THE HIGH STANDARDS OF A GOOD WORK

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on January 19, 2025 under 2024 |

Bethany Bible Church Sermon Message, preached January 19, 2025 from 1 Timothy 3:1-7

Theme: The high calling of an overseer requires that high standards of holiness be kept.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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One evening, about 43 years ago, I was sitting on a couch in an apartment in Burien, Washington, with my Bible on my lap. It was opened up to the passage we’re going to be looking at this morning; and I was pouring over it carefully. I’ll never forget that experience because it was a very decisive event in the course of my life.

Prior to that time, I had spent the previous couple of years working as a freelance graphic designer and illustrator. I had just begun getting my name out in the Seattle advertising market; and was starting to receive some interesting work. But for the longest time, I had been having the feeling that God wanted me to be doing something else. I had been suppressing the thought that I should get seminary training and become a pastor. It seemed like one person after another in Marilyn’s and my church was telling me that I should go into the ministry. And after a while, we prayed about it together and said that, if that was what God wanted, then we would pursue it.

Through a series of remarkable events, God confirmed that decision to us, and so I applied to a local college to begin getting the preliminary education requirements out of the way. But I wanted to make sure that it truly was God’s will for me, and that I was the right kind of man for such a calling. And so on this one particular evening, I had my Bible open to 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and was studying this morning’s passage carefully—praying—letting God’s word examine me. It’s a part of the apostle Paul’s letter to Pastor Timothy; and it begins by saying;

This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work … (1 Timothy 3:1).

Now; you might hear that and think, “Wait a minute! I thought you were thinking about becoming a pastor. Weren’t you shooting a bit high in wanting to become a bishop? Aren’t they rather high up on the flow chart?” But the fact of the matter is that—biblically speaking—a ‘bishop’ is the same thing as an ‘elder’, and an ‘elder’ is the same thing as a ‘pastor’.

Most people don’t realize that. But if you were to look just a little ways ahead in your Bible to Titus 1:5, you’d find that the apostle Paul wrote to another Pastor named Titus and told him;

For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you— (Titus 1:5).

And just a couple of verses later—in verse 7—Paul wrote, “For a bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God … (v. 7). So, while speaking about ‘elders’, Paul began describing the qualifications for a ‘bishop’. And that’s because, in God’s design for His household, the office of ‘bishop’ is the same thing as the office of ‘elder’. In the original language of the New Testament, the word translated as ‘bishop’ means ‘overseer’; that is, someone who is charged with the responsibility of watching over a church family and providing oversight to its life and ministry. And the word that’s translated as ‘elder’ refers to someone who is officially recognized as having the Christian maturity to provide good godly leadership in a church family. They are both the same office, but the two names highlight two different functions.

And what’s more, in 1 Peter 5:1-2, the apostle Peter uses not just two, but three different names for that one office. He wrote;

The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed: Shepherd the flock of God which is among you … (1 Peter 5:1-2).

So; with respect to Peter’s words about this one position of official leadership in a biblical church, three different aspects of the work were being highlighted. The name ‘bishop’ highlighted the work of oversight in the ministry of a church, the name ‘elder’ highlighted the biblical wisdom and spiritual maturity that was to be brought to the task, and the name ‘pastor’ or ‘shepherd’ highlighted the loving, compassionate care and protection that was to be shown toward the people of God within the church family. Over the centuries, various church traditions and denominations have attempted to separate these three things into different offices and levels of ecclesiastical hierarchy; but in the Bible, they’re all one and the same thing. A ‘pastor’ is an ‘elder’ is a ‘bishop’. And 43 years ago, I became under the strong conviction that the Lord wanted me to be academically trained to serve in that role in a local church family.

But that led to my important search from God’s word on that important evening. Am I truly qualified for such a role? Can I measure up to the high spiritual standards of such a ministry? And so; I had my Bible opened on my lap and was pouring over this morning’s passage—1 Timothy 3:1-7—where it says,

This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?); not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil (1 Timothy 3:1-7).

As I read through that passage on that important evening, I couldn’t honestly say that I measured up in every detail just yet. I knew that I had a lot of growing to do. But I sincerely felt before God that there was nothing that prevented me from going forward and getting the necessary training. And so, with Marilyn’s agreement and our church’s blessings, off we went.

So; you can appreciate why this is such an important passage to me. But dear brothers and sisters in Christ; it should be important to you as well as a church family. These are the standards that God Himself has established for leadership in His household. And the man who serves as a teaching pastor in our church—and the men who serve as elders and overseers in this church—absolutely must remain faithful to these standards.

This church must hold firmly to them … and never compromise them or let them go.

* * * * * * * * * *

Now; look with me at what the apostle Paul wrote in that first verse. He said, “This is a faithful saying …” And what he meant was that he was about to give Pastor Timothy a very reliable principle—one that should be whole-heartedly accepted and believed. It will always prove true. And that saying was this: that if any man desired the position of a bishop, he desired a ‘good thing’—a very worthy and honorable and sacred thing. Paul didn’t mean that it was a ‘nice career choice’. He didn’t mean that it was a ‘rewarding vocation’. What he meant was that it was a profoundly holy and important office in God’s household … and that it must be treated with the utmost respect in terms of whoever may be placed into it.

Think of what the apostle Paul once said about this office. In Acts 20:28, while on one of his missionary journeys, he called a group of elders together from the church in the city of Ephesus—the very place, in fact, that Timothy had been called to serve. And as these elders were all gathered together to hear a final ‘farewell’ word from Paul, he told them;

“Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:28).

To serve as a ‘bishop’—an official and authorized “overseer” in God’s household—is to take up the sacred responsibility of the care, protection, and nurture of that which Jesus Christ shed His precious blood on the cross to purchase for Himself. It’s to take up the task of stewarding the most precious thing on earth to our holy heavenly Father. It’s to care for a part of that institution that’s charged with proclaiming the good news of salvation to the world. And whoever would do such a thing must be qualified!

A man doesn’t ‘call himself’ to such a sacred task. Jesus—the Lord and Master of His church—calls him. As it says in Ephesians 4:11, “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers …” And as this morning’s passage shows us—the very same passage that I sought to examine myself by 43 years ago—the high calling of an overseer requires that high standards of holiness be kept.

* * * * * * * * * *

Now; what Paul does in this passage is lay out a series of requirements. And the very first one, which we find in verse 2, should be seen as a general qualification that covers all of the others. He wrote, “A bishop then must be blameless”. That, of course, can’t possibly mean that he must be perfect. If that were the case, then no man could ever serve in leadership in any church. Rather, what this means is that a man ought not to serve as an overseer in God’s household who has a glaring fault in his life.

I remember a time in one of my seminary classes when we were studying this passage together—and were looking carefully over all the qualifications it listed. It seemed like a very rigid set of requirements. And then, the instructor asked us, “Which of these qualifications do you believe a church could afford to do without?” And, of course, the correct answer is ‘none’. When you look them over, they describe—in certain respects—what every Christian ought to be. But sadly, when it comes to leadership, many churches today do choose to ignore them. Churches have grown to believe that it’s okay to do without one or two of them … so long as most of the others, to their thinking, are satisfactorily present. And whenever a church does that, it gets into terrible trouble. They settle for an overseer who is “almost blameless”. But “almost blameless” is not the same thing as blameless; and as the Bible teaches us, “A bishop then must be blameless”.

Dear brothers and sisters; after over 40 years of church ministry in one form or another, I can now look back and see many tragic stories of churches that have suffered painful problems, or church splits, or the humiliation of having their pastors morally fall in disastrous and shameful and public ways. And I believe I can say that—in pretty much every case—it was because one or more of these qualifications were ignored at some point. An ‘overseer’ in God’s house was permitted to serve who was unfaithful in his marriage, or who was ongoingly careless in his personal conduct, or who was habitually harsh and brutal toward people, or who was greedy with money, or who was caught up in the snare of some kind of addiction, or who was neglectful of his family, or who was prideful in his position, or who had been dishonest in the outside business world. He might have been a dynamic organizer, or a great speaker, or a noteworthy scholar, or well-known in the entertainment world, or even successful in the business world. But he was not “blameless” according to these standards. And as a result, the church suffered terrible harm, a loss of reputation before the watching world, and a hindrance in its ability to effectively communicate the gospel.

We must remember that God’s church is holy. And He only wants its care to be entrusted to holy men. Not perfect men, of course; but holy men absolutely—men who, upon careful examination, are “blameless”. And so; let’s pay careful attention to these qualifications.

First, we see that an overseer—that is, an elder—that is, a pastor—must be blameless …

1. IN PERSONAL CHARACTER.

Verse 2 says that he must be “the husband of one wife”. And this can mean several things. Does this mean, for example, that he must be married? Some believe so. After all, it would be hard for him to have ‘children’ that he keeps ‘in submission with all reverence’ if he didn’t have a wife with whom he would have had them. Personally, I believe that it’s wise for an elder to be a married man, because it helps to significantly protect him from other temptations and problems in ministry.

But there are other things that this could mean—and I would say that all of them are true. For one thing, it would definitely mean that an elder should be a male. In 2:12, Paul made it clear that a woman is not to have spiritual authority over the men in the church. And besides—in spite of what people may think today—it’s not possible for anyone to be ‘the husband of one wife’ if he’s not a man. But it could also mean that he must not be a polygamist. In the culture in which Pastor Timothy served, it was not at all unheard of for a man to have multiple wives; and in God’s household, an elder is to be married to only one woman. And this would also mean that he’s not to be an illegitimately divorced man who has remarried while his former wife is still living; because—as our Lord taught—that would mean that he was in a condition of adultery and had more than one wife. And most definitely, it means that the man who is an overseer in God’s household must be faithful to his one and only wife—and be united to no other woman. He must be—as the original language of Paul’s words suggests—a man of only one woman.

I would say that ignoring this one standard has been the cause of immeasurable harm to many churches throughout recent years. Many churches have chosen to ignore this standard outright—and that decision has led many of those same churches down the path of choosing to ignore other things that the Bible teaches. That may be why the Holy Spirit led the apostle Paul to put it first on the list of personal character qualifications.

But there are other qualifications of personal character. For example, Paul said that he must be “temperate”; or as the old King James Version has it, he must be “vigilant”. He must be a man who is self-managed in the sense that he is on top of things that he needs to be on top of, and is not ‘out-of-balance’ in his life. He should be the kind of man who ‘has it together’—who shows up on time, and keeps his promises, and is careful to be well-prepared for the tasks that are set before him. He should be a man who knows his limitations and doesn’t try to take on too much. And he needs to be the kind of man who doesn’t need to be constantly watched and directed and micro-managed by others. Nothing is more frustrating for a church than a pastor who habitually forgets to keep his commitments.

He must also be “sober-minded” or “self-controlled”. He must be a man of a sound and well-ordered mind who keeps his inner disposition in check—who doesn’t allow his emotions or his passions to get out of control. I remember reading about the old hillbilly wisdom of the mother of Sgt. Alvin York. She once told him that he needed to learn to calm down; because “when you get excited, you make mistakes”. That’s pretty basic; isn’t it? And an overseer needs to be the kind of man who doesn’t get excited and make mistakes. He needs to be a man who has his confidence in God’s sovereign control, who knows how to stop and pray in a moment of crisis, and who doesn’t allow himself to so panic in a moment of crisis that he loses his sense of personal control. He needs to be the kind of man that everyone else knows will ‘keep his head’ in a sanctified way.

Paul says he must be a man “of good behavior”. The word that Paul used meant that he must be “well-ordered” and “well-arranged”—and not “disordered” and “deranged”. He should be the kind of man who conducts himself in a decent, modest, and presentable manner. As someone has well said, a pastor shouldn’t be leading the ‘fashion train’; but he shouldn’t be riding in the ‘fashion caboose’ either. He shouldn’t be slovenly—either in his appearance or in his personal behavior. He ought to be a man of good manners who doesn’t turn people off with offensive personal habits.

He also should be “hospitable”. The word that Paul used meant to be “a friend of strangers”. In the times in which Paul wrote those words, this was a particularly important quality. When a traveling minister or missionary traveled from one city to another in those days, they really couldn’t stay at inns along the way. Those inns were typically places of ill repute that were characterized by the worst kinds of immoral behavior. And so, an overseer of a church often needed to be ready to open their home as a safe place to stay. The situation may be quite a bit different today; but this would mean—at the very least—that a pastor needs to be known as someone who warmly greets visitors and who frequently has people over to his home. He should be a ‘welcoming’ man.

Now; these may seem like terribly high standards to follow. Some of these standards would most surely mean that some men who aspire to be overseers in God’s house simply can’t do so. But let’s remember the reason why. It’s because it’s “a good work”—a holy work for which God requires the highest standards to be faithfully kept.

So; those are some qualifications that touch on a man’s personal character. They have to do with what a man is in himself. But there are also specific qualifications that touch on how he interacts with others within the church family. They teach us that an overseer must be blameless …

2. IN RELATIONAL SKILLS.

For example, it says in verse two that he must be “able to teach”. Now; in our church, we have several ‘bishops’ or ‘elders’. Not all of them are actively engaged in a teaching ministry. But if the situation arose in which they needed to be, they are competently and capably ‘able to teach’. And this has to do not only with the head-knowledge that is required to be a teacher in God’s house, but also with the ability to translate biblical truth into an understandable and practical form. Many men who have been placed into positions of ministry are true scholars … but they’re also terrible communicators. And if the people of God don’t end up understanding what God’s word says, or what it tells them to do in life, then what good is all of the scholarship? So; one of the relational skills that an overseer must have in the body of Christ is the ability to acquire knowledge from God’s word, put it together logically, and pass that knowledge on to God’s people in a clear, practical, edifying way.

Paul also says in verse 3 that an overseer must not be “given to wine”. This can be justifiably expanded to mean that an overseer should not be inclined to use any kind of substance that fogs up his mind in any way. The people of God need for him to be continually clear-headed and unhindered. He must not be under the rule of any kind of addictive habit or outside substance.

He also should not be “violent”. In the original language, Paul said that he should not be a ‘striker’—that is, someone who is inclined to get angry and settle things with his fists. He shouldn’t be the kind of man about which people say, “Whatever you do … don’t get him mad!” The people of God need to feel completely and unconditionally safe around him at all times. A hot-tempered brawler is a dangerous kind of man to have in leadership in a church.

Some translations—such as the one I’m using—have it that he should not be “greedy for money”. As Paul warns us later on in this letter, “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows” (1 Timothy 6:10). And overseer must be completely trustworthy with the funds that the people of God give for the work of the kingdom. The ministry is not the place for a man with ‘sticky fingers’ who misuses or misapprehends church funds.

Paul goes on in verse 3 to add, “but gentle”. And because not all ancient copies of Paul’s letter had the phrase “not greedy for money”, it may be that Paul meant to say that an overseer should be “not violent … but gentle”. The idea is that he is to be someone who is fair, and reasonable, and approachable. If someone has a criticism to offer to him, they should know that he’ll accept it, will think in a fair-minded and reasonable way about it, and will thank them for it.

Perhaps related to that, Paul adds that he should not be “quarrelsome”. An overseer in God’s house should not get into arguments and fights and shouting matches with the people of God. He shouldn’t be a man who’s known for raising his voice. The ministry of some pastors came to a sad and abrupt end because they chose to scold the people of God at a business meeting or in a sermon. It leaves a wound in their hearts and they never get over it. An overseer should know how to enter into matters of disagreement and controversy in such a way as to see both sides fairly and calmly … and leave the discussion with everyone feeling the better for it. God’s sheep should never have a reason to be afraid of their shepherd.

And finally in verse 3, Paul says that an elder must not be “covetous”. In the original language, this means that he must not be ‘a lover of gold’. Now; I’m very grateful that our church is generous. It provides a living for me and Marilyn so that I can concentrate on the work that I’m given to do. But this isn’t just a ‘job’—not like any other job, anyway. It’s a ‘calling’ from God. And I—and indeed any pastor—ought to be so committed to the work of the ministry that, if a church can’t pay, I’d do my best to do the work anyway. An overseer must not be in it for the love of money.

Now; an overseer in God’s household must not divide his ministry life from his private life. The integrity of his ministry life is to be reflected in his personal sphere. And so, he must be blameless …

3. IN FAMILY MANAGEMENT.

In vv. 4-5, Paul wrote to Timothy and said that an overseer must be “one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?) …”

This is a qualification that I believe needs to be handled carefully. If a man of God raises his small children to follow Jesus—and then, in their adulthood and in the age of accountable self-responsibility before God, they leave home, get in with the wrong crowd, and reject the faith and live wickedly—then that man can’t reasonably be held responsible. But so long as those children are living under his care before adulthood, it should be evident to everyone in the church family that he is able to raise them in an honorable manner—keeping them in submission to his fatherly rule without harshness and in a manner that reflects the fatherhood of God—not discouraging or disheartening them.

No family is perfect; because every family is a group of recovering sinners. But how a man leads his family is—to some measure—an indication of how he would lead a church. He must be a man who rules his own house well.

And in verse 6, Paul goes on to show that an overseer ought to be blameless …

6. IN CHRISTIAN MATURITY.

Paul wrote, “not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil.” The Greek word that Paul used for “novice” is the one from which we get the word ‘neophyte’—someone who is ‘new to the faith’. It’s a word that means “recently planted”. And it’s important that a man not be appointed to the position of ‘overseer’ who is new to the faith—even if he demonstrates remarkable skills and talents in other areas of life. He must first be well-grounded in the faith, and have had the time for his roots to grow down deep in his relationship with the Lord.

Paul warned that if someone was put in the position of leadership before they had sufficient spiritual maturity, they may fall into “the same condemnation as the devil”. And what was that condemnation? It was pride. Isaiah 14:12-14 says;

“How you are fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
You who weakened the nations!
For you have said in your heart:
‘I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation
On the farthest sides of the north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High’” (Isaiah 14:12-14).

Many ‘successful’ pastors have suffered terrible destruction in their ministry for just this very reason—pride. Sometimes, the level of their fame rises faster their settled maturity. That’s always a danger; and so, an overseer must not be someone brand new to the faith—but rather, someone who has first had enough time to grow in maturity in the Lord.

And then, finally in verse 7, Paul said that an overseer must be blameless …

5. IN OUTSIDE TESTIMONY.

He wrote, “Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.” I have often thought that, before a man is allowed to become the pastor of a church, he ought first to have worked a few years in a job outside the church. He should have a chance to prove himself to be a man of trustworthy and reliable character in the secular world before he is entrusted with the care of a church family.

In fact, a church ought to be able to go to a man’s former employer and say, “We are considering this man for a position of leadership over our church. From your experience with him, would you recommend him for this role?” If the response is, “You’ve got to be kidding! That rascal actually goes to a church?” … then there’s a serious problem. But if they can testify to his trustworthiness and reliability in his work outside of a church—even if they disagree with his commitments to Jesus Christ—then he will very likely be trustworthy and reliable in the work of God’s household.

* * * * * * * * * *

Now; all of these standards for a leader in the church might seem rather high. No other kind of work would require such high standards. The qualifications of true ‘blamelessness’ are higher for an elder than would be required in any other kind of work. But that’s because—in the eternal perspective of things—no other kind of work is as high as the work of leading the household of God. That’s why I spent that time reviewing this passage so long ago. I’m glad I did; because it was truly a decisive moment in the course of my life. It’s why I review it very often even today. And dear church family, it’s why you ought to review it often, too.

Let’s remember why Paul was led by the Holy Spirit to lay these standards out before us. As it says at the end of this chapter;

These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly; but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:

God was manifested in the flesh,
Justified in the Spirit,
Seen by angels,
Preached among the Gentiles,
Believed on in the world,
Received up in glory (1 Timothy 3:14-16).

Can any other work be more worthy of such high standards than this one?

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