_THE PASTOR'S RESPONSIBILITIES IN ORDAINING AND JUDGING PRESBYTERS.--THE
WORKS THAT GO BEFORE AND THAT FOLLOW US._
"Lay hands hastily on no man, neither be partaker of other men's
sins: keep thyself pure. Be no longer a drinker of water, but use a
little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities. Some
men's 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"--1 TIM.
v. 22-25.
The section of which these verses form the conclusion, like the
preceding section about behaviour 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. Paul's
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 honour," 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 warnings 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"
(=palaion êthos=) 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 Chrysostom's time, that it refers to
ordination.[67] Of the laying on of hands at the appointment of
ministers we have sufficient evidence in the New Testament, not only in
these Epistles (1 Tim. iv. 14; 2 Tim. i. 6), but in the Acts (xiii. 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
re-admission of a penitent would apply to any person, and not to
presbyters in particular. Therefore it is more reasonable to assume that
the laying on of hands which accompanied ordination is meant.
2. 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 iii. 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 men's 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.
Paul's meaning. The particular form of negative used seems to be against
it. He says "Nor _yet_ (=mêde=) be partaker of other men's sins,"
implying that this is something different from hastiness in ordinary. 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. Men's 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
men's 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 connexion 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 rigour 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. Christ's 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. (See above, pp. 8 and 9, and below, pp. 407,
ff.).
Let us return to the statement with which the Apostle closes this
section of his letter. "Some men's 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 men's own conduct acts
as a herald to their character, proclaiming it to all the world. The
statement, though made with special reference to Timothy's
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. Paul's mind when he wrote them, but which as being true and
of importance, ought not to be passed over.
For a formal investigation into men's 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.[68] 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 men's
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 unfavourable 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 for ever 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 that sort of over-flowing
generosity with which the strong shows delight in strength. And one who
plays ill is checkmated--without haste, but without remorse."[69] 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
Christ's 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."
FOOTNOTES:
[67] Tertullian (_De Bapt._, xviii.) seems to understand St. Paul to be
speaking of the imposition of hands after _Baptism_ (Acts viii. 17, xix.
6), which can hardly be correct.
[68] Manning's _Sermons_, vol. iii., p. 74, Burns, 1847.
[69] Huxley's _Lay Sermons_, Essay I. Macmillan.