My wife informed me the other day that there sure are lots
of qualifications! She is right. As I looked at my blog over the last couple of
weeks, I have probably bored most of you (all 12) who read this material. If
so, I apologize. When I started writing the blog again, I decided to let you
journey with me through my quiet time – to share with you what God is sharing with
me in my daily devotions. As I have come to this passage of Scripture, I felt
the importance of this passage for my own life as well as the lives of other pastors,
so I hope that you are sharing these blog posts with your pastors and with your
friends who go to other churches. This is important stuff whether we want to
read it or not. The state of the church today is what it is because we pick and
choose what we want to read when we want to read it. The state of the church
today is what it is because pastors are not meeting the qualifications that the
Apostle Paul laid out for us. The state of the world today is what it is
because the church has become impotent in the face of evil, and that has
happened because we are picking and choosing what Bible passages want to read
when we want to read it. I will admit to you that I don’t like to be under
conviction. None of us do. If we liked it we would continue in our sin so that
we could experience it more. Conviction of the Holy Spirit is designed to make
us miserable so that we will get right with God! So while you might not enjoy
it, be happy that He does it!
Now I want to venture into a dangerous place. Above, I
stated that my wife was right about there being lots of qualifications. And as
I have written about them, it seems that Sonya was right. But in reality, and
this is the dangerous place, she is wrong. There is only one qualification. The
pastor must be blameless. Everything else in this passage, and in my blog
posts, are simply describing what it means to be blameless. That is why Paul summarized
what he had to say in verse 7. The pastor must have a good testimony among
those who are outside. Lost people may not agree with everything he has to say.
They may not like his doctrines and morals. They may not appreciate his
lifestyle. But they must respect his integrity and commitment. It is an
absolute imperative that the world outside of the church see the pastor as
having an unimpeachable reputation. If they do not, the devil can use that to
prevent lost people from believing the gospel, and that defeats our purpose in
being pastors.
But here is the key. Integrity is not pretending to be
perfect. Integrity is having high moral standards AND being honest about our
failures. We all struggle to live by some of these qualifications. Some come easily,
but others are a real struggle. The world needs to see that reality lived out
in our churches because none of us is perfect, but we can be blameless if we
take Paul’s admonitions to heart.
No comments:
Post a Comment