1 Tim. 3:1-7
“Able to Teach”
At the beginning of this series, we said that there are two kinds of elders: teaching elders and ruling elders. Teaching elders specialize in teaching, of course. Does that imply that ruling elders only rule and not teach? That would mean that the list of qualifications we have in our passage is for teaching elders only and not for ruling elders. That would be the case if teaching elders just taught and not ruled at all. But they do both. The issue is that of emphasis: teaching elders are the elders that specialize in teaching; in the same way, ruling elders specialize in ruling but they must also be capable of teaching as well. We will see why that is the case as we move on.
Today’s message can go in all kinds of directions because we are dealing with just one word in the Greek text. No other information is attached to this generic word to help us define the scope of our consideration. But we will limit our consideration to two main issues, which, I believe, flow out of its context of elder qualifications. The first is the foundational importance of teaching ministry in the church. The second is the content and character of teaching in the church.
This qualification--“able to teach”--is important to
elders--especially for teaching elders but also for ruling elders--because of
the nature of the
When you
come to church, what do you expect? When you look for a church, what criteria
do you use? Do you see the church as a place of learning?
·
Many
come to church to be comforted and encouraged. That is important. For we live
in a fallen world, bombarded with temptations, burdened by sins, assaulted by
Satan, afflicted by trials and tribulations. To the weary and heavy-laden,
Jesus extends His gracious invitation: “Come to Me…,
and I will give you rest” (Matt.
·
Many
come to church for a sense of community as well. Despite all the advancement in
(instant) communication devices--such as cell phones, e-mails, text-messaging
and video conferencing, etc.--people are lonelier than ever. They want to meet
“nice” people. They want to develop meaningful relationships. They want to get
plugged in. This sense of community is important. That is a part of who we are
as creatures made in the image of the Triune God, who in Himself is a perfect,
divine community. That is why God gathers us together in a covenant community
rather than scatter us all over as lone rangers. But is that all?
I am sure
that there are many other things that people view as important in a church. And
I am sure that many of them are quite legitimate and biblical. But are they all
equally important? Is the nursery as important as the worship style? And is the
worship style as important as the teaching? Are they all equally important?
Many of us
have come to know that one tragic consequence of the Fall,
one devastating effect of sin, is “messing up” the proper order of things God established
at creation. There are many things that are important but they are not all
equally important. We at times are forced to face this reality. When your house
catches fire, when there is an earthquake, we cannot take everything we want.
Even among many important things, we have to make choice. We can, and we do, because
we are aware of the varying degrees of importance in things. Someone said that
courage is the ability to choose the most important thing over the second most
important thing. I would add that wisdom is to see what is most important over
what is second most important. When we get this order confused, it can result
in terrible consequences. So it is no wonder that Satan specializes in this
area.
We can
easily fall prey to Satan’s schemes if we fail to see that certain things more
important than others. But we also must realize that certain things are not
just “more” important but “foundationally” important than others. Here is an
example: when Satan tempted Eve, he tempted her by saying, “You will not surely
die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be
opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:4-5).
With these words Satan flamed Eve desire to be like God. Was that desire wrong?
No. After all, God created her in His own image and likeness. He did so that
she could be like Him! And God desired His image, in which He made Adam and
Eve, to be perfected through their obedience to His command. Their obedience to
God’s will was foundational to their becoming like Him! But Satan
conveniently skipped this point and insinuated that she could still get to the
goal (of being like God) without following God!
As
Christians, we would all agree that God is more important than anything in our
life. But what do we mean by that? Is He just more important than anything in
the sense that He is at the top of the scale of importance? Is God, then, in
competition with other important things in our life? If so, God would be just
one compartment in our compartmentalized life. And if so, worshipping God and
loving our neighbor would be constantly in conflict.
Our
relationship with God is not just more important than others; it is foundationally
important to our being and to everything we do. We are not to choose between
worshipping God and loving our neighbors. We are to love our neighbors because
we worship the God, who made us in His image and commands us to love one
another. God is not just one of the many spokes in a wheel: He is the hub, to
whom all the spokes of life are connected. Our relationship with God is
foundationally important because we are special creatures made in the image of
God. Can you imagine a building without foundation? Without God we have no
foundation.
·
What
is happiness without God? How often does an average man feel truly and deeply
happy throughout the seventy, or eighty years of his life? And how long do
those moments of happiness really last?
·
What
is prosperity without God? Can it give us a sense of lasting joy and
fulfillment? Do we not see how fleeting it is? There is a reason why we speak
of the wheel of fortune: when we get caught up in it, we get dizzy in its rapid
spinning, going up and down and round and round!
·
And
what is health without God? Our society is so obsessed with health. But why?
What is the point? The important thing is not just being healthy but what we
use our health for, isn’t it? Wouldn’t you agree that healthy and attractive
people are exposed to so much more temptation because of their health and
beauty? Seen from the perspective of God’s law, health and beauty, if people
are not careful, can be a curse rather than a blessing.
You see,
everything is meaningless without God. Whatever we build is bound to collapse
without the foundation of God. The merciless, cruel demolition crew called
Death is waiting at the grave, ever ready to tear down whatever we have built
with its sinister glee. “Vanity of vanities! All is
vanity!” is the echo that reverberates throughout the corridor of human
history. God alone is the only, sure Foundation. We must realize that true
happiness, true prosperity, true health, true security and all the good things
that we long for in our hearts are all a by-product of being in right
relationship with God, who is the Fountain of every blessing. Adam and Eve
could, and did, try to be like God at Satan’s suggestion. Did they become like
God? They failed miserably as Satan did. They made themselves slaves of created
things rather than rulers over them. They broke the beautiful harmony of their
relationship and blamed each other for their sins. And they were cast out of the
paradise, out of the garden-temple of God. They became the image-bearers of
Satan instead of God’s. The only way to be like God is to worship God and Him
alone. For we become more and more like that which we worship.
Yes, encouragement
is important. Fellowship is important. A sense of community and meaningful
relationship we experience in the church is important. But they all are meant
to be a by-product of the truth of the gospel. What are gentle words of
encouragement and comfort without the truth of God’s grace and love
demonstrated in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for us? A
husband may hold the hands of his dying wife and say, “Honey, you will be OK!”
Is there true comfort in those words? If she finds comfort in those words, it
is definitely not in the truth of those words but in the touching yet
pathetically powerless efforts of his to make her feel better any way he can. But
is that the kind of comfort and encouragement we have in Jesus Christ? No, and praise
God! The comfort of the gospel is powerful and effective because Jesus actually
rose again from the dead, conquering death and overcoming the world as the
triumphant Lord of heaven and earth! When He speaks “Peace!
Be still!” He speaks not as a pathetic husband, who has no power to help his
wife but his good intention yet helpless; He speaks as the God of creation, who
called all things into existence out of nothing; He speaks as the Savior of the
world, whose breath gives life that is eternal and abundant; He speaks as the
resurrected Lord, who triumphed over sin and death and Satan and is now seated
at the right hand of God in glory! That is the One, who is speaking to you now
in this place! His word can bring peace to our guilty conscience! His word can
breathe into our hearts true comfort and courage against all odds and
adversities!
What is
fellowship and sense of community without the truth of the gospel? If we want a
sense of community because we feel lonely--that is, to satisfy my
need--what would happen to that community when my needs are no longer met? Shaky
indeed is the foundation of such a community--as shaky as people are fickle! And
if all joined the community to have their needs met, what will happen to
the fellowship when some differences arise among the members? Let us suppose
that some were fortunate enough to find a perfect community, which met all of
their social needs. Even secular psychologists have observed that human beings
have needs that are greater than their social needs to gather and associate
with others for meaningful relationships. We were made to seek meaning and
fulfillment by doing something worthwhile with our life, things of eternal
significance. What binds our community together as a church is, and has to be,
the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we gather around the truth of the
gospel, it will give us a true sense of fellowship and community. For the
gospel of Jesus Christ breaks down our pride and self-righteousness and all
that hinder our true communion. The truth of the gospel declares that Jesus
Christ has already demolished the dividing wall of hostility among us. It is
not that we have got to make it happen. The walls have already come tumbling down when Jesus died and rose again
from the dead two thousand years ago. We are one already! We are bound together
by something so much greater than our needs, something so much better than our
preferences and our goals and ambitions--Jesus Christ! And our fellowship is
not static; it is dynamic. It is for the equipping of the saints. It is for the
training of our future leaders and future generations. It is for the
proclamation of the gospel truth to the ends of the earth.
This is why
teaching is so crucial in the
This gospel of Jesus Christ is none other than the apostolic
message of the gospel. Paul says at the beginning of this letter, “As I urged you when I was going to
Macedonia, remain at Ephesus that you may charge certain persons not to teach
any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless
genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God
that is by faith” (1 Tim. 1:3-4). Even at the time of Paul’s ministry there was
a plethora of wrong doctrines and false gospels. It was, and has been, very
important for the church to preserve and defend the truth of the gospel against
all kinds of false teaching. It is in this sense that the church is a pillar
and buttress of truth.
But the
church is not an academic institution. The main concern of an academic
institution is the accumulation and transmission of intellectual
knowledge from one generation to another. But the kind of knowledge we are
dealing with as a church is not intellectual but covenantal. This is not
to say that there is no intellectual depth to Christian teaching. When the
self-revelation of the infinite God, or the whole counsel of God, is the
subject, how can we expect it to be not intellectually rigorous? For sure, the
Word of God is simple enough for children to understand and have a saving
knowledge of its truth. But it is also profound enough to baffle even the most
accomplished scholars. When we receive instruction in the church, therefore, we
must engage our mind as well as our heart. We must come ready to exert all our
intellectual muscles and have them stretched. Don’t you agree that the Word of
God deserves more attention, greater concentration and more rigorous exertion
of our brainpower? Why do you think that God gave us this incredible brain of
ours in the first place? Is it not to know Him by exploring His Word and the
world He has created to manifest His glory?
Covenantal knowledge includes intellectual
component, of course--how can any knowledge not have intellectual aspect? But
covenantal knowledge is more than intellectual. Notice the word “more”.
Covenantal knowledge is not anti-intellectual. It is not sub-intellectual.
It is supra-intellectual, if you will. It is supra-intellectual in the
sense that it is not limited to our mind but it is directly and inseparably
bound up with our living--how we think and speak and act and feel and act. So
what does Paul do after affirming the church as a pillar and buttress of truth
in
How, then,
should we teach and learn if transformation is the goal of Christian ministry?
What we must not lose sight of is who does the transforming. We would be
gravely mistaken if we think, even for a moment, that we can bring about
people’s transformation by presenting our case with impeccable logic and
dazzling eloquence and winsome personality. With such things we may be able to
get people to change their thinking and kick their bad habits and even awaken
their sense of morality. But we cannot deliver them from hell to heaven. We
cannot transform God-hating rebels and God-ignoring sinners into God-loving
worshippers and God-like (that is, godly) saints. For such transformation, we
need a new birth from above. As we did not cause our physical birth, we cannot
cause our spiritual birth. God must do it. Moral, and even religious, transformation
is possible with human efforts. But spiritual transformation is possible only
with the Spirit of God.
Does this
mean that we can be sloppy with our preparation and presentation of God’s truth?
No! When we preach and teach, we must do so in a way that is worthy of the
truth we proclaim. It must reflect the excellencies of
God, whose whole counsel we proclaim. And that God gave us our mind as well as
our heart. We must utilize them to the fullest, both to teach and to learn.
However, we must always remember--“‘Not by might nor by strength but by My
Spirit,’ saith the Lord!” It is the gospel, which is
the power of God unto salvation for all who believe, not the eloquence and
oratorical skills with which we deliver it. So Paul said to the Corinthians, “I
was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my
message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the
Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of
men but in the power of God” (1 Cor. 2:3-5).
All that we
preach and teach must be bathed in prayer of complete dependency on the Lord.
We must pray until we feel like we are no better than a donkey or a rooster.
Then we should arise and teach with an unwavering confidence in God, who used a
donkey to open Balaam’s eyes and a rooster to open Peter’s eyes. And when we
do, we cannot just preach and teach to inform. We must do so with the goal and
hope of spiritual transformation--by spiritual transformation, I am not just
talking about some kind of mental, inner change; rather, I am referring to the
kind of comprehensive transformation that the Holy Spirit intends to bring
about in our life. We are to preach and teach, not just to inform; we are to
preach and teach God’s disciples to obey all that Christ has commanded.
So then,
when elders preach and/or teach, they must stand as transformed men, as those
that are being transformed by the truth of the gospel themselves. Charles
Spurgeon said, “A graceless pastor [or elder] is a blind man elected to a
professorship of optics, philosophizing upon light and vision, discoursing upon
and distinguishing to others the nice shades and delicate blendings
of the prismatic colours, while he himself is
absolutely in the dark” (Lectures to My Students, p. 10)! Yes, God can
use even a spiritless donkey or a rooster to change people. But the results
belong to God. What we are accountable to God in our ministry, however, is not
the results but the faithfulness with which we serve Him.
This is so especially on account of
the kind of teaching elders are to engage in. This elder qualification--“able
to teach”--needs to be viewed in connection with what Paul said in the previous
chapter: “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man”
(
This should challenge the elders to
keep a close watch over themselves and on their teaching (1 Tim.
But as we conclude, let me remind
you of the reason that the ability to teach is crucial to elder qualification
and to the ministry of the church: it is the glory and power of what we teach:
the Word of God, the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ! In this fallen world,
where can we find truth? We have the presidential candidates and they say
character matters. But can we trust them to tell us the truth and nothing but
the truth for once without spinning it for their advantage? And do they even
know what the truth is? When you go to your car mechanic, when you go to your
doctor, when you go to your lawyer, will any of them tell you the full, naked
truth without hiding or withhold some information, without covering their own back
against lawsuits? But when you come to the inspired, inerrant, infallible Word
of God, you don’t have to worry about its trustworthiness. You don’t have to
get suspicious that somehow God is tricking you and feeding you a whole bunch
of falsehood. God’s word is true! His word is true not just in the sense that
it is accurate. That is basic. It is true also in the sense of usefulness. To
use the word “usefulness” here seems so terribly inadequate and trivial. For
the truth of God’s Word makes us wise for salvation through faith in Jesus
Christ (2 Tim.
Maybe some of you are new
Christians. You are at a great place because everything you read in the Bible
is new and fresh! You have something new to learn from every sermon and every
Bible study. Be diligent to attend to these things to grow in the knowledge of
God’s Word. Some of you may have passed that stage. You feel like you’ve got
the basics down. And you feel like there is more to the Word of God and you are
frustrated because you feel like you hit a wall. Well, maybe God is saying that
you need to really study His Word. Things used to come easily to you because
they were new but now you must put some efforts to go deeper. You may have to
be more systematic in your Bible study--not just read a passage and emote but
look at other passages and see the connections, etc. You may have to read some
supplementary books, such as commentaries, to help you along. Some of you may
feel like you have “been there and done that” in terms of listening to the
sermons and attending Bible studies. You have a good grasp of Bible knowledge
and Reformed doctrines. Yet you feel stuck. Maybe God is calling you to a
deeper knowledge of His Word, which can come only when you start living out
what you know. Oh, how enormous is our privilege to know God and His will: He
is the One, who decreed all things for His glory according to the counsel of
His will; who preserves and governs all His creatures and all their actions
according to His most holy, wise and powerful hands of providence; who redeemed
us from our sin and destined us for eternal glory in Jesus Christ! We are
called to know the most glorious, beautiful and noblest Being of all, who draws
us to ever-greater admiration, ever-deeper love and ever-fuller joy as we get
to know Him more and more, even through all eternity!
© Copyright 2008 by Jeong Woo "James" Lee
All Rights Reserved.