Recognizing Biblical Pastors and Pastoring (7 of 8)
Seven More Character Qualifiers For Pastors
(Children's Sheet for Sermon Interaction is at bottom. Notes are throughout sermon)Pastor Kerry Kinchen, Bridgeway Bible Church
Please turn to 1 Timothy 3:2, and Titus 1:8, in your Bibles. 1 Timothy 3:2, and Titus 1:8 will be our primary passages of interest this morning. As you are turning there, I will remind us that we are going through the qualifications for elders that are found in 1 Timothy and Titus. I also want to explain that it is important to recognize that the qualification lists are not meant to be exhaustive. The list in 1 Timothy is not exactly the same as the one in Titus. There are about a dozen or so qualifications indicated in 1 Timothy. There are about 18 listed in Titus. There is also some overlap. One list lacks some things found in the other one. The other one has some extras. In Titus, Paul mentions being just or fair. Paul also mentions being holy. 1 Timothy does not. In 1 Timothy, Paul states that the elder must not be a new convert, and, he must be a respectable man. Neither of these are in Titus. There are also some other important considerations. For example, crucial character traits are absent in both. Neither epistle mentions things like whether elders should be men of prayer. Neither one explicitly forbids itemized things like being a liar or a gossip, etc. This implies that Paul, led by the Spirit, never meant for the lists to be an exhaustive Mosaic Law like inventory. Evidently Paul expects his readers to take numerous Christian character virtues for granted. This gives us a reason to recognize that these are general guidelines that require wisdom to discern. Grace is also required. We analyze them knowing that without grace, we can scrutinize until we can find fault in anyone. Keeping these things in mind, I want us to continue to look at seven more qualifiers concerning elders. Please read along with me,
"2 An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, ..." 1 Timothy 3:2
In Titus we read that he must be,
"hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, just, holy [devout in a sense of piety], self-controlled," Titus 1:8
Please prepare your heart to learn, along with me, in this sermon,
Recognizing Biblical Pastors and Pastoring (7 of 8)
"Seven More Character Qualifiers For Pastors"
[Prayer]
As we proceed through the listed qualifications for recognizing biblical pastors and pastoring,
/1/
the next qualification is that the man must be sensible, also translated as prudent, reasonable, and sober-minded. This word is used two other times in the New Testament. Both places are also in Titus. In Titus 2:2, older aged men are instructed to be sensible; prudent. In Titus 2:5 younger aged woman are instructed to be the same. We can trace the relationship of this word (sophrona in the Greek) to the Greek word sophroneo which means to be of a sound mind. The demoniac who was healed by Jesus in Mark 5:15 became this word after being healed. Initially he was out of his mind. He was unstable. Then he became of sound mind. The basic sense of the word is to be having good judgment by thinking properly. Think about how this must apply to an elder. A man who desires to be an elder must have the ability to recognize things as they really are. He must have a mind to make reasonable determinations about things that are hard to comprehend or discern. This is the sense of what Paul meant in Romans,
"I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment ..." Romans 12:3
Peter urged,
"The end of all things is near; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober in spirit for the purpose of prayer." 1 Peter 4:7
One way to get a handle on this qualification is to think of a man whose own thinking generally makes sense. It does not mean that his thinking is flawless, but it does mean that he is generally a man who thinks logically. This is important because an elder must not be irrational. This is especially true in respect to spiritual things. Let's consider how important this is in our day with so much fuzzy thinking going on in the church, especially in the over-mystified trends that have permeated so many churches in the last few generations. One of the problems this trend has fostered is that there are Christians who think that faith and doctrine are somehow supposed to be held in the realm of the irrational. They act like there is another place where logic, and clear thinking, is supposed to exist. They act like "that" realm is supposed to be non-spiritual. Then over in another place somewhere (usually called whatever their own brand of Christianity happens to be) there is this nebulous spiritual realm where faith and doctrine are mystical things that don't really need to make sense. In fact, they believe that if you try to scrutinize it, or analyze it, or come to rational conclusions that differ from theirs because you want to be sensible, then you are the one being un-spiritual; or supposedly less spiritual than they are. There are a lot of pastors who tend toward this philosophy. In my early years of Christianity, I was in all kinds of church movements that claim certain kinds of baptisms in, and fillings of, the Spirit in such a manner that mysticism is the standard. I have seen the sour fruit of manipulation, false prophecies, false words-of-knowledge, false discernments, false doctrines, and authentic confusion in the trend to make a sound mind into a pseudo-spiritualized-mind. This is unfortunate because faith and doctrine are designed by our spiritual God to be rational. The rationality is intentionally laid out by the rational Holy Spirit in God's rational word. Paul the apostle, who by definition, was a truly spiritual man, used logic and rationality in his spiritual approach to life. It is a dangerous thing to see a spiritual shepherd display irrational thinking processes, and then later on claim that it was all some mystical leading of the Spirit that compelled him to do what he did. I know one such man like this who operates as a so-called pastor. What does he do? He disciples people with his end times views that the world is about to come to an end because God has judged the current church as apostate. He says that the Lord showed Him this. I remember that the man had also decided that the Lord told him to marry a certain woman. He shared this with her. She told him that God told her that she was to marry him too. So they married. I remember that they were married for a couple of years. Then all of a sudden, the man decided that God told Him that it was now time to divorce his wife. She was a faithful, loving, exemplary example of what a wife should be. He actually told me that she was an amazing wife. I was shocked. I wondered what the reason was for such a horrible thing. He said that God told him that he should divorce her because God is divorcing the church. He claimed that what he was doing was some kind of prophetic statement ordained by God. I rebuked him for his extra-biblical contrivance. I told him that God clearly dictates His will for marriage in His scriptures. I also told him that God will never, ever, divorce from His bride that He makes spotless in His own work in Her. The man answered me with that nebulous catch all phrase that I've heard hundreds of times. Maybe you have heard the same kind of answer too. It is meant to put an end to spiritually rational faith. He simply said that God told him to do it. How many of you realize that when someone makes this kind of claim, they have essentially turned and walked away from you? I've seen it hundreds of times. It's like they just put their fingers in their ears while putting you out the door. He was no different. He assumed that the case was settled. Now I want us to consider a profound irony in this. Since I disagreed with the man based upon rational Scripture based logic, he thought I was somehow not as spiritual as he was. When I confronted him with his error, he accused me of trying to be "clever." It was his word. He thought I was not operating in the mystical turn-off-my-brain faith that would somehow reveal that his claims, and actions, were godly. I instantly corrected him by turning to God's word in the true rationality of the faith once delivered.
Was I being charismatic? I don't know.
Was I being pentecostal? I don't know.
Was I being fundamentalist? I don't know.
Was I being sober minded based upon the real word of God by the real Holy Spirit?
Yes.
But the man chose not listen to me as I shared God's revealed New Covenant revelation with him from Ephesians 5. What did this demonstrate? Did it demonstrate that he was more spiritually in tune than I was? No. It demonstrated that he was spiritually irrational, and of course, was in error, which of course demonstrates that he was living a sinful lie. But what makes the situation even worse is that the man's poor wife, who loved him dearly, was heart broken and confused. She thought God had brought her into a holy matrimony until death they would part. The problem is that the man justified his actions by saying that God told him to do it. The last thing in the world this man should be is a pastor. The reason I am sharing such a stark example with you this morning is because we must be careful. It is way too easy to say "God told me." It is even much easier to over mystify our thoughts in other areas. The point is that a true spiritual leader must be sensible; which means what? His sensibility must be defined by God's word rightly handled. Of course this does not meant that we are throwing out the spiritual things. We are being careful and sensible. We must also recognize that there are times that a man of God may do some things that seem un-sensible to others in respect to God's will, and of course, he will do them believing that what He is doing is God's revealed will. This does not diminish the important principle of sensibility. In other words, if they are truly things that God wants him to do, then they will be based upon rightly applied New Covenant directives, precepts, and premises in God's scriptures. They will never negate a principle in Scripture that is of the New Covenant in Christ. Sound judgment comes from presuppositions that originate from God's revealed word. It does not come from mere pious, mystical, spiritualized assertions. This reminds me of something that happened recently. A flamboyant media personality said to millions of viewers that God told him he needed to convince people in his viewing audience to give him millions of dollars for an orphanage. Typical of such appeals for money, people sent in masses of money from all over the world. Amazingly, after the man raised the money, the man said that God had changed His mind. The orphanages would have to go on hold. In the meantime the man built a 3.5 million dollar home. He built it off of the donations he received through his so-called ministry. But listen to me--it was mystically minded people who gave to him out of some kind of faith. What kind of faith was it?--mystical, or rational? Ironically, the man used rational methods to sway multitudes of sheep to follow him to empty their bank accounts in leaps and bounds of mystical faith. Amazingly, people still give truckloads of money to the man because they think that the man is something called "God's anointed." I share these stories with you this morning to demonstrate two areas of being sensible, prudent, reasonable, and sober-minded when it comes to Christian thought. The first area is that a man who desires to be a steward in God's household needs to examine those kinds of mystical claims and actions. He needs to question whether people (like the man who abandoned his wife, and like the flamboyant television personality who is fleecing God's flock) are people who are really hearing from God. To do so is to be spiritually prudent, sensible, and reasonable. It is not carnal judgmentalism to be cautious with the supernatural. It is the astute exercise of the brain that the creator gave to men to think through deceptive practices and foolish actions with rational caution. In an overseer's case it is a necessity. This does not mean that we discount the mystical. It does not mean that we ignore what may be the miraculous and supernatural in our midst. I will never say that we must discount, or ignore the truly supernatural. Don't miss my point. It does mean that through God's gift of keen insight and cogent appeal, an overseer seeks to protect, and edify, the rest of the congregation in cautiousness that nurtures safety through sound judgment over the dangerous ground of blind acceptance. This is the whole essence of 1 Corinthians 14 where the mystical is governed by an intense formality and order in rational scrutiny by others. But we really must consider that for an overseer, having a sound mind is necessary because much of the time he is applying his thinking for the sake of others. In other words, it is not just his own interests he must consider. He must be sensible in his thinking because it effects the church that he oversees. So, an elder must be sensible.
/2/
The second qualifier we will look at is that he must be respectable, also translated as honorable, dignified, modest, and orderly. Sometimes you can even find this word translated as "good behavior." This word is Kosmios in the Greek. Kosmios comes from Kosmos which is that Greek word that means the expanse of a realm, or an aggregate of a particular sphere. It also means the "area" or the "world." In our English language, we speak of the cosmos, spelled with a "c." The definition of cosmos is an identifiable orderly harmonious systematic universe. The point is that all the derivatives of the Greek word kosmos, like kosmios, convey a similar sense in that they suggest an orderly arrangement of certain things or an area. So, when we think of this type of person, we should think of a man who is respected for showing forth stability in his life. He is the kind of guy we would say "He generally has it all together." To get an idea of the soundness of this kind of man, we can think of two types of automobiles. One is a brand-new high quality vehicle. We will call this automobile the "Kosmios." Let's call it the "Kosmios high performance model." It is sound and it is unpretentious. The doors close tightly. The engine purrs fluidly and accelerates smoothly. It hugs the road, and it stops on a dime. It feels solid. It looks solid. It is solid. It is what we would call a reliable car that is trustworthy. The opposite kind of man comes across as someone who is sporadic and out of control. He's like a car that is falling apart. He is barely hanging on. The name of this car is called the "Chaos." We can call this one the ultra chaotic model. The bumper is about to fall off. The hood keeps popping open. The doors don't close right. Sometimes the engine actually starts. The steering system is so loose that the car is always out of control. Some of us here are thinking, "That describes my own car!" Think about this analogy for a moment. There are many undisciplined men in the church who's lives resemble a car that is falling apart. We don't respect that kind of a car. It is not orderly. It is not reliable. Those kind of men are the opposite of kosmios. Instead of kosmios, they are chaos. When you think about those kinds of men, you immediately think about them as being unstable and out-of-control type of people. For a man to be an elder, his life style must not be a chaotic mess that is associated with bad behavior. He must be dignified. The whole calling of being an elder requires this. Why? Because (once again) God's house stewards are called to the task of administrating God's affairs in His household. They must live God's precepts in an orderly and sensible fashion. They also must teach, and manifest, God's precepts in an orderly and sensible fashion. So when it comes to why the Spirit ordains this, it is easy to understand that eldership is not a position for the kind of man whose life is a mess of loose precepts and nebulous beliefs. He can not be the kind of man who acts like he cares less about the necessary principles for order in life. Think about it; If he is not wise with money then he will not help others be wise with their own money. He will not be wise with the money for church ministry needs. If a man is not orderly with solid social principles of getting along with people, then he will foster disunity. If a man does not generally possess good behavior in respect to standing for solid biblical principles then he becomes an example of bad behavior as a leader. Along this line, and elder must show that he is principled. Think for a moment about men who lack the principle of keeping their word in honest expectation. They lack the principle of being where they say they will be when they say they will be there. Or they tell you that they are going to do something and then they immediately act like you are supposed to forget that they ever said that they were going to do it. It is bad behavior, but for a lot of men who have this trait, they do not think that it is wrong. This is not simply a quirky personality attribute that is meaningless. Think about it; If you are a father of a daughter, you would not want her marrying this kind of guy. This is not the kind of guy that you want in public office. You can't trust his words. He's unprincipled. The only thing you can trust is that he will more than likely demonstrate more bad behavior. This also goes for his emotional fortitude. Eldership is not a position for the man whose life is a continuous roller coaster ride that is driven by emotional swings. One day everything seems to be in balance. The next day he is doing extreme things because his emotions swing up and down and dictate his actions. A stable man is known for solid Biblical doctrines that dictate his actions. God knows all these things. He knows that eldership is for a man who can get it together spiritually, mentally, and physically, as a general manifestation of his behavior. Something that actually complements this requirement to a great degree is the next qualification.
/3/
It is the qualification of the general attribute of demonstrating that you have set yourself apart for the Lord in devotion to Him. The word is sometimes translated as holy, and devout. It is hosios in the Greek which has a slightly different yet significant meaning from hagios which indicates being set apart. This word, on the other hand has the since of setting oneself apart in piety. As we examine this qualification, I want us to think of the house-steward of that time and culture. The house-steward of the Roman world of Paul's day was a man who was set apart in devout interest, allegiance, and obedience to the Master of the household, and also the household itself. In our context, the Master of the house is Christ Jesus. The household is the church. But there is even much more in what Paul is saying here. When it comes to the church, more is required from God's steward. There is a work of God working through us. For example, being set apart is something that we do because the Spirit empowers us to do it. Being set apart in devotion is also the example of our Master. It is an attribute of an upside down kingdom in a sense. Our spiritual King demonstrates what we are to be while empowering us, and motivating us, to be His way. Peter called Christ, God's "Holy One" in Acts 2:27. We read in Hebrews,
"For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest [that is Christ], holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens;" Hebrews 7:26
@1 Christ Jesus is our high ________________________ who is separated from _________________________. Hebrews 7:26
Christ is the example. The steward seeks to live out Christ's life that He has given us. We know that we are separated from the curse of lostness unto Christ by Christ in Christ. We know that we are consumed with devotion to God in our worship because Christ is wholly consumed with His glory. In other words, Christ separated us in His miracle work of saving us spiritually. He changed our heart. This happens when the Holy Spirit lives in us, giving us life. Now in our spiritual salvation God wants us to represent, and imitate, the holiness of His Son who is our Master. But He does not leave us alone to operate in the flesh. He recreated us to be holy. He recreated us to worship out of our whole lives. One way we do this is by imitating Christ in His own holiness which also includes being separated from sinners, Hebrews 7:26. I know that sometimes it is difficult to understand how to be separated from sinners in daily activities. Nevertheless, I think it is simpler than we sometimes make it. For example, we know that we must associate with the world in a certain sense. We must do business. We must eat. We must live in an orderly society that has commerce. We may go to hospitals and have to see unsaved doctors. Associating with sinners can be found in all these things. We are all aware that we associate with sinners when it comes to politicians and their humanistic agendas. The world is made up of sinners. So, by necessity, all Christians must do this associating in a certain manner and certain sense. This is why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 5, that we either associate with the world or else we would have to go out of this world. The keys is that we are in the world but we are not of it. While in it, God wants us to set ourselves apart to conform to what we are in our spiritual separation. This is the distinction. We can buy things from people in the world. We can talk to people in the world. We can even learn from the world concerning elementary things like math, and so forth. Where we draw the line is in absorbing the thoughts, goals, and actions that go beyond buying, talking, and learning elementary things. We draw the line there because our focus is the superiority of Christ and the Christian life over anything else. The world touts the superiority of the self-will. And the world is also devout. But world is devoutly set apart from God. When it comes to commerce, the world works and makes money and produces things while immersed in spiritual deadness. We use the world as a temporary tool as we pass through it as citizens of heaven. But an elder must manifest the devout separateness that looks to God in sober minded actions. So a holy man is one who can use the world, but he is not using the world in the same manner and same sense that the world uses itself. The godly man uses the world to accomplish goals that glorify God. One of the goals is to try an manifest Christ in what we do. Paul described such a man in the example of his own life. He said to the Thessalonians,
"You are witnesses, and so is God, how holy and uprightly and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers;" 1 Thessalonians 2:10
Paul treated people in a holy, pious, set apart, manner. A man's holiness is one of the brand marks of his Christianity. It the blessing of his Christianity to others. This is one of the most important qualifications for an elder because it covers so much. This qualification walks hand in hand with the next one.
/4/
An elder must be self controlled. In preparing for this sermon, I have found that some commentators think that Paul has a focused meaning in respect to sexual sin. I think that such a narrowed interpretations is forced though I do not discount that Paul means for it to also encompass such a category. Nevertheless, the word Paul used for being self controlled is used all throughout the New Testament without a sexual connotation. Being free from sexual sin is already implied for anyone wanting to be an elder. With this in mind, I think the reason that Paul does not mention sexual sins in his lists, is because such men who are living in these things would already not be considered for eldership at the outset. Paul is going even deeper. His qualifications scrutinize the man's life beyond the blatant sins. They get into the fabric of his character. They get into how he handles life from his heart. They even cover how he is perceived in society. This is why we need a consistent, scriptural, definition of self-control. This kind of self control means that one submits one's self to the Holy Spirit working in self's heart. Paul described this control as the Spirit's fruit,
"... the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
[Then Paul gives us the insight we are looking for--the fruit of the Spirit is]
self-control;
[Then Paul continues,]
"against such things there is no law. 24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, we should also walk by the Spirit. 26 Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another." Galatians 5:22-26
@2 Since we ______________________ by the Spirit, we should ________________________ by the Spirit in our thoughts and actions. Galatians 5:22-26
Paul makes it clear that self-control is a direct manifestation of the Holy Spirit that resides in the Christian self. He says it is a fruit of the very same Spirit that gives us life. This means that an overseer is consistently manifesting Christ out of his heart in his actions. The fruit of the Spirit comes out as self submits to the Lordship of Christ the Savior. The point is that self control is much more than a focus upon sexual sins in general. Self control, for the Christian, is Holy Spirit control for the Christian. But of course, controlling one's self sexually is part of it. Let me give you an example. Men are visually stimulated sexually. In other words, men can more easily react to what they see in a sensual way than women--typically. It is a scientific fact. Men easily respond erotically to visual cues. It does not matter if people like this fact or not. It does not matter if people disagree with the phenomena's existence. It is a fact. So, a Christian man might see a female who is dressed in a body banner that is designed by the world to solicit sexual attraction, meaning she is dressing provocatively. It could be clothes that amount to not much more than fabric paint that is coloring her skin. It could be that she is wearing hardly anything at all. The point is that she is dressing erotically out of lack of Holy Spirit led self control. Now the man is faced with a control issue too. It has to do with his self. Either he is going to be self controlled as a fruit of the Spirit out of His redeemed spirit, soul, and body, or he is going to be self controlled according to the sin of the old man that he died to spiritually and positionally in Christ. What Paul is talking about is self control for the man as not pursuing the course of the lust that the immodest female is advertising to get in her visual invitation. The same goes for despising and hating a brother or sister in Christ in other ways. When a brother or sister in Christ does something that irritates us, the Bible is clear that Holy Spirit self control is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness. Godly self control is to seek reconciliation. It is to seek commitment, grace, and peace. It is to be building up others. But it goes further. It is to be building up others even when we think that our own self is being torn down by them. Remember, the kind of self control in this context is Holy Spirit control in every context. Self control is needed in Elders. It is needed in all Christians because self control reflects the filling of the Spirit.
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The fifth area that we must consider is that an elder must be hospitable. Generally when we think of a hospitable person, we think of someone who is friendly. We might think of someone who entertains friends and welcomes acquaintances like having people over to eat barbecue, laugh together, and relax. Those are the kinds of things we modern Americans associate with being hospitable. But to get a stronger impact of this qualifier we need to put our minds into the cultural recognition of the New Testament concept of hospitality. It has a much stronger meaning than entertaining friends in a quaint get together. This word "hospitable" is a compound noun. When we put the compounded word-pieces into a kind of sentence, we can see that it literally means "a lover of strangers" or "one who is kind to strangers." The idea is that this is hospitality that extends outwardly to everyone, and it extends to everyone in many different areas, and ways. It is not just reserved for friends, or people you like, or people you know very well. Hospitality was considered to be a social obligation in the time and culture of the Greco-Roman world of these epistles. If strangers came to your household, you were expected to be hospitable to them. You would be expected to offer them food. You were supposed to offer them a place to sleep for the night if they needed to do so. With Christians, there were traveling apostles, and messengers from other churches that would pass through the regions needing a place to stay. The elder candidate would have to have shown that he was already hospitable to begin with. Why? So that later on, he would be consistent. He would naturally show hospitality to the various traveling Christians visiting the church. But there is still a much stronger meaning to what Paul is saying. To be a hospitable Christian in respect to other Christians in the areas of Crete and Ephesus would mean that you would also be expected to participate in actions that were often urgent, risky, and sacrificial. Christians were regularly kicked out of their households, or they were forced from their jobs because they converted to Christ. Many times they had to turn to other Christians for help. This is why Paul said that the diligent and fervent Christian is to be,
"contributing to the needs of God's people who are separated unto Him, practicing hospitality." Romans 12:13
God expects this from all Christians--especially when there are urgent needs. Overseers in particular, are the stewards of God's household, so they are the ordained church leaders to turn to when Christians need urgent help because of spiritual persecution. The attention, danger, and resources that traveling ministers, and persecuted-Christians, would require, would be burdensome for any family offering support and shelter. An overseer would have to be willing to sacrifice comfort and personal ease to help out and fellowship with others. Paul's point is that an elder must be people-oriented to such an extent that he is willing to sacrifice in caring for others. It requires a track record of being willing to do what needs to be done without remorse, or complaining about it. Peter is blunt when he says,
"Be hospitable to one another without complaint." 1 Peter 4:9
This kind of instruction gets down to the heart attitude that operates according to the law of love. Instead of being hospitable simply because it is something to check off on a religious list, it is something that comes from the heart without complaining. This should already be part of what the man is doing. The point is that someone who wants to be a pastor, should already be willing and ready to sacrifice personal comfort for the needs of others in a non-complaining manner.
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A sixth element that Paul gives is that an elder must be someone who loves what is good. This describes a man who desires what is excellent and worthy of praise. His ambition is that he is magnetically attracted to things opposed to evil. The two primary ways a man manifests loving what is good is in his thoughts and actions. What people think about, desire, crave, and seek, is what they love. When it comes to the arena of our thoughts, an overseer should be one who makes it his goal to think about the good things. Paul said in Philippians;
"... whatever is true [truth is good], whatever is honorable [honor is also good], whatever is right [rightness is good], whatever is pure [purity is good], whatever is lovely [loveliness is good], [and] whatever is of good repute, [Then Paul sums up] if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise think on these things." Philippians 4:8
@3 If there is any _______________________ and anything worthy of _________________, think on these things. Philippians 4:8
What this means is that someone who desires to be an elder, loves everything that is not falsehood and compromise. This makes sense because an elder is a teacher of the truth. A man who desires to be a pastor must show that he loves the things that are honorable. He must be honorable. He must be a lover of what is right, pure, lovely, and of good repute even if it is distasteful for others to disagree. The reason is because this is what God loves. God's servants must convey that love through the church. This takes us back to being self-controlled through operating in the Spirit. Think about how God puts the love for the things He loves into you because of the Spirit in you. So you have the love. It's already there. God also created all Christians to love the good works produced. The spiritual man understands what good works are. How? By getting the mind of Christ by studying the word until the scripture becomes his own thinking. If you want to determine if someone is a lover of good then examine what they're doing. It's simple--What they do reflects what they think. When they do what they love, then what? They are manifesting the supernomianism that God put into us. The high law of love is being expressed out of love for it.
/7/
The seventh thing an elder must be is just, or righteous--also translated as fair. It is dikaion in the Greek. Paul means more than being generally righteous. Generally righteous is already a given. What fits here better is the other word that the Greek word dikaion is translated as, which is fairness and justness. Paul used this word to instruct the masters of households, saying
"1 Masters, grant to your slaves justice (dikaion) and fairness, knowing that you too have a Master in heaven." Colossians 4:1
Fairness and justness is crucial. The man must be someone who weighs things with a balance that builds up the body. Digging a little deeper, the attribute of being just, describes an attribute of the Master of the household. God is just (dikaion), Romans 3:26. Christ Jesus is the just one (dikaion) 1 Peter 3:18. Whenever a man is reflecting God's justness, he is manifesting to the world that he is representing the God who is graceful and operates from His balancing scale of pure truth. When a man is just, then quality oversight is accomplished in the church. Keeping this in mind, I will briefly recap: We know that a man who wants to be an overseer must be sensible, prudent, and reasonable. He must be a respectable, honorable, dignified, and orderly man. He must be Holy; devout. He must be self controlled, which is to be controlled by the Holy Spirit. It is a fruit of the Spirit. It is produced from God, and yet it comes from the branches of self. We also have seen that the man must be hospitable. He must be possess the attribute of helping people. Then we have seen that he must be a lover of what is good. Finally, he must be fair and just in his dealings with people according to the balancing scale of pure truth. No man is perfect. So, we must be careful in our scrutiny of elders. On the other hand, we should not be loosey goosey either. The qualifications are affinities. They spotlight the overall trends of a man, and so we need to recognize this in true rational discernment that is truly led by the Spirit.
[prayer]
@1 Christ Jesus is our high ________________________ who is separated from _________________________. Hebrews 7:26
@2 Since we ______________________ by the Spirit, we should ________________________ by the Spirit in our thoughts and actions. Galatians 5:22-26
@3 If there is any _______________________ and anything worthy of _________________, think on these things. Philippians 4:8
