ETHICAL QUALITIES REQUIRED OF AN
EPHESIAN ELDER
(I Tim. 3:2-7)
OVERVIEW OF I TIMOTHY 1:1-20 to 3:7
1:1-2 – Overview of Christian Faith based on names for God and the blessings He bestows on His people.
1:3-4a False teaching in Ephesus and how humanistic philosophy effects us today.
1:4b-6 – The goal of the command is love. (Loving God, fellow Christians, the non-Christian world)
1:7-8 – The law is good if used properly. (The law’s deterrent, punitive and educative purposes)
1:8-11 – “Whatever else …” The Gospel Ethic. (Law-Philia University)
1:11 – Our Relationship with “The Blessed God.” (Causing God pain or joy)
1:12-16 Why Paul considered himself the worst of sinners.
1:12-16 Conversion of the apostle Paul.
1:12-16 Paul’s call to ministry.
1:17 Paul’s doxology of praise for his conversion.
1:18-20 How to avoid shipwrecking our faith.
2:1-3 The Christian is to pray for all men.
2:4,6 Comparison of Calvinism & Armenianism.
2:5-6 The man, Christ Jesus, the only mediator.
2:1-7 The vision, the message, the means.
2:8-15 Treatment of women in the ancient world, the early church and the Bible.
2:8-15 Three key hermeneutic principles to follow when studying the Bible.
2:8 Praying Men with Peaceful Hearts
2:9-10 A First-Century Christian Woman’s Dress and Deeds
2:11-12 Does Submission Demand Silence?
2:13-15 Paul’s Logic for Requiring Women to Be Silent in The Ephesian House Churches.
3:1 Why Aspiring to Church Leadership Can Be a Good Thing.
3:2-7 Ethical Demands of the NT and the Ethics Tests for Elders
3:2-7 Ethical Qualities Required of an Ephesian Elder
3:2-7 Skills Required of an Elder
2Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4He 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?) 6He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. 7He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap.
INTRODUCTION:
Living an ethically high quality life is not an option for us. It is required. Paul charges Timothy to “… train yourself to be godly” (I Tim. 4:7). What is required of elders should be the ideal of all believers.
QUESTION: What does the emphasis on ethics in the Bible do for /teach us as Christians?
1. Points to the absolute authority of God over our lives. Once we admit that we must possess the moral qualities commanded by God we are acknowledging His reign over us.
2. Biblical Ethics are one of God’s gifts, showing us how to live happily in a broken, sinful world.
3. Biblical Ethics force us to look to Christ for salvation and also enabling to see these qualities worked into the warp and woof of our lives.
A. THE ELDER’S LIST (I Tim. 3:2-7)
Above Reproach
Marital faithfulness
Temperate
Self-controlled
Respectable
Gentle (not violent / quarrelsome)
Mature (not a recent convert / not conceited)
Good reputation with unbelievers
Not given to drunkenness
Not a lover of money
Hospitable
Able to teach
Able to lead
B. THE ELDER’S LIST IN TITUS (Titus 1:6-9)
Blameless
Marital faithfulness
Loves what is good
Self-controlled
Upright
Holy
Disciplined
Not quick tempered
Not overbearing
No drunkard
Not violent
Not dishonest
Able to lead (submissive children)
Hospitable
Holds to the Word
C. DEACON’S LIST IN I TIM. 3:8-12
Worthy of respect
Sincere
Temperate (women)
Trustworthy (women)
Clear conscience
Marital faithfulness
Not a drunkard
Not dishonest
Not malicious talkers (women)
Hold the deep truths
Able to lead (manage family well)
A CLOSER LOOK AT EACH ETHICAL QUALITY REQUIRED OF AN ELDER
* “If you aim at a fervent spiritual life, then you too must turn your back on the crowds as Jesus did. The only man who can safely appear in public is the one who wishes he were at home. He alone can safely speak who prefers to be silent. Only he can safely govern who prefers to live in submission, and only he can safely command who prefers to obey. … We must imitate Christ’s life and his ways if we are to be truly enlightened and set free from the darkness of our own hearts. Let it be the most important thing we do.” (Thomas A Kempis, in The Imitation of Christ).
* Charles Spurgeon describes in his Lectures to His Students a good preacher but a bad Christian: “He preached so well and lived so badly, that when he was in the pulpit everybody said he ought never to come out again, and when he was out of it they all declared he never ought to enter it again” (MacArthur, pg. 114).
* When comparing the various lists we noted that marital faithfulness, avoidance of drunkenness, violence, greed etc came up on several of the lists.
* Spent much time finding support for all of the qualities here in the teachings of Jesus. All of these qualities can be supported with verses, stories and examples in the Gospels.
A. THE HUSBAND OF BUT ONE WIFE
1. Several options, e.g. no polygamy, only married once, must be married or “a one woman man,” that is faithful to his wife.
2. The false teachers had a very low view of marriage and family.
They forbid people to marry …. (I Tim. 4:3).
He must manage his own family well … (I Tim. 3:4).
3. Cato, a great Roman jurist said, “If you were to take your wife in adultery, you could kill her with impunity, without any court judgment; but if you were involved in adultery, she would not dare to lift a finger against you, for it is unlawful.” (Barclay, pg. 77)
4. Things grew so bad and marriage grew so irksome, that in
131 B.C. a well-known Roman called Metellus Macedonicus made the following statement: “If we could do without wives, we would be rid of the nuisance. But since nature has decreed that we can neither live comfortably with them nor live at all without them, we must look rather to our permanent interests than to passing pleasure.” (Barclay pg 77).
5. Demosthenes, Oration 59:122: “Mistresses we keep for the sake of pleasure, concubines for the daily care of the body, but wives to bear us legitimate children” (Fee, pg. 84).
6. “It has been said, and with much truth, that the only totally new virtue which Christianity brought into this world was chastity” (Barclay, pg. 76).
B. TEMPERATE, SELF-CONTROLLED, RESPECTABLE
1. “… the first three are closely akin and describe an orderly life” (Guthrie, pg. 92). Compared in 16 different translations it seems the words temperate, sensible, self-controlled, and well behaved best sum up what is expected.
3. My free translation: “Now the overseer must be a moderate, self-controlled, sensible person of good behavior.”
C. SELF-CONTROL
Paul speaking to Felix, “As Paul discoursed on righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come” (Acts 24:25).
“Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control” (Prov. 25:28).
A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control (Prov. 29:11).
The grace of God teaches us to live self-controlled lives (Titus 2:11-12).
Older men (Titus 2:2), married women (Titus 2:5) and young men (Titus 2:6) are challenged to live self-controlled lives.
1. Christians have great reason to be self-controlled, help in living self-controlled lives: (1) Love of Christ; 2) Power from the Holy Spirit living within; (3) The Word of God; (4) Support of the body of believers.
2. People say that they can’t stop doing something, e.g. smoking, drinking, overeating but put a gun to their head and say, “One more cigarette and your dead” and they will not smoke that cigarette.
D. GENTLE (NOT QUARRELSOME /VIOLENT)
1. Odd to us that “violent” would come up in four of the eight lists that we studied.
2. The description of the false teachers in I Tim. 6:3-5, as well as in II Tim. 2:22-26 suggests that they were given to strife and quarrels.
“He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strive …Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels” (II Tim. 2:23).
3. Aristotle’s definition of gentle (Epieikeia): To pardon human failings; to look to the law-giver, not to the law; to the intention, not to the action; to the whole, not to the part; to the character or the actor in the long run and not in the present moment; to remember good rather than evil, and the good that one has received rather than the good that one has done; to bear being injured; to wish to settle a matter by words rather than deeds.” (Barclay, pg. 83-84).
4. Stories of Christians fighting in Indonesia re leadership (Bataks) and in America re doctrine. And tension between Christians due to doctrine etc.
E. MATURE (NOT CONCEITED)
He must not be recent convert, or he may become conceited and full under the same judgment as the devil (I Tim. 3:6).
1. The Greek word translated “become conceited / typhoo” means literally ‘to wrap in smoke’ and suggests that a new convert would find himself ‘beclouded’. Pride gives a false send of altitude, making the subsequent fall all the greater” (Guthrie, 94).
2. It was pride that brought Satan down. Not content with being the highest ranking angel, he sought to exalt himself above God (cf. Ezek. 28:11-19; Isa. 14:12-14). The five “I wills” of Isaiah 14:12-14 clearly show his pride” (MacArthur 118).
3. Conceit / pride is tricky. You understand who you are and then somebody congratulates you and all of a sudden you lose focus and think you are somebody … Pride is really the Mother of All Sins. Pride is the only sickness (sin) that makes everyone sick except the person that has it.
4. As you mature, after you have experience a victory or received a little adulation, you are able to come down to earth more quickly and face reality.
E. DRUNKENNESS
1. 29Who are the people who are always crying the blues? Who do you know who reeks of self-pity? Who keeps getting beat up for no reason at all? Whose eyes are bleary and bloodshot? 30It’s those who spend the night with a bottle, for whom drinking is serious business. 31Don’t judge wine by its label, or its bouquet, or its full-bodied flavor. 32Judge it rather by the hangover it leaves you with– the splitting headache, the queasy stomach. 33Do you really prefer seeing double, with your speech all slurred, 34Reeling and seasick, drunk as a sailor? 35″They hit me,” you’ll say, “but it didn’t hurt; they beat on me, but I didn’t feel a thing. When I’m sober enough to manage it, bring me another drink!” (Prov. 223:39-35)
2. In ancient times most people consumed wine, since it was the staple liquid to drink. The water was impure, and mixing the wine with the water not only significantly diluted the alcohol content, but purified the water. A mixture of eight parts of water to one part wine was common, so as to avoid any dissipating effect. Timothy was even reluctant to take the mixed wine, so as not to set an example that could cause someone to stumble. Thus, he was committed to abstinence, and Paul had to tell him, “no longer drink water exclusively, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments” (5:23). Drinking only water was contributing to his poor health. (MacArthur, 110-111)
F. NOT A LOVER OF MONEY
1. “I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions… not a lover of money … not pursuing dishonest gain … not pursuing dishonest gain …” (Acts 20:33; I Tim. 3:3,8; Titus 1:8).
2. Verses in I Timothy that seek to give balance re money.
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs (I Tim. 6:10).
If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (I Tim. 5:8).
The elders that direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, “Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves his wages” (I Tim. 5:17,18).
3. QUESTION: How does a person know if they are a lover of money?
But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that “I Tim. 6:6-7).
ILLUSTRATION: Hank Hannergraf, “The Bible Answer Man” in Christianity Today, August 2003, Pg. 19-20 … income and expenses.
G. THE “CORE” OF CHRISTIAN MORALITY
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For all that is in the world–the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life–is not of the Father but is of the world. 17And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever (I John 2:15-17 NKJV).
1. The lust of the flesh …. A one-woman man
2. The lust of the eyes … Not a lover of money
3. The pride of life ……… Not conceited
4. Indonesian and the three “ta”s: Wanita, harta, tachta
5. In Western Culture: Wine, women and song; Eat, drink and be merry and “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.”
6. QUESTION: Which of the Ten Commandments deal with these core sins that a Christian is to war against?
SO WHAT?
A. If we are to represent Christ in this broken world, then we must have a goal of “being conformed to His image,” of becoming holy in word and deed.
B. The only way our post-Christian, neo-pagan culture will be reformed is by Christians living “Christianly.”
C. The good news is that Christ does not only challenge us to live on another level, but He through His Spirit lives in us enabling us to live a holy life.
As rays of light from yonder sun, The flowers of earth set free, So light and life and love came forth, From Christ living in me.