Scripture | 1 Timothy 5:8 “If anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”
Observation | The first lesson in our text is that our understanding of verses like these will reveal our faith in the scripture and the divine doctrines they teach. Do we believe every Word of the bible is breathed out by God or not? (2 Tim 3:16) Do we really believe that scripture is sufficient for every matter of life and godliness or not? (2 Tim 3:16; 2 Pt 1:3) Or do we subtly nullify the word and quiet the offensiveness of it when it does not fit our personal preferences and our cultural? (2 Pt 1:20–21) If the latter is true, we are in danger of submitting ourselves to all sorts of authorities and lords that are not Jesus Christ the true Lord. If the latter is true, we are living as if we are our own lord.
If scripture is God’s truth, and it is… If the bible is adequate for all of life, and it is… Then every single word matters and is divinely intentional, not accidental in any way (Matt 5:18; Luke 16:17, 21:33). A true believer is to trust every word as the authority of God speaking it directly to them. Why? Because God is the one who Himself speaks in the Scripture.
For instance, we next learn from 1 Timothy 5:8 gender specific roles are divinely assigned by God. Here, in both the English and the original language, a command is given only to males to “provide for HIS own” and for “HIS household.” Here God clearly has given the husbands, fathers, sons, nephews and uncles the role of provider for families. When these words of God are disobeyed by men, it is sin. This does not mean men can be selfish and work to build their own wealth and accumulate toys for themselves. No, he is to provide for his own household, not his fleshly desires. This also does not give a man a right to lord his provider role over others and “get what I want,” but instead to give for the good of others above himself (Phil 2:4).
Scripture agrees elsewhere about divinely ordered gender roles. God assigns females a different role then provider. In other words, providing for the family is not their role. Instead, women are to be home makers (1 Tim 5:14, Titus 2:4) or literally, “workers at home.” Scripture does say some women acquire and plant fields (Proverbs 31) and some in scripture sell product (Acts 16:14). Still, in the rule of faith, that Scripture interprets Scripture, there is a simple agreement to be found in the home-maker role and work of these other texts.
Every example of working women in scripture can be done as an extension of working at home. It is not necessary to make them apart from it. In fact, our culture often is the lens we interpret these verses through, not the culture of 2,000 years ago. Before the industrial revolution, most all business were family business. Women worked in assisting the business of the family. History shows that this gender role has been this way for thousands of years in all but the most godless of cultures. The change is a relatively new phenomenon, dating back only a generation or two.
Let us further take note that God has also decreed that women are to submit to their husbands “in everything.” (Eph 5:24) Consider this, because “in everything” is not possible while submitting to a boss in the work place outside of the home, especially when she is asked to do something the husband would not agree with.
Some seminary professors and scholars affirm the modern shift as if it were a new biblical understanding. Why? If for 1900 years the Christian church taught and lived out gender roles, what changed the church? A great historical shift of gender roles. First, the industrial revolution took work out into department stores and factories replacing jobs that were previously filled as a family business. Second, jobs had to be filled by women when most of the world’s men were away fighting the world wars. This was when the most drastic shift away from biblical gender roles occurred. Third, the women’s liberation movement brought some good for women, but destroyed the home. Today, thanks to feminism, stay at home moms are shamed and scorned, while stay at home dads are applauded. Just ask a woman who is a worker at home how most people respond when she explains what she does. Most often she has received a response of disapproval in our age.
A study will reveal that none of the modern gender role changes were new revelations of scripture or corrections of the historically affirmed teaching of scripture for thousands of years. Still, the teaching of the seminaries and pastors has shifted with the culture. What should have happened instead was that the sufficiency and authority of the Word of God guarded and corrected this error. The result today? Living out the biblical gender roles of provider and home maker is considered an ancient practice. And it is. It is God’s way. It is the ancient path that is His good way where rest is found through strong faith and obedience (Jeremiah 6:16). Today, such obedience is so off and ancient that it is a repulsive attack to the strongly held social ideologies of our age.
Think this through, is it not prideful that a modern enlightened “believer” claims that God’s people misunderstood the literal application of God’s Word for over 2,000 years. The church must stop tickling the ears of the culture and call for repentance (2 Tim 4:3). We do not live to please men, but God (Gal 1:10). At one point we believed the truth of Scirpture in our country (the USA) and said “In God we Trust.” We put scripture in both our schools and government facilities. Today, we’ve turned our back on Him as a nation. Even in the church. Especially whenever He calls us to do things counter to our own cultural ways.
This is the third lesson in 1 Timothy 5:8. Our external obedience or rebellion to the Word is a direct revealing of what is really true inside of us. A man’s biblical duty before God is to be the provider. If a man rebels or disobeys this reality it reveals his very denial of the faith. “He is worse than an unbeliever,” God says. Why? Because such a man knows what he ought to be and is therefore more responsible to do it. Why? Because God in love places significance on divinely assigning serious responsibility and care for women (who are supposed to be workers at home) and children. Men are to provide for them He says, that is God’s holy will and plan. All others are sin. And in the end, our actions are the fruit of our faith, or the evidence of the lack thereof.
Application | As a man am I providing? Am I providing adequately and self-sacrificially? Am I raising my boys to be obedient to God as providers for the family? As a woman, do I follow my culture or the Living God? Am I a worker at home under my husband’s provision and subject to him in everything (Eph 5:24)? Or have I liberated myself from God’s design and decree so that I might be free from them? Let each repent. We have gone far from the ancient paths of our God and will stand before Him someday and give an accounting (Rom 14:10, 12; 2 Cor 5:9-10).
Pray | Father, we repent. As men, we need to self sacrificially be the providers for our homes. And not just for our wives and children, but our extended family as well. Turn our hearts to give of ourselves to provide, while not neglect our duties to each in our homes as well. Keep us all from being convinced of the social ideologies of our day and the culturally adapted teaching of pastors and church leaders who seek to tickle ears. Move the faith filled women and mothers return to their homes to fulfill their divine calling and duty wherever possible and aim to reach that path soon where not possible immediately. Return our families to trust fully in Your Word and follow Your ancient path for the genders you created us in and assigned us to. So that “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” So that we might glorify You in all things. Amen.
