Look at the Book
Revered at Home, Respected in the World: 1 Timothy 3:1–7, Part 5
[music] This is our fifth session on 1 Timothy 3, 1 to 7 as we try to give just brief comments on each of these qualifications for being an overseer in the church, that is, a pastor or an elder in the church. The saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a good work, and since it's a good work, therefore there should be qualifications. An overseer must be above approach. The husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, skilled in teaching. Not a drunkard, not violent, but gentle. Not quarrelsome, and not a lover of money, that's as far as we got last time. So Father, as we walk through the remainder of these qualifications, guide our thinking, and would you raise up this kind of man, this kind of man among our churches so that every church would have its elders who are this kind of human being. It is a rare and beautiful and glorious thing when a church is well led by this kind of person. So help us and use this recording to bring us about, I pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. He must manage his own household well with all dignity, keeping his children in submission, keeping his children submissive. And the reason that's such a big deal is because if someone doesn't know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? So we've commented before that the leadership involved in being an overseer is called management here. This is the same word for a leading over in chapter 5 verse 17. This word and this word lead or stand before or govern his own household. The home is evidently a proving ground for ministry. That's the way it's treated here. And so there's a household of God, there's a household of the small family. And the elder should have submissive children, which I don't think means perfect children. But it does mean they're well disciplined so that they give evidence that their dad knows how to call for obedience and get it. I mean, there's some children who don't obey on the second or third command. And that's an evidence that at home dad's not doing his job. If that's pervasive for all the kids, they just don't do what they're told and they're arrogant with their parents. Dad is probably too lazy at home to do the kind of disciplining that requires obedience. When he might think he'd rather than really matter because nothing's at stake here. I don't have to get up off the couch to leave my TV program to require my son do what I just told him to do. Yes, you do, you have to be disciplined yourself. That's what this managing is. If you're too lazy to require obedience of your children and strike a kind of sense into them that dad is to be revered, then probably you're not ready for the eldership. He should be a loving, responsible, spiritual leader in the home. His wife should be respected and tenderly loved. Their relationship should be openly admirable. That's what the church needs at home from the elders. He must not be a recent convert, why? Or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil and the condemnation of the devil. Here is probably the fact that the devil is condemned for his pride. And so you join the devil in his condemnation or his judgment because pride was the original sin. It's the sin beneath all sins, self assertion, arrogance. And so the implication is that when you become a Christian, there needs to be a period of seasoning. And what you look for in that length of season, it doesn't say how long, is a growing sense of depth of humility in the convert, a protection against conceit. Because evidently Paul says if you put a convert into leadership too quickly, it can go to his head. And if it goes to his head, he begins to boast himself above the other saints and brings himself into the condemnation of the devil. So not a recent convert, use wisdom as to how long there needs to be for a person to prove himself solid and strong and deep and unshakeable in his protection against pride. And then finally, moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace into a snare of the devil. So the condemnation of the devil is warned against here, the snare, probably not too different of the devil is warned against here. Now, what are we to make of this criterion for leadership? Well thought of by outsiders, it's not unlike the reference to above approach here. Although, remember I said this probably refers to the Christian community and how the community views him and this refers now clearly to those outside the church. It doesn't mean that you can't have adversaries outside the church. Jesus had adversaries continually, Paul had adversaries continually. What it seems to mean is that a Christian leader should act and at least meet the standards of decency as the world sees it. Decency, respectability, the standards of the world so that his business associates or his neighbors regard him as an exemplary kind of citizen you might say or colleague at work. They might not like his faith and they might make fun of him for that. And so he wouldn't be well thought of as a Christian so to speak, but rather he would be well thought of as an employee or a citizen or a neighbor. Now what is it then that would cause the absence of that well thought of to bring a person into disgrace and the snare the devil if they were made an elder? So that's what he's wanting. It's don't make a person an elder if outside the church he's not even measuring up to the standards of the world, let alone Christian standards. The people at work say think he's a slacker or the neighbors think he's careless because he doesn't take care of his yard. You can pick the kind of thing that the world would say doesn't even measure up to the ordinary worldly standards and there is prints and around like a leader down at their church. What would be the problem with that to create disgrace and a snare the devil and my guess is I've tried to just put myself in this situation. To serve in the church when the world sees you as a sinner and the world is calling you out for falling short of the world standards and not to mention the Christian standards is going to put the elder in a very defensive position. It's going to tend to make him constantly on the guard and needing to show that he's not what they say he is and that can very easily lead to a kind of self exaltation self preoccupation and pride and there you go. We're now into the snare of the devil with this kind of conceit again because of how hard he's having to work to say I'm not really that way when the world sees him that way. Maybe one more thing needs to be said with regard to this list and that is that there's another list over in Titus in the first chapter. And when you read that list and compare it to this list what you realize is these lists are not exhaustive. In other words, you shouldn't read this list and say, well, there it is. If you do those things you're ready to be an elder. No, not necessarily. For example, in the list in Titus, there is included piety and justice. That's not here and yet it certainly is implicit in this list here. There is respectable and not a new convert, but that's not in the list over in Titus. Does that not matter in Titus? And in neither list, think of this, in neither list, do you have anything about prayer? Do you have anything about not being a gossip? Or do you have anything about not lying? In other words, it's clear these are not exhaustive lists. We're to read this list, measure our candidates for eldership, buy them, and then extend them wherever necessary into other areas so that by implication they provide the necessary guidelines to put in place. Godly, competent, qualified elders. Oh, what a blessing it is to the church when the people take seriously the kind of leaders the Bible calls for. Godly, competent, qualified, and not being a blessing. Godly, competent, qualified, and not being a blessing.
If a man cannot lead his family well and gain the respect of his neighbors, he is not fit for the office of elder.