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February 13, 2019 - May 25, 2020
Just as he teaches male headship in the family, he teaches male headship in the household of God (1 Tim. 2:8-3:7).
The principle of male headship, however, does not in any way diminish the significance and necessity of active female involvement in the home or church.
It is profoundly significant that God did not create Adam and Eve at the same time.
Hence, a major reason that God insists on an all-male eldership is because godly males are more suited by divine design than godly females for leadership, particularly for identifying and fighting off satanic false teaching and subtle, doctrinal deceptions.
Male irresponsibility and passivity is an enormous problem that has frustrated and destroyed many wives, families, and churches.
“These truths regarding the equality and inequality of the sexes must be held in dialectical tension, by allowing them the same weight at the same time, and by not allowing one to vitiate the other by subordinating one to the other.”
The most common mistake made by churches that are eager to implement eldership is to appoint biblically unqualified men.
A biblical eldership requires biblically qualified elders.
Second, local church elders are to be living examples for the people to follow (1 Peter 5:3).
Whatever the leaders are, the people become. As Hosea said, ‘Like people, like priest’ (4:9).
people will seldom rise above the spiritual level of their leadership.”
If the elders have a contentious spirit, the people will inevitably become contentious (1 Tim. 3:3; Titus 1:7). If the elders are inhospitable, the people will be unfriendly and cold (1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:8). If the elders love money, the people will become lovers of money (1 Tim. 3:3). If the elders are not sensible, balanced, and self-controlled, their judgment will be characterized by ugly extremes, which will cause the people to be extreme and unbalanced (1 Tim. 3:1,2; Titus 1:8). If the elders are not faithful, one-woman husbands, they will subtly encourage others to be unfaithful (1 Tim.
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Third, the biblical qualifications protect the church from incompetent or morally unfit leaders.
Some people push themselves into positions of church leadership to satisfy their unholy egos.
To refuse to remove a sinful or doctrinally unsound elder, however, is willful disobedience to God’s Word that will eventually undermine the moral and spiritual vitality of the whole church as well as the integrity of the leadership council (see chapter 9, page 217).
The best laws and constitutions are impotent without men who are “just,” “devout,” “sensible,” “self-controlled,” “forbearing,” “uncontentious,” and faithful to sound doctrine.
The New Testament, however, has no separate standards for professional clergy and lay elders.
There aren’t three separate offices—pastor, elders, and deacons—in the New Testament local church. There are only two offices—elders and deacons.
To be faithful to Holy Scripture and God’s plan for the local church, we must open the pastoral leadership of the church to all in the church who are called by the Holy Spirit (Acts 20:28) and meet the apostolic qualifications.
One of Satan’s oldest, most effective strategies for destroying the people of God is to adulterate the marriages of those who lead God’s people (Num. 25:1-5; 1 Kings 11:1-13; Ezra 9:1,2).
In pastoral work, relationship skills are preeminent. Thus shepherd elders must be gentle, stable, sound-minded, and uncontentious. Angry, hot-headed men hurt people. So an elder must not have a dictatorial spirit or be quick-tempered, pugnacious, or self-willed. Finally, an elder must not be a new Christian. He must be a spiritually mature, humble, time-proven disciple of Jesus Christ.
An elder must be able to teach and defend the faith. It doesn’t matter how successful a man is in his business, how eloquently he speaks, or how intelligent he is. If he isn’t firmly committed to historic, apostolic doctrine and able to instruct people in biblical doctrine, he does not qualify as a biblical elder (Acts 20:28ff; 1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:9).
There should be no confusion, then, about what a New Testament elder is called to do: he is to teach and exhort the congregation in sound doctrine and to defend the truth from false teachers.
if the local church fulfills its role as a school for teaching apostolic doctrine, prospective elders will have been taught God’s Word by gifted teachers.
The Bible says that the local church is “the pillar and support of the truth” and “the household of God” (1 Tim. 3:15).
the local church is not only a place to learn Scripture, it is the very best place to learn the skills required for shepherding people. It is in the local church that leaders learn to apply God’s book to real-life situations.
a prospective elder learns the great truths of God through the consistent reading and study of Scripture and the ministry of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 2:12ff; 1 Thess. 4:9; 1 John 2:27).
God does not require advanced academic degrees as a qualification for spiritual leadership.
Unfortunately, many Christian people today are so clergy dependent that they can’t imagine how men and women without formal, theological training and the degrees that go with it can know the Bible and teach it effectively.
An obvious but not insignificant qualification is the shepherd’s personal desire to love and care for God’s people.
Elders who serve grudgingly or under constraint are incapable of genuine care for people.
A true desire to lead the family of God is always a Spirit-generated desire. Paul reminded the Ephesian elders that it was the Holy Spirit— not the church or the apostles—who placed them as overseers in the church to shepherd the flock of God (Acts 20:28).
A biblical eldership, then, is a biblically qualified team of shepherd leaders.
“Better have no elders than the wrong ones.”15 The local church must in all earnestness insist on biblically qualified elders, even if such men take years to develop.
“Each of our elders,” I explained, “is committed to working together, by the power of the Holy Spirit, in humble, Christlike love.”
In our own strength we would destroy our eldership team in short order. But Christ’s principles of patience, forgiveness, humility, oneness, and love ultimately govern our attitudes and behavior toward one another.
Eldership will never work if the elders don’t understand or fall short of a total commitment to Christ’s principles of self-sacrificing love and humble servanthood.
“If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all, and servant of all.”
Nothing distinguishes the kingdoms of man from the kingdom of God more than their diametrically opposed views of the exercise of power. One seeks to control people, the other to serve people; one promotes self, the other prostrates self; one seeks prestige and position, the other lifts up the lowly and despised.”
“But the greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted” (Matt. 23:11,12).
First, God hates pride.
says, “Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord” (Prov. 16:5a).
One of the awful things about pride is that it deceives us; we may think we are serving God and others, but in reality we are serving ourselves only. John Stott is certainly right when he says, “Pride is without doubt the chief occupational hazard of the preacher.”10 The proud church leader is an offense to the gospel of Jesus Christ, a prime target for the Devil and—no matter how talented and indispensable he may think himself to be—an unfit leader of God’s people.
Second, Christ’s persistent teaching on love and humble servanthood demonstrates how difficult it is for people to understand and implement this principle.
Third, our Lord’s repeated teaching shows that humility, servanthood, and love are essential qualities of the Christian Church.
Paul’s restraint in his use of authority is a remarkable example of his humble, servant spirit. Paul would rather suffer than risk wounding his children in the faith (2 Cor. 1:23-2:4; 13:7). He would rather appeal than command, choosing to deal with people in love and gentleness rather than “with a rod” (1 Cor. 4:21; 2 Cor. 10:1,2; 13:8-10; Gal. 4:20). Although he used his authority and power when needed to stop false teachers, his patience with erring converts was extraordinary. He so identified with his converts that their discipline, weakness, and humiliation became his (2 Cor. 11:29;
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As a humble servant, Paul avoided self-promotion and self-exaltation. He always promoted Christ,
The Corinthians’ sinful propensity to idolize powerful teachers and form groups around them is addressed in the first four chapters of 1 Corinthians.
The church continues to do this today. We idolize our "pastor". He becomes our god and is responsible for telling us what to do. As long as he is happy and we agree with what he is wanting to do, we feel as though God is pleased.
Paul’s servant display of his apostolic authority was, however, misunderstood by many Corinthians, which shows how difficult it is to understand godly humility. Some of them even considered him to be weak and cowardly (1 Cor. 4:18-21; 2 Cor. 10:1-11).
The humble servant, Paul, was a strong, brave warrior and leader for Christ. He served God and cared for His people with all his might and zeal. During his life he faced many conflicts, debates, and struggles. The man who could say that he “served the Lord with all lowliness of mind” handed over an impenitent believer to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, struck the false teacher Elymus with blindness, rebuked Peter and Barnabas for their hypocrisy, and stood bravely before Roman courts and judges. Despite the many problems he confronted, Paul consistently responded to his brethren in
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