Something Greater

Pugnacious Smiter 1 Timothy 3:2 What has gone before... Drunkenness destroys a person's marriage, blinds them to reality, exposes them to injury and disease, brings scorn from the community, alienates them from friendship and confuses their ability to teach and learn. Drunkenness can lead to violence, the second destructive behavior listed by Paul. Moving on... "An overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent..." 1 Timothy 3:2-3 (ESV) NOT VIOLENT: me plektes "may PLAKE-tace" (qualified negation, smiter, pugnacious or quarrelsome); from plesso (to pound, as if flattening out; to inflict with calamity); from plasso (to mould, shape or fabricate) Violent people, smiters, find it a pleasure to pound flat into the ground anyone who might challenge their personal privileges of superiority . "Violent" occurs only twice in the Bib...

Aspiration and Desire 1 Timothy 3:3 What has gone before... An overseer must be hospitable , one who is fond of guests, one who enjoys meeting new and different sorts of people, regarding new acquaintances as new friends. In the same breath, Paul cautions Christians to avoid grumbling , grudgingly attempting to show hospitality to others while inwardly complaining of the cost or discomfort. Hospitality is sharing with others what God has given us. Entertaining others at our home, or together at a restaurant, can easily connect with another characteristic of the ideal overseer: one who teaches others . More than being willing to teach others, Paul describes an overseer as one who is competent to teach, one who himself loves to learn and joys in helping others to learn. Teaching is to be more than a duty...it is to be a lifelong calling. Moving on... Following the seven broad categories of character qualities introduced in verse 2, Paul now lists specific behaviors ...

Pretense and Fear "A man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet." Acts 5:1-2 The names of the man and woman in this story communicate happiness and wealth : ANANIAS: Ananias (name of three Israelites); from Hebrew, hananyahu (Jah has favored); from hanan (to bend or stoop in kindness to an inferior; to favor, bestow or implore) and yah (Jah, the sacred name, shortened from Yehovah, the self-Existent or Eternal) SAPPHIRA: Sapphire (an Israelitess); from sapphiros (a "sapphire" or lapis-lazuli gem; from Hebrew, sappir (a gem, probably the sapphire, used for scratching other substances); from sapar (to score with a mark as a tally or record, to inscribe, enumerate, recount or celebrate) From birth, Ananias enjoyed the influence of a name that meant "favored by God". The Hebrew root o...