And that he rules his own house well, raising his children under discipline, with due respect (for if someone does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of God’s Church?)??Timothy 3. 4-5
“Someone without guilt, husband of a single woman, who has believing children who are not accused of dissolution and who are not insubordinate. ? Titus 1. 6
Can a man who has non-believers be named or remain old?Timothy 3. 4-5 and Titus 1. 6 raise this question.
There are two main interpretations. Douglas Wilson sums up the first point of view in a very succinct way: “If a man’s children depart from the faith (whether doctrinally or morally), is he, at this stage, disqualified from the formal ministry of the church?1. Alexander Strauch suggests the second choice of interpretation: “The contrast that is made is not between non-believers and believers, but between respectful and obedient children with uncontrolled and disobedient children to the law. “What should stand out, Strauch suggests, the behavior of children, not eternal status?
Faithful leadership in the church and at home
Paul’s basic logic, especially 1 Timothy 3, is pretty clear. The rhetorical question in the second half of verse 5 (? If someone does not know how to govern his own house, how will he take care of God’s church?), Logically justifies his insistence on an orderly house in verse 4 (? Under discipline, with due respect?). Why should a believer’s home be like a small church? # 3, is the result one that does not receive reverence or submission from their children? Can you hardly retain people by controlling discipline? # 4. This means that how a potential elder or elder manages and controls their home is of the utmost importance in determining their qualification for the job. John Stott carefully summarizes the question: “Is the married pastor called to lead in two families, his and God’s, and should the former be training for the latter?” # 5 (cf. Matthew 25: 14-30? He who is faithful in small things will be faithful in much # 6). The above analysis is somewhat controversial among exegetes. However, disagreements arise as we further explore the nature of this orderly home.
Do an old man’s children have to be believers?
The most controversial question around these verses is whether Paul says that an old man’s children should be believers, or whether they should only be faithful, sumissive, and obedient.
The term indexes can mean “believer”. Yes
However, I would like to suggest that the resolution of this problem can be found compared to the parallel between Titus 1. 6 and 1Timoteo 3. 4. We can reasonably be sure that tekna echonta in hupotag (?Raising children under control / submission / obedience ?; 1Timothy 3. 4) is practically synonymous with the tekna ech’n index (?Raising faithful children/believers ?; Titus 1. 6) – 7, in other words, having children on the right path means having children in Hupotag. This would mean that the last part of Titus 1. 6 (Who is not accused of dissolution, nor insubordinate?) It’s a description of what the index means.
In this spirit, here are five other reasons why I believe Paul refers to the submission and obedience of an old man’s son, not his salvation.
First, the fundamental question in 1 Timothy 3. 5 explicitly links the qualifications of the elders to their administrative skills in verse 4. In general, obedient behavior does not require miraculous intervention; even a good lab technician can operate a mouse in a certain way if enough planning and forecasting is reversed. While a pious house usually contributes to faith, it does not produce it. we have inadvertently corroborated a non-biblical role for human action. This is clearly the case with a request made by Stott: “An extension of the same principle may be that previous bishops may be less expected to gain strangers to Christ, if they have failed to win over those most exposed to their influence, their own children. What could that mean? If you are a good home administrator, can we expect the unbelievers to come unto Christ through your ministry?
Second, even the best pastoral managers have nonbelievers in their churches or under their sphere of influence (see Galatians 1. 6). The logical consequence of this would be that someone can manage a big house (your church), even if not everyone is a believer, if this is the case, it seems that someone can manage the small house (your family), even if they are not. all are believers.
Third, insisting that having religious children is a prerequisite for the consistory leads to uncomfortable problems. What would we do with an old man who has several children but is not a believer?If most of your children are believers, isn’t he a good home manager?Or does the disbeliever question his or her general administrative skills?If so, why did one of your children become a believer?Wilson writes: ?? a man may decide (and I think he should decide) to return if one of his six sons denies faith, but if another pastor of his rectory, in the same situation, does not decide to do so and his other five children are virtuous, would only strange behavior express disagreement through a major struggle in the church?However, this appears to be inconsistent; if Paul really teaches that non-believer children automatically disqualify a man for the rectory, then the purity of the elders’ bodies deserves to be discussed.
Fourth, all the requirements for the rectory listed in this passage (being married once, being tempered, reasonable, respectable, hospitable, good teacher, not given to wine, non-money-loving and non-neophyte) are personal actions. We must expect your children’s demand to be in the same category. To demand that the children of the elders have authentic faith is to demand personal responsibility for the salvation of others, which I do not see taught in the scriptures.
Conclusion
So I think 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 refer to the general submission and behavior of the eldest’s children. God conceived the universe in such a way that the disciplinary, modeling, authoritarian, and leader-server role of parents often has a profound impact on their children. Paul does not talk about how this manifests itself in each case, nor of all the details of what would disqualify an old man. The general case, however, is clear:
What should not be characteristic of an old man’s children is immorality and rebellious rebellion, if the child is still at home and under his authority 10. Paul does not ask the old man and his children for anything more than is expected of every Christian father and his children. However, only if a man who exercises such proper control over his children can he be an ex No. 11.
May God give the pastors and elders of our churches grace and wisdom in the faithful direction of their churches and homes.
Click here to see “Disbelief in the Practice of an Elderly’s Children,” an interview with 9 Brands CEO Matt Schmucker.
1 Douglas Wilson, “The Pastor’s Kid?” In Credenda / Agenda, Vol. 2, no. 3.
2 Alexander Strauch, Biblical Elder: an urgent call to restore the leadership of the revised and developed Bible Church (Littleton, Col. : Lewis
3 John Calvin, Commentary on the epistles of Timothy, Tite and Philemo, translated from Latin (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1948), 83 n. 1.
4 Ibid. , 293
5 John Stott, Guard the Truth: The Message of 1 Timothy and Titus, The Bible Speaks Today (Downer’s Grove, Ill. : InterVarsity Press, 1996), 98.
6 William D. Mounce, Pastoral Epistles, WCB (Dallas: Word, 2000), 180.
As Andreas Kostenberger comments, “In the broader context of the biblical teaching of the pastoral epistles, it would not be common for the author to have two different standards, a softer one in 1 Timothy 3. 4 (obedient) and a more rigorous one in Titus 1. 6 (believer This leads to the assumption of reading booklets in Tite 1. 6 (believer) conveniently in the sense of “Faithful” or “Obedient” to continue with the application launched in 1Timteo 3. 4 “. See http://www. biblicalfoundations. org/ ? p = 36, on their treatment in 1-2 Timothy and Titus in Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Vol. 12 (Rev. Ed. ; Zondervan, 2007), pp. 606-7 and ch. 12 in God, Marriage and Family ( Crossway, 2004).
8 Stott, Keep the Truth, 176
9 Douglas Wilson, “The Pastor’s Kid, Again?” In Credenda / Agenda, Vol. 2, no. 5.
10 See Knight, Commentary on Pastoral Epistles, 161, for his argument that Paul refers to tekna (“children?) They are under authority and have not yet grown.
11 Ibid. , 290
12 I would like to thank Ray Van Neste, Tom Schreiner and Andreas Kostenberger for providing a useful answer to the draft of this article.
Translation: Matheus Fernandes Review: Yago Martins © 2016 Faithful Ministério All rights reserved. Website: MinistryFiel. com. br. Original: Should the children of an old man be believers?
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