Un-muzzled oxen

This was done on Feb. 21 but I had no internet access.

1 Timothy 5:17-20

I am very humbled by the charge that Paul gives to Timothy regarding elders – especially those who preach and teach. First, I have no complaints about what I am being paid by the church. In fact, I want to make sure that the church is getting full value for their money. They have invested in me in incredible ways – both through salary and also by paying for learning opportunities. My job is to be a good steward of the church’s resources by making sure that I take full advantage of those opportunities. For me, this means that, if the church sends me to a conference, I attend fully and participate completely – that I try to learn as much as I possibly can for my own benefit and for the benefit of the church that sent me.
I also feel a huge responsibility to not abuse the second part of this teaching: to not entertain a charge against an elder unless it is brought by 2 or 3 witnesses. This means that the church has placed a lot of trust in me and I have a huge responsibility to live up to that trust. I haven’t always seen this practiced but for the most part this church is very good about protecting its elders, pastors and teachers.
The last part of this passage scares me to pieces. Because my reputation is so important to me (sometimes that’s a good thing in that it keeps me from doing things that are sinful; sometimes it’s a bad thing because it keeps me from taking risks) I would be very ashamed to have my sin brought before the whole church and to be rebuked publicly. However, this again speaks to the huge responsibility that I have to be faithful and righteous because of the position that this church has entrusted to me.

Pick-a-phrase...

1 Timothy 3

So, I actually have some more frustrations with how this passage is generally applied in our church. We say that 1 Timothy 3 contains the qualifications for an elder and a deacon but we don't apply all the qualifications equally. We insist on certain ones but overlook others (are all our elders hospitable? are all our elders able to teach? do all their children obey them with proper respect? do all of them have wives that are not gossips or malicious talkers?).
My goal is to look for Jesus in each section of Scripture that I read. I confess that he is difficult to find in this passage. I think the principle of the passage is that there should be order and decency in the church which would reflect that there was a sense of decency and possibly calmness about Jesus - he was not given to chaos (although the driving out the money changers would have been a bit frightening!).

Gentleman's Club?

1 Timothy 3

I think that we're a little bit inconsistent. We take the phrase "husband of one wife" in 3:2 (overseers or bishops or, in our case, elders) literally but not in 3:12 (deacons) because in Romans 16:1 we find a female deaconess (who couldn't be the husband of but one wife unless the church was in favour of same sex marriage...).
The argument I've heard goes like this: a woman cannot be an elder (overseer, bishop) because the phrase "the husband of but one wife" indicates that this role can only be filled by a man. But a woman can be a deacon(ess) because we find an example of one in the Bible even though Paul uses the exact same phrase in regards to deacons just 10 verses later.
Doesn't this indicate further that Ephesus was a special case because it was a sick church that needed special rules in order for it to become healthy again?