The Qualifications of Elders
25/10/09
Recap
So far in our series we’ve looked at the leadership structure contained in the New Testament.
Leadership is always about service, it’s never about power and control.
The New Testament describes 3 basic ways in which we serve in the church.
The first is the general service that is expected of all believers. Ephesians 4 mentions that the body of Christ grows to maturity when every part does it’s work. We are all to serve one another in love, and that service takes many different forms. I believe that service in any form is also form of leadership. It influences people. It affects things. When you read the Bible it is very clear that we all have a responsibility to be building one another up and leading each other in the ways of godliness. We are either leading people toward Christ or away from him. I really want you to understand this, otherwise we become too worried about positions that people hold instead of the way people live. We are all leaders, we all have influence and we are all called to lead well.
There have been many times over the years that my ministry here has been improved by the leadership of others in the congregation. And, to be honest, there are times my ministry has been hindered by the actions and attitudes of others. Things people have said and done, even down to the body language people display as they listen to a sermon – all of these things have either helped or hindered me.
Leadership is not a top-down thing. We all influence each other. We are all to serve each other in the way that we influence each other.
There are 2 more specific types of servant-leadership that the Bible describes. One is the role of Deacon, where there are particular tasks that are entrusted to people of demonstrated spiritual maturity and wisdom appropriate to those tasks.
The second type of servant-leadership is the role of Elder, which we talked about a couple of weeks ago and includes the general task of shepherding the flock, which is the local church. Specifically, that means guarding the flock, caring for the flock and leading the flock.
Today we are going to look more closely at the qualifications that are expected of an Elder. What sort of person should a congregation appoint to this role of oversight and nurture?
1 Timothy 3:1-7
Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task. 2 Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. 5 (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?) 6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. 7 He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap. [1]
Titus 1:5-11
5 The reason I left you in
10 For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group. 11 They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain.
What we’re going to do first of all is step through our reading in 1 Timothy 3, and we’ll refer to our passage in Titus 1 as appropriate as we look at each of the qualifications listed.
Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task.
Here again we are reminded that to be an Elder is to serve, not to lord over others. To be an elder is to desire a noble form of service. The tasks of guarding, caring for and leading the flock are both joyful and solemn.
The NIV translation here raises a question: does “anyone” really mean “anyone”, or does it mean “any man”? In other words, should a woman also aspire to the task and office of Elder?
The Greek word itself does not specify any specific person or type of person, it’s meaning depends on the context. Some translations stick to “anyone” here because that is the most literal way of interpreting the word. Some translations say “any man”, because in the opinion of the translators, the passage as a whole is addressing men and not women.
I believe that both approaches are equally valid, but what I want to emphasise today is that whether your Bible says anyone or any man, it is a noble task that they aspire to do. However the task has been set aside for men to perform.
I’m going to give you a brief rundown of why we teach that…
First of all if you read in verse 2 we discover that the Elder must be “the husband of but one wife”, later on in verse 4 “he must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect”.
Similarly in Titus 1:6 we read that an Elder must be “the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient.”
The most obvious conclusion here is that an Elder must be a man, since only a man can be a husband. Also as a father he is evaluated on the basis of how he has used his authority and discharged his responsibilities as a father as an indication of how effectively he will use authority and discharge his responsibilities as an Elder.
However, it can be pointed out that there are some assumptions that are being made or might be being made here. Some might argue that since infidelity was both more common and even acceptable practice for men, there was no need for women to be told to be faithful to one husband.
It could also be argued that perhaps Paul is simply assuming that Elders will be men, as almost all positions of authority in that culture were held by men. In that case, he is simply giving the standards necessary for those men, not teaching that it must only ever be men who hold those positions. Just as it is no longer culturally necessary for women to have covered heads in worship or for us to greet one another with holy kisses, it may not be any longer necessary to only have men functioning as Elders.
After all, Paul does not say an Elder must be a man, the husband of one wife. Rather, he seems to assume the Elder will be a man, in which case he should be the husband of one wife.
I want to point this out to you because it is very likely that as people come into our church family they will have questions about why we only have male elders. I want you to be comfortable with why some churches teach a different point of view than we do without labelling them as unbiblical, but I also want you to be convinced that the bible teaches that the role of elder is a role for qualified men only. I want to stress that there is no genetic superiority built into men that makes them better or wiser leaders. Being a man is no advantage or disadvantage as opposed to being a woman.
The reason we teach male leadership in the church and home is that we are convinced that is what the Bible teaches and therefore what God intends. We are blessed by obeying Him, not by pursuing what we might think of as a better way. God always knows best, whether we recognise that or not!
So why are we convinced the Bible teaches male eldership as an ongoing pattern rather than a pattern just for that time and place? We could have a long discussion on that but I’ll just give you the short version!
One of the key tasks of an Elder is to protect the flock. One of the ways this happens is that Elders keep a lookout for people who are teaching false doctrine or whose lifestyles are corrupting the church, and they provide the necessary correction.
Titus 1:9-11 describes it this way:
9 He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.
10 For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group. 11 They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain.
When we did our series on the role of women in the church, we discovered that in Timothy chapter 2 and 1 Corinthians chapter 14 Paul expressly forbids women from this task. It is not appropriate for a woman to exercise authority over a man in this way.
Again some might say that this was due to the culture of the time in which Paul lived and wrote, and that things are different today. However we conclude, based on Paul’s reference to the created order and other biblical evidence, that this is in fact God’s revealed will for the Church and also for the Family. We believe that this is the wisdom of God for our good. It is not repression or control or abuse of power – although sadly some have warped it and made it an excuse for such ungodly behaviour.
If you want more information about why we have reached this conclusion I invite you to have a look at the series we did on that subject earlier in the year, or I can recommend some good books on the subject for you.
So to put it simply, an Elder must be a man, but what kind of man should he be?
Let’s trace through our passage:
2 Now the overseer must be above reproach,
This is how Paul begins his list of qualifications in his letters to both Timothy and Titus. It is the overarching statement, and the rest of the qualifications are just adding more detail to this one: An Elder must be above reproach, he must be blameless.
This is not the same thing as being perfect, which is what we often start thinking straight away. Any honest person reads this and thinks “Well that rules me out! I’ve made lots of mistakes, and I still have many struggles with my thoughts and desires and attitudes and actions. There’s no way that I am a perfect Christian.”
Don’t forget that there is no such thing as a perfect Christian, only a perfect Christ! Paul himself was very conscious of his own sins, and he didn’t hold back in pointing them out in others either!
Nevertheless as Titus 1:7 says: “Since an overseer is entrusted with God’s work, he must be blameless”.
Remember that the overseer is like the steward in the Master’s house. We are all servants, but the steward is the one responsible to make sure that all of us are doing our work as the Master requires. The buck stops with him. However the biblical pattern is that this responsibility does not rest on one man alone but on a group of qualified men in each congregation.
So if being blameless does not mean being perfect, what exactly does it mean?
The general answer to that is the same for Elders as it is for all Christians. To be blameless is to neither deny our sin or harbour sin (eg: 1 Jn 1:5-10). Rather, when we fall short we confess it and allow God to cleanse us in order to make us more like Jesus.
When a person does not respond to the inner conviction brought about by the Holy Spirit, it is the role of the Church to help them to come to that point of conviction and repentance. Usually this is done privately, but if they are determined to continue in sin the church must resort to dealing with the matter publicly in order to protect the purity of the church and help the person to be cleansed.
(Matthew 18:15-20, 1 Corinthians 5).
However if an Elder is found to be presently harbouring sin in his life, he must be rebuked publicly as a warning to others.
1 Timothy 5:19
19 Do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by two or three witnesses. 20 Those who sin are to be rebuked publicly, so that the others may take warning.
An Elder is a role-model to the congregation and an authoritative witness to unbelievers. People judge the church much more stringently by the conduct of its leaders. Therefore when an Elder sins publicly he must be dealt with publicly. The word “sin” in verse 20 could perhaps be better translated “are sinning” which a number of translations do. Some translations use the phrase “persist in sin” or “continue sinning”. The idea is that if an Elder is harbouring sin in his life then he needs to be rebuked so that others may realise the seriousness of sin and may be aware that even Elders are not beyond the discipline of the Church. Of course, if the Elder does not repent then he could expect to disciplined in the normal manner, which would be to lose his position as Elder and also his membership in the church.
Where an Elder commits a public sin but confesses of his own accord or after being confronted about the issue, I would expect that he would have the humility and integrity to do so publicly so that everyone may be aware that the issue has been properly resolved and may be encouraged by the example of the Elder in response to his own mistake.
I have seen examples of Elder misconduct swept under the carpet in the mistaken belief that it would be harmful for people to find out that certain things have happened. Guess what – people know, and if they don’t know, they suspect! Secrecy goes hand in hand with hypocrisy, not with holiness. When Elders don’t confess their sins they actually become objects of reproach instead of being above reproach. People remember their wrongdoings and continue to associate those wrongs with the Elder concerned because they have never seen the wrongs dealt with properly.
An Elder needs to be blameless, and to be blameless we need to refuse to harbour sin in our lives, and we need to deal with it appropriately when it happens.
the husband of but one wife,
What does it mean to be the husband of one wife? Does it mean an unmarried man cannot be an Elder? Does it mean a widower who has remarried cannot be an Elder? Does it mean a divorced man, or a divorced man who has remarried cannot be an Elder? Does it mean that a polygamist cannot be an Elder?
The phrase translated as “husband of but one wife” literally says “a one-woman man”. In other words if he is married, as most men were, he must be faithful to his wife. Not only does this mean he must not be married to more than one woman and that he must not have affairs, but it means that his heart and affection must belong to one woman only. Jesus said that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matt. 5:28). An Elder must be a one-woman man.
What about men who are single? Must they marry before they qualify to be Elders? Some groups would teach that, however I would find it strange that the Apostle Paul, who was single himself (2 Cor. 7:8) and encouraged others to remain single if that was God’s gift to them. It would be strange for Paul to recommend singleness as a way of being able to concentrate on the Lord’s work, but then forbid single men from the noble task of being an Elder.
What about a man who has been divorced? I know people who have really struggled with this question, and I have seen many different answers given. The Bible itself never prohibits a divorced person from holding a position within a local church. Some would say that we need to protect the reputation of the church by making sure that it’s leaders have never been divorced, which is something that God hates.
However, most people realise that we cannot judge a person solely on their history, particularly when we don’t know the full story leading up to and following after these sorts of events. I know plenty of lousy husbands who have never been divorced, and I know men who have given their best to the marriage only to wind up divorced. I know men whose lives were turned around by God after divorce and remarriage. We need to judge people by who they are now and what God has done in them, not where they came from.
An Elder must be a suitable example to the flock of what it means either to be married or to be single. It is possible for someone to be divorced and for God to do a work of teaching and restoring so that they become highly qualified to then be an example and a help to others. It is also possible that a previous divorce reveals a lack of maturity that has not yet been addressed and therefore disqualifies that person from serving as an Elder.
We need to be very careful that when it comes to selecting Elders that we look closely at their situation in marriage or singleness and see whether they are being suitable role models for others in that situation.
Close…. We’ll do the rest next week!
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