DEAD WHILE ALIVE

1 Tim. 5:6

Morning Meditation 4/29/17

Verse 6 says, “But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.”

This verse obviously is not speaking about physical death. There is more than one kind of death spoken of in the Bible. Physical death is the first thing I think of when I think of death. When I began to study the Scriptures, I realized that there are several kinds of death. Before we proceed let’s look at:

A SUMMARY OF THE DOCTRINE OF DEATH

1.There was the spiritual death of Adam. God says to Adam in Genesis 2:17: “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Did Adam die the day he at of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Absolutely. The death was spiritual and not physical. It literally says, “dying thou shalt die.” Death is both an event and a process. This is brought out in this verse. Adam died spiritually the DAY he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He began to die physically and after 930 years he died physically (Gen. 5:5).

2.There was the sexual death of Abraham and Sarah. Rom. 4:19 says, “And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb.” Abraham and Sarah did not deny sexual death they defied it by believing the promise of God.

3.There is the inherited spiritual death of the whole human race. Rom. 5:12 says, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” The word “passed” translates “dierchomai” and means, “to go through, pass through.” Death went right through Adam to the whole human race. It is an aorist active indicative verb. The aorist tense refers to a point of time. That point of time was when Adam sinned. Spiritual death invaded his power of reproduction so that in the process of having children the death he died unavoidably passed to the child that was begotten. This is the reason for the virgin birth. The only way God could become a man was to become a man without Joseph, or any other man, having anything to do with it. Death is not passed to the child through the woman but the man according to this text.

4.When a person is saved, he is raised from spiritual death and given Spiritual life. Ephesians 2:1 says, “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.” These people to whom Paul is speaking were at one time dead. At the time of Paul’s writing he said that they had been quickened together with Christ (Eph. 2:6) and had been raised with Him from the dead (Eph. 2:7).

5.A Christian is alive Spiritually, but his works can be dead so that it can be said that he is operating in the realm of death so far as the manifestation of life is concerned. This is what the text of this meditation is saying.

Paul is speaking to Timothy about the care of the widows and how to treat them. He says in verse 5: “Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day.” But on the other hand he says, “But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.” He is talking about the saved women who were widowed and became the concern of the church. He is saying that the church is not to support the widow who is living an ungodly life. She is not living the life she has in Christ. She is walking after the flesh and the fruit of that life-style is death. To support her would be to help her walk after the flesh.

The words “she that liveth in pleasure” translates “spatalao” and means, “to live luxuriously, lead a voluptuous life, (give one's self to pleasure).” The words “is dead” translate “thnesko” and mean here, “to die, to be dead..” It is a perfect active indicative verb. The perfect tense means she died in the past (At the point of time when she went back into the world for pleasure) with the result she remains dead to the things of God at the time of Paul’s writing. Now if you take the position that she lost her salvation, you have a contradiction of John 10:27-30; Jude 24; 1 Peter 1:5 and many other Scriptures. God’s Word does not contradict itself. The words “while she liveth” is a present tense and speaks of continuous action in the present.

Now to look at Romans 8 where Paul deals with this same subject. Paul is speaking to believers in this chapter who have been removed by death from the effects of the law: Paul says in Romans 8:1: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” Death sets one free from the law. Let the courts attempt to try someone who is dead! It won’t work. We died with Christ (Rom.. 6) and were set free from the law by His death from a former marriage (Rom. 7:4) to be married to Him. Hallelujah! We no longer owe our allegiance to a world system to which we were married before we were saved.

The words “after the flesh” still apply to a believer after salvation. It is possible for one who is “in Christ” to walk “after the flesh.” But one who is “in Christ” is no longer “in the flesh” (Rom. 8:9). One who is “in Christ” can, and too often does, “walk AFTER the flesh” (Caps mine for emphasis). Paul says in verse 13, “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” This is an explanation of Paul to the Roman believers about the difference in being alive in Christ and manifesting His life in this world by walking AFTER the Spirit (Rom. 8:4).

Out text says, ““But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.” The pleasures of this world appeal to the old sin nature which a Christian retains after he is saved. Paul says in Romans 8:13, “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” The ones to whom Paul is speaking are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and is the evidence of their salvation (Verse 9). Now he tells us that it is possible to “mortify the deeds of the body.” Any victory that the believer has over the flesh (old sin nature) in this world will be by faith (1 John 5:4) in His unseen presence, which is the key to the Spirit’s power to sanctify and enable fruitbearing. It is through the Holy Spirit that the deeds of the body are put to death (mortified).

The words “ye shall live” mean that the believer will live out the life he possesses in Christ.. His candle is lighted and on the candlestick. It is not under a bushel. Every step we take AFTER the flesh, put us under a bushel. Every step we take IN the Spirit, takes the bushel off and brings the light back.

The unsaved are dead while alive physically and the carnal Christian is dead to fruit bearing while alive Spiritually. The only way an unsaved world can see the life we have in Christ is to see the fruit. I’m not very good at looking at a fruit tree and saying, “That is an apple tree.” However, I have absolutely no trouble identifying it once the apples are on the tree. I know an apple when I see it!

Paul is saying that the widow who lives in pleasure in contrast to the widow who continues in supplication night and day is dead to the manifestation of the life she has. In this condition she appears to be the same as the ones around her who are truly dead spiritually and live in the realm of death.

May the Lord help us to live out the life He has given us in Christ and avoid what Paul speaks of when he says, “She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.”

God bless each of you.

In Christ

Bro. White