N.T. Wright is the Bishop of Durham in the Church of England. He is a first-rate biblical scholar and in his commentary states that Paul's use of the little phrase "with absolute purity" clearly ". . . indicates that Paul is aware of a potential problem when the intimacy of pastoral relationships generates sexual attraction. Pastors must be scrupulously careful at this point."

How do you treat the opposite sex? How do you treat persons over whom you have power in the family? In the church? In business relationships? Do you use them for your own personal aggrandizement? I don't mean just in sexual ways. You want to be seen with attractive people, and not seen with people who are not so attractive.

I have a friend who, several years ago, went through a tough first few months at a new job. Several of her co-workers put her down at every opportunity. The job was new to her, was quite complex, and many an evening was spent in tears, looking back over the previous day's slights, put-downs, and even intentional obstacles designed to keep her from succeeding. Her persistence paid off. How was she, then, to treat those who once put her down? Some of them have left. A young woman has recently come on board who is going through some of the same problems she did. How can she help her succeed, sympathizing with her? Can she break the cycle of the put-down climate of competition? She will need to be an enabler. Or is she going to be a mistress of intrigue, a manipulator of power? How important it is to respect the less powerful.

Third, he addresses the way in which we make people invisible.

How important it is to have respect for those who are down in their luck. The Afro-American writer, Ralph Ellison, back in the late 1940s wrote his classic novel, The Invisible Man. In it, he described the way he and other blacks of his era moved through white society as invisible people. We know what he meant. "They all look the same, don't they?" How easy it is to not see people as people, created in the very image of God.

In this case, Paul was addressing the matter of widows who somehow drop off the radar screen. How do we handle women who are now single, no longer married? The cause may be death; the cause may be divorce.

How often I have heard a woman say, "Now that I'm not married, I've been dropped off the invitation list. The couples we used to get together with socially don't invite me anymore. It's almost as if I don't exist."