Qualifications for a Pastor - PH11-02

Advanced Bible Doctrine - Philippians 1:1

© Berean Memorial Church of Irving, Texas, Inc. (1976)

At this moment, our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of God the Father in heaven awaiting the signal for His return to this earth. Meanwhile, we Christians are here upon the earth living in this dispensation of the church, and grace is the divine game plan by which God is providing us with fantastic spiritual resources such as no other group of believers has ever had in the history of the world in the past. During this age, Christ has established the institution of local churches for the spiritual training of believers in order to prepare them for their combat with Satan's fallen angels. We refer to this as the angelic warfare or the angelic conflict. Every believer is under the direct attack of demonic beings. He is under the direct attack of a master strategy which is controlled and directed by Satan in order to bring defeat and frustration and incapacity into your spiritual life.

One of the signs that you are on the beam in spiritual things and are functioning in God's plan is the amount of pressures which will mount against you. This is true of you individually, and this is true of a local church organization, which is the thing that we've been studying. As we come into the pattern of functioning according to what God wants us to do on this corner, the pressures mount more and more. That is because the signals have been sent back by Satan's fallen angels to the effect that Berean Memorial church is stepping up the offensive. Berean Memorial Church is coming closer to real combat success, and we are turning the battle toward the real issues that are out there to fight. As the word goes back to Satan's headquarters (the word is passed along), we are under the direct attack of increasing demonic hosts. The same is true of you.

So God our Father said that we have to provide a system of protection and a system of combat training. That's what the local church is all about. During the age of grace, God has provided us a pastor-teacher gift; a church organization; and, an opportunity thereby to have transferred to our mentalities the contents of the Bible. With this understanding, we are capable of meeting any fallen angel that roams the face of the earth today, including Satan himself. These churches are organizations. They are visible portions of the invisible body of Christ. They have members, and they have officers. The chief officer is an elder bishop whose job it is to train the congregation in the Word of God in order to prepare them for the angelic conflict. He administers the operation of the local church work. This pastor is assisted by various boards and committees who are under his direction and his authority. The congregation is the final decision making body in the local church structure.

Each church, we have pointed out, is fully autonomous and independent from every other local church with its own pastor leader. Inter-church operations are generally not desirable, and they in general are not profitable on a long-range basis. We have many ecclesiastical unions today which are an attempt to try to bring some supposed unity among believers. One of the greatest expressions of these today is a group called the National Council of Churches (NCC), along with its broader participation in the World Council of Churches (WCC). This is made up basically of liberal groups, but they are local church organizations which have been gathered together, and they are non-biblical, and they are apostate. Association with such local church organizations as the National Council of Churches or the World Council of Churches will be rejected by believers who understand Bible doctrine and who are true to the Lord. They will not lend their influence in any way to bring dignity or acceptability to something like the NCC or the WCC.

That may offend some of you because I know that you are aware that some very prominent evangelical leaders don't mind meeting with the World Council of churches or the National Council of Churches, and being speakers for their organizations, and participating in a sympathetic way with these structures. However, I don't want you to be deceived by people who are politicking. Politicians are not the only people who are politicking. Preachers run a close second. Because preachers are smarter and more cagey and sneakier than politicians, they are much better at it than politicians ever are. Consequently, do not be deceived by the fact that these organizations receive the support of people that we would hold in esteem.

Every local church has a decision to make relative to its association with something of this nature. These churches in the World Council of Churches are made up of false churches, and they are in reality the foundation of the world church which is to come under the antichrist. Actually, if you study the proposals and the goals of the World Council of Churches, you will find that they are liberal in theology; they are socialistic in economics; and, they are collectivist in politics. The pronouncements of the World Council of Churches consistently are anti-capitalistic and they are anti-American, and they have an overwhelming sympathy and support for socialism and for the communist world.

... The World Council of churches and the National Council of Churches are preparing the groundwork ecclesiastically for the antichrist's rule over this earth. So, do not take it lightly when we spend time explaining to you why God put the local church here; what he intends to do with it; how you and I are to function in it; and, in God's name, when you find one that is operating on divine principles and is doing the job that it should be doing, with all of its weaknesses and with all of its incapacities, and with all of the improvements that it needs, get behind it, and support it fanatically. Satan's way of handling a church which is doing the job is to see how many people he can get to start sloughing off; deserting; standing around the sidelines; shuffling their feet; and, refusing to take up the arms in the battle.

What we have been looking at is the structure of the local church. In the National Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches, if ever there was an example of the blind leading the blind, you have it. So let us get our eyes open. Even churches that are sympathetic to the Bible, because they default in the job that they are supposed to be doing, are contributing to the groundwork of the antichrist's church.

Qualifications for a Pastor Relative to Himself

Let's look at 1 Timothy 3 as we continue looking at the qualifications of the elder bishop pastor--the head executive of the local church. You remember that we have been looking at his relationship to himself which we read in verse 2. We have a series of specifications of qualifications that are required of one who holds the office of pastor. We have already found that:
  1. He is to be blameless, and blameless means that none are to be able to lay hold upon him for a matter of personal integrity and haul him off to jail.

  2. We found also that he is to be the husband of one wife which literally means "a man of one woman." We have pointed out also that this does not mean the elder bishop has to be married. There is one other thing we should mention, and that is that it does not mean that the elder bishop cannot remarry if his wife dies. It means he is not polygamous.

  3. A third requirement is that he be temperate. This is the Greek word "nephalios." "Nephalios" has specific reference to the quality of restraint, and the word was used in reference to restraint in drinking--the use of wine. It connotes, in other words, that a pastor should have a quality of moderation. He should not be given to excesses in anything, and that's important in a leader. This applies to his physical; his moral; and, his mental tastes and habits. He is to be well-balanced.

  4. He is to be sober-minded. In the Greek, this is the word "sophron." "Sophron" denotes a sound mind. Because his mind is sound, he has self-control. A sound mind makes a sensible person, and a sensible person is a self-controlled person. His self-control will be dependent upon being filled with the Spirit; functioning under the grace system of perception; and, operating in a spiritual maturity structure. All of these things produce a sound mind, and therefore self-control. A pastor without self-control over his spirit, soul, and body is a disaster zone to the flock. He can't be one who is swayed by sudden impulses. He can't be an emotional type of character. He has to be sober-minded and self-controlled.

  5. He is to be of good behavior. The word is "kosmios," and this connotes conduct which is neither immodest nor shy. He creates, in other words, an image that draws dignity and respect toward him. The word means "a properly organized pattern of conduct."

  6. He is to be given to hospitality. The word here in the Greek is "philoxenos," and it comes from two words. It comes from "phile" which means friendly; and, from "xenos" which means "stranger." So "philoxenos" means "a friend of strangers." What this refers to is a willingness to provide lodging and food as proper objects of care come by. This was a very important practice in New Testament times for traveling Christian workers and for messengers, especially during the time of the persecution of Christians. This is a kindness which is to be performed when necessary without an undercurrent of murmuring or dissatisfaction on the part of the pastor (1 Peter 4:9). It does not mean inviting people over to a social dinner and having an evening of fun together; then, in turn, the person will invite the pastor over for a dinner and an evening of fun. It does not mean that the pastor is expected by God to be a social gadfly, inviting all the members out to dinner.

    I remember a man when I was in Dallas Seminary telling us that when he was pastor of a church, he would invite various members over, and he would do it just because he enjoyed having some people over, and they enjoyed coming over. They had a natural camaraderie. Other church members began to complain and murmur because they didn't get invited. So, when he became pastor of a new church, he said to his wife, "Now we will begin at the top of the list of the membership, and we will go down, and everybody will be invited. So he proceeded to invite every family one-by-one. He got well down into the list, and then he discovered an undercurrent of complaints because some people had been invited first before other people who had been invited. Some people who had been in the church longer had not been invited before people who were more recent. So he concluded that was a losing battle, and he quit inviting church members to his house for dinner.

    The Word of God is not asking the pastor, when it says he is to be given to hospitality, to be a social gadfly in this sense. It does mean that when proper objects of lodging and provision of food and care come by, he is to be ready to perform that kindness.

  7. The next one is a very very strategic one, and that is that he be apt to teach ("didaktikos"). This means that the pastor is to be skilled in teaching Bible doctrine. It doesn't mean skilled in just teaching anything. Some people can be skilled in teaching, but they are not skilled (they do not have an ability) in conveying God's point of view. They must be able to get through the human mind what God is actually thinking, and to get it into the minds of people in such a way that people are shattered in all of their defenses and all of their attempts to cover up and to rationalize and justify themselves. They are faced with what God says, and they are seeing themselves as God sees them. That takes a special divine gift to be able to do that.

    This refers of course to the spiritual gifts that we call pastor-teacher from Ephesians 4:11. A pastor-teacher is what every pastor must be in order to fulfill his office. A pastor must be skilled, in other words, in public instruction. Prerequisite to that is a certain amount of training and a certain amount of study, and there is no way he can shepherd the flock without this. Without this, the sheep can do just as well on their own. If you do not have someone as pastor who has the gift of pastor-teacher; who has not had training; and, who does not study, the sheep can do just as well on their own. However, if you have that combination, there is no way the sheep can begin to acquire the divine viewpoint that they will through this provision of the Lord.

    For this reason, church members should in every way encourage this characteristic in the pastor. If there's anything you want to pray for, it's this right here: "God help our pastor to be capable in teaching." That means that you should therefore pray that you will be conscious as a congregation of doing everything that you can to free him to be able to do this; that you will attend the services when he has prepared for you; that you will learn; that you will act accordingly; that you will be aware, in an age of apostasy, that you have a gem of an opportunity to enter into God's point of view; and, that therefore you will run around yelling to everybody that will listen to you, "I've got a gem. I've got a gem of a place for you to enter into God's viewpoint, and I wish you'd come there and get in on it." That's part of your job of witnessing. If God is provided the local church that's doing the job, then you are responsible for getting the word out about it.

Qualifications for a Pastor Relative to Other Believers

The pastor has certain relationships to others. We have these in 1 Timothy 3:3:
  1. The first one in this series is that he that he is not given to wine ("meparoinos"). This comes from two words. It comes from the preposition "para" which means "with," and "oinos" which means wine: "with wine." What the word means is that the pastor is not to be someone who sits long with his wine. In other words, he's addicted to booze. He is not to be somebody who sits there staring at the cup when the juice is red until he can't see it anymore. I must remind you that wine was the standard beverage of New Testament times. So, this is what would have been used by pastors then. However, this is no justification for pastors to be drinking today. Since national leaders are forbidden in the Word of God from the use of alcohol because of a threat to their judgment, it would seem that certainly pastors should in like manner refrain from the use of alcohol because of the threat to their judgment and to the performance of their duty, which is far more important than any poor politician is ever called upon to do. He is not to be an alcoholic.

    An alcoholic habitually falls into the habit of drinking by himself. He sits long at his drink. A drinking pastor is prone to get mentally and spiritually disoriented as well as offensive in his conduct. In New Testament times, they had to drink wine. This caution had to be inserted for a pastor for whom this was the normal beverage. Today, we don't have to drink the wine. We don't have to use the alcohol. Therefore, it is not as great a threat to us as it was then.

  2. He is not to be violent ("meplektes"). "Meplektes" means "a pugnacious man," one who is looking for a fistfight. He's the bully type who resorts to muscle as a course of policy. If he wants somebody to do something in his church, and they don't want to do it, he muscles them up a little bit. This was the pre-Mafia type of pastor that we were being cautioned about in New Testament times. This was the pastor who makes an offer that you can't afford to refuse. This kind of conduct can stem either from drinking, for which he's cautioned not to do, or it can stem from the fact he's got a hot temper because he doesn't have control of his old sin nature. In other words, a pastor is not supposed to beat up on his sheep.

  3. For the next qualification, your text may say "not greedy of filthy lucre." We'll bypass that one because it is not in the Greek Bible. It was inserted. It does not belong in there.

  4. The next one is patient ("epieikeia"). "Epieikeia" means not "demanding one's right in dealing with people." It denotes what we may call, on the pastor's part, "a sweet reasonableness" in the face of stupid conduct treatment by the sheep. He is to be fair, and he is to be gentle. He is not to be the spitfire type who is determined to get the treatment he deserves, even when it is unjustly denied him. He doesn't demand his rights. If there's anybody who should understand that we as human beings have only one right, and that is a right to spend eternity in hell, it should be the pastor who understands that. Anything else that we have is by the grace of God, and therefore we Christians, and certainly including the pastor, are not to be going around demanding our rights in the face of stupid conduct. He is to be patient.

  5. He is not to be a brawler ("amochos"). This comes from the word which means to fight, and then it has the Greek letter "a" which is a negative, so he is not to be a fighter. He is not to be antagonistic. This means, not in a physical sense, but this means in an attitude sense. He is not to be contentious. He is not to be a troublemaker. He is not to seek to be controversial in order to keep his life exciting. He is not to seek to constantly create some kind of an issue so that the congregation can be divided, and taking sides. He is not to be the kind of a person who has a chip on his shoulder. That's what this word means: not a brawler.

  6. He is not to be covetous ("aphilarguros"). This comes from the word which means "fond," or an emotional attachment; and, it comes from the word which means "silver." Therefore, he is to be one who is free from the love of money. He is to be from an emotional attachment in his soul for material things. A pastor has to balance this requirement, as indeed you do, against what we are called upon to do in 1 Timothy 5:8. That verse tells us that a man who does not take care of the needs of his family is worse than an unbeliever. Therefore, there is this proper care for family. Yet, there is this restraint, in the process of doing this, of becoming greedy for money.

    The pastor's legitimate remuneration from the congregation is a doctrinal principle. This is a provision of the Lord through a faithful congregation (1 Timothy 5:17-18). A pastor is tempted to be covetous for money when he is pressured in his congregation by power lust members who want to use money as a point of control over him. This is the oldest racket in a local church operation--pastors who are faced by pressures by power members who want to use money as a control factor over him. You will find that a congregation which supplies its pastor with just and generous financing, will find that the Lord will provide the money.

    I'll tell you one of the surest signs of a spiritually disoriented person. I care not whether he is a simple member in the pew, or he's a leader. If you have a business meeting that's discussing a pastor's salary, and somebody stands up and says, "We can't afford to pay him that much." Somebody says, "Well, this is what we should pay him. This is what he needs. This is his stage in life. This is what his family requires. This is what should be paid him." Then, somebody stands up and says, "We don't have the money. We can't afford to pay that." You spot that person, and you write him off immediately as a spiritually disoriented person, and one who is guilty of this very thing--an emotional attachment to money.

    What you will find in practice is that when a congregation does what is right relative to pastoral remuneration, God will bring the money in. You will have the personal satisfaction and the personal sense of dignity, as a congregation, of having performed before God that which was true doctrine. So anytime somebody stands up and argues that since you don't see the money in hand, you shouldn't offer to commit to make this remuneration, you've got a person who is spiritually disoriented. You want to be careful of him because he is a bad influence.

    When a congregation does this, God will provide. What a commendation often does under the influence of such an idea (that you don't have the money, and you can't afford it) is that the congregation spends the money on itself by maintaining and improving its properties and expanding its facilities. Many a church is sub-paying its pastor because it is amply expanding and improving its own facilities and its own properties. So they get carried away in doing something that may even be justified. It's dangerous for the spiritual well-being of a congregation when a pastor gets carried away with getting rich. Whatever the reason that drove into him to it, it is dangerous for the congregation when you get a pastor who wants to accumulate funds. He may even need them, but it's a dangerous game. 1 Timothy 6:9-10 is the principle. It applies to you, and it applies to him.

Qualifications for a Pastor Relative to His Family

Then there is a series of requirements that are in relationship to the pastor's family:
  1. He has to be one that rules well his own house. This begins in 1 Timothy 3:4. The word "rule" is "proistemi." This happens to be a present middle participle. It means that he is constantly to rule his house. He is to rule it for his own personal benefit. He will benefit by this. The word means "to stand before," "to preside over," or "to superintend." He is to do this, the Bible says, "well." This is the Greek word "kalos." "Kalos" is a word that means that the value shows up externally. He rules it well, and you can see it on the outside. By what his family does, you can see that he is ruling it well. It's not because he's telling you that he's ruling it well. It is because you can look and you can see that it is being ruled well according to the externals that are evident. In other words, the word "kalos" means "beautifully handled." This refers to his own house ("idios"), the pastor's own particular personal household. It is not that he can give you good advice as to how you should rule yours. This is talking about his own house.

  2. For that reason, we come to the second point here which is having his children in subjection. "Having" is the Greek word "echo." It is present active participle. Present means constantly. Active means he himself. It is not that his wife has the kids in proper control. He has them in proper subjection. The word "subjection" is "hupotage." It simply means "obedience." It is related to another Greek word that you have heard before, the Greek word "hupotasso." "Hupotasso" means "to arrange under." It was a military term. It was the term which was used to simply falling in line. This is the term the Bible uses to describe the relationship of the wife to her husband. If there is anything a wife is to be to her husband, it is "hupotasso." She is to fall in line under her husband.

    The Bible says that there are things that Satan's mind spews out, and that God is going to spew them of His mouth (such as the World Council of Churches). Along with the rest of the garbage, the greatest, the most grotesque, and the vilest garbage that God is going to spew out is women's liberation, which Satan's mind is currently spewing out. ... "Hupotasso" means that if you don't want to line up under a man; take his direction; respond to his authority; and, do what he tells you to do, even if you don't want to do it or you have a different opinion, then don't get married. Just don't get married.

    If you want to teach your daughter what God has for her, then teach her "hupotasso." If you don't want to teach your daughter that, and you want to teach her in the spirit of feminism, then in heaven's name, teach her not to get married. The saddest remark a man can make about his wife is, "She has her own life to live too." ... That shows that she is not "hupotasso." That shows that she is not his helper seeking to be part of his life. It means that they're are a little committee, and they're voting together.

    The Bible never tells a wife to love her husband. It tells the husband to love his wife--to have this mental goodwill attitude toward his wife. The only thing the Bible tells a wife to do is "hupotasso" her husband. Line up under his authority. When he does his job of loving her with that mental attitude concern, she will fall all over herself in affection for him, and she will become a real female. She can never become a real woman in the feminine sense of the word until she "hupotassos." Up to then, she's just another one of the boys at the office competing for a position. If you are a competing wife, you've got a lousy role, I'll tell you. In the long run, you're going to be a loser. This is the husband who looks around and finds himself somebody else that's more attractive that has caught the signal of womanhood and plays the "hupotasso" role. So I'm going to caution you. You play your role at a great danger to yourself personally.

    In the home, the children (as the wife is) are to be in subjection to the father. The elder bishop is to command the respect of his children so that they respect his authority. They submit to it rather than pursue loose living and insubordination. The way he does this is when they are little, when they step out of line, he nails them to the wall. He bruises them; he marks them up; he beats them; he loves them; and, he keeps channeling them in the right direction, and they get the idea. And when they are grown, they're grooved in. Even when they're mouthy teenagers, they're grooved in. The older they get, the more grateful and appreciative they are to that kind of a father because he gave them the right signals. His children are to be "in subjection with all gravity." The word is "semnotes" which means that the kids are to reflect respect in their conduct; in their dress; in their speech; and, in their attitudes. They are to act with propriety.

    In other words, verse 5 says that the home reflects the man. Our society says that the home reflects the woman. That is wrong. The home reflects the man. Verse 5 says, "For if a man knows not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? The word "know" here is the Greek word "oida" which means "an innate sense." He needs an innate sense to know how to rule. We have the word "proistemi" again. Here it is aorist active infinitive which means that at any particular point, it is his purpose for him actively to rule. It is sound to assume, the Scriptures say, that if a man does not know how to command respect for his authority and his home, then he will not be able to take care of the church of God and command respect there.

    "Epimelomi" means to take care. It is future so it means every time that the flock needs caring, he actively is to do it. This is his job. This is his prime responsibility--to take care of the flock. It requires authority which is respected to do that. No pastor, if he cannot exercise command presence in the flock, is worthy of the name. I'll tell you the pastorate ministry today is flooded with men who do not have a command presence in their flock. They are the patsies of every pushy personality around the place. They are the patsies of every board that brings pressures upon them. In so many cases today, the pastor is not God's man, and if he is not God's man, he is useless to the flock. I'll guarantee you. The Word of God uses this word ("take care of") for the work of the Good Samaritan. This describes what the Good Samaritan did. He took care of. Part of that was hurting the injured man in applying the medicine.

Qualifications for a Pastor Relative to Maturity

There is another category and that is his relationship to maturity. We have this in verse 6: He is not to be a novice  ("neophutos"). This comes from "neos" which means "new," and "phuo" which means "to spring up." Therefore, he is not to be "newly planted" or "newly sprung up." He is not to be a novice. In other words, he's not to be a new convert who is immature and therefore incapable of pastoral leadership. A babe in Christ is weak on spiritual judgment, and the signals from the Lord are very confusing to him. He has a lot of confusing static on the line. Therefore, a person who does not have a mature spiritual maturity structure is not qualified to take the role of pastor. He may have the pastor-teacher gift, but he is not yet ready to start exercising that gift.

A novice in faith is in the position of being prone to pride. If he's a beginner and he is given a position of authority, he'll be lifted up. The word is "tuphoo." It means he is puffed up with stupid conceit. He is stupid proud, and the word "tuphoo" actually means a smokescreen. He is blinded by his own smokescreen of pride. Therefore, he may fall ("empipto") which is aorist active subjunctive. Aorist means at some point. Active means he does something because of his pride to cause him to fall into sin. Subjunctive means maybe he will or maybe he won't. He will fall into the condemnation ("krima") of Satan (that is, what Satan suffered)--the condemnation that came from pride. A pastor is required through his own preparation in his own spiritual life to be spiritually stable.

A half-cocked Christian leader is a bane on the church. Novices in the ministry, incidentally, will substitute with gimmicks in conducting the work instead of resorting to the grace of God. Because he doesn't understand the techniques for Christian living, he'll give out trite phrases like, "If Christ is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all." His preaching is constantly a rehash of the gospel to Christians who don't need to hear it again. He'll create various emotional issues and causes to make people feel like they are really serving the Lord.

Qualifications for a Pastor Relative to Unbelievers

Finally, there is his relationship to unbelievers in verse 7. That is, he is to have a good report of them that are without. Here we again have the word "good," meaning "in externals." As the unbelievers look upon him, he has a good reputation. He should be honorable in his dealing with unbelievers in such a way that they can see it. He should not fall into the reproach of the "oneidismos," which means "a defamation" or "a disgrace," by falling into a snare of Satan ("pagis") which is a trap set by Satan. These would be seductions to evil so that he projects a bad image to those who are not believers. He'll fall into a trap like self-pity or bitterness or something else because he puts a bad image to the unbelievers. This works against him.

The Significance of the Qualifications for a Pastor

There are certain factors that I want to point out just in tying this up concerning the significance of these requirements which are stated for a pastor elder bishop:
  1. They do not imply that a pastor is to be sinless. Obviously, this could not be true. He has an old sin nature.
  2. They do imply that the pastor is to be one who has the quality of jerking his old sin nature back into line so that he does conform to these qualifications. He has to be able to jerk the thing back in line.
  3. He is to have a stability in these qualities so as not to be easily moved from them. He should be pretty stable in these qualities before he enters this office. When he does fail in some factor, he should have the quality of immediately reconstructing that failure and bringing things back into line.
That's what these qualifications expect of him. Many of them of course you can see readily also apply to anybody in the congregation. However, because the job of the pastor-teacher is not to lord it over the flock, but to be an example to them, it is expected that he above all must qualify in this way so that all the rest of the people in the congregation will see the direction in which they too must qualify.

In the next session, we'll pick up the office of deacon and start spelling that out in some detail.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1973

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