“Don’t accept an accusation against an elder unless it is supported by two or three witnesses. Publicly rebuke those who sin, so that the rest will be afraid.”
I got some new Bible Study tools last month, and being the Bible study nerd that I am, I was pretty excited to get to use them when writing this post. The first one is the Connecting Scriptures New Testament- A Study Bible of Biblical Allusions and Quotations put out by Holman Bibles. It is the CSB version of the New Testament, along with commentary that connects it to the Old Testament. There are approximately three hundred fifty Old Testament quotations with many, many more allusions to it in the New Testament. This study Bible helps make those connections. My second new tool is a Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible, also in the CSB. It uses the Strong’s numbering system to identify key words in the original languages. It also includes an annotated Strong’s Dictionary in back. Several years ago, I bought a Strong’s Complete Dictionary at a thrift store, and I finally got to use it last week with my new Bible. I’m excited to use my new tools, and I plan to use them to love God with all my heart, with all my soul, and with all my mind (Matthew 22:37).
Now, let’s move on to today’s passage. In the last two verses, Paul wrote about honoring the teaching elders. Now he moves on to disciplining them. The first thing he writes is, “Don’t accept an accusation against an elder unless it is supported by two or three witnesses.” Before we look at this in depth, Paul is not interested in gossip, hearsay, or rumors about leadership. There must be proof when bringing an accusation. Where does this rule come from? We can look back to Mosaic Law for this one. According to the Connecting Scriptures New Testament, “Paul alludes to Dt. 19:15, where any accusation made in court requires sufficient corroboration: ‘by the mouth of two witnesses, or by the mouth of three witnesses, shall every word be established’… Paul alludes to this text because its requirement of corroboration has an abiding authority for God’s people, and so its principle should be followed.” Jesus also alludes to Deuteronomy when He instructs the disciples on how they are to restore relationships within the church. “If your brother sins against you, go tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he won’t listen, take one or two others with you, so that by the testimony of two or three witnesses every fact may be established” (Matthew 18:15-16).
Paul’s instructions to Timothy are first to verify the accusation, and if it is found credible by the account of two or three witnesses, he is then to rebuke publicly those who sin as an example to others. In Paul’s words, “…so the rest will be afraid.” We began Paul’s letter to Timothy by reading his warnings about the false teachers who were infiltrating the Ephesian church. Here, Paul tells Timothy how he is to handle elders who continue teaching false views, among other sins. The Greek word for sin used here means to miss the mark, to offend, or to err. Michael Eaten writes this in his commentary. “Those who persist in their sinful support of the wicked teaching and wicked living of the cult leaders in Ephesus must be publicly identified and publicly rebuked. Paul is not dealing with exposing anyone; he is rather dealing with those who at the present time were publicly and openly continuing in wicked ways.”
Is this still a standard we should be holding to today? Of course it is. We still must follow the biblical example. David Guzik writes in his Enduring Word online commentary, “In these verses, Paul hit the balance between believing and acting on every bit of gossip that comes along about a leader in the church, and ignoring serious sin in a leader’s life. Either extreme is wrong.”
Unfortunately, today there is a movement in some churches which teaches that it is wrong to question or call out sin in a leader. To understand where this teaching comes from, I’m going to go back about fifty years in church history to a thing called the Shepherding Movement. This grew out of the Charismatic Movement in the 1970s, and was later criticized for its over-controlling, cult-like behavior. If you want to read more about it, gotquestions.org has an article explaining it. The basic idea of the Shepherding Movement was that there were five lead shepherds (the founders of the movement) and under them was a pyramid-like structure of shepherds. You would be under the authority of a shepherd, who was under the authority of another shepherd, and so on. At the top of the pyramid were the five leaders. It was based on authority and submission. Before a person could make a major life decision, such as marriage, job change, a move, etc., they were supposed to seek the approval of their shepherd. This led to accusations of abuse and in the 1980s the original five leaders of the group disbanded.
The reason I gave this brief history lesson is because its top-down structure has directly made a way for the New Apostolic Reformation churches we have today. These churches do not have an elder board but are under the leadership of an “apostle” who claims to have direct, extra-biblical revelation from God. And they are not to be questioned. A phrase commonly heard is “touch not the anointed.” Some examples of “apostle” led churches include Bethel Church Redding (Bill Johnson and Kris Valloton); Harvest Rock Pasadena (Che Ahn); IHOP Kansas City (Mike Bickle); and Morningstar North Carolina (Rick Joyner). There are many more and a quick internet search will provide you with more names.
John Bevere is an author who is very popular in these circles. He has a book titled Under Cover: Why Your Response to Leadership Determines Your Future. He teaches that “To resist delegated authority is to resist God’s authority.” We are not to judge whether a leader’s decisions are right or wrong, because that is God’s responsibility. Now please hear my heart. I am not questioning our pastors’ authority. I do believe that God wants us to submit to them. In Hebrews we read, “Obey your leaders and submit to them, since they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account, so that they can do this with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you” (13:17). But Paul clearly teaches that we are to judge whether a leader is making a wrong decision, especially if it is a sinful one. We are also to call out false teaching. We have these verses here in 1 Timothy. And we see Paul call out Peter (Cephas) publicly when he is wrong. “But when I saw that they were deviating from the truth of the gospel, I told Cephas in front of everyone, “If you, who are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel Gentiles to live like Jews?” (Galatians 2:14).
In recent years we have seen high profile pastors’ sins publicly exposed. We have seen sexual sin, abuse, false teaching, and other things that disqualify them from ministry. And yet people excuse them, say they should not be judged, say they are God’s anointed, and call out the ones doing the exposing. One of the excuses I hear is that the church needs to be unified, that when we expose these leaders and call them out, it makes the church seem disunified, and this looks bad to unbelievers. I would argue it is far worse when we don’t call out the sin in our midst, both for the body of Christ and for those watching. This leads me to my last points for today.
These verses argue against the whole Five-Fold Ministry, Shepherding Movement, New Apostolic Reformation, or any movement that places one leader with no oversight into a position of power over others. This has led to abuse, hurt, people leaving the church (and some abandoning their faith), church splits, disharmony, pride, greediness, and basically everything that is not a fruit of the Spirit. Remember, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22).
The second reason that I am against the restoration of apostolic ministry is that these men and women set themselves up as ones who receive divine strategy for what God wants to accomplish. They believe that they oversee and provide protection for churches and ministries. They believe that they receive extra-biblical revelation and are receiving God’s vision for revival. They put themselves between God and their followers. The people who are under their authority look to them for direction rather than to God or their Bibles. They are trusting in man, not God. And because they believe that these are God’s anointed people, they can do no wrong. But again, this is not what the Bible teaches. “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, a testimony at the proper time” (1 Timothy 5:5-6).
There is so much more I could say, but others have done It better than I ever could. Holly Pivec and Douglas Geivett have written several excellent books on the New Apostolic Reformation. She also has articles and resources on her website: Holly Pivec Mike Winger (The Bible Thinker) has recently done a series on Exposing False Prophets & Cover-Up Culture: Exposing False Prophets & Cover-Up Culture Archives – BibleThinker It is important to publicly rebuke those who sin to discourage others from doing the same.
I will leave you with this verse from Ephesians 5:11. “Don’t participate in the fruitless works of darkness, but instead expose them.”
Grace be with you!
Abundant Joy 