Above Reproach

O Lord, as we have just sung, we trust as a prayer to You so now we speak once again that the Word of God would dwell richly in our hearts, in this very hour and from this place, for every hour, so that all may see we triumph only through Your power.  Do a good and mighty work among Your people through the preaching of Your Word.  We pray in Jesus’ name.  Amen.   

Imagine you were brought in to consult a church, a church that was falling on hard times.  Churches do do this sort of thing from time to time.  May not call it a consultant per se, but they bring in someone from the denomination or an expert or a friend or someone from the presbytery and perhaps come in, especially if a church is struggling, and try to give some advice.  Suppose the congregation had an attendance that was declining and giving was down.  The nursery was almost empty.  People were fighting, suspicious of one another.  None of the systems seemed to be working.  There was a sort of malaise and a vibe of mistrust and discouragement and despondency.  The congregation as a whole had a kind of pall over it.

Perhaps you’ve been in churches that have felt like that before.  Perhaps if you go back enough years and a couple of decades, you may remember a season in this church that felt like this.  Most churches, if they live on long enough, have some hard times.  This sort of thing happens, struggling churches bring in someone to come and give them some advice, a leader or a friend.

Now imagine you’re one of those consultants and you do your fact finding and you understand what’s happening and the church needs some revitalization.  What would be your most important areas to address?

Many people might look first of all at the worship service, and certainly it matters how we worship God.  People might say, well, you have to do something to update the music or you need to do something with your presentation.  Or maybe, they don’t do this so much anymore, but it used to be that the secret sauce was to get the church members to be using their spiritual gifts, and everyone needs to take an inventory and find out your gifts.  Or maybe the pastor needs to have better care and more support in his life.  Or maybe there’s something about the building that feels out of date or people don’t know where they’re going or the bathrooms aren’t clean.  Or maybe the church has lost its first love and there’s no interest in outreach. 

All of these things are important, some much more so than others, and you would be right to address any one of those concerns.  But if I were coming in to be a consultant at a church, and thankfully in the Lord’s kindness it’s not the situation we find ourself here in Christ Covenant, but the second thing on my list, probably the first would be is there faithful, spirit-filled, studied, earnest preaching of God’s Word, that would be first, and then second I would want to look at the nature of the church’s leadership.

Now the church’s leadership is not a sufficient condition for church health, but it is, I believe, a necessary condition.  That is, it’s not the only thing.  You could have a very healthy staff, healthy elder board, healthy church leaders, and yet the church for circumstances outside its control could be shrinking or struggling and facing attacks from the outside.  So it is not by itself a sufficient condition, but it is a necessary condition.  Meaning you are very hard-pressed to find a church that is truly healthy that does not have radiating out from its core a healthy leadership culture.

Now it’s Patient possible you may have a growing church.  There are lots of ways, especially in this country, to draw a crowd.  There’s lots of ways to get attention to yourself.  There’s lots of false gospels out there.  But to have truly a healthy congregation, it cannot grow much healthier than the leadership that forms the nucleus of that congregation.

And too often churches look at sort of a last resort, sort of a yes, yes, we’re sure this is fine, and it might even be a kind of butt of some jokes to say about church polity or doing things decently in good order as if that’s ha ha ha, that’s what we expect from Presbyterians.  Yet, sort of like the sound which folks here, Asher and others always do a great job with the sound, but one of the problems with running the sound is nobody notices until something doesn’t work right.  It’s a hard job to have.  Everything works right 99 Sundays and the one Sunday it doesn’t, well, what’s going on?

Well, it can be similar if everything seems to be working right, you hardly notice that there is a healthy leadership culture until something looks very wrong and you realize just how essential it is.

Think about Paul in Acts chapter 20 before he leaves the Ephesian church after being with them for three years.  What does he do?  He gathers together for one last mini retreat session.  He wants to talk to the elders of the church.  We’re in 1 Timothy 3 tonight and you know the pastoral epistles, they’re called that, 1st, 2nd Timothy, Titus.  These three letters that Paul wrote to these pastors over local churches.  His other letters he’s writing to the churches, but here he’s writing to the pastors of the churches and in each one of them there are concerns, or at least Paul is concerned to address, the leadership of the church.

Now very explicitly in this text, explicitly in Titus chapter 1, and by implication in 2 Timothy, he is talking about the sort of faith and maturity that Timothy is to exemplify and then to pass on to others.  We see just how essential it is that the Church is led by good faithful leaders, and in particular that means the two offices of the church, elders and deacons.  Next week we’ll come to deacons, tonight we’re looking at the office of elders.

So follow along as I read 1 Timothy chapter 3.

“The saying is trustworthy:  If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.  Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.  He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church?  He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.  Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.”

I’ve three questions for us tonight about eldership in the church.

Number one.  Why do elders matter? 

Number two.  What do elders do?

And number three.  How should elders live?

Number one.  Why do elders matter?

The short answer is this:  God designed the Church to be led by, fed by, and cared for by the elders.

Eldership is rooted in the Old Testament.  The word “elder” or “elders” shows up almost 200 times in the Bible, over half of those are in the Old Testament.  We think of it as a New Testament office, but it was there clearly in the Old Testament.  The phrase “elders of Israel” occur over 30 times.  To be an elder in Israel, and they were always men, to be an elder was probably not an entirely well-defined office but was a group of men who formed a nucleus of leadership for God’s people.  It was at that time different than the prophets, the priests, or the king.  There was the local level, the office of elder.

We read Numbers 11, verse 16 – The Lord said to Moses, “Bring Me 70 of Israel’s elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people.”  So there I want you to find the elders, these are people with demonstrated leadership.

Deuteronomy 27:1 –  Moses and all the elders of Israel commanded the people, “Keep all the commands I’ve given you today.”

Deuteronomy 33:20 or 31:28 – A symbol before me, all the elders of your tribes and your officials.

That language probably passes by without any recognition, and yet it’s there frequently in the Old Testament, that it’s not just Moses doing the work but the elders.

There were elders in Moses’ day, elders during Joshua’s rule.  We saw that this morning.  During the united monarchy, during the kings, after the exile, during the prophets.  For example, Joel 1:14 – declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly, summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the Lord your God.

And there were still elders ruling in Judea and Jerusalem at the time of Jesus.  Now they often are not doing things right, but it’s important to note their presence.  Matthew 27:1 – early in the morning all the chief priests and the elders of the people came to the decision to put Jesus to death.

Now bad elders at that moment, but you notice they have an eldership.  The point is, and that’s just a very quick overview, all throughout the Old Testament and then into the New Testament, there is assumed that in leadership among God’s people are these men called elders.  They were recognized leaders in the city, or in the community or the tribe or the clan or the congregation, and so it makes sense that the Church growing up as it did out of Jewish soil would, without even needing instruction, should have known, well, of course, just like we had throughout our history, just like we had in the synagogue, just like we have in Jerusalem, we are going to have in the Church elders.

Philippians 1.  Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons.

There were elders in the Jerusalem church.  Acts 15:2 – Paul and Barnabas were appointed along with some other believers to go up to Jerusalem to see, note this, the apostles and elders about this question.

That tells you something about the central importance of this office of eldership.  You would think you still have living apostles, just go up to Jerusalem and ask the apostles.  They walked with Jesus.  But no, you’re going to go up there and you have the apostles who are exercising a unique authority as witnesses of Christ, with Him, saw the resurrected Christ, and the elders.

So for a time in the early church you have apostolic leadership and you have elder leadership existing together.  The apostolic leadership is going to fall away as that generation dies and the apostolic testimony is recorded for us in Holy Scripture, and what you have then are the elders.  But in this intervening time you have both apostles and elders.

They were there, this is significant, not just in Jerusalem.  You might think, well, that’s just part of the Jewish roots, but they were there among the diaspora.  James 5:14 – Is any one of you sick?  He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord.

And then in 1 Peter 5, as he’s writing to the churches in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, region around what today is Turkey.  He says, 1 Peter 5:1, “To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder.”  And just parentheses there, it’s instructive to read that Peter doesn’t liken himself to be a supreme Roman pontiff, but he says, “an elder like you’re an elder.”  If Peter was supposed to understand from the Lord Jesus that he was supposed to be the Pope of this church, you think he might have addressed the elders differently.  He says, “No, you know what I am?  I’m an elder.  I have no more authority than you do.  To you elders as a fellow elder.”

What we see, in other words, is that from the very beginning wherever the Church went, there were elders.  And it’s telling just how matter of fact this is.  It’s not like they need to make a great argument, that this is something new.  Sometimes, and I know that many of my friends, many good Baptist friends, I know, it sounds like a support group, some of my best friends are Baptist, but I do love my Baptist friends and some of them would tell you they have had the hard work over the years of teaching their congregation the importance of elders, because many churches, Free churches, Baptist churches, over time will just have deacons or they’ll just have one single pastor, and they think, “You know who has elders?  Presbyterians.  Presbyterians have elders.  That’s a Presbyterian thing.”  But it is obviously, first of all, a biblical thing.

So notice how matter of fact it is.  No one has to say, “Now I need to make an elaborate argument to convince you of elders.”  That’s how we do things.

Notice the other matter of fact reality.  In all these places, we are talking about a plurality of leadership.  So sure, the pastor, or in this case the senior pastor, the book of church order, says he is, unless he designates somebody else, he is the moderator of the session.  So I get to lead meetings.  It’s not as exciting as it sounds.  But I am an elder with all the other ruling elders and teaching elders of this church.  And though I may have a certain kind of authority by being the one who gets to preach here most often, if there is a vote, my vote doesn’t count for 20, it counts for one, just like everyone else on the session.  We see here the plurality of leadership.  It’s never meant to be a one-man show, it is never meant to be one person at the top of the food chain and everyone else just supports them and it’s just a giant spiritual pyramid scheme.

Paul says this is part of what it means to put things in order.  That’s what he tells Titus in similar instructions.

In Acts chapter 14 we see that eldership is an essential part of Paul’s mission.  The three-legged stool of missionary work, Paul says in Acts 14, that he bore witness to the Gospel and discipled new believers, he strengthened the souls of existing believers, and he appointed elders in every city.  He planted churches and the planting of churches necessitates the appointing and the electing of elders.

So we see throughout the Bible the absolute importance.  Don’t think that church polity is somehow a lesser consideration.  The Reformers understood that part of having a Reformed church was Reformed in theology, Reformed in worship, and Reformed in its church government.  All three of those things are essential.

And though there are certain elements for sure of church government that are not spelled out in great detail, and allows us to have some measure of flexibility, yet these specifics are given to us by God Himself, and right at the heart of it is the eldership.

That’s number one.

Number two.  What do elders do?

Here we’ll direct our attention to two parts in particular from this text.  I’ve had my kids, this was years ago, but one of them when they were younger and I had an elders meeting as I often do, said, “What?  You have an elders meeting?  Are those those men that you get together with and have meetings?”  Well, very astute.  Yes, that is part of what we do, but it is not mainly just coming together for meetings.  To be an elder of the church is not some badge of honor to wear because you have made a certain contribution to the community and you are considered to be an upstanding citizen and you have a fine business.  That’s how it functions in some good ol’ boy networks.  It does not mean you are the trustees of the corporation, though perhaps it does in some formal government document.  To be an elder is more than wearing a suit and being able to distribute the bread and the juice, though that is a holy aspect of serving in the Lord’s Church.

When we think about what elders do, I want you to think about two things in particular.  Number one, and we see this in verse 1, they are overseers.  Overseers.

You may have had this explained to you before, but it will just take a paragraph to make sure you’re reminded of it again.  This word, the office of overseer, I’m going to give you some Greek but these are Greek words you can all understand.  This Greek word is the word episkopos.  You hear our English word episcopal, or episcopalian.  So an episcopalian system of government like the Anglican Church has or the Catholic Church has, is a rule by bishops so that there is an office above the pastor or elder that is the office of bishop and the bishop has certain powers of appointment and discipline over those other offices.  Some point to a text like this, because it is a different word.  It is episkopos.  

The argument, however, for seeing this as elders, you may say, “Why are we talking about elders?  The word elder isn’t mentioned.”  That’s true.  And yet we have good reason to see that this is a synonym for the word “elder.”  The word translated “elder” is the word “presbuteros.”  Ah, that sounds like a nice word.  That’s where we get our term “presbyterian,” which means rule by elders.

Then there is another word, a Greek word, poimen, which can be translated “to shepherd” or “to pastor.” 

So I want you to have these words; episkopos, presbuteros, and then in the verb form poimen, to shepherd or to pastor.  These three terms are used interchangeably when Paul addresses the Ephesian elders in Acts chapter 20.  And Acts 20, verse 17 says Paul calls for the Ephesian elders.  The Greek word is presbuteros.  So just think in your mind he is talking to the presbuteroi, these men in front of him are presbyters.

Then talking to the presbyters in Acts 20:28, he commands them to keep watch over the flock as episkopos (overseers, it’s translated), and to pastor, poimen, the church of God.  He’s talking to the presbuteros, he calls them episkopos, he tells them to poimen.  He uses the three terms, overseer, elder, pastor, interchangeably there in Acts chapter 20.  That’s the classic text and it’s an important one that shows us that these terms can be used interchangeably.

So that’s why we don’t understand 1 Timothy 3:1 as giving us a separate office of bishop.  We may have friends, for example, in the Anglican church and benefit from many Anglican writers and pastors over the years, but I would disagree with my friends on this important issue and see that the episkopos and the presbuteros are referring to the same type of man and the same office.

1 Peter 5 – elders are told to shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight.  So the first thing that elders do is they are overseers.  They exercise oversight.

Think of what we already read, Clay read for us, from Hebrews 13.  They keep watch over your souls.  So they are men who do have authority.  It is authority that they wield on behalf of God that they might shepherd the flock of God underneath the care of the Good Shepherd.  Stewards is a word used in Titus.  Elders are overseers who wield authority that they might care for the flock of God.

One scholar who’s does a deep study on the biblical imagery of shepherds, Timothy Laniak.  I’m not sure if he is anymore, he used to be at Gordon-Conwell here in Charlotte, but he says when you look at shepherds in the Old Testament, what they did was the subtle blend of authority and care, authority and care.  To shepherd the flock of God is not simply to be a good listener and ask nice questions and be there with a pat on the back, though we may do that, and it’s not to have dominion over people and lord things over people, but it is the subtle blend of authority and care.

So the elder is someone we see here who exercises oversight in the church.

Then the second thing that marks the work of the elder is that he is a teacher.

You’ve heard it said before, it’s worth reminding you, that of all of these qualifications, only one has to do with a skill.  The rest are virtues, are aspects of maturity.  There’s only one skill or gifting that the pastor or the elder must have.  You see it there at the end of verse 2 – he must be able to teach, apt to teach.  Now this does not mean that any elder must be the smartest guy in every room, must be the most well-read, the most bookish, or even that the elder must all be comfortable to stand up in front of a group of people like this.  There are different ways that one can be “apt to teach.” 

But it does mean that the man who is to serve as an elder must have a firm grasp of Christian doctrine, he must not be easily duped by new ideas, he must be able to see nuance, have discernment.  He must be able to hold complex ideas together at the same time.  God is sovereign; humans are responsible.  We are justified by faith alone and the faith that justifies is never alone.  He must understand Christ’s full divinity and humanity.

Some among these teachers will specialize in teaching and preaching.  Glance over the page to 1 Timothy 5:17, “let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.”  You may say, “Where do we this idea that we hear about in the Presbyterian church of ruling elders and teaching elders?”  Well, it’s this verse in particular all the, 1 Timothy 5:17, that comes the closest to identifying those two different kinds of elders.

Now there’s a debate among many Reformed Christians about whether there are two offices or three offices or John Calvin just to make things confusing believed in four offices in the Church.  He had elders, deacons, pastors, and then doctors of theology.  Most Reformed churches, and say the Dutch Reformed tradition, will have elders, deacons, and pastors.  The Presbyterian tradition tend to have two offices, elder and deacon, and the elders are teaching elders and ruling elders, and by tradition usually call those teaching elders pastors.

So it doesn’t net out all that differently, but there are a few places in the Church’s polity where it does make a difference.

But we see here some warrant for that twofold description of the office of elder, that every elder must be able to teach, 1 Timothy 5:17, there’s going to be some of those elders who especially what they do.  So I think I’m a 1 Timothy 5:17, I especially am laboring in preaching and teaching, along with all the elders apt to teach but some will do it in a public way and it will be the very heart of their ministry.

So two basic functions.  They are shepherds, exercising authority, care, oversight, and they are teachers.  Calvin said a pastor needs two voices, I like this, one for gathering the sheep, and the other for driving away the wolves.  A good shepherd has both.  You don’t want a shepherd who just is always barking at wolves and he doesn’t care for the sheep.  But what kind of shepherd can only talk in very soft dulcet tones as if it’s all sheep and there’s never any danger?

So the elder is one who exercises oversight and he is a teacher.

Now third question, and this is what this passage deals with most:  How should elders live?

Look first of all at the basic requirement, and I know in talking to Nathan this is what he wanted to emphasize and rightly so.  You see it there in verse 2.  If there is to be a title page, I think it’s right there – an overseer must be above reproach.  Above reproach.

Now that does not mean that an elder or a minister might not have people who make false accusations against him.  Think of Jesus.  People said, “Well, He’s a glutton and a drunkard.”  There were all sorts of people who wanted to kill Paul.  So above reproach, or later when it says “good reputation with outsiders,” surely this doesn’t mean that nobody in the world thinks anything bad about you.  The elder has to have a 100% approval rating with everyone who’s ever met him.  Well, that’s not a standard that Jesus passed, or Paul.  They had lots of people.

So surely this means something like there is nothing legitimate against him.  Now maybe that sounds to put it too soft.  We could think of “above reproach” like this.  To be above reproach means that even if there were accusations lodged against us, that they would seem very out of place for those who know us best.

We saw with the sin of Achan this morning people could be fooled, but it ought to be the people who know us best rather than saying, “Well, I gotta admit to you, I could imagine that.”  They say, “No, that brother lives a life above reproach.”  Or to put it in a different gloss, you could say, “Are you the sort of person that looks better the closer people look at your life?”  We all can probably think of some people that once we really got to know them, we were a bit disappointed.  We built them up and when we really got to see what they were like, we realized that it was a bit of a charade, or it was a bit of an empty suit, and we can all think of people that the closer you got, yes, you saw faults, you’re going to see that with any elder in this church, but hopefully you would see then repentance and faith and humility in the face of their sin and their faults.

The elders has a public role and therefore he must be the sort of person who provides the church with a good public image.  Again, we understand how this could be abused, and some people will have all sorts of negative attacks against them.  It takes wisdom here.  Yet, we do not want to water down what this means, that the overseer must be above reproach.  That generally, for fair-minded people, you would hear about this brother and you would think, “Yeah, that’s somebody I could follow.”  That’s somebody, if you go and you were to look in at his life, that would be a good model for others.  That’s sort of the baseline requirement for elders.  You think to yourself if you had a new believer and they said, “What does it mean to been a Christian?” you could say, “I want you to follow around the elders for a while and you’ll get a really good idea of what it means to be a mature Christian.” 

Now some of the elders are saying, “Please don’t follow me around for a while.”  And that may be just a mark of some genuine humility, you’re aware of your temptations and sins and none of us wants to be completely exposed.  Yet, brothers, it should be the case the closer people looked at us they would see the way we treat our wives, the way we treat our kids, and the way we apologize to our wives and our kids when we sin against them.  They would see a good model, above reproach.

So that’s the banner over this.

Then we can look at the qualities as they relate to family life.  So first verse 2, the husband of one wife, or you could translate it a one-woman man.  It may not be that he is married but normally he will be because the family life is a training ground and a proving ground for life in the church.  So he’s not a polygamist, he’s not a flirt, he’s not a philanderer. 

He must, verse 4 says, manage his own household well.  Part of what this means later in verse 4, keeping his children submissive.  Now lest you think, “Well, I had a child once who ran around the church lobby.”  Well, welcome to my world.  We’re not talking about children being children.  We’re not even talking about what happens when your child is 25 and decides to walk away from the faith, heaven forbid.  Or even what happens as your child as a teenager goes through all those growing pains and makes some bad decisions.  You talk to your son or daughter and you work with them and they listen to you.  Almost everyone in this room could tell stories of pain that we’ve had related to our children.

But let’s not neuter this requirement all that it means.  Children are submissive.  So thinking of children, as they are under your care, as they are in your household, that they listen to you, that they are not characterized by rank immorality and rebellious ness, that there is a respect, especially the younger that they are.  As they grow up and they make decisions on their own we have less authority to demand and control.  Yet there must be with children in our home a measure of respect and submissiveness.

The point is given to us in verse 5 – if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s Church, lesser to greater.  You’ve got a family, and even if you’ve got a bazillion kids, it’s probably not bigger than the Church family, so if you haven’t found a way to manage your own household, you don’t have spiritual faithfulness, you’re not setting a good example with your own private life and bringing to worship.  If you can’t manage your own household, why would people say, “Oh, yeah, that brother, his household’s a complete wreck.  Why don’t we put him in charge of the household of God?”

Here’s what John Chrysostom, a Church father, says:  We should observe what care the elder bestows upon children, for he who cannot be the instructor of his own children, how should he be the teacher of others?  If he cannot keep in order those whom he has had with him from the beginning whom he has brought up, over whom he had power both by laws and by nature, how will he be able to benefit those without those things?  But if, listen to this, men, if occupied in the pursuit of wealth he has made his children a secondary concern and not bestowed much care on them, he is unworthy for this office.  For if when nature prompted he was so void of affection or so senseless that he thought more of his wealth than of his children, how should he be raised to the episcopal throne and to great rule, for if he was unable to restrain them it is a great proof of his weakness.  And if he was unconcerned his wont of affection is much to be blamed.  He then that neglects his own children, how shall he take care of other men’s children? 

Searching words from Chrysostom.  I wonder if someone says, “But, John, you never were married and had children.”  Might be a fair response, but he saw with good insight what this text was demanding of those of us who would aspire to the office of overseer.

So above reproach, then the family life.  Go back to verse 2.  He quickly rattles off four virtues that we must cultivate – sober-minded.  So brothers, is your head screwed on straight?

Here’s one of the things I think about good elders.  I want to know that if there’s an explosive situation in the church, there’s a difficult, it’s combustible, there’s dry tinder about to be set ablaze, some relationship, some committee.  There’s a big misunderstanding.  I want to know if I send this elder into a combustible situation, is he liable to light a match or to blow out the smoke?  Is he going to make a dangerous situation better or does he go into small situations ready to set them ablaze?  Sober-minded.

Now let me remind you that what you say online also counts.  No free pass.  Online, that’s a different me.  No, that’s you.

Self-control.  This is usually a word relative to sexual appetites, but it can be any sort of sensual appetites.  There is a measure of control.

Respectable.  The elder ought to have a certain gravitas.  It doesn’t mean a personality type or he must be somber all the time, but there’s a sense of respectability.

Then don’t miss that he is hospitable.  Hospitable to visitors, to travelers.  That you think of your home as an avenue for ministry.  This looks different for different people.  For some it might be very formally, you invite them over, there’s a date on the calendar three weeks from now and they come over and you make a lavish meal together with your wife and you set out the nice plates and you sit them down and it’s very formal.  Or it might be paper plates and soup or pizza or Jimmy John’s or come over and just see the chaos that is our life, but we’d love to have you here.  There will be seasons, depending upon your availability, with the age of your children.

Yet the elder must be one, here’s the idea, he’s not closed off.  He must be open to others.  Even if by nature you’re an introvert, most pastors are actually introverts.  Whenever I ask my pastoral ministry class, it’s 2:1 introverts versus extroverts.  Even if you’re more comfortable with your books, I love books, they don’t talk back to me.  It’s all in the, I just go and live in the past that you don’t have to deal with.  Even if you love that, are you open, you want people in your life.  That’s the elder.

Then he rattles off in verse 3 four temptations to avoid.  You’re not a drunkard, you’re not violent, you’re not marked by an explosive anger.  Look, brothers, we must always lead, let’s try soft first.  There are some guys who just go in with fisticuffs first and they think that’s what it means to be manly.  Manliness is strength under control.

Paul says I will come with you gently.  If you want me to come with a whip, I can do a whip, but that’s not what I want to do.  I want to win you over as softly and gently as I can.

The elder must not be quarrelsome.  If you’re going to be engaged in any kind of ministry, you’re going to work with difficult people who are disagreeable and you’re going to work with good people who simply disagree with you.  You can’t take everything personally.  You cannot be the sort of person who likes to argue just to argue.

And you must not be a lover of money.  Paul says elsewhere it’s not wrong for the pastor to be supported, those who work in the Gospel, to be supported by that work, but if you’re motivated by it, you’re liable to twist the message, or to cast an eye upon the credibility of the ministry.  No one should be able to say about any elder or pastor in the Church, “That guy’s life, I know he does this ministry thing, but what motivates him is getting more things and making more money.”

Then notice in verses 6 and 7, two final warnings.  Interesting that the two final instructions have the word “fall” in them.  Too often these days we hear of public ministries and ministers who have fallen into sin and here we have the word twice, in verse 6 and verse 7.  Trying to speak that the overseer might not be one who falls.  Interestingly, he doesn’t talk about sexual sin, though that’s the one that we usually hear about, and it could be related to these, but verse 6 you’re not to be a recent convert, and I think verse 7 you’re not to be a questionable convert.

Here’s what I mean, verse 6:  He must not be a recent convert or, look at the progression, he becomes puffed up with conceit, he falls into the condemnation of the devil.  He says if you’ve not been tested, if you don’t have a few lumps, you’ve just, you’re just moving through the ranks of Christendom, you had a great conversion and you did some great Bible studies in college and you’re a Christian and you’re on fire and that’s wonderful, and then maybe you even did some seminary classes and you got a degree, but you’re a very new convert, you can be puffed up.  You’re so vain I bet you think this ministry is about you.

Let me say, it’s mostly Americans here, we can learn something from our British brothers and sisters who tend to undersell what they are doing, undersell what they’ve accomplished.  If you’ve got something to be tooted, let somebody else blow your horn, not yourself. 

You end up puffed up, condemned by the devil.  Not a recent convert and then verse 7, he must be, now this is strange, he must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.  That’s so that, that purpose clause, doesn’t it seem strange?  What’s the connection?

Well thought of so he doesn’t fall into disgrace.  Well, this is the connection, I think.  Verse 6 says he must not be a recent convert and verse 7 is not a questionable convert.  That is, not someone who just can talk a big game.  That’s why it has this point here, well thought of by outsiders.

Again, it takes wisdom to understand this.  You might say, “Well, Jesus said that the world will hate you.”  That’s true.  The world, represented as the worldly system of the world’s values, will hate you.  But that doesn’t mean every last person in the world should hate your guts.  Some brothers think, “Well, ain’t nobody like me, I must be faithful, and if somebody likes you, especially a non-Christian, you must be a sell-out.”

Not every person in the world is worldly in the same way.  You see this elsewhere in the New Testament, that there are people who will see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us, that even unregenerate people can see good deeds and the connection there is some will see, “Wow, this person, they were living such a good life that it made me think twice about this Gospel message,” and eventually they become converted and they glorify God on the day He visits us.  

Or the language to Titus about our good works adorn the Gospel.  How do good works adorn the Gospel except that there’s an awareness that some non-Christians will look and they still have a, by common grace, a moral compass and they will see, well, look at what those believers do.  I don’t like what they stand for, I don’t like what they believe about marriage, I don’t like what they teach about predestination (if they’ve heard of that thing), but I have to say the way they live their life makes me stand up and notice.

If someone were to ask about you, what would they find out?  There are some men who get into ministry, eldership, pastoring, and I believe there’s those around them scratching their heads, saying if you would have asked me, his neighbor, if you would have talked to the man’s wife, if you would have talked to his boss, if you would have talked to his teammates, if you would have talked to the people who worked for him, they would have told you what this man was really like.  That’s what verse 7 is trying to avoid.  The person who was given a position of authority but if you would have asked, others outside the church even knew he was a fake and he ends up a disgrace to himself and to the ministry and then ensnared by the devil.

Ministry is a trap for people who are not yet ready for it.  It is a trap for people who over time practice a duplicitous, hypocritical life, deceiving others, and most dangerously of all, even deceiving themselves.

So notice, in closing, the focus here is not on spiritual gifts except for maybe one gift/skill, the teaching.  It’s not on your credentials, your education, though we rightly in the Reformed tradition want man who are well-equipped with doctrine.  There’s no requirement that you have money or come from a prominent family, or that you have a great job, though it’s often the case that these virtues and maturity lead to success in other areas of life.

I want to give you this as closing application.  Elders, elders in this room, pay attention to your character.  What would your evaluation consist of if somehow we could have a frank interview with your wife, your kids, your friends, your coworkers?  If there were false allegations against you, would you immediately think, “Well, please don’t talk to those people,” or would you think, “You know what?  I would love for you to talk to my wife.  I’d love for you to talk to my kids.  I’d love for you to talk to my friends.” 

Men, do you have any friends?  Talk to my coworkers and they will tell you.  Elders, focus on your character.  Men in this church, consider might you aspire to the office of overseer?  Perhaps you’re not ready for it now, you’re a recent convert, but if you desire to be an elder, whether a ruling elder or vocationally a teaching elder, verse 1 tells us you desire a noble task.  Pray on it, talk to those who are already elders, seek preparation.  We need to constantly be training up new men that they might serve in these ways.

Congregation, pray for your elders, ruling elders, teaching elders.  Follow them as they follow the Lord.  And dare I say that you ought to give thanks for them because it is my informed conviction, very informed, that we have very good men serving at this church.  I have enough friends in ministry to hear horror stories of serving for elders who can’t get along, elders who are constantly needling the pastor, in some scenarios elders who are clearly not even regenerate men.  We don’t have anything like that here.  Give thanks for the very good men who give of their time to serve this flock.

Then to all of us, we’d be remiss if we were not exhorted to look upon the chief shepherd, the One who forgives us for all our failings, the one who can lead us in green pastures, the One who can cultivate in our lives, in our families, in our ministries, these very characteristics that we see exemplified perfectly only in the Lord Jesus Christ.  As we follow Him, we ask that the Church of God would follow those under shepherds who led in His name.    

Let’s pray.  Gracious heavenly Father, thank You for the men You have entrusted here to lead in this congregation.  Pray, we pray earnestly, that they, we, myself, would keep a close watch on our life and our doctrine.  We pray in Jesus’ name.  Amen.