Elders Must Be Mature & of Good Repute

Transcript

GR 1267
3/7/2004
Elders Must Be Mature and of Good Repute
1 Timothy 3:6,7
Gil Rugh

What a blessing and privilege we have. Just think about it. We take the eternal Word of God and open it up and are privileged to study it together. How we are blessed in these days that each person is privileged to have a copy of the Word of God. We turn to it, we look at it, we read it, we study it and are reminded this is the sovereign God who rules over all speaking to us. And by His grace and through the ministry of His Spirit we are privileged to know and understand His truth.

We're talking about the Church, the body of Christ, the fellowship of God's people in the world today. The Church is comprised of those people who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ alone as their Savior from sin. Now the physical church is much broader than that. The Church has become an organization to which many people belong. But the true Church as revealed in the Word of God is comprised only of those that have come to understand their own sin and guilt before God and to recognize that the Son of God came to this earth to suffer and die and pay the penalty for sin. And it is only by trusting in Him alone is there salvation and forgiveness. And when you do trust in Him, a spiritual transaction occurs that identifies you with Jesus Christ and places you into His spiritual body, the Church.

What Paul is writing about in I Timothy 3 is the leaders that God appoints for His people in local Churches. We've been considering those who are called overseers or elders or pastors. Different names for the same individual. But Paul has been sharing some of the qualifications and responsibilities of men who would serve as elders or pastors in the Church of Jesus Christ. The qualifications have to do with the character and conduct of these men and there were two that dealt with their abilities. One was the ability to teach, at the end of verse 2. A man who would serve as an elder or pastor must have the ability to teach, must know and understand the Word of God and be able to communicate that truth in an understandable way and have a desire to do it. And a second area of responsibility is the area of leadership. So a man who would serve as elder or pastor must demonstrate his ability to lead or manage the people of God. That was covered in verses 4-5. He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity. For if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the Church of God? Involved in managing the people of God, taking care of God's people is compared to ruling or governing your family.

Turn over to I Peter 5. We've looked in this passage on several occasions because Peter is addressing the elders in the Churches he is writing to. And they are in a different area than the Church at Ephesus where Timothy is when Paul writes to him. But note what he says in verse 1, therefore I exhort the elders among you as your fellow elder. Jump down to verse 2, shepherd the flock of God among you. Their responsibility is to shepherd or pastor the flock of God. Exercising oversight, and that's the same basic word we have in I Timothy 3. If anyone desires the office of overseer--now there is exercising oversight. Not under compulsion but voluntarily, according to the will of God. And not for sordid gain, but with eagerness. Nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock. You see the flavor of what he is saying. They are to be pastoring or shepherding God's sheep. They are not to be lording it over them, as though they were the bosses, the dictators, those who run the show. Rather they were to be pouring their lives into these people. They were the leaders, but they were leading in a caring, serving manner. They were demonstrating by their example what the flock was to be.

And there is a special promise given to these elders. When the Chief Shepherd appears you will receive the unfading crown of glory. And that is the compensation. He told them at the end of verse 2 that they weren't to serve for sordid gain; they weren't in it for the money or the material gain. But there would be great reward because in the presence of the Lord of glory there would be a crown of glory bestowed for their faithfulness.

Come back to I Timothy 3. And as you turn back to I Timothy I just want you to note, I find it interesting that when God wants to give an analogy, a metaphor to show what is involved in leading His people, He doesn't go to the business world. He doesn't go to the military realm. We go today to CEOs of successful companies or to somebody who has led in the military in an effective way or another area of that kind of leadership. But God takes us to the simple and ordinary areas, if you will, of leading your family as a godly man or being a shepherd of the sheep. There is a simplicity about this role of responsibility, a warmth that involves the giving of your life. So in our day a person can be the head of a successful company and be admired and have books written about him and interviews given, but be hard and indifferent about the people who work for him because what marks success is his company grows. They make a lot of money. But where God draws us is to the area that involves your life being poured into this. And that is in your family. The example of a shepherd who cares for the sheep--that effective leadership in I Timothy 3 in the home is what demonstrates that a man may then be able to lead among the people of God. That means we are not looking for those who have demonstrated that great leadership ability in the secular world; we're not looking for the movers and shakers. I was looking at the list that they often put out of different Christian organizations and those who were serving on the board of that Christian organization. Looks like they've done it just the way the secular companies of the world do. These are “the movers and shakers” of the Christian world, and they serve on the board. And you may be a mover and a shaker in the secular world, and a godly man that God wants to use as an elder in a church. That's fine. We need to be careful we don't blend the two and make them equivalent. Here God selects out in this list in I Timothy 3 managing your home well. That will show you know how to take care of the Church of God.

There are two qualifications we have yet to look at. We're going to focus our attention on those, and he's going to bring the devil into the picture as well, and a warning regarding him and his activity. Men who would serve as an elder cannot be a new convert, verse 6, and he must have a good reputation in the unbelieving world in verse 7.

Let's look at the first one in verse 6, not a new convert. Only time this word is used in the Greek New Testament, and it literally means not newly planted. And it was used in the secular world literally. If you planted a tree yesterday in your yard you would say it's a newly-planted tree. You could use this word newly-planted. And the idea in the metaphor here is he's not a new convert; he's not a beginner; he hasn't been recently converted. And this is the danger. You know sometimes new Christians come on so strong and some take off like a rocket. They're growing; they're maturing; they have an enthusiasm and a zeal. Everything in their life has become reorganized, and Jesus Christ is first and foremost. They are committed to the Word and learning all they can; they are committed to the ministry of the church that they are a part of. They just want to serve the Lord and be used. It's easy for a church to say, we could use that kind of enthusiasm and that kind of commitment, somebody growing like that on our Board. But that's never God's plan. They have to have time to mature and grow.

Being an elder or a pastor is not a training ground for a new Christian. You hear people say, I think it would be a great opportunity for him to learn and mature. Well elders need to be learning and maturing, but that is not a training ground for new Christians or immature Christians. So he's not to be a new convert. Now what is a new convert? When Paul in Acts 14 went and preached the Word and planted churches he retraced his footsteps and as he went back through the areas where he had planted churches, he appointed elders in those churches. These would be relatively new converts. Well that's true, but there may have been special circumstances involved as well. First let me say, a new convert--he doesn't say he must be a convert ten years; he must have been converted at least twenty years or at least five years. So there is an openness here. I've shared before, when I came to this Church it was much newer, much younger; there were many more new believers. And the work itself was new. Well the demands and expectations and requirements alter over the years. Obviously now we have a larger number of men who have been believers for a long time. Now a new convert might mean, well he has to be saved more than five years to serve as an elder here. Might not be so in a brand new work.

Also, as Paul went and preached in areas, often in those ministries those who were converted were, if you will, Jews who would have been Old Testament saints. For example, in Acts 19 when he went to Ephesus he met some Jews who were followers of John the Baptist. They would have been believers in the Old Testament sense, having believed the revelation that God had given right up through John the Baptist. But they had not understood the completed work of Christ and placed their faith in Him and received the Holy Spirit. So they would have been newly converted in the sense of new to the Church. But they would have had a background in the Word of God and a relationship with God that would have gone beyond that. Be that as it may, it is clear instruction here, not new converts. I take it as the Church is formed the leadership will come not from the newest, but the older converts. When we have established churches in other places the Board of Elders of this Church has maintained its authority as the elders over that work until there were men available of sufficient maturity to be appointed to take the leadership of that Church. That may well be what has happened in Crete where Titus has been left by Paul, to appoint elders in all the Churches. Perhaps there were not men when Paul was there that he was comfortable appointing to that office at that time. We don't know. But here it is clear; he ought not to be a new convert. So we should be looking among those who have been walking with the Lord for some time, and have demonstrated maturity.

The danger to a new convert--it's not good for the Church and it's not good for him either. Now when the Church fails to follow the Word of God, trouble comes. What happens? The Church takes a relatively new convert, an immature Christian and makes him an elder or a pastor. The danger according to verse 6 is, you don't do this because he may become conceited, puffed up. One wrote this, the noun that is translated conceited here comes from the noun for smoke or steam. Thus the underlying idea is bewilderment and confusion arising out of self-conceit. This is one whose head is dazed and turned and therefore the idea includes the idea of folly as well as conceit. A man so deluded is not conscious of his own weakness. So you see the danger. We're all familiar with it. Immature people in a variety of areas, when they are placed into an area of responsibility, but they don't have the maturity to handle it, we say they have a big head. They begin to think more of themselves, more of their abilities. So in the Church conceit sets in, pride sets in.

This is a flaw with the false teachers. Look over in I Timothy 6:3, if anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words and those of our Lord Jesus Christ and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited, understands nothing. There are these false teachers, these confused teachers, these opposing teachers. Pride has taken over. They really don't understand anything properly in the Word, but they are the ones who think they know it all. So there you see false teachers used of those kinds of people. In II Timothy 3:4 also. We want to be careful that we don't set up an immature or young Christian for a disastrous fall, because once their head is swelled, once they are puffed up, then they lose their moorings. Because now they are elders. I'm the one who leads and teaches, I'm not the one who learns. And their conceit becomes the road to ruin.

And so back in I Timothy 3:6, they become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. So Satan is used here. I think he's used as an example. This can be taken one of two ways. Grammatically they call it a subjective on an objective genitive, which simply means as you'll note, you can fall into the condemnation. In our English Bible we have the word incurred placed there. But if you have a note by that word incurred you'll note it says literally of the devil. They fall into the condemnation of the devil. Is this referring to the condemnation that the devil brings to their life, or is it referring to the condemnation that the devil experienced. So he's being used as an example. Either is possible grammatically. Not going to go into the reasons for one or the other, I'm just going to tell you the one that I'm going to follow. Both points are true, the devil does bring condemnation in a certain way upon those who do not follow the Word of God. Even believers become susceptible to his attacks when they are not biblical. I think here in the context the word used for condemnation or judge fits well with the idea it's the judgment that the devil experienced because of his conceit. The wording here is the devil was brought under the judgment of God because he was puffed up and conceited. There's a word of warning when we think that couldn't happen to someone. Pride always puts us in conflict with God. James 4:6 says, God is opposed to the proud. That means anytime a person is swelled up with pride, they are in conflict with God. God is opposed to them. He gives grace to the humble. It's repeated again in I Peter 5:5, comes from Proverbs 3:34.

I want you to go back to the book of Ezekiel 28. I think we have a reference here that carries us beyond the king of Tyre to Satan or Lucifer and gives us some insight into his condition before the fall and what brought about his fall. He had an exalted position, but because of pride he was brought into judgment and condemnation by God. The address is to the king of Tyre in verse 12, but it happens in other places of Scripture, I believe that the Spirit uses this to address the spiritual force behind the king of Tyre and address him directly. Similar to what Christ did with Peter. When Peter made a statement and Jesus said to him, get behind me Satan. That's not just Peter there, but it's Satan using Peter. Well here in verse 12, thus says the Lord God, you have the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God. I take it that carries us beyond the king of Tyre, that carries us to Lucifer, that takes us back to the Garden of Eden and Lucifer was a created being, an angelic being. He was full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Then you have a description of his adornment and the splendor of it. Verse 14, you were the anointed cherub who covers or guards. I placed you there; you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked in the midst of the stones of fire. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created until unrighteousness was found in you. So you have the end of verse 16, and I have destroyed you, oh covering cherub from the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. You turned your attention to yourself, became enthralled with the wonder of your wisdom, the splendor of your beauty, and so you were removed from your exalted position.

Back up to Isaiah 14. Here a similar pattern is followed where Isaiah is being used of the Lord to speak concerning Babylon, but He carries us beyond Babylon to a spirit power behind Babylon and its kings. Verse 12, how have you fallen from heaven, oh star of the morning, son of the dawn. That's what Lucifer is--he's the star of the morning. But you said in your heart, verse 13, and then you have five “I wills” that focus attention on his self-exaltation. I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit on the mount of the assembly; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High. Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol, to the recesses of the pit. Again what happened—conceit, pride, arrogance. Satan created as an exalted being of great wisdom and beauty began to think that he should be equal to God; he should be exalted to the position of God. And it brought the judgment of God upon him.

Now that's the warning given back in I Timothy 3. Just as conceit brought the ruin of Lucifer, so conceit will bring the ruin to one placed in the position of elder who exalts himself and is beset by pride. And if I were in another Church in another place I
would give examples. I will not do that out of discretion, but I've seen it in other churches, you have seen it. It's not uncommon. Men get into a position of honor like this, and being and elder or a pastor is a position of honor. It is a position of authority; it is a position to be respected to be appointed, to lead the people of God and entrusted with their care. And if we're not careful and we put an immature person into this, pretty soon they are taken up with how important they are, how significant their position is. And that leads to their ruin because God is opposed to the proud. And there is no future in being in a battle with God and having Him as your opponent.

Proverbs 16:18 says pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling. Jesus said in Luke 14:11, repeated it in Luke 18:14, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. You see the danger. If you exalt yourself you will be humbled. Pride goes before destruction. One writer put it this way. Pride is a serious matter, for ruinous consequences await the inexperienced, prideful elder. Pride causes the devil's ruin, and like the devil the prideful elder will inevitably fall. He'll experience personal disgrace, loss, exposure, divine chastisement and possible wreck in his faith. We do great disservice to a younger immature Christian by putting him into the position of elder or overseer, pastor. We do great disservice to the Church because in that position, he is in a position not only to do great damage to himself, but to do great damage among the people that he is to be leading and caring for. So he cannot be a new convert, must have demonstrated maturity.

The second qualification that we're looking at, and it completes the list of qualifications for elders, he must have a good reputation with those outside the Church. We have that expression outside used a number of times in the New Testament to refer to those outside the realm of the faith, unbelievers, outside the family of God. We have the words the Church here, outside the Church, because it gives you the idea of what we're talking about. They are not part of the body of Christ. He must have a good reputation among the realm of unbelievers. We can't say, I don't care what the world thinks of him because their opinion doesn't matter. But it does matter; it is important. A man who would be appointed as elder must have a good reputation. The word translated reputation is testimony. He must be respected. Now there are going to be negative comments, slanderous comments and so on, perhaps made because of his testimony for Christ, because of living a holy and godly life in the midst of an unholy, ungodly world. But there should be nothing in his life and conduct among the unbelievers that would bring reproach upon the testimony.

For example if you went and interviewed his boss at work and asked what is his work ethic? Is he a good worker? Well, we've had better, we've had worse. He does what he has to do to get by. So I can't say that we would fire him, but he certainly is not one of the best workers I've had. Don't want that kind of man to be an elder. You talk to people who are around him on the golf course or doing other things. What is his language like? How does he talk? Well, he hits a bad shot and he loses it. That's not the normal pattern, usually he talks okay but sometimes he just can't contain himself and then
he says Well do we want a person who doesn't know how to talk under pressure? So
the unbeliever does observe. Well do we want somebody who doesn't know how to take
care of their finances leading the Church of God and being responsible for the finances of the Church of God? Well we have to garnish his wages. Or we go to a business, no, we wouldn't take a check from him. What would you think, here I am the pastor of the Church and you find out something. There was a rumor one time, I'll share the rumor. Someone came in to see me and said, I have to talk to you. I was talking to someone and they are from a bank and they said that you had been into their bank and applied for a loan and you were turned down for that loan because they said you were on the verge of bankruptcy. And they told me the date I was in that bank, what I was applying to the loan for and the reason I was turned down. It was great, it was an enthralling story. The problem is I had never been in that bank; I had never applied for the loan; and to the best of my knowledge I had never been turned down for a loan in any bank. What if it were true? What would you think if I declared bankruptcy? It's one thing if a disaster comes, I'm overwhelmed with medical bills and so on. But you find out they bought two new cars and a new house, and then he had to declare bankruptcy. He'd make a good elder. I think he loves the Lord. Say no. My reputation out there is important, is it not? So he must have a good reputation without and demonstrated the ability to conduct his life properly.

So we would want to know when we look at a man to be an elder, we might say, does anybody know what he is like at work? Does anybody have any contact with his fellow employees? That's why we, when we are going to consider someone for elder, after we've interviewed him, we present him to you as a congregation. And you have opportunity to respond. We don't have a formal vote on him by the congregation; we have opportunity for you as a congregation to respond because someone might say, I've worked with him for years and this is what I've observed. We understand his reputation out there is this. There are times we have to search out things further to find out if it's just a rumor or it is genuine. He must have a good reputation with those outside, among the unbelievers. Don't want somebody going to be an elder and you say, at work he sort of always hangs around the younger women, and he just flirts with them. I don't know that he's been immoral, but I'm uncomfortable. You know he's married and has kids at home; he seems to want to go to lunch with them, and . . . Do we want this man? That's not a good reputation without. So what the unbelievers think is important. They may say, I don't want to be with him, he doesn't want to go drink with us and run around at night. Not the person I'd want to have as a friend. Is he a good worker? Yes, a very good worker. Does he seem responsible? Yes. Does he sulk when he's told to do something? Oh no he does it with a good attitude. Even when he is told to do something he may not like to do? I've never had a problem. With that kind of stuff he's good. If he wouldn't always want to talk about his Bible when he had an opportunity. Does he do that when he should be doing his job? Oh, no, he doesn't do that. Well, then fine. If the problem is only that he has a testimony for Christ, that's the kind of person we want.

And that's true for all of us. We ought to be concerned about our reputation. I used to keep my lawn cut. I don't care what my lawn looks like. I can drive into my driveway, hit the button, go in and have the door come down and get inside. If the lawn grows to 6 or 6” that's fine, it's natural. If the Lord had wanted it short He would have given short-growing grass or short-growing weeds. I think dandelions are pretty; they bring a little spark of yellow to your green. But my neighbors never thought that, so we went ahead and cut our lawn and put weed killer on it. Fine, because I don't want to have a reputation in the neighborhood, we know who he is, he's the guy who never cuts his lawn. He's the one who the seeds from his weeds are always blowing over into my yard, or whatever. So I want to have a good reputation. So it's more than do you care about your lawn or don't you. Well, that's not the issue. I live in a neighborhood where they care about lawns. I've never been in a place; I grew up on the East Coast and they weren't so fanatical about lawns back there. But out here you people care about lawns. Everybody has nice-looking lawns. I live in a duplex now; they take care of it, so the Lord has provided. But it's part of our reputation, we just have to be sensitive to those things.

All right, he must have a good reputation with those outside the Church. Why?
So he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. The reproach into which he would fall, I take it, would be the condemnation that could be brought to him as people accuse him. He's not a good worker. He's the pastor of that Church, but he's owed me money for months. He's the pastor of that Church, but I heard him tell some jokes that I wouldn't want anybody in my family to hear. Those kinds of things. We've had leaders in visible places that have been shown to have immorality that they've been guilty of. Or they've had financial dishonesty going on. We've had ministries collapse. What happens? Reproach comes, attacks come. They are revealed not to be genuine. Does great damage and that opens the way for the snare of the devil. A snare is a trap, something that takes hold, from which you cannot escape.

Look in II Timothy 2:26. Here we're talking about our attitude in teaching unbelievers and the desire that God, verse 25, will use the truth to grant them repentance and bring them to the knowledge of the truth. Verse 26, that they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will. That's where the unbeliever is. Now when we talk about believers, you know the devil is ready. We've had ministries where men have been guilty of immorality or financial misdealings and it seems like they get away with it. But several years later the truth comes out and the devil springs his trap. Now they are caught. Now they have to lie and be deceitful as they try to protect themselves. Now they are further ensnared. It's like the spider wrapping the kicking insect and the struggling insect further, and the more it struggles the more it gets wrapped and ensnared. So they are ensnared by the devil and thus brought to ruin. Their testimony is ruined; the testimony of the church is marred. We've seen public ministries where men have been found guilty of immorality or financial misdealings. And pretty soon people say, that's the way those professing Christians are. They claim to be so holy and so pure, but they are every bit as bad as any of us and some of them are worse. We say the testimony for Christ is marred, trapped by the devil, and thus used now by him to discredit the testimony for Christ.

One wrote this, using public criticism and the elder's own inconsistencies, the devil will entrap the man into greater and more serious sin, uncontrolled bitterness, angry retaliation, lying, further hypocrisy, and even turning from the faith. These are serious matters. Paul warned the Ephesians when he wrote the letter to them that bears their name, the letter to the Ephesians, in Ephesians 6:11-12 he told them, put on the full armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against principalities, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenlies. These are serious matters. The devil is an example of what can happen to one who is exalted and becomes conceited. And he is now waging relentless warfare against the people of God. Naturally those who come into leadership need to be careful, because the more visible you are in the ministry, the more naturally you'll become the subject of attacks. It's just going to happen because if you discredit those in leadership, you discredit the rest of the ministry.

So we have to be careful in putting men into leadership that there aren't things there or situations that will become a problem or could become a problem. There is nothing wrong with being a new believer, it's wonderful. Nothing wrong with being young in the faith, that's wonderful. It is a disaster to put a new believer or someone young in the faith into a position they are not ready for. We have to be careful. We may say they are very mature for their age. Well, that's a qualification we have to take into consideration. We might say concerning a six-year-old, very mature for a six-year-old. He's more mature than most six-year-olds, others his age. But that doesn't mean I'm going to give him the responsibilities of a 21-year-old. That would be disastrous. Rather than helping him continue to grow, I've set him up for ruin. So we want to be careful of that spiritually. We want to be aware the devil is always prowling about. I Peter 5:8, be sober, be on the alert, your adversary the devil roams about as a prowling lion, seeking someone to devour. That fits the warning we have in verse 7 with a little different metaphor.

Turn over to I Peter 2 as we conclude. There are many verses. I have 15-20 verses I have listed here, but we won't take time to go through them, that give similar warnings. For example, regarding our conduct before outsiders. Look at I Peter 2:12, keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, note, just because you do the right thing doesn't mean they'll give you credit for it. They may slander you even though you are doing the right thing. But even though they do slander you, and the things which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds as they observe them glorify God in the day of visitation. You know all you can do is keep on. I don't want to get sidetracked in coming to my defense too much. There are times when it may be necessary and response is required. I've shared with you an example, someone came and said a rumor was circulating about my almost being bankrupt. What am I going to do? Take a Sunday service and say, I want to put to rest the rumor. That happened years ago. The best thing is, let it go. If I declare bankruptcy, it will be shown to be true. If not, it will just die and something else will replace it. It does. Someone came in, sometimes people like to come and share what they've heard lately. Someone came in to share with me some rumors about me. And I leaned back in my chair with my smugness, and said I just thank the Lord I haven't been accused of immorality. The person sat right up in the chair and said, you haven't heard about these, have you? I said, no, and I'm not going to listen to them. Some things aren’t worth talking about. There are endless numbers of things.

So you may be slandered. Obviously the devil wants to ruin your reputation, he wants to ruin it at work; he wants to ruin it before the world. So you can't do anything about that. All you can do is be careful there is no substance to it. So over time, I mean, they may be bad things, but at work they oughtn't to be able to say he's not a good worker; he never gets his job done; he doesn't carry his share. If you're supposed to be at work at 8 o'clock and you come at 8:15, not because you had a flat tire, but because you just never get there--there are certain things you give substance to.

Look at I Peter 2:15, for such is the will of God, that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. The best defense is a good offense. Do right, do right. They may continue to accuse you of not being a good worker, but continue to be the best worker there could be. I may have to be let go at a job because I just didn't have the ability to get the job done. If I took a job as a computer programmer, I couldn't last. I could work 19 hours a day and read all the manuals. I don't have what it takes to do that job. They're going to have to let me go. I get let go because I just don’t have what it takes to do the job. They might say he worked hard; he did his best; I felt bad for him because he put in more hours than I could ask, but he just didn't have the ability to do the job. At least they testify, I worked as hard as I could with the limited abilities I had. But they shouldn't say, never did find out if he could do the job because he never worked hard enough to get it done. So, do right and put to silence the criticism that comes.

So we're looking at what is required of men who would be elders. They can't be immature Christians, they can't be new converts. That sets them up for a disastrous fall. We all have to be careful of pride, and the most mature Christian is never done with the battle with pride. But we don't want to put young believers in a position where that is a good probability. And secondly, men who would be appointed as elders must have a good reputation before the unbelieving world. They must have demonstrated in their job, I keep using the job because Paul uses that in I Thessalonians 4:12, for example. We don't want to get trapped in the snare of the devil. In I Timothy 6:9 Paul says, but those who want to get rich fall into temptation and the snare, and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. Instructed not to love money because you'll fall into the snare, you'll get trapped. And the devil will spring the trap and that brings ruin. That's a good message for all of us. A man cannot be appointed as elder who hasn't demonstrated the right reputation. Doesn't mean the devil is still not laying traps, but we do what we can and be careful when we appoint leaders that they're not set up for the trap the devil would spring.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your abundant provision for us. Lord, we recognize the Church is the body of Christ; we enter into that fellowship with you and other believers through faith in the finished work of your Son, our Savior. Lord, we recognize that the Church is the pillar and support of the truth, leads the testimony that is given in the world for Jesus Christ today. It leads in the battle with Satan and the world as we proclaim the truth. I pray that we might be careful in appointing men to positions of leadership in this Church and other churches, that we become involved with and responsible for. Lord, we would ask your special blessing and protection for the elders and pastors of this local fellowship, knowing that the devil would desire to mar our testimony, to ensnare and trap us and ruin not only the testimony of individual elders and pastors, but mar the testimony of this Church. Lord, you are our sufficiency, you are our strength. Lord, part of our protection is to live in submission to your Word, live in the power of your Spirit so that You will be honored in every way. We commit ourselves to You to that end. In Christ's name, amen.