Paul’s direction to Timothy:
- Leadership is critical – be a leader (chapter 1)
- Fight the good fight with Prayer with Thanksgiving
- Fight the good fight my maintaining order.
- Fight the good fight with standards of leadership (models, examples, above reproach – 3:1)
"We herd sheep, we drive cattle, we lead people. Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way."
..........General George Patton
Patton was a leader. His decisions and mannerisms came across to brash and crude at times, but the man was a leader. When you think of a strong leader, who do you think of?
Leadership is important. Leadership offers direction, authority, vision, motivation, confidence, maturity and discipline. Without leadership, or even with weak leadership, some, or all of these things are missing. What good is direction without motivation? What good is vision without direction? Discipline without authority is meaningless.
While we all lead in some way, we're talking about the specific leadership in the church. Not everyone is cut out to be a leader. Those who can lead, don't always do so. Having the heart of a servant is critical. He is one who doesn't always jump to the front, one who doesn't desire to be in the spotlight.
Whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. 27 And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave—28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
The New King James Version (Mt 20:26–28). (1982). Thomas Nelson.
The leader must become the least, putting others before himself. A real leader doesn't always step forward without first stepping back. The great leaders seem to come from humble backgrounds. They rise up from the least, never really desiring to be great but finding themselves in the spotlight.
With all that said, what does it take to be a leader in the church? God, through the Holy Spirit has gifted some to be leaders. A man must be called and he must be qualified. Then he must answer the call and operate in his gift. That apparently wasn't happening in Ephesus.
Paul's first order of business was to encourage Timothy to stay there and continue the fight the good fight. Then, it was identify the leaders among the people and get them to lead. There had to be leadership in the church and it had to be the right kind of leadership for the church to be healthy.
When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice;
But when a wicked man rules, the people groan.
The New King James Version (Prov 29:2). (1982). Thomas Nelson.
While Paul talks about the leaders, the other side is that those who wouldn’t lead were to follow or at least stay out of the way. Those failing at leadership were hurting the church. Many times you see people in a leadership position because they were shamed or coerced into serving, not because they were called. Others end up leading in pursuit of power, recognition or something that feeds their pride. Sadly, there are some that lead because it's a job or career.
When these things happen we end up with the wrong leaders. This happens when God raises up leaders and those men fail to lead. Whether its poor leadership, no leadership or ordained leaders who fail to lead, the church without proper leadership will struggle. That's what was happening to Timothy.
Where there is no counsel, the people fall;
But in the multitude of counselors there is safety.
The New King James Version (Pr 11:14). (1982). Thomas Nelson.
In the previous chapter, we saw Paul continue with his encouragement to Timothy to stay in Ephesus and continue the work the Lord started there. Any leader can sympathize with Timothy who might have said, this is more difficult than I thought. Any leader wonders at times if he was making a difference. No leader feels as if there were never enough hours in the day. Even if there were more hours, there wouldn't be enough resources or energy. Every leader, at times, felt inadequate and completely unprepared for the things he faced. Every leader feels these things, that's when leaders learn to look to God and trust in Him. The leaders faith is grown as they lean on Jesus.
Chapter one ended with Paul encouraging Timothy to fight the good fight. Pick the battles that must be fought, battles of doctrine and truth and faith. Let the other things go. Paul will detail in chapter 2 the priority and method of battle.
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
---Martin Luther King, Jr
In those times when things are difficult is when leadership is most important an that's when the leaders rise to the occasion.
1 Timothy 3:1
The New King James translates this position of leadership in verse 1 to the word bishop. The NASB translates it to Overseer. The Greek word is Episkopay and it could mean Elder, bishop, overseer and pastor. It was a word used to describe a leader in the wider culture. In the church, these are the men who are responsible to teach and preach and lead. Now, many churches have different forms of government and they have different titles they bestow on the leaders. Those titles are given by men. There are many men who are elders who never walk under the title of an elder. These elders are men who have stepped into their calling as men to lead. This is a good, noble and honorable. A list of qualifications or virtues was also consistent with titles like this. Paul was providing this to Timothy to establish other men in the church to be part of leading the believers.
Part of being a leader and fighting the good fight was to surround himself with other like-minded men who could lead and help carry the load. This is similar to Moses being overwhelmed in the wilderness and his father-in-law advising him to set up men to take care of the smaller problems (Exodus 18). Likewise, in the early church, the disciples established seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom to serve the people so they could continue in prayer and ministry of the word (Acts 6). Timothy may have had some leaders, but it appears they were either not helping or part of the problem.
The desire to be a leader in the church is a good work. It's not an easy work. It brings more headaches and heartaches than it does joy and contentment. But the church needs men to step into these leadership roles. It's not a natural response for men to step up and be spiritual leaders. Our sinful flesh would rather not be involved – while God calls me to be the spiritual leaders. We'll never feel ready or qualified to lay hands on someone and offer prayer. But, the laying on of hands and prayer is needed and at some point we must put away childish things and stand in our calling.
1 Timothy 3:2-7
Blameless.
This literally means there is nothing to take hold of. There is nothing in this man’s life that can be brought forward as an accusation of some grievous sin. With the rise of social media, it takes very little to bring a leader down (or anyone for that matter). This is particularly bad because truth doesn’t seem to matter to many. We’ve come to a place where we are no longer innocent until proven guilty.
In the church, we can’t control what the world may say, but we are to have leaders that don’t provide any truth by which they may be blames. Many men in church leadership have fallen. It is so much better when they have the wisdom and courage to step down when they’ve failed.
It's of first importance for the man be blameless. This blamelessness is the main requirement, the overarching idea, or the first order qualification for leadership. All that follows now, is just expanding on the idea of being blameless and gives us an idea of what it looks like to the Lord.
The husband of one wife.
This is not a statement of marital status. The literal interpretation would be a "one woman man." This is a call to moral purity. The blameless man was devoted to his wife, above reproach in both thought and deed.
This was countercultural at the time. Men in the Greek culture didn’t have moral boundaries. In their view, a wife was for the purpose to have a family. For the most part, there was no sexual fidelity expected.
Now you need to know that many believe this says the husband of one wife in reference to having only been married once. If that were the case, then the widower couldn't be remarried and serve. While we see the bible allows divorce in some cases, that divorced man wouldn't be allowed to be remarried and serve. A man that is recently divorced, going through a divorce or even had many wives is probably not going to be qualified under some of the other qualifications. Someone that's been married and divorced five times probably isn't considered temperate and sober minded.
Some also see in this verse a requirement for a pastor or elder to be married. There’s really no indication that should be gleaned from this verse.
In the end, I believe this is a qualification of moral purity and fidelity.
Temperate.
The temperate are not given to extremes. This may be particularly thinking of alcohol use. This means clear headed, not given to extremes or moodiness.
Sober-minded.
Moderate, wise and keeping self-control over one’s passions, lusts and desires. They are safe and healthy of mind.
Of good behavior.
Orderly and dignified, but not snobbish. Befitting admirable propriety.
Hospitable.
Fond of treating guest with generosity and hospitality.
Able to teach.
Understand and communicate sound doctrine to the church. At the same time, Protect the church from unsound doctrine and address false teachers.
Not given to wine.
Drunkenness is reckless and not consistent with self-control and temperance.
Not violent.
Not a bully, using violence to gain advantage.
Not greedy.
A shameful desire for money that trumps higher priorities in life. The unhealthy desire for wealth brings shame on the person and the church.
Gentle
Mild, moderate and patient. Not controlling, quick to offer grace.
Not quarrelsome
Not a brawler, a peacemaker who prefers and is inclined to peace rather than conflict.
Not covetous.
The definition of the word is very similar to greed already discussed. While greed speaks of money, covetousness speaks of material goods, particularly that of others. For example, it’s to look across the street and long for what they have.
Rules his home well.
The home was the basic unit of social structure. You home and those who live in it do so under your standards, ethics and morals. The gospel can take root in a household and see the entire family saved. Likewise, sin can take root and stumble the family bringing destruction. If a man can’t rule his home, how could he rule the house of God?
Not a novice
Not a new convert. They need to have some spiritual gray hair. A new convert has not net learned how to work out their salvation, let alone deal with the challenges to discipleship.
Good testimony.
A good testimony around town opened doors to preach the gospel. The unbelieving world tend to evaluate God by the bad things his people do.
The bishop doesn't just hold a position of leadership in the church. That position of leadership is his life. We've all seen men who are one way at church on Sunday and then something completely different the rest of time. The bishop can't be like that. His entire life is consistent with his faith and his worldview. The bishop isn't just a leader at church; he's a leader, period. That's what God called him to.
These are the men that Timothy needed in the Ephesus. When God brings a fellowship together and calls a pastor he also brings men to lead. Unfortunately, these men don't always step up and assume their role. That may have been the source of the problems in Ephesus and Timothy was single handedly trying to lead the church back to soundness in the eyes of the lord. The leadership of other men is necessary no matter what the size of the church. It's noteworthy that there is no number placed on this. There isn't a pastor or elder for a certain number of people. There are examples in the early church where there were many elders all in the same church.
God calls men to leadership. Qualified men of the church are to step up to lead. Also, disqualified men need to step down or be removed. When this is done right, people recognize qualified leaders and follow them.
1 Timothy 3:8-13
Paul provided Timothy with a role description for the office of deacons. Verse 8 starts with "likewise" this is saying, along the same line, in the same vein. The expectations of a deacon were very similar to that of a pastor.
The word for deacon is diakonos. The word means servant or servant of a king. This word used to be used for those who served tables. When the word was brought into Christianity. it took on a meaning that was more specific to the church. Deacons served under the leadership of the elders. They took care of some of the work of leadership so the pastor and/or elders could lead in spiritual matters. The bible doesn't detail specific duties assigned to the deacon. Those duties have been assigned by churches and traditions. The deacon might be the one who makes sure that you get your hand shook at the door in the morning or that there are towels in the bathroom, the heats on, etc. They might listen to a complaint or coordinate of group of men to help someone move.
The deacon is a position of leadership so these men must be reverent, showing the proper respect for God and the things of God. The word 'likewise' ties to them to the same category as the pastors and elders, suggesting they must also be above reproach. They shouldn't be controlled by their tongue or habits or greed. The life of a deacon should be characterized by a love for Jesus Christ. Paul said they should hold to the mystery of faith. This mystery is the revelation of Jesus Christ that used to be concealed but was now revealed. These men were to hold to that with pure conscience. This is their first love.
The mystery of faith is nothing new for us. It's been picked apart, attacked, written about, talked about and so on, for so many centuries. In a purely academic understanding of just facts and history and knowledge, there is very little mystery of the faith left. But the mystery of faith was never about the things of this world. The mystery of the faith is the work that God has done and continues to do in the hearts of redeemed sinful men in a fallen world by the redemption of Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit. That is a profound and endless mystery.
Paul wants those who are deacons to not lose sight of the awesome mystery of God. They should be excited about it. They should live expectant lives, knowing that God is working His will in any and every life that is yielded to Him. Life in Christ is a great adventure. The deacons couldn't forget that.
Timothy wasn't to appoint men as deacons. You didn't look around, pick someone and say, “You’re a deacon.” When Men became deacons, Timothy was to recognize them. The person becomes a deacon because of the heart of a servant, not because someone gave them a title. The elder or pastor that sees a person serving and qualified puts that one to work in the church. The title of deacon shouldn't mean anything or change anything but formalize what is already true.
Verse 11 is talking about the deacon's wife. A deacon can't meet the qualifications and serve in the church if his wife is irreverent and slanderous. There should be a consistency of faith and temperance in this marriage. The man who is qualified as a deacon will have a wife that is equally qualified.
Now if you read all the commentaries, you'll find they are split. The word translated to wives here in verse 11 could also be translated to women. Since this sentence starts with "likewise" some believe this is speaking about women deacons or the deaconess. Of course, we know there were deaconess in the New Testament. Pheobe is one that is mentioned by name.
The deacon is a one women man also. His children and home are sound and reflect the same godliness that shows up in the man and his wife. This is the picture of a godly home and this family reflects the God they serve. Once again, many would argue that this "husband of one wife" is talking about never being divorced or previously married. It's the exact same phrase used in the qualification of the pastor or overseer. This deacon must be a 'one woman man' devoted to his wife. If the deacon has been divorced, or widowed, it's should be old news. Not something that is even known by many and it just isn't a factor.
Those are the qualifications for being a deacon. And since we know there were deaconesses in the early church, I think it is safe to apply the same qualifications to them. But, being a deacon is not for everyone. Everyone qualified is not a deacon. In fact, it's safe to say being a deacon isn't for the squeamish. Being a servant is hard work, there is no glamour or glory in it. There are no perfect people in church, we are all a bunch of sinners saved by grace. We all have baggage, ugly scars, habits and nuances about us that will annoy others. And the deacons and overseers will see this in people. Those in the church say they walk by faith but many times we don't look that way. We all want to be anchored in the things of the Lord but when life knocks us around we find our anchor has pulled free and we drifting a bit. We are at times unloving, inconsistent, selfish, prideful, impatient and rude. And the leadership of the church sees these things among the people and even among themselves. The Pastor, elders, deacons and overseers see these things but they don't judge. They love and serve and point people to Jesus Christ. They cry with the brokenhearted, then pray with them and encourage them. They stand with those who have fallen down, then they help them up. They give to those who have needs. They are driven by love, but its not a love they even understand, it's not that they are special. The love they operate under is a love that was born in them by Jesus.
All of us in the church have the same illness that is sin. And hopefully we all have the same remedy that is Jesus. Each of us are at a different place of in our walk but we all came from a common problem and find our hope in the same One. That's what makes the church a beautiful place. We share these common bonds but we are all different and we are all authentic. As the church, we show the love of Jesus Christ by loving on each in spite of the fact none of us deserve it.
If you have the heart of a deacon, or deaconess, you will get heartbroken and stepped on. Your feelings will get hurt. You will feel taken for granted, you will not feel appreciated most of the time. But for those who serve well, they obtain good standing and great boldness in Jesus Christ. Here's what that should look like to you. It's serving and loving in spite of getting your teeth kicked in. It's keeping on, in spite of any recognition or acknowledgement of respect. Then, when your days have ended, you will have fought the good fight. And you will hear the Lord say, "Well done my good and faithful servant!"
1 Timothy 3:14-15
Paul wanted to go to Timothy, but wrote because so that he would be remined, without delay, how the church ought to conduct itself. The church is to be the house of God. That church is to be pillar and ground of the truth. We think of the ground is the foundation; it's what everything else is built on. The Greek word meant ‘a structural member to stiffen or support.’ A pillar is what holds everything else up. The church is where the truth of God is found. Like God, it's never changing. It's always there, solid and reliable. The church built on truth will be the church of the Living God. The gates of hell will not prevail against it.
Verse sixteen is probably a song that was sung by the church. The song was to remind the people of this great mystery revealed to them. There is no controversy among the leaders of the church. They are in full agreement. And these mysteries never get old. They never lose value. God came to earth as a man, lived a perfect sinless life. Was witnessed by angels. He brought hope to the gentiles and to the world. And was ascended to the right hand of the Father.
We all should embrace that mystery. But it's particularly important for the leadership of every church. For these leaders to lead, they must be solid in their faith and belief. And in their leadership, they should never lead in a way, or to a place, that distances people from the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
©2011, 2023 Doug Ford
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