1 Timothy 3:1-7
1 Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task. 2 Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect. 5 (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?) 6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. 7 He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap.
We are now in the first week of our school holiday break in Victoria. Sometimes, It is good to put a break and spend time with our loved ones especially in our modern culture where both parents are working to meet the financial needs of our family. Moreover, we have to keep and manage the other areas and aspects of the needs of our respective family as well, like our relationship towards one another, the emotional and psychological aspects of our being, and even our communications to each and every member of our family. Putting a balance to all of these, truly needs some hard work to the part of the parents and cooperation with the members of our household especially dealing with our children.
I am not sure whether you may be interested in this devotion as Paul have illustrated to us one who have an aspiration to be one of the overseer in local churches. You may feel not fit to it as we read about the many characteristics he gave to Timothy in his search for one who wants to take such task. In other translations, the overseers are called elders and they are responsible primarily to the leadership and/or an oversight of a local church. An elders, in biblical terminology, can be known as shepherd, overseer, leader, and pastor of local church. And to the Apostle Paul, anyone who wants to aspire in this position of leadership desires a noble task.
As an elder of our local church, I can relate into this kind of description made by Apostle Paul. The need for high standards of different leadership traits and characters were listed for Timothy (and by extension to all Christian churches) in order to guide us with the high expectations of leading the congregation in their spiritual aspects as fellow brethren in Christ. To Paul, it is non-negotiable to appoint an elder that will not reflect Christ in their leadership and in their performance as leader of God's church.
An elder or pastor of a local church needs to perform his duty of care which is a noble task. This noble task includes but not limited to the following:
lead (oversee/steward) the church (1 Timothy 5:17, Titus 1:7, 1 Peter 5:1-2)
teach and preach the Word of God (1 TImothy 3:2, 2 Timothy 4:2, Titus 1:9)
protect the church from false teachers (Acts 20:28-31)
exhort and admonish the saints to sound doctrine (1 TImothy 4:13, 2 Timothy 3:13-17, Titus 1:9)
visit the sick and devote to prayer (James 5:14, Acts 6:4)
and judge the doctrinal issues (Acts 15:6).
Now, if we think we want to become a pastor or an elder, then these listed activities are the minimum tasks you have to perform. Therefore, we have to be thankful to each and every elder of the church who do these tasks diligently and efficiently, whether noticed or unnoticed by the congregation. Such tasks are not easy to perform especially for the volunteering pastors of the local church only (those who do not have full-time paid pastors of the local church). I believe, for the IAFB churches around the globe, this is the conditions of most of the local pastors of the local churches.
But this is not to ask for sympathy and considerations to the failures of your pastors, because this description is warned to the elder before their aspirations to this position of leadership, whether volunteer or paid full-time pastors. Paul listed these attributes which are necessary to perform the duty of care as appointed pastors. These attributes calls for high moral standards such as the following:
above reporach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled
respectable, hospitable, able to teach
not drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarelsome, not a lover of money
he must manage his own family well
his children obey him with dignity or respect
he must not be a recent convert
he must also have a good reputation
These attributes are hard to to see and be observed to all pastors of our generation, but these are the characters that we must long to see in each and every pastor of the local church. And if you are one, we must strive to display this moral standard as an elder.
But for me, I would love to see one who manage their household well and his children abides in him without losing his dignity. Not only that it is a must of the many attributes, it is one that reflects and relates by the Apostle Paul that illustrates the actual leadership approach a pastor will have towards outside of his home.
The personal and private life of a pastor is of high standard which is reflecting towards his public life and ministries. To pastors and elders, no matter how much we boast of our achievement and how good we are in the eyes of the outsiders, if our home and our household are not seeing the same, our profession of being a pastor or elders is just purely external and no possession of it.
Therefore in our devotion, the role of each of us is to pray that our God will bring us one who will lead us with dignity, integrity, and honor both in their personal and public lives. If we have one, let us pray that God will continue to pour out His abounding grace and favour by keeping our anointed pastors or elders who not only do what he is tasked to do but also live as a noble person according to the biblical description whose model and performance of leadership abides and conforms to the image of the Great Good Shepherd for all eternity, our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 TImothy 5:17 - The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching.
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