participant in the sins of another by introducing him to the sacred office. He was not to invest one with a holy office who was a wicked man or a heretic, for this would be to sanction his wickedness and error. If we ordain a man to the office of the ministry who is known to be living in sin, or to cherish dangerous error, we become the patrons of the sin and of the heresy. We lend to it the sanction of our approbation; and give to it whatever currency it may acquire from the reputation which we may have, or which it may acquire from the influence of the sacred office of the ministry. Hence, the importance of caution in investing anyone with the ministerial office. But while Paul meant, doubtless, that this should be applied particularly to ordination to the ministry, he has given it a general character. In no way are we to participate in the sins of other people. We are not to be engaged with them in doing wrong; we are not to patronize them in a wicked business; we are not to be known as their companions or friends; and we are not to partake of their unlawful gains. We are not to lend money, or a boat, or a horse, or a pistol, or a bowie-knife, for an unlawful business; we are not to furnish capital for the slave-trade, or for manufacturing intoxicating drinks, or for an enterprise that contemplates the violation of the Sabbath.

Keep thyself pure – Particularly, in regard to participation in the sins of others; generally, in all things – in heart, in word, in conduct.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

1Ti 5:17; 1Ti 5:22

Let the elders that rule well

Duties towards the ministry

I.

Its faithfulness should be honoured. Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour.

II. Its reputation should be cherished.

1. We ought to be slow to believe evil. Against an elder (here used in the official sense and not with reference to age) receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses, or (as the Revised Version has it), except at the mouth of two or three witnesses. The reference is obviously to a well-known Mosaic law. Timothy was not to be credulous of evil reports, he was to pay no attention to mere gossip, and still less was he to show any encouragement to slanderers. He was not appointed specially as a judge; but in contentions, such as unhappily arose in the Church, his authority would often be appealed to. Again and again noble reputations have been ruined by slander, and the injustice and wickedness of the charges have only been demonstrated when it was too late to repair the wrong. But while we are to be slow to believe evil–

2. We ought to be brave in the rebuke of evil. No fear of man, no mincing words to please fastidious ears, no wish to smother up iniquity, should be ours. Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.

III. Its aspirants should be approved. Lay hands suddenly (or hastily) on no man. The custom of the laying on of hands dates back to patriarchal times. Jacob laid his hands on Ephraim and Manasseh when he blessed them. It was an appropriate indication of the subject of prayer, a solemn act of designation and of dedication; and in the apostolic days it was used to sanction and ratify the elective act of the Church. In such work we are not to be ruled by caprice, excluding one we dislike; nor by partiality, appointing our personal friends, or those having some claims upon us. I charge thee (says Paul) before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing by partiality. What could be a stronger inducement to the keeping of these commands than the realization of the fact that an unseen God and holy angels are near us, and that all our works, and even our purposes, are open and naked before Him with whom we have to do! And there is yet another word here for every Christian, especially for those who work for the Master, namely this: Be not partaker of other mens sins; keep thyself pure, for the emphasis in the original is to be laid just there. It is easy enough to see other peoples faults, and even to rebuke them; but beware lest any have occasion to turn on you and say, Physician, heal thyself. Purity in the sense of chastity is, no doubt, included here, for an impure life is fatal to a Christian and ruinous to his influence for good–nay, even if such evil is only harboured within, it will prove the paralysis of spiritual life. (A. Rowland, LL. B.)

Gifts to ministers

I became an usher in a school at Cambridge, and at the same time, when only sixteen years of age, accepted the pastorate at a Baptist chapel in the neighbourhood. After a while I gave up my post at the school, and was thrown on the generosity of the people, and they gave me a salary of L45 a year; but as I had to pay twelve shillings a week for two rooms which I occupied, the salary was not enough. But the people, though they had not money, had produce, and there was not a pig killed by any one of the congregation that I had not some portion of, and one or other of them would bring me bread, so that I had enough bread and meat to pay my rent with. An old man in that place who was a great miser, one afternoon gave me three half-crowns, and as I was wanting a new hat at the time I got it with the money. The following Sunday the old man came to me again, and asked me to pray for him that he might be saved from the sin of covetousness, and said, The Lord told me to give you half-a-sovereign, and I kept half-a-crown back, and I cant rest of a night for thinking of it. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Providing for the minister

Claude, the Indian preacher, after his conversion a few years ago in Russian America, began to sing hymns and tell gospel truths to his idol-worshipping fellow-countrymen. The old medicine men there wept, cowed by the felt presence of Gods Holy Spirit. Claude, said his companions, it is too bad for you to chop wood. You ought to tell the people these things all the time. I should not have anything to eat if I did not chop wood, he replied. We will chop harder and later and get enough for you to live on too, said they. So Claude began to preach and teach. His support was salmon. Salmon for his breakfast, dinner, and supper, every day all the year. This was the salary of the first Protestant missionary to Alaska. Soon he had sixty scholars and an audience of from four to five hundred. Gods Spirit was poured out. There were sixty converted, and hundreds gave up their devil worship.

Payment of ministers

In one of his conferences with working men Dr. Parker said: Some people sneered at preachers because they accepted pay. He contended that the question of payment ought never to arise in estimating the value of a true ministry. He could order a table to be made and delivered at any time, hut where could he order a character to be made and delivered on such a day? The man who gave them a thought gave them inestimable riches. The man who gave them an inspiration lifted them up above fog and cloud and depression and difficulty and gave them a new start in life. If he were asked to go and speak to the humblest outcasts of London, then the question of payment ought not to arise: they were his brethren and sisters and friends and were in darkness, and he had the light. They should have the light for nothing. But when men came to him and said, The well-to-do people of Bath, and Newcastle-on-Tyne, and Bristol want to hear you, he asked, Were they to escape without remunerating the man who instructed them and ministered to their enjoyment? He was prepared to preach for nothing if the landlord, the butcher, the baker, the candlestick-maker were agreeable, but these showed a brutal disregard for his feelings at quarter-day.

A question of payment

When addressing a body of working men, Bishop Wilberforce speaking of the nobility of true work, said, Though I am addressing an audience of working men, I may claim to be a working man myself, for I work as hard as any man here present. A voice called out from the middle of the room, But how about the pay? A burst of general laughter followed, which was, with some little difficulty, hushed down by those who thought that the bishop would be offended. But not a cloud passed across his face. His eye twinkled as he joined himself in the general merriment, and then, when silence was restored, without a moments hesitation, and the smile still playing upon his face, he said, My friend asks, how about the pay? I will tell him at once. You see I am paid the same whether I work or whether I dont. His audience saw at once the significance of his words: Work done for its own sake, not for greed or necessity. And the rafters of the roof above us rang again and again with their cheers. (Memoirs of Bp. S. Wilberforce.)

Ministers need encouragement

I know of a parsonage to which the death-angel came, and took to heaven a faithful and beloved under-shepherd. The kind members of his flock went to that desolate home, and could not say enough in praise of him whom they did truly love. A volume of his sermons was published, and widely circulated. Then the broken-hearted wife said: Oh, if they had only said one-half to him which they now say to me, how it would have lightened his labour and rejoiced his heart! I know of another parsonage to which a pastor returned, after a Sabbath of extreme mental fatigue, and of intensely loving work for his people. The almost agonizing tone with which he said: Not one kind word to-day, and Ive done my very best, would have met a kind response from every parishioners heart, could all have heard it. Not one kind word to-day. I know of a pastor to whom a parishioner said one Sunday evening: I have been benefited by both sermons to-day. When his pastor replied: It always helps me to hear that, this warm-hearted man said: If I always told you when I feel benefited by your sermons, it would be very often. I wish you could have heard the prayer of humble thankfulness which went up to heaven from the family altar in that pastors study that night. (Dr. Hoge.)

Doing nothing by partiality.

Partiality to be avoided

A suggestive anecdote comes to us just now from New York. One of the good clergymen of that city lately travelling, was engaged in pleasant conversation with a friend. He presently found himself greatly annoyed by a drunken fellow-passenger on the seat in front, who recognized him, and persisted in trying to take his share in the conversation. At last, losing all patience, our clerical friend arose, and, pushing his annoyer aside rather roughly, exclaimed: You are drunk, and I dont want to have anything to do with you. At this his unfortunate interlocutor was for a moment silent, and then, turning and gazing reproachfully at the irritated clergyman, replied, in a tone so loud as to be heard nearly through the entire car: Mr.–, pears to me you dont care very much about my soul. It is one thing, truly, to care about the souls of the intelligent, and the cultivated, and the agreeable and the clean, to say nothing of the temperate, and quite another thing to care about the souls of the ignorant and the ill-mannered and the unclean. And yet it must not be forgotten that the claims of this latter class are just as strong upon the Christian Church and the Christian worker, as the former, and that in our efforts to bring men to God we are not to select those who present themselves agreeably to us, but are to take them as they come.

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

1Ti 5:22

Neither be partaker of other mens sins.

How must we reprove, that we may not partake of other mens sins?

I. How a man maybe said to partake of other mens sins.

1. By contrivance. Thus Jonadab was guilty of Amnons incest, by his subtle contrivance of that wickedness, by being a pander to that villainy (2Sa 13:5). When a man shall wittingly and willingly spread a snare in his brothers way, and either drive him in by provocation, or decoy him in by allurement, he makes himself a partaker of his sin. For example: to provoke a man to passion, to tempt a person to drunkenness and uncleanness, to put a man upon murder and bloodshed, to draw souls into error, heresy, blasphemy, etc.,–this is to espouse and adopt the sin, and to make it a mans own. You know the story there, 2Sa 11:1-27.: Uriah was slain with the edge of the sword; David was many miles off when Uriah was slain: Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon (2Sa 12:9). The Ammonites slew him, but David murdered him. St. Paul tells us he was a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious.

2. By compliance. By consenting and complying with sin and sinners: so a man makes himself partaker. Though he has no hand in it, yet, if he has a heart in it; though he does not act it, yet if he likes it, and loves it, and approves it. Saul–He had no hand in St. Stephens death, he did not cast one stone at him; but because he looked on with approbation, and stood by with consent–Saul was consenting unto his death (Act 8:1). You may murder a man with a thought, as they say the basilisk will with a look.

3. By connivance. By a sinful dissembling, flattering, and winking at others in their wickedness and sins, so men become guilty of others sins: The leaders of this people cause them to err (Isa 9:16): it is in the Hebrew, The blessers of this people cause them to err. Beloved, the blessers of men in wickedness are the leaders of men in wickedness.

4. By sufferance. By permitting the sins of others, so we become guilty, by suffering others to sin, whom we are bound in duty, and may be able by authority, to hinder.

5. By influence of bad example. By setting loose and bad examples for others to imitate. So men are guilty of others sins; as, namely, when children sin by the examples of their parents, those very parents are guilty of their childrens sins. So it is here: he that sets an evil example sins not alone; he draws hundreds, it may be, into sin after him. He is like a man that sets his own house on fire; if, burns many of his neighbours, and he is to be answerable for all the ruins.

6. By inference from a bad example, or by imitation. So a man is guilty of another mans sin, not only by pattern, in setting bad examples, but also by practice, in following bad examples; and thus that man that will be drunk because another was drunk, or that breaks the Sabbath because others do the like–he is not only guilty of his own particular sin, but he is guilty also of their sins whom he imitates and follows; and the reason is, because bad examples are not land-marks for us to go by, but they are sea-marks for us to avoid. And this is the woful, intricate, perplexed labyrinth into which sin doth precipitate careless and ungodly sinners. If thou committest that sin which none before committed but thee, thou art guilty of all the sins of future generations by thy example–as Adam was in the world, and Jeroboam in Israel. And if thou committest any sin because others have committed it before thee, thou art guilty of all the sins of former generations by thy imitation: and so sin never goes alone; a single sin is as great a solecism in divinity as a single thank is in grammar and morality.

7. By countenance. By delightful society and company with wicked men to countenance them, so we become partakers of their sins.

8. By maintenance. By upholding and encouraging men in their sins, though thou never committest them thyself, yet thou art guilty. He that biddeth him God-speed is partaker of his evil deeds (2Jn 1:11).

II. Why a Christian must be careful to avoid, and not to partake of, other mens sins.

1. Out of a principle of charity to our brethren.

2. Out of a principle of pity to ourselves.

3. Out of a principle of piety to God.

III. application:

1. Is there such a thing as partaking of other mens sins after this manner?

(1) Hence you may be informed of the equity and justice of Gods proceeding in punishment.

(2) Hence be informed what piety, and strictness, and watchfulness are more especially required of those that have the care of others.

(3) Hence take an account why the wicked of the world do so hate the godly, and reproach and revile them. It is this: They will not be partakers of their sins: they will not commit them, neither will they connive at them; and this is the reason why the world hates them.

(4) Here is matter of reproof and humiliation this day for our want of watchfulness in this kind.

2. The second use is of exhortation and caution together.

Is it so, that it ought to be every mans care not to partake of any mans sin?

1. To lay down the arguments.

(1) Consider: You have sins enough of your own, you have no reason to partake of other mens. It is cruel to add affliction to your bonds.

(2) Consider: It is a most monstrous sin, it is a most dreadful sin, to partake of other mens sins. The apostle speaks of committing iniquity with greediness (Eph 4:19).

(3) Consider: If you partake of other mens sins, you shall certainly partake of other mens plagues. Come out of her, My people, says God, namely, from Babylon, that you be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues (Rev 18:4). See Pro 13:20.

2. What sins we must especially take heed of partaking of. Of all sin whatsoever: Abstain from all appearance of evil (1Th 5:22); but especially of three sorts of sin, which may be called epidemical plagues.

(1) Church sins.

(2) National sins.

(3) Family sins.

3. Now, and in the last place, we come to the antidotes: How we must so carry it and order the business, as not to partake of other mens sins.

(1) Exercise an holy jealousy over others. Job, sacrificing for his children, said, It may be that my sons have sinned (Job 1:5).

(2) Watch against the sins of others. Have your eyes about, you: take heed of contriving, complying, winking at them.

(3) Pray against them.

(4) Mourn for them.

(5) Reprove them (Eze 3:17-19). If we would not partake of the sins of others, we must reprove the sins of others (Lev 19:1-37.; Eze 33:7-9). So the apostle saith expressly (Eph 5:11). (J. Kitchin, M. A.)

Partaking of other mens sins

It was a frequent petition of the illustrious St.-Augustine, Lord, forgive other mens sins! It is a petition which we all should constantly present to God; for we, all of us, in a greater or less degree, have been instrumental in producing that iniquity which deluges the world.

I. We are to show you by what means we may partake of other mens sins. We partake of other mens sins by uttering those sentiments which tend to subvert morality, or diminish our horror for guilt. If we propagate loose doctrines, if we scoff at serious piety, if we persuade men that an holy and heavenly life is not necessary, if we call evil good and good evil, we are murdering souls.

II. That we may in future be more guarded, let us attend to some of those motives which enforce the injunction of the apostle.

III. Some directions, to enable you to comply with the injunctions of the apostle.

1. Be careful that your own heart and life are holy. Sin is infectious; and as long as you are polluted with it, you must communicate its poison to those with whom you associate. Besides, if your own life is unholy, your conscience will prevent you from faithfully reproving sin in others, or your ill example will render your reproofs inefficacious.

2. Cultivate a high value and love for the souls of men. That which we love we shall not readily injure; and if we have a proper regard for immortal souls we shall rather forego many pleasures than give a wound to them.

3. Mourn before God for the sins of your brethren. When God passed through Jerusalem to smite it, He spared none but those who cried and sighed for the abominations that were done within it (Eze 9:4).

4. If we would not partake of the sins of others, we must reprove them. (H. Kollock.)

Participation in other mens sins

I. When do we make ourselves partakers of other mens sins?

1. Ministers make themselves partakers in the sins of their people, when those sins are occasioned by their own negligence, by their example, or by unfaithfulness in the discharge of their official duties.

2. Parents participate in the sins of their children, when they occasion, and when they might have prevented them. But further, parents partake in the guilt of their childrens sins when they might and do not prevent them.

3. The remarks, which have been made respecting parents, will apply, though perhaps somewhat less forcibly, to masters and guardians, and all who are concerned in the government and education of youth.

4. Churches become partakers of the sins of an individual member, when these sins are occasioned by a general neglect of brotherly watchfulness and reproof, and when they are tolerated by the Church in consequence of a neglect of Church discipline.

5. We all make ourselves partakers in other mens sins, when we either imitate or in any other way countenance and encourage them.

6. Members of civil communities partake of all the sins which they might, but do not prevent.

7. If private citizens partake of all the sins which they might have prevented, much more do rulers and magistrates. Subjects who have the privilege of choosing their own rulers and magistrates, make themselves partakers of all their sins, when they give their votes for vicious or irreligious characters.

II. To state some of the reasons which should induce us to guard against partaking of other mens sins.

1. If we partake of their sins, we shall share in their punishment.

2. It is impossible not to perceive how completely our subject justifies the con duct of those much insulted individuals, who have voluntarily associated for the purpose of assisting in executing the laws, and suppressing vice and immorality among us. (E. Payson, D. D.)

Participation in the sins of others

I. To specify some of the ways in which we may become partakers in other mens sins.

1. When, through the influence of custom, we fall in with habits which Scripture and conscience condemn.

2. When we fail to exert the power or influence we may possess, for the prevention or discountenance of sin.

3. When we connive at them, or lend our sanction to their improper concealment.

4. When we fail to manifest our abhorrence, on either witnessing or hearing of their commission.

5. By inconsiderately introducing them to stations, the duties or dangers of which they are utterly incompetent to meet.

II. How hardening and injurious will probably be the influence of such conduct on the minds of sinners.

III. How adapted such conduct too to weaken in the believers own mind impressions of the evil of sin in himself. (Essex Congregational Remembrancer.)

Other mens sins

However hideous and hateful our own sins may be, still, from long familiarity with them, or from the pleasure they afford us, we excuse, or palliate, or forget them. But you look with unaffected and unmitigated horror and disgust on the sins of other men. The rich look with horror on the sins of the poor, and the poor with equal indignation loathe the sins of the rich. Now it is this which gives its horror to the thought expressed in our text. It speaks in a language which all can understand. It says to each man, Be not partaker in other mens sins. Let us consider, then, how, or in what way, we may partake in the sins of other men.

I. We may become partakers in other mens sins by learning to practise them. However alien to our own natural disposition, we are in danger of catching the infection of other mens sins–in danger of being corrupted and contaminated, and led to commit them, of learning to do and to delight in doing them. This world is like a hospital crowded with patients afflicted with various diseases. And here in our text the physician warns us to take heed lest in addition to our own disease we catch the infection of other diseases from our fellow-men, and aggravate and complicate our own by introducing their poison into our system. Each man has a sin which more easily besets him–a sin to which he is predisposed, which seems born in his nature. But there is no sin, however alien to our disposition at first, which may not be superinduced on our character, and become a second nature. Perhaps of all sins, acquired sins are the most inveterate. Though we escape the infection of other mens diseases, we may be responsible for their diseases and their death–diseases which we loathe and abominate. This is emphatically the lesson of the text.

II. We become partakers in other mens sins when we wilfully and knowingly entice or encourage them to sin–ay, even though we should scrupulously keep our hands from doing or our own hearts from desiring to do it. This is an acknowledged principle of eternal justice. It is acknowledged and acted on in our courts of law. He who instigates, or encourages, or countenances a theft is held as guilty as the actual thief. He who loosens the stone from the mountains brow is responsible not only for the blade of grass which it crushes in its first tardy movement, but for all the evil that it does in its downward career till it loses the momentum which he gave it, and lies motionless in the plain below. He is responsible for all the ruin it effects though he stands calmly at the top. Even so do we become partakers in all the deepening sins to which our first enticement gave birth. The schoolboy who has whispered in his companions ear a filthy word, or taught him an evil thought; the merchant who has shown his apprentice the tricks and fraudulent dishonesties of trade; the master who has enticed his servant to despise the Sabbath; the giddy youth who has defiled the mind of maiden purity or seduced from the paths of innocence–all these are partakers, not only in the first sin to which they were tempted, but in the long, black, ever-deepening catalogue of sins to which that first sin gave birth. True, indeed, the responsibility of their victims is not lessened by their participation in it.

III. We involve ourselves in other mens sins when we, through heedlessness and inattention, countenance or give them occasion to commit sin. Observe, I do not now speak of those who allow themselves to be corrupted by other mens sins, as under the first head, nor yet of those who intentionally corrupt others, as under the second head, but only of those who, through heedlessness and inattention, are the unwitting and unwilling occasions of countenancing others in sin. The guilt in this case is less than in the former instances, and the consequences are not so fearful to ourselves. This no less than the last is an acknowledged principle of justice. It is acknowledged and acted on in our courts of law. Has any one through heedlessness or want of attention caused the death of a fellow-man, he is acquitted of the crime of murder, but he is brought in as guilty of culpable manslaughter. His guilt is less, but is as clear. His punishment is less, but it is as sure. Does the traveller meet some accident, to the loss of property or the injury of his person, through the heedlessness or inattention of those who conveyed his property or himself, they are held responsible as persons guilty of culpable negligence, and if still persisted in to the frequent injury of others would be liable to severer punishment. But so it is in sober truth, and this for the first time is the point at which I take up the precise lesson of our text. I do not suppose that Paul thought it needful to warn Timothy against being corrupted by other mens sins. Nor can I imagine that he thought it necessary to forbid him from intentionally corrupting others. What, then, did he mean, unless it was to warn him that with the best intentions he might inadvertently, through inattention, involve himself in the guilt of other mens sins, sins which he hated himself, and which he mourned over in others? And so it was. Lay hands suddenly on no man, said Paul, and as an argument or motive to care and consideration, he added, Be not partaker in other mens sins. Having thus endeavoured to illustrate the general principles suggested by or embodied in our text, I might now allude to the encouragement and countenance that is given to drunkenness by the multiplied and unnecessary drinking customs which even good men maintain, but by which they become partakers in the sin of those who are thereby led away to excess. (W. Grant.)

Partaking of other mens sins

There is something which is very striking and very awful in the thought which is suggested to our minds in the words which have just been read. We have often heard it said that it is quite enough for any man in this world to answer for his own doings or misdoings; it is not fair to lay upon him any burden of guilt beyond that which is properly his own; or to attach to him any discredit because he comes, perhaps, of an ill-doing family; or because some one closely related to him has fallen into gross sin and shame. And if, in the nature of things, it is possible for us to help feeling as though a reflected disgrace were cast upon that person whose near kinsman has broken the laws of his country, for instance, and died a felons death, still we are ready at once to confess, when the thing is fairly put to us, that it is not fit or just to hold any human being responsible for that which has been done by another; and that it is quite enough to answer for the wrong which he has done himself. We tremble to think of the heavy load of responsibility and guilt which we have accumulated for ourselves. But can it be that this is not all; can it be that we have all of us more to answer for than we have ourselves done. There is a sense in which it is not possible for any man to be partaker in the sin of another. You cannot transfer responsibility. No man can justly be held responsible for that which he did not do; but then a man may do many things besides those which he does directly. A man may do many things at second-hand, so to speak; and in that case he is quite as responsible for them as if he had done them with his own hand. For instance, you can all understand that if any person hires another to commit a murder for him, both parties in that transaction are equally guilty of the crime of murder. And, indeed, in many cases the accomplice is worse than the actual sinner, for in the case of the accomplice there is all the original guilt, with cowardice and meanness added. But may you not likewise be partaker in sins of which at their commission you did not know, and at whose commission you would shudder? May you not, in the moral world, sometimes set the great stone rolling down the hill, with little thought of the ruin it may deal below? As, for instance, you, a parent, neglect the training of your child, that child grows up into guilt which appals you–guilt which terrifies you; but are you not still partaker in that guilt–answerable for that guilt at the bar of God? Ah, you know you are; you know full well that if that neglected child should end at the gallows, the fault, the sin, the shame will still be in a great measure your own! Ah! you may live after you are dead to do mischief–live in the evil thoughts you instilled, the false doctrines you taught, the perverse character you helped to form. When you stand before the judgment throne, you may find yourself called to answer for myriads of sins besides those which you directly committed; and you will feel that your condemnation for these sins is just and right. Let us, then, look somewhat more closely into this great principle which I have been endeavouring to set before you. Let us look more particularly at some of the ways in which we may become partakers of other mens sins. And in thinking, first, of how we may make others to sin by suggesting evil thoughts and feelings, let us take an extreme case by way of example: an extreme case, indeed, but unhappily not an unprecedented one. Let us think of a great genius: of a man to whom God has been pleased to give that rare and wonderful power of excogitating beautiful thoughts which shall come home to the heart and brain of other men, and clothing these beautiful thoughts in words which shall fall like music on the ear. Let us think of such a man applying the noble powers which God gave him for high and pure designs to surround vice with all the fascinations of poetry and romance, to strip it of all its grossness, while leaving all its guilt; let us think of him writing tales and poems, all of the most corrupting tendency; going to undermine the very foundations of all morality and all religion; and wrapping up infidelity and profligacy in thoughts that breathe and words that burn. And in every such case, is not that perverted genius justly chargeable with a share of that sin to which his writings have tempted? You may have done in a lower degree what the bad great man did on a grander scale. Even then, when you allow vice to pass without reproof, for fear of giving offence, are you not thus tacitly encouraging it? Even then, when you soften down the stern requirements of religion, for fear of making some one uncomfortable whom the truth would make uncomfortable, are you not thus practically encouraging him to remain worldly as he is? So far, then, for certain fashions in which by the lip, by speech or by silence, you may become accessory and abetting to other mens sins; and next we remark that by your life and example you may do so even more effectually. Example, whether good or bad, is always more efficient than precept; and you know quite well that many a man has taken heart to do a sinful deed because he saw another do it, who but for that would never have done so. The higher a mans profession of religion, the more closely will his practice be watched, both by such as have little religion and by such as have none at all; and who does not know how any inconsistency, any lapse, on the part of a professing Christian is laid hold of by ungodly men to countenance their ungodly lives, and to show that all religion is a pretence and a delusion! The evil principle we instilled, the evil example we set, may ripen into bitter fruit in the murderous blow which shall be dealt a century hence upon Australian plains. How strange, yet how inevitable, the tie which may link our uneventful life with the stormy passions of numbers far away! It is but as yesterday that we heard of the success of that marvellous achievement of science which has set the old world in momently communication with the new; and the most sluggish imagination must have been awakened somewhat in the thought of that slender cable which, far beneath the waves of the great Atlantic, lying still in stirless ocean valleys, and scaling trackless ocean cliffs, maintains the subtle current through those thousands of miles; but more wonderful still, surely, is that unseen fibre along which, from other mens sins, responsibility may thrill even to our departed souls–a chain whose links are formed, perhaps, of idle words, of forgotten looks, of phrases of double meaning, of bad advice, of cynical sentiment hardly seriously meant; yet carried on through life after life, through soul after soul, till the little seed of evil sown by you has developed into some deed of guilt at which you would shudder, but from some participation in responsibility for which you cannot clear yourself. Yea, the thought widens out beyond anything which I have hitherto suggested; for surely it is nothing more than a legitimate extension of the great principle of the text to say that in some measure we are responsible for the sin which we failed to do our utmost to prevent; and so that even heathen cruelty and heathen idolatry may be in so far chargeable on us, because, though we never bowed to the senseless image, though we never imbrued our hands in a fellow creatures blood, we yet failed to give of our means, our efforts, our prayers, to send to those dark lands that gospel light, which might have bidden these things die out for ever. In truth, the only way in which it is possible for us to cease to sin in the person of others, is by ceasing to sin in our own; for every sin may waken its echo, every sin is repudiated and reiterated, in other souls and lives. (A. H. K. Boyd.)

Refusing to be a partaker in other mens sins

Joseph Sturge, the Christian philanthropist, remonstrating one day with a drunken man whom he met, was startled by his reply that he had got drunk at a public-house, adding, The beer was made from your barley. His mind was at once made up, and the next Mark Lane Express announced that under no circumstances would the Messrs. Sturge supply barley for malting purposes. This conscientious decision struck off 8,000 a year from their income.

Keep thyself pure.—

A caution to young men

In the abstract, the text, brief as it is, contains a precept impossible to be fulfilled. For who does not know that in His judgment God looks upon the heart? and yet, who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin? The solution of the apparent difficulty lies upon the surface: we can do relatively what we cannot do absolutely; we can do in association with the grace of God what we cannot do without it. We then, accordingly, as ambassadors for Christ, say to each young man whom we address, as the apostle said to Timothy, Keep thyself pure. Keep thyself, as one from the beginning separated and set apart for Christ, from everything which is inconsistent with the allegiance which thou must owe to Him; with the attachment which thou oughtest to feel for Him; with the attainment of those blessings which are the purchase of His blood, and which God will bestow on thee through Him alone. Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. Watch against the beginnings of evil.

1. Keep thyself pure, then, young man, as to doctrine (for doctrine is the foundation of duty).

2. And not only let Holy Scripture stand first, but let it stand alone. Let it be received, not as the word of man, but, as to doctrine, the teacher of truth alone.

3. Again, we say to the young man, keep thyself pure from error, by taking Scripture, in all that seems to require reproof or refutation, as a test. Whatever is repugnant to thy inherent and instinctive sense of right, whether to be denied as a principle, or to be deprecated as a practice, try it by its agreement or disagreement with Gods Word.

4. Next, keep thyself pure in act, by taking the Word of God for correction, or setting upright that which hath fallen down, restoring what hath been damaged or decayed through sin. And here the Word is a supreme, unerring standard of right and wrong; and correction is but another name for bringing into harmony or accordance with the Word.

5. Keep thyself pure, by looking to the Word for instruction in righteousness; for instruction, which must extend itself throughout the whole of life, though life were protracted, as of old time, far beyond the narrow limits of threescore years and ten.

6. Keep thyself pure, then, young man, but only by the grace of God in Christ. Once throw aside that buckler, and thou wilt become vulnerable by every weapon of the foe. Writ thou keep thyself pure, or shall that impurity, which is now thy shame, become thy companion and thy curse throughout eternity? Writ thou be refined as the pure gold, or cast away as the reprobate silver? Keep thyself pure, then, young man! because thy breath is in thy nostrils; because thy sun of life may go down ere it is yet high noon; and that purity of life is essential to the peace of death. But once more we add, keep thyself pure for the improvement–yes, and even for the true enjoyment of life. But by the observance of this salutary caution everything is gained, and nothing can be lost; time is rightly occupied, and talent profitably improved. Diligence in the practice of business, coupled with uprightness in its principles, rarely fails to prosper, even in a worldly view. (T. Dale, M. A.)

Purity in a minister

I admire Mr. Whitefields reasons for always having his linen scrupulously clean. No, no, he would say, these are not trifles; a minister must be without spot, even in his garments, if he can. Purity cannot be carried too far in a minister. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

A clean record

The last words of a man are of comparatively little importance, but surely Mr. Gough could have uttered no sentence which would have pleased him better if he had known he would never speak again than the last words which he ejaculated as he sank unconscious in the Presbyterian church in which he was lecturing, Young man, make your record clean!

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 22. Lay hands suddenly on no man] Do not hastily appoint any person to the sacred ministry: let the person be well proved before he receives the imposition of hands. Some understand this of laying hands on the sick.

Neither be partaker of other men’s sins] It is a sin for any improper person to thrust himself into the sacred office; and he partakes of that sin who introduces, helps him forward, or sanctions him in it. O, what an account will rash, undiscerning, and prejudiced bishops, presbyters, and others, have to render to God for their ordinations! Their laying rash or careless hands “on skulls that cannot teach, and will not learn;” while probably they refuse inducting others well qualified for the Christian ministry.

Keep thyself pure.] From this and every other evil.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

By Lay hands suddenly on no man, is certainly, to be understood: Do thou suddenly set no man apart to any ecclesiastical employment. Laying on of hands was but an external ceremony used in blessing, Gen 48:14,15, and in the conferring of power upon persons. Num 27:18; Deu 34:9. In the New Testament, we find this rite used: in prayer upon healing the sick, Mar 16:18; Act 28:8; in blessing, Mar 10:16; in conferring the gifts of the Holy Ghost, Act 19:6; in ordination, or setting persons apart to some ecclesiastical employment, 1Ti 4:14; Act 6:6; and being so used, it is sometimes put for the whole action. This the apostle forbids Timothy to do suddenly, that is, without a first proof of the persons fitness for his work, 1Ti 3:10, both with respect to his knowledge, and to his holiness of conversation.

Neither be partaker of other mens sins: this participation of other mens sin ought to be taken heed of in the whole course of our conversation, but it seemeth here to be especially forbidden with reference to what was before spoken of, viz. the setting men apart for or putting them into any ecclesiastical employment; he who puts into the ministry any erroneous or ignorant persons, or any persons of a lewd conversation, makes himself guilty of all the harm they do, if he hath not first taken a due and reasonable proof of them, but hath laid hands upon them suddenly. Amongst other ways by which we interest ourselves in others guilt, one is, by not hindering it, having power so to do. He, or they, whom it lies upon to admit, or not admit, men into the ministry, have a power to refuse them in case upon proof of them they do not find them apt to teach, or fit for the ministration they are to undertake, or such for holiness of life as God requireth: God by his word declaring what such persons ought to be, and commanding him or them first to prove such persons, and to lay hands on none suddenly, hath invested him or them with such a power, of which man cannot deprive them.

Keep thyself pure: the purity here mentioned, is comprehensive of that chastity which some would have the word here signify, but it is most reasonable to understand it here with relation to what went before, viz. partaking of other mens sins; If thou canst not keep the church pure, but ignorant or erroneous persons, or sots, will get into the church, yet let them not get in through thy hands,

keep thyself pure.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

22. Lay handsthat is, ordain(1Ti 4:14; 2Ti 1:6;Tit 1:5). The connection is with1Ti 5:19. The way to guardagainst scandals occurring in the case of presbyters is, be cautiousas to the character of the candidate before ordaining him; this willapply to other Church officers so ordained, as well as to presbyters.Thus, this clause refers to 1Ti5:19, as next clause, “neither be partaker of other men’ssins,” refers to 1Ti 5:20.ELLICOTT and WIESINGERunderstand it of receiving back into Church fellowship orabsolution, by laying hands on those who had been “rebuked“(1Ti 5:20) and thenexcommunicated (Mt 18:17);1Ti 5:20 favors this. But as in1Ti 4:14; Act 6:6;Act 13:3; 2Ti 1:6,the laying on of hands is used of ordination (compare howeveras to confirmation, Ac8:17), it seems better to take it so here.

suddenlyhastily:1Ti 5:24; 1Ti 5:25show that waiting for a time is salutary.

neither be partaker of othermen’s sinsby negligence in ordaining ungodly candidates, andso becoming in some degree responsible for their sins. Or, there isthe same transition from the elders to all in generalwho may sin, as in 1Ti 5:19;1Ti 5:20. Be not a partaker inother men’s sins by not “rebuking them that sin before all,”as well as those that are candidates for the presbytery, as also all”that sin.”

keep thyself pure“thyself’is emphatic. “Keep THYSELF”clear of participation in OTHERmen’s sin by not failing to rebuke them that sin (1Ti5:20). Thus the transition is easy to 1Ti5:23, which is concerning Timothy personally; compare also1Ti 5:24.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Lay hands suddenly on no man,…. Which is not to be understood of removing censures from off offenders, upon their repentance, which should not be suddenly and hastily done; and which it seems in later times has been done by imposition of hands; but since no such custom obtained in the apostle’s time, and a taking off of censures is never in Scripture signified by this phrase, it cannot be intended here; but rather the admission of persons into the work of the ministry, and the installing of them into the office of an or pastor; upon whom, in these early times, hands were laid by the apostles, whereby gifts were conveyed, as on Timothy;

[See comments on 1Ti 4:14].

And from this rite this act was so called, as it might be when it was laid aside; just as, with the Jews, an ordination of one of their doctors is called , “imposition of hands”, though they performed it by words, and not by laying on of hands; which now by them is not judged necessary l: and then the sense is, do not hastily and at once admit any person into the sacred work of the ministry, or constitute him an elder, or pastor, over a church of Christ; but let him be first proved, and let it plainly appear, that he has the grace of God in him, and has gifts for public service bestowed on him; that he is sound in faith, and of a good life and conversation; and a man of uprightness and fidelity;

neither be partaker of other men’s sins; of any of the members of the church; by doing the same, joining with them therein, or by consenting to them and taking pleasure in them, as done by others; by conniving at them, and not restraining them, nor reproving for them: or rather this refers to rash and hasty ordinations of ministers; and either regards the sins of those who lay hands suddenly on men, and with whom the apostle would not have Timothy join, that he might not be a partner in their sins; or else the sins of those that are ordained, and these, whether before or after their ordination; which such involve themselves in, who either rashly and ignorantly ordain such persons; and much more if they do it, knowing them to be such: and these sins may include both immorality and error; see #2Jo 10,11. Keep thyself pure; not from his own sins, the sin of nature, indwelling sin, and actual transgressions; no man is, or can be pure, from either of these; nor can any man keep himself; Christ only is able to keep them from falling. But the apostle’s meaning is, that he should keep himself pure from the sins of others, by not rashly and suddenly admitting any into the ministry; just as the apostle was pure from the blood of all men, by faithfully preaching the Gospel; so he suggests that Timothy would be pure from partaking of other men’s sins, by observing a strict discipline in the house of God. Some refer this to chastity of body, in opposition to the sin of uncleanness, which his youthful age and the temptations about him might expose him to the danger of; and which is scandalous and infamous in a minister of the word. Which sense serves to show the connection of the following words, which otherwise seem to stand unconnected.

l Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 1. sect. 3. & Maimon. & Bartenora in ib. Juthasin, fol. 60. 1. & Maimon. Hilchot Sanhedrin, c. 4. sect. 1, 2.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Lay hands hastily ( ). Present active imperative of in the sense of approval (ordination) as in Acts 6:6; Acts 13:3. But it is not clear whether it is the case of ministers just ordained as in 4:14 (), or of warning against hasty ordination of untried men, or the recognition and restoration of deposed ministers (verse 20) as suits the context. The prohibition suits either situation, or both.

Be partakers of other men’s sins ( ). Present active imperative of (from , partner) with in prohibition with associative instrumental case as in 2John 1:11; Rom 12:13. On (belonging to another) see Ro 14:4.

Keep thyself pure ( ). “Keep on keeping thyself pure.” Present active imperative of .

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Lay hands on. Probably with reference to that rite in the formal restoration of those who had been expelled from the church for gross sins. Suddenly [] . Better, hastily.

Neither be partaker of other men’s sins [ ] . Letter, make common cause with. See on communicating, Rom 12:13. Comp. Rom 14:27; 1Pe 4:13; Eph 5:11. By a too hasty and inconsiderate restoration, he would condone the sins of the offenders, and would thus make common cause with them.

Keep thyself pure [ ] . Comp. ch. 1ti 6:14. Enjoining positively what was enjoined negatively in the preceding clause. For pure see on 1Jo 3:3. For keep see on reserved, 1Pe 1:4. The phrase eJauton threin to keep one’s self, in Jas 1:27; 2Co 11:9.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “Lay hands suddenly on no man” (cheiras tacheos medeni epitithei) “Lay hands quickly (hastily) on no man;” the Jerusalem church did not, Act 6:1-7. The Antioch church did not, Act 13:1-4. Each observed or examined candidates for ordinate qualifications first.

2) “Neither be partakers of other men’s sins:” (mede koinonei hamartiais allotriais) “Nor share (condone, join in acquiescence) of sins of others.” Do not sin by silence or endorsing a candidate for ordination by keeping silence if he is unqualified, Eph 5:6-7; Rev 18:4.

3) “Keep thyself pure.” (seauton agnon terei) “Keep or guard thyself as morally clean, pure, holy,” one worthy of public leadership in the Word and work of God, 1Co 4:2; 1Co 9:26-27; 2Jn 1:11.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

22 Lay not hands suddenly on any man There can be no doubt that he intended to guard Timothy against ill-will, and to obviate many complaints, which are continually arising against the godly servants of Christ, who refuse to comply with the ambitious requests of any. For some accuse them of sternness; others of envy; and some exclaim that they are cruel, because they do not at once receive those who boast of having some recommendatory qualities. This is what we abundantly experience in the present day. Paul therefore exhorts Timothy not to lay aside judicious caution, and not to suffer himself to be overpowered by improper feelings; not that Timothy needed such an admonition, but to restrain, by his authority, those who otherwise might have given annoyance to Timothy,

First, the “ laying on of hands ” means Ordination: (112) that is, the sign is put for the thing signified; for he forbids him to receive too easily any one that has not been fully tried. There are some who, through a desire of novelty, would wish to receive into the ministerial office, some person hardly at all known, as soon as he has given one or two exhibitions that are reckoned good. It is the duty of a wise and thoughtful bishop, to resist this troublesome feeling, in the same manner as Paul here bids Timothy do.

Neither partake of other men’s sins He means that he who consents to an unlawful act of ordination is involved in the same guilt as the chief actors in it. Yet some explain it thus: “If he admit unworthy persons, whatever faults they may afterwards commit, to him will be imputed the blame or a part of the blame.” But I think that this is a more simple view of it: “Though others rush forth to such rashness, do not make thyself a partaker with them, lest thou share in their guilt.” Even where our judgment is otherwise sound, it often happens that we are carried away by the folly and levity of others. (113)

Keep thyself pure I consider this also to have the same reference as the preceding clause. As if he had said, “If others do anything that is wrong, beware lest any contagion reach you, either by consent or by approbation. If you cannot hinder them from polluting themselves, it is at least your duty to have your counsels at all times separated from theirs, so that you may keep yourself pure.” If any prefer to view it as a general statement, let him enjoy his opinion; but, for my own part, I reckon it to be more suitable to limit it to the present context.

(112) “ Laquelle on appelle Ordination ou Consecration.” — “What is called Ordination or Consecration.”

(113) “To whom does the Apostle speak? Is it only to ministers who preach the doctrine of the gospel? Is it only to magistrates, and to those who have the sword and the administration of civil government? No, but to all Christians, great and small. It is then said, that we must not partake of the sins of others. And in what manner? By reproving them. (Eph 5:11.) And so he who intends to flatter his neighbor, and who shuts his eyes when he sees that God is offended, and especially he who consents to it will be still more blamable. Let us seriously think, that we shall have a hard account to render to God, if we have walked amidst the corruptions of the world, so as to make it appear that we approved of them. And so much the more ought we to meditate on this doctrine, when we see that there is such boldness in sinning, that custom appears to have become the law. Let a man be convinced that he is doing wrong, yet provided that he has many companions, he thinks that he is excused. ‘Among wolves we must howl,’ it will be said. Now we see that the sins of others will not excuse us before God, and though the whole world sin along with us, we shall not fail to be involved in the same condemnation. Let us think of that.” — Fr. Ser.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(22) Lay hands suddenly on no man.This command refers primarily to the solemn laying on of hands at the ordination of presbyters and deacons. It no doubt also includes the laying on of hands customary, apparently, even in the Apostolic age, on the absolution of penitents and their re-admission to church fellowship.

Neither be partaker of other mens sins.By thus negligently admitting into the ministry unfit personsby carelessly and without due caution readmitting persons to a church fellowship, which by their evil life they had forfeitedTimothy would incur a grave responsibility, would in fact be a partaker in the sins and errors committed by those men, some of whom he had carelessly placed in important positions in the church, others of whom he had restored to communion before they had given sufficient evidence of their repentance. To limit, however, the reference of the command of St. Paul here to the laying on of hands in the ordination of presbyters and deacons, would imply a greater corruption in the church at that early date than is credible. Surely the number of unfit persons seeking the high and holy, but difficult and dangerous, posts of officers in a proscribed and hated community, would hardly by themselves have warranted such grave warning words as Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other mens sins.

Keep thyself pure.The word pure here has a broad and inclusive signification. It, of course, denotes the urgent necessity of one holding Timothys high and responsible office being pure and chaste in word and deed and thought; but here it also presses on the chief presbyter of Ephesus the imperative necessity of keeping himself, by ceaseless watchfulness, pure from all reproach in the matter of selecting candidates for the ministry, or in the restoring of the lapsed sinners to church fellowship.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

22. Of care in ordination.

Suddenly Without full investigation into the fitness of the candidate.

Partaker sins By introducing unworthy men into the sacred ministry, for whose sins thou wouldst be responsible.

Keep thyself pure And so wilt thou secure a pure ministry and ministration in the Church, both by proper selection and spotless example.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘Lay hands hastily on no man, neither be a partaker of other men’s sins.’

Rash appointments are to be avoided in making appointments and setting people aside to specific responsibilities. (this general principle has already been demonstrated in his advice concerning widows). For those who have such a responsibility to make appointments thereby take on themselves responsibility for the future behaviour of such people. To ‘lay hands on’ is an act of dedication and identification (as with the sacrifices of old – e.g. Lev 1:4 and often). So to lay hands on someone for God’s service carelessly is to become a partaker in their future sins.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

‘Keep yourself pure.’

This may be seen as a separate injunction to also ensure that he keeps himself pure, but it surely includes what has just been said. By being careful and prayerful in making appointments he will consequently keep himself pure from their sins. Both ideas apply, for he has had hands laid on him by others, and must ensure that he is loyal to the purpose for which they set him aside, in the same way as he will expect the same from those on whom he lays his hands. Purity, positive goodness and an avoidance of all sin, is an essential qualification for a servant of God, and Timothy must maintain it at all times both actually and potentially.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

1Ti 5:22. Lay hands suddenly on no man, “Suddenly and rashly, before his character and qualifications have been fully examined, and thoroughly approv

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

1Ti 5:22 . The exhortation in this verse: , is not defined further. In the N. T. the laying on of hands is mentioned on various occasions; thus specially in healing the sick (whether by Christ or His disciples), in bestowing the divine blessing (Mat 19:13 ; Mat 19:15 ), in imparting the Holy Spirit (Act 8:17 ), in appointing to a definite ecclesiastical office (Act 6:6 ), in setting apart for special church work (Act 13:3 ). It has been thought that Paul has here in mind the laying on of hands which was done at the readmission of excommunicated persons (de Wette, Wiesinger); but there is no trace in the N. T. of the existence of this custom in apostolic times. It is more natural to refer it to the ordination, whether of a presbyter or deacon (besides the older expositors, Mosheim, Otto, van Oosterzee, [195] Plitt, and others); but in that case 1Ti 5:22 should have come before 1Ti 5:21 . Hofmann thinks that it is used of the appointment to a church office; but of this there is no hint in the context. It will be most correct to take the exhortation quite generally, so that the meaning is, Timothy is to lay hands , i.e. “in over-hasty fashion,” on no one whatever the occasion may be. The reason why not, is given in the next words: . The are not, as Hofmann thinks, the sins of those who are hasty in the laying on of hands, but the sins of those on whom hands are too hastily laid. He who thoughtlessly lays hands on the unworthy, thereby declaring them worthy of the divine blessing, makes himself a sharer in their sins. Against this Timothy is to guard; he is rather to observe what Paul expresses by saying: . This exhortation is in itself quite general, but it stands here in close relation to the foregoing warning. Timothy is to keep himself pure ( as in 1Ti 4:12 , not in the special meaning “chaste”), particularly in not making himself a partaker of others’ sins by laying hands on them too hastily. This reference, declared by van Oosterzee to be the only one possible, is wrongly denied by de Wette and Wiesinger. Heinrichs and others err in regarding the apostle’s exhortation as “a prohibition against intercourse with wicked men.”

[195] Van Oosterzee wrongly thinks that vv. 24, 25, are in favour of this explanation; there is in them no hint of any reference to ordination.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

22 Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure.

Ver. 22. Lay hands suddenly on no man ] The best that can come of rashness is repentance. Scipio would not yield that a wise man should ever come in with “had I wist,” . (Plutarch.) In ordination of ministers all possible care and caution is to be used. Chrysostom thinks that earnestness used by the apostle in the former verse, belongs chiefly to this. Some also make the two last verses a reason of this.

Neither be partaker of other men’s sins ] Whom thou shalt rashly ordain, and so thrust upon the people to their and thine infinite disadvantage. “From mine other men’s sins (saith one), good Lord, deliver me.” The Athenians had their , which was a solemn examination of the magistrates, whether fit to govern or no; and of the orators, whether not incontinent, prodigal, unkind to parents, &c.; for if so, they were disprivileged, and not suffered to plead or speak publicly. (Rous’s Archaeol. Attic.)

Keep thyself pure ] See 1Ti 5:2 , and know that sin is a filthy thing, and defileth the soul worse than any jakes (outhouses) can do the body, as our Saviour shows, Mat 7:23 .

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

22 f.] The same subject is continued, and direction given whereby the scandal just dealt with may be prevented: viz. by caution in ordaining at first. The reference is primarily to presbyters: of course extending also in its spirit to all other church offices. This reference, which is maintained by Chrys., Thdrt., Thl., Grot., Est., Flatt, Mack, al., is denied by De W., Wiesinger, and Huther: the two former (as also Hammond, Ellic.) understanding the command of receiving back into the church excommunicated persons, or heretics, which from later testimonies (Cypr., the Nicene council, &c.) they shew to have been the practice: Huther, rightly rejecting this idea, yet interprets it of laying on of hands as merely conveying ecclesiastical blessing on many various occasions. But surely this is too vague and unimportant for the solemn language here used. Regarding the whole, to 1Ti 5:25 , as connected, and belonging to one subject, I cannot accept any interpretation but the obvious and ordinary one: see especially ch. 1Ti 4:14 ; 2Ti 1:6 .

Lay hands hastily on no one, nor be partaker in other men’s sins (as he would do by being the means of negligently admitting into the ministry unfit and ungodly persons, being properly held responsible for the consequence of those bad habits of theirs which more care might have ascertained. points to the former ): keep THYSELF (highly emphatic: not merely others over whom thou art called to preside and pronounce judgment in admitting them to the ministry. And the emphasis is peculiarly in place here, as applying to that which has just preceded. If he were to admit improper candidates to the ministry from bias or from negligence, his own character, by his becoming a partaker in their sins, would suffer: whatever thou doest therefore, be sure to maintain, by watchful care and caution, thyself above all stain of blame) pure (not here to be referred to personal purity and chastity, though that of course would be the most important of all elements in carrying out the precept: but as above. On the word , see Ellic.). No longer (habitually) drink water, but use a little wine, on account of thy stomach, and thy frequent illnesses (the question, why this injunction is here inserted, has never been satisfactorily answered. Est., Grot., al., De W., Ellic., al., take it as a modification of , so as to prevent it from being misunderstood as enjoining asceticism. But on our explanation of the words, and I may add on any worthy view of the context, such a connexion will at once be repudiated. Chrys. has caught the right clue, when he says . , , , : but he has not followed it up. Timotheus was certainly of a feeble bodily frame, and this feebleness appears, from other hints which we have respecting him, to have affected his character. See especially 1Co 16:10-11 , and note there. Is it not very possible, that such feebleness, and perhaps timidity, may have influenced him as an overseer of the church, and prevented that keen-sighted judgment and vigorous action which a bishop should ever shew in estimating the characters of those who are candidates for the ministry? If this was so, then it is quite natural that in advising him on this point, St. Paul should throw in a hint, in fatherly kindness, that he must not allow these maladies to interfere with the efficient discharge of his high office, but take all reasonable means of raising his bodily condition above them. I feel compelled to adopt this view, from the close connexion of the next verse with the whole preceding passage, and the exceedingly unnatural isolation of this, unless it bears such a reference. It is impossible to avoid remarking, that the characteristic, but unnecessary anxiety of Ellicott to rescue the apostolic Timotheus from any imputation of feebleness of character has blinded him to the delicate connexion of thoughts here, as frequently in the second Epistle).

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

1Ti 5:22 . Our best guide to the meaning of is the context, and more especially the following clause, . constantly introduces an extension or development of what has immediately preceded; it never begins a new topic. Now the injunction Be not partaker of other men’s sins is certainly connected with the disciplinary rebuke of sin, and refers of course to definite acts of sin committed in the past, as well as to their consequences or continuation. The whole procedure is outlined: we have the accusation in 1Ti 5:19 , the conviction and sentence in 1Ti 5:20 , and in the true Pauline spirit repentance and reconciliation in this verse; and the topic of ministerial treatment of sin is resumed and continued in 1Ti 5:24 sq . We can hardly doubt that St. Paul had in his mind Lev 19:17 , “Thou shalt surely rebuke thy neighbour and not bear sin because of him,” . To witness in silence an act of wrong-doing is to connive at it. If this is true in the case of private persons, how much more serious an offence is it in the case of those to whom government is committed? See 2Jn 1:11 , .

is then best referred to imposition of hands on reconciled offenders, on their re-admission to Church communion. Eusebius ( H. E. , vii. 2), speaking of reconciled heretics, says, “The ancient custom prevailed with regard to such that they should receive only the laying on of hands with prayers,” . See Council of Nicea, Song of Son 8 , according to one explanation of , and Council of Arles, Song of Son 8 .

This was used in the case of penitents generally. So Pope Stephen (ap. Cyprian, Ep . 74), “Si qui ergo a quacunque haeresi venient ad vos, nihil innovetur nisi quod traditum est, ut manus illis imponatur in paenitentiam”. See Bingham, Antiquities , xviii. 2, 1, where the 15th Canon of the Council of Agde (A.D. 506) is cited: “Poenitentes tempore quo poenitentiam petunt, impositionem manuum et cilicium super caput a sacerdote consequantur.” The antiquity of the custom may be argued from the consideration that imposition of hands was so prominent a feature in ordination, that it is not likely that its use would have been extended to anything else if such extension could not have claimed unquestioned antiquity in its favour. If the explanation of this verse given above which is that of Hammond, De Wette, Ellicott, and Hort be accepted, we have here the first distinct allusion to the custom of receiving back penitents by imposition of hands.

Timothy is bidden to restrain by deliberate prudence the impulses of mere pity. A hasty reconciliation tempts the offender to suppose that his offence cannot have been so very serious after all; and smoothes the way to a repetition of the sin. “Good-natured easy men” cannot escape responsibility for the disastrous consequences of their lax administration of the law. They have a share in the sins of those whom they have encouraged to sin. Those who give letters of recommendation with too great facility fall under the apostolic condemnation.

On the other hand, the ancient commentators Chrys., Theod., Theoph., Oecumen. refer to hasty ordinations; and in support of this, the generally adopted view, it must be granted that undoubtedly refers to ordination in 1Ti 4:14 , 2Ti 1:6 . If we assume the same reference here, the intention of the warning would be that Timothy will best avoid clerical scandals by being cautious at the outset as to the character of those whom he ordains. The clause in 1Ti 3:10 , , would, in this case, have the same reference; and we should explain as possible future sins, for the commission of which a man’s advancement may give him facilities, and responsibility for which attaches, in various degrees of blameworthiness, to those who have rendered it possible for him to commit them.

is emphatic, repeating in brief the warning of the previous clause.

: The context demands that the meaning should not be chaste ( castum Vulg.), as in Tit 2:5 , 2Co 11:2 ; but pure in the sense of upright, honourable , as in 2Co 7:11 , Phi 4:8 , Jas 3:17 .

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

suddenly = hastily, i.e. without sufficient testing.

no man = no one. Greek. medeis. See 1Ti 5:21.

neither. Greek. mede.

other men’s. App-124.

sins. At. 128.1.

pure. Greek. hagnos. See 2Co 7:11. Not as the word is used to-day, but as clear from aiding in sending unfit men into the ministry, from which all the churches are suffering at this hour. Compare Jud 1:11.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

22 f.] The same subject is continued, and direction given whereby the scandal just dealt with may be prevented: viz. by caution in ordaining at first. The reference is primarily to presbyters: of course extending also in its spirit to all other church offices. This reference, which is maintained by Chrys., Thdrt., Thl., Grot., Est., Flatt, Mack, al., is denied by De W., Wiesinger, and Huther: the two former (as also Hammond, Ellic.) understanding the command of receiving back into the church excommunicated persons, or heretics, which from later testimonies (Cypr., the Nicene council, &c.) they shew to have been the practice: Huther, rightly rejecting this idea, yet interprets it of laying on of hands as merely conveying ecclesiastical blessing on many various occasions. But surely this is too vague and unimportant for the solemn language here used. Regarding the whole, to 1Ti 5:25, as connected, and belonging to one subject, I cannot accept any interpretation but the obvious and ordinary one: see especially ch. 1Ti 4:14; 2Ti 1:6.

Lay hands hastily on no one, nor be partaker in other mens sins (as he would do by being the means of negligently admitting into the ministry unfit and ungodly persons, being properly held responsible for the consequence of those bad habits of theirs which more care might have ascertained. points to the former ):-keep THYSELF (highly emphatic: not merely others over whom thou art called to preside and pronounce judgment in admitting them to the ministry. And the emphasis is peculiarly in place here, as applying to that which has just preceded. If he were to admit improper candidates to the ministry from bias or from negligence, his own character, by his becoming a partaker in their sins, would suffer: whatever thou doest therefore, be sure to maintain, by watchful care and caution, thyself above all stain of blame) pure (not here to be referred to personal purity and chastity, though that of course would be the most important of all elements in carrying out the precept: but as above. On the word, see Ellic.). No longer (habitually) drink water, but use a little wine, on account of thy stomach, and thy frequent illnesses (the question, why this injunction is here inserted, has never been satisfactorily answered. Est., Grot., al., De W., Ellic., al., take it as a modification of , so as to prevent it from being misunderstood as enjoining asceticism. But on our explanation of the words, and I may add on any worthy view of the context, such a connexion will at once be repudiated. Chrys. has caught the right clue, when he says . , , , : but he has not followed it up. Timotheus was certainly of a feeble bodily frame, and this feebleness appears, from other hints which we have respecting him, to have affected his character. See especially 1Co 16:10-11, and note there. Is it not very possible, that such feebleness, and perhaps timidity, may have influenced him as an overseer of the church, and prevented that keen-sighted judgment and vigorous action which a bishop should ever shew in estimating the characters of those who are candidates for the ministry? If this was so, then it is quite natural that in advising him on this point, St. Paul should throw in a hint, in fatherly kindness, that he must not allow these maladies to interfere with the efficient discharge of his high office, but take all reasonable means of raising his bodily condition above them. I feel compelled to adopt this view, from the close connexion of the next verse with the whole preceding passage, and the exceedingly unnatural isolation of this, unless it bears such a reference. It is impossible to avoid remarking, that the characteristic, but unnecessary anxiety of Ellicott to rescue the apostolic Timotheus from any imputation of feebleness of character has blinded him to the delicate connexion of thoughts here, as frequently in the second Epistle).

Fuente: The Greek Testament

1Ti 5:22. , hands) It was the duty of Timothy to lay his hands on the presbyters.-, hastily) without previous examination.- , nor be partaker) They do so, who do anything hastily. [And indeed, in this passage, the sudden imposition of hands is that upon which a check is placed. But certainly, in the other departments of life, the participation of other mens sins is very frequent. That happens either before or after the act, in our thoughts, affection, gestures, words, writings, works; by doing, omitting to do; in regard to superiors, equals, inferiors, ministers, subjects; while a greater or less portion of the fault falls sometimes on the one side, sometimes on the other.-V. g.] 1Ti 5:24-25, show that waiting for a time is salutary, and an admonition is introduced parenthetically (keep thyself-infirmities), which young Timothy was meanwhile carefully to observe.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

1Ti 5:22

Lay hands hastily on no man,-This verse has given rise to much diversity of thought. Some consider it to mean to lay hands on no man, to ordain him as an elder hastily, or without due trial and proof of his fitness. But there is nothing in the context that refers to ordaining elders. To throw in a highly figurative expression on the subject without any connecting links to show its meaning is unnatural and harsh, and would lead to great doubt as to the meaning. Others maintain that it refers to laying violent hands on a man. This would indicate that Paul did not think it would be wrong for Timothy to deliberately and with due consideration strike a man for wrongdoing. This is so contrary to the whole teaching of Christ and the apostles to be inadmissible. He is speaking of the accusation and trial of elders, and it seems to me that the connection leaves but one possible construction-do not hastily lay hands on an elder to draw him up for trial. Since elders are presumed to be good, true, and faithful men proved by experience, let no accusation be brought against them hastily.

neither be partaker of other mens sins: keep thyself pure.-Do not become partakers of the sins of other men by permitting them to bring hasty and unjust accusations against elders, but keep thyself pure from all sinful complications.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

sins

Sin. (See Scofield “Rom 3:23”).

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

Lay: 1Ti 4:14, Act 6:6, Act 13:3, 2Ti 1:6, Heb 6:2

suddenly: 1Ti 3:6, 1Ti 3:10, Jos 9:14, 2Ti 2:2, Tit 1:5-9

neither: Eph 5:11, 2Jo 1:11, Rev 18:4

keep: 1Ti 4:12, Act 18:6, Act 20:26

Reciprocal: Gen 48:14 – and laid Lev 14:42 – General Lev 19:17 – and not suffer sin upon him Num 8:10 – General Num 16:26 – I pray you Num 27:18 – lay Deu 34:9 – Moses Psa 50:18 – partaker Jer 51:6 – be not Eze 3:18 – but Eze 44:10 – the Levites Act 8:17 – laid Act 9:17 – and putting Act 14:23 – they had Act 15:29 – if ye Act 19:6 – laid 2Co 5:16 – know we no 2Co 7:11 – clearing Eph 5:7 – General 2Pe 3:1 – pure

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

1Ti 5:22. Lay hands could not refer to the laying on of hands literally for the purpose of conferring a spiritual gift; that required the hands of an apostle (Act 8:14-18 Act 19:5-6). The rest of the verse, which is the opposite of laying hands suddenly, indicates the meaning of the phrase. Paul had just dealt with the disciplining of elders, hence this verse means for Timothy not to be hasty in laying hands of discipline on any man. Neither should he be indifferent or unduly tardy in handling the charge, for that would encourage such a man in his wrong, and the evangelist would thereby become a partaker of other men’s sins. By avoiding both extremes, Timothy would keep himself pure as regards the evil at hand.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

1Ti 5:22. Lay hands suddenly on no man. The words have been referred by some writers as carrying on the series of rules for Church discipline, to the imposition of hands which accompanied the pardon and readmission of the penitent. It is doubtful, however, whether that practice prevailed thus early, and the train of thought, as such, is continuous on the more common interpretation. The best way to avoid the scandal of a trial was to be cautious at the outset, and to decline the complicity in the guilt of others which might follow on a hasty ordination.

Keep thyself pure. The primary and usual meaning of the word is that of chastity. Here it refers probably to the risk of mental contamination incident to the trial of offenders against purity. It is probable that then, as in later ages, most of the cases that called for the exercise of discipline were of this nature, and it was hardly possible to hear evidence of the details of such sins without the danger to which St. Paul thus briefly alludes.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

A twofold sense and interpretation is given of these words.

1. With reference to ordination, and so they are a caution to the governors of the church to admit none into the sacred function hastily, rashly, without due examination and sufficient trial; to which are added words of great terror, Neither be partaker of other men’s sins; which ought to make a mighty impression on the minds of those in whom the power of ordinations is lodged, since the words do plainly import, that such as do ordain any rashly, entitle themselves to all the scandal they give, and are partakers of their guilt.

Note here, 1. The nature of the office the ministers of Christ are ordained to: to rule and labour in the word and doctrine.

Note, 2. An authority in Timothy to admit persons into this office, by laying on of hands.

Note, 3. The great care and caution, the heedfulness and circumspection, necessary in admitting persons to this holy function. Lay hands suddenly on no man. The welfare of the church, the honour of religion, the salvation of men’s souls, depend much, very much upon those who are admitted into holy orders.

The second interpretation given of these words is, that Timothy is here directed how to carry himself in censuring and absolving of penitents: as if St. Paul had said, “When thou hast justly censured an offender, be not too hasty in absolving of him, (for this also was done by imposition of hands,) until some trial be made of his reformation, lest by so doing thou becomest guilty of his future faults: but keep thyself pure from all sin, whose office it is to censure and reprove sin in others.” In both these senses have these words been understood, Lay hands suddenly on no man; keep thyself pure.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

1Ti 5:22-25. Lay hands suddenly And rashly; on no man That is, appoint no man to church offices without full trial and examination: otherwise thou wilt be accessary to, and accountable for, his mis-behaviour in his office. Neither be partaker of other mens sins As thou wilt certainly make thyself, if thou be the means of bringing those into the ministry whom thou mightest have discovered to be unfit for that office. Keep thyself pure Free from all such blameworthy practices, and from the blood of all men. Some mens sins are open Or manifest; beforehand Before any strict inquiry be made; going before to judgment Leading a person immediately to judge them unworthy of any spiritual office; and some men they Their sins; follow after inquiry has been made Or are not discovered perhaps till after their ordination. For which reason no one ought to be appointed to sacred offices hastily. Likewise the good works And good qualities; of some are manifest beforehand Before any particular inquiry be made; they are evident to all. Such therefore may he admitted to sacred offices without much examination; and they Those good works and good qualities; that are otherwise That remain concealed under the veils that humility spreads over them; cannot be entirely hid long From thy knowledge, and must recommend such silent and reserved Christians both to thy esteem, and that of those who are intimately acquainted with them.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Verse 22

Lay hands; in ordination.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

CHAPTER 25

I interviewed some folks for a job at my place of employment. There were two that caught my interest. One was a middle-aged man that was quite overweight and he had a short pony tail. The other was a young college-aged girl. Both seemed to be interested in the job, both seemed to be qualified, and both seemed to desire to work.

I opted for the young woman for no particular reason other than the last young woman that we had was an excellent employee.

The first weeks were great – she was truly energetic and quick in her work, she was easy to work with, she was a hard worker. This however changed rather quickly. She became lazy, she became quite irregular in her attendance and in general became a very poor employee.

Moral of the story? In the modern work place in America you can’t select your workers as we should do in the church.

Not only that, we in America shouldn’t be choosing our leaders as we choose employees at work.

Paul tells Timothy to lay hands suddenly on no man. Had I been able to observe this young woman in her previous job or possibly in her home life, I most likely would have seen signs of her inappropriateness for the job at work.

As we work in the church, we will be able to tell what type of men we are working with. It may take some time, but our lives become evident to one another, and it is on this reality that we should base our leadership decisions.

In our previous context we studied how the elders were to be treated, now we will look at the basis for Timothy’s choosing of elders.

We will be looking at YOU – BE PURE in verse twenty-two, YOU – BE HEALTHY in verse twenty-three, and YOU – CHOOSE CAREFULLY in verses twenty-four and twenty-five – you meaning Timothy.

1Ti 5:22 Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure.

Some in the past have suggested the laying on of hands related to laying hands on the sick, however this is a specific context of church leadership and to insert healing into this passage seems very poor interpretation.

Let’s consider the phrase “keep thyself pure.” in relation to the believers life. What principles might you come up with to put the phrase into action?

a. Keep – something that I consciously do for myself. It will take commitment on my own part.

b. Thyself – you are your responsibility. You needn’t worry about others, but only yourself. That should make our job much smaller.

c. Pure – holy, set apart, without sin, etc. are all thoughts that run through our minds.

d. This is something that we should do for ourselves as well as for our God and Saviour!

The first phrase is how you avoid the following item of trouble.

Lay hands suddenly does not mean ordination as we know it today, though that may well be an application to the thought of giving church approval to a man too quickly.

I suspect in my own mind that the two phrases concerning hands and sin were linked together in Paul’s mind, but there is application for both in our own day. We ought not approve of men, be they pastors, elders, or deacons too quickly. We need to know these men well.

The second thought is that if you do approve quickly you share in any wrongdoing they are able to unleash on the church.

The application of this might run along the lines of don’t be related close enough to anyone that you become entwined in the sin that is in their life. Partake is a Greek word that is closely related to the word translated fellowship. Don’t be in fellowship with another man’s sin.

We are to remain free of sin and we don’t need to join in the sin of other men, be it directly or indirectly by giving our approval to them. We can get into enough sin on our own.

2Jn 1:11 gives a similar admonition in relation to false teaching “for he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.”

I would like to speak of ordination as we have it today. The usual is a man calling pastors from surrounding churches to grill him mercilessly on his doctrine in the afternoon to see if he is qualified and then have an ordination service that evening.

The ordination is set and plans are made for it even before the man has met to see if he is qualified. There just has to be something wrong with that.

Let’s turn to Act 13:1-3 for a moment. “Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. 3 And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid [their] hands on them, they sent [them] away”

We won’t belabor this passage, but note that the Holy Spirit was definitely involved in this process of approving, while also prayer and fasting were involved. This wasn’t the yearly meeting when they had to appoint a few warm bodies to the church board, this was a setting aside and sending of men that the Holy Spirit had set forward within the church to do a job.

Also we see in 1Ti 3:10 “And let these also first be proved; then let them use the office of a deacon, being [found] blameless.”

This verse mentions the thought of proving elders. It would seem that as the church elders see a person that God is working with, they will help in any way that they can to assist him in his growth and knowledge of the Word. Then when the man is ready, kick him out to the mission field or whatever the Lord should lead him into.

He is approved, ordained, whatever you want to call it because you know him to be the man that you would be proud to send out into the Lord’s work.

It is the local church that ordains. It is the local eldership that ordains, not the pastors of other churches. I am not opposed to having a couple pastors in for the final steps for assistance, but the approval should come from the local church and only the local church can really know the man.

Paul mentions that if you lay hands on someone and he has sin problems then you will be a part of that sin. This is when he goes out into other churches to minister you will have been part of the problem that he causes if you give the okay before you know him to be okay.

We spent nine months in a church as interim pastor and I don’t really think that those people knew enough about me to say I was okay to send out. They knew of my public ministry, but very little of our private life and life away from their town.

There are some groups that actually attempt to follow ordained men through their ministries to be sure they continue on in the correct path. If for some reason the man steps out of what is wholesome, those that ordained him will call for him to give up his ordination papers. This is a good practice.

Within the local church setup Paul seems to be setting forth, it would be the elders removing an erring elder from office.

Before moving on I would like to consider the thought of Holiness for a moment.

Outwardly we can put on the look of holiness, but underneath is the condition that is in view. What God sees, determines if we are holy or not. Tricking those around us may get us through life feeling good about ourselves, but how good are we going to feel when the Lord lays all our secret sin bare for all to see?

I am a firm believer that the tears that won’t be in heaven are those that will be shed at the judgment seat of the Lamb. I think many believers will cry out about all that they did not do, and all that they did do that was sin.

Holy is a state of mind as well as a state of life. It is keeping yourself from sin, from sinful ways, and from sinful thought. It is setting yourself aside totally for God’s use and pleasure.

The term translated holy is almost always the same term. The word is used of God, the term is used of the Holy Spirit, and that should tell us a little bit about the word itself. I doesn’t indicate that we can be kind of holy, nor does it indicate that we can be part time holy!

Holy is the Lord and holy should his people be. 1Pe 1:16 mentions “Be ye holy ; for I am holy.” If we are to be Holy as God is Holy, we ought to be FULL TIMERS IN THE HOLY CAMP! No other option is given.

This is why Christians ought to feel terrible about the lack of holiness. They should realize the hurt that it causes their Father when they walk with the Lord of this world rather than Him.

II. YOU – BE HEALTHY

Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson

5:22 {18} Lay hands {g} suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure.

(18) The fifth rule: let the minister lay hands suddenly on no man. Let him not be faulty in this, either by favouring any man’s folly, or perverse affection. If anything is not done well by his fellow elders, let him keep his conscience pure.

(g) As much as you are able, do not rashly admit anyone at all to any ecclesiastical function.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Paul also urged Timothy to minimize the possibility of elder failure by being extremely careful about whom he appointed in the first place. Laying on hands in this context probably refers to public ordination (cf. 1Ti 4:14; 2Ti 1:6). [Note: Knight, The Pastoral . . ., p. 239; Earle, p. 381; Kelly, p. 127; David A. Mappes, "The ’Laying on of Hands’ of Elders," Bibliotheca Sacra 154:616 (October-December 1997):473-79.] Another view is that it refers to the restoration of repentant fallen elders. [Note: White, 4:137-38.] A person who appoints a deficient candidate to office shares his guilt when his unacceptability surfaces. Since Timothy occupied the seat of a judge he needed to stay free from sin himself. As in 1Ti 4:6-16, Paul’s concern about the sins of others led him to insert a short aside to Timothy about the importance of ordering his own life, specifically maintaining his purity (cf. 1Ti 4:12; 1Ti 5:2).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Chapter 15

THE PASTORS RESPONSIBILITIES IN ORDAINING AND JUDGING PRESBYTERS-THE WORKS THAT GO BEFORE AND THAT FOLLOW US. – 1Ti 5:22-25

THE section of which these verses form the conclusion, like the preceding section about behavior towards the different classes of persons in the congregation, supplies us with evidence that we are dealing with a real letter, written to give necessary advice to a real person, and not a theological or controversial treatise, dressed up in the form of a letter in order to obtain the authority of St. Pauls name for its contents. Here, as before, the thoughts follow one another in an order which is quite natural, but which has little plan or arrangement. An earnest and affectionate friend, with certain points in his mind on which he was anxious to say something, might easily treat of them in this informal way just as they occurred to him, one thing suggesting another. But a forger, bent on getting his own views represented in the document, would not string them together in this loosely connected way: he would disclose more arrangement than we can find here. What forger, again, would think of inserting that advice about ceasing to be a water-drinker into a most solemn charge respecting the election and ordination of presbyters? And yet how thoroughly natural it is found to be in this very context when considered as coming from St. Paul to Timothy.

We shall go seriously astray if we start with the conviction that the word “elder” has the same meaning throughout this chapter. When in the first part of it St. Paul says “Rebuke not an elder, but exhort him as a father,” it is quite clear that he is speaking simply of elderly men, and not of persons holding the office of an elder: for he goes on at once to speak of the treatment of younger men, and also of older and younger women. But when in the second half of the chapter he says “Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor,” and “Against an elder receive not an accusation, except at the mouth of two or three witnesses,” it is equally clear that he is speaking of official persons, and not merely of persons who are advanced in years. The way in which the thoughts suggested one another throughout this portion of the letter is not difficult to trace. “Let no man despise thy youth” suggested advice as to how the young overseer was to behave towards young and old of both sexes. This led to the treatment of widows, and this again to the manner of appointing official widows. Women holding an official position suggests the subject of men holding an official position in the Church. If the treatment of the one class needs wisdom and circumspection, not less does the treatment of the other. And, therefore, with even more solemnity than in the previous section about the widows, the Apostle gives his directions on this important subject also. “I charge thee in the sight of God, and Christ Jesus, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing by partiality.” And then he passes on to the words which form our text.

It has been seriously doubted whether the words “Lay hands hastily on no man” do refer to the ordination of the official elders or presbyters. It is urged that the preceding warning about the treatment of charges made against presbyters, and of persons who are guilty of habitual sin, point to disciplinary functions of some kind rather than to ordination. Accordingly some few commentators in modern times have treated the passage as referring to the laying on of hands at the readmission of penitents to communion. But of any such custom in the Apostolic age there is no trace. There is nothing improbable in the hypothesis, imposition of hands being a common symbolical act. But it is a mere hypothesis unsupported by evidence. Eusebius, in speaking of the controversy between Stephen of Rome and Cyprian of Carthage about the re-baptizing of heretics, tells us that the admission of heretics to the Church by imposition of hands with prayer, but without second baptism, was the “old custom.” But the admission of heretics is not quite the same as the readmission of penitents: and a custom might be “old” ( ) in the time of Eusebius, or even of Cyprian, without being Apostolic or coeval with the Apostles. Therefore this statement of Eusebius gives little support to the proposed interpretation of the passage; and we may confidently prefer the explanation of it which has prevailed at any rate since Chrysostoms time, that it refers to ordination. Of the laying on of hands at the appointment of ministers we have sufficient evidence in the New Testament, not only in these Epistles, {1Ti 4:14; 2Ti 1:6} but in the Acts. {Act 13:3} Moreover this explanation fits the context at least as well as the supposed improvement.

1. The Apostle is speaking of the treatment of presbyters, not of the whole congregation. Imposition of hands at the admission of a heretic or readmission of a penitent would apply to any person, and not to presbyters

2. in particular. Therefore it is more reasonable to assume that the laying on of hands which accompanied ordination is meant.

3. He has just been warning Timothy against prejudice or partiality in dealing with the elders. While prejudice might lead him to be hasty in condemning an accused presbyter, before he had satisfied himself that the evidence was adequate, partiality might lead him to be hasty in acquitting him. But there is a more serious partiality than this, and it is one of the main causes of such scandals as unworthy presbyters. There is the partiality which leads to a hasty ordination, before sufficient care has been taken to ensure that the qualifications so carefully laid down in chapter 3. are present in the person selected. Prevention is better than cure. Proper precautions taken beforehand will reduce the risk of true charges against an elder to a minimum. Here again the traditional explanation fits the context admirably.

“Neither be partaker of other mens sins.” It is usual to understand this warning as referring to the responsibility of those who ordain. If, through haste or carelessness you ordain an unfit person, you must share the guilt of the sins which he afterwards commits as an elder. The principle is a just one, but it may be doubted whether this is St. Pauls meaning. The particular form of negative used seems to be against it. He says “Nor yet () be partaker of other mens sins,” implying that this is something different from hastiness in ordination. He seems to be returning to the warnings about partiality to elders who are living in sin. The meaning, therefore, is-“Beware of a haste in ordaining which may lead to the admission of unworthy men to the ministry. And if, in spite of all your care, unworthy ministers come under your notice, beware of an indifference or partiality towards them which will make you a partaker in their sins.” This interpretation fits on well to what follows. “Keep thyself pure”-with a strong emphasis on the pronoun. “Strictness in enquiring into the antecedents of candidates for ordination and in dealing with ministerial depravity will have a very poor effect, unless your own life is free from reproach.” And, if we omit the parenthetical advice about taking wine, the thought is continued thus: “As a rule it is not difficult to arrive at a wise decision respecting the fitness of candidates, or the guilt of accused presbyters. Mens characters both for evil and good are commonly notorious. The vices of the wicked and the virtues of the good outrun any formal judgment about them, and are quite manifest before an enquiry is held. No doubt there are exceptions, and then the consequences of mens lives must be looked to before a just opinion can be formed. But, sooner or later (and generally sooner rather than later) men, and especially ministers, will be known for what they are.”

It remains to ascertain the meaning of the curious parenthesis “Be no longer a drinker of water,” and its connection with the rest of the passage.

It was probably suggested to St. Paul by the preceding words, “Beware of making yourself responsible for the sins of others. Keep your own life above suspicion.” This charge reminds the Apostle that his beloved disciple has been using ill-advised means to do this very thing. Either in order to mark his abhorrence of the drunkenness which was one of the most conspicuous vices of the age, or in order to bring his own body more easily into subjection, Timothy had abandoned the use of wine altogether, in spite of his weak health. St. Paul, therefore, with characteristic affection, takes care that his charge is not misunderstood. In urging his representative to be strictly careful of his own conduct, he does not wish to be understood as encouraging him to give up whatever might be abused or made the basis of a slander, nor yet as approving his rigor in giving up the use of wine. On the contrary, he thinks it a mistake; and he takes this opportunity of telling him so, while it is in his mind. Christs ministers have important duties to perform, and have no right to play tricks with their health. We may here repeat, with renewed confidence, that a touch of this kind would never have occurred to a forger. Hence, in order to account for such natural touches as these, those who maintain that these Epistles are a fabrication now resort to the hypothesis that the forger had some genuine letters of St. Paul and worked parts of them into his own productions. It seems to be far more reasonable to believe that St. Paul wrote the whole of them.

Let us return to the statement with which the Apostle closes this section of his letter. “Some mens sins are evident, going before unto judgment; and some men also they follow after. In, like manner also there are good works that are evident; and such as are otherwise cannot be hid.”

We have seen already what relation these words have to the context. They refer to the discernment between good and bad candidates-for the ministry, and between good and bad ministers, pointing out that in most cases such discernment is not difficult, because mens own conduct acts as a herald to their character, proclaiming it to all the world. The statement, though made with special reference to Timothys responsibilities towards elders and those who wish to become such, is a general one, and is equally true of all mankind. Conduct in most cases is quite a clear index of character, and there is no need to have a formal investigation in order to ascertain whether a man is leading a wicked life or not. But the words have a still deeper significance-one which is quite foreign to the context, and therefore can hardly have been in St. Pauls mind when he wrote them, but which as being true and of importance, ought not to be passed over.

For a formal investigation into mens conduct. before an ecclesiastical or other official, let us substitute the judgment-seat of Christ. Let the question be, not the worthiness of certain persons to be admitted to some office, but their worthiness to be admitted to eternal life. The general statement made by the Apostle remains as true as ever. There are some men who stand, as before God, so also before the world, as open, self-proclaimed sinners. Wherever they go, their sins go before them, flagrant, crying, notorious. And when they are summoned hence, their sins again precede them, waiting for them as accusers and witnesses before the Judge. The whole career of an open and deliberate sinner is the procession of a criminal to his doom. His sins go before, and their consequences follow after, and he moves on in the midst, careless of the one and ignorant of the other. He has laughed at his sins and chased remorse for them away. He has, by turns cherished and driven out the remembrance of them; dwelt on them, when to think of them was a pleasant repetition of them; stifled the thought of them, when to think of them might have brought thoughts of penitence; and has behaved towards them as if he could not only bring them into being without guilt, but control them or annihilate them without difficulty. He has not controlled, he has not destroyed, he has not even evaded, one of them. Each of them, when brought into existence, became his master, going on before him to herald his guiltiness, and saddling him with consequences from which he could not escape. And when he went to his own place, it was his sins that had gone before him and prepared the place for him.

“And some men also they follow after.” There are cases in which mens sins, though of course not less manifest to the Almighty, are much less manifest to the world, and even to themselves, than in the case of flagrant, open sinners. The consequences of their sins are less conspicuous, less easily disentangled from the mass of unexplained misery of which the world is so full. Cause and effect cannot be put together with any precision; for sometimes the one, sometimes the other, sometimes even both, are out of sight. There is no anticipation of the final award to be given at the judgment-seat of Christ. Not until the guilty one is placed before the throne for trial, is it at all known whether the sentence will be unfavorable or not.

Even the man himself has lived and died without being at all fully aware what the state of the case is. He has not habitually examined himself, to see whether he has been living in sin or not. He has taken no pains to remember, and repent of, and conquer, those sins of which he has been conscious. The consequences of his sins have seldom come so swiftly as to startle him and convince him of their enormity. When they have at last overtaken him, it has been possible to doubt or to forget that it was his sins which caused them. And consequently he has doubted, and he has forgotten. But for all that, “they follow after.” They are never eluded, never shaken off. A cause must have its effect; and a sin must have its punishment, if not in this world, then certainly in the next. “Be sure your sin will find you out”-probably in this life, but at any rate at the day of judgment. As surely as death follows on a pierced heart or on a severed neck, so surely does punishment follow upon sin.

How is it that in the material world we never dream that cause and effect can be separated, and yet easily believe that in the moral world sin may remain forever unpunished? Our relation to the material universe has been compared to a game of chess. “The chess-board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know-that his play is always fair, just, and patient. But also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance. To the man who plays well, the highest stakes are paid, with a sort of overflowing generosity with which the strong shows delight in strength. And one who plays ill is checkmated-without haste, but without remorse.” We believe this implicitly of the material laws of the universe; that they cannot be evaded, cannot be transgressed with impunity, cannot be obeyed without profit. Moral laws are not one whit less sure. Whether we believe it or not (and it will but be the worse for us if we refuse to believe it), sin, both repented and unrepented, must have its penalty. We might as well fling a stone, or shoot a cannon-ball, or send a balloon into the air, and say, “You shall not come down again,” as sin, and say “I shall never suffer for it.” Repentance does not deprive sin of its natural effect. We greatly err in supposing that, if we repent in time, we escape the penalty. To refuse to repent is a second and a worse sin, which, added to the first sin, increases the penalty incalculably. To repent is to escape this terrible augmentation of the original punishment; but it is no escape from the punishment itself.

But there is a bright side to this inexorable law. If sin must have its own punishment, virtue must have its own reward. The one is as sure as the other; and in the long run the fact of virtue and the reward of virtue will be made clear to all the world, and especially to the virtuous man himself. “The works that are good are evident; and such as are not evident cannot be hid.” No saint knows his own holiness; and many a humble seeker after holiness does good deeds without knowing how good they are. Still less are all saints known as such to the world, or all good deeds recognized as good by those who witness them. But, nevertheless, good works as a rule are evident, and if they are not so, they will become so hereafter. If not in this world, at any rate before Christs judgment-seat, they will be appraised at their true value. It is as true of the righteous as of the wicked, that “their works do follow them.” And, if there is no more terrible fate than to be confronted at the last day by a multitude of unknown and forgotten sins, so there can hardly be any lot more blessed than to be welcomed then by a multitude of unknown and forgotten deeds of love and piety. “Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these My brethren, even these least, ye did it unto Me.” “Come, ye: blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary