5a Conforming Himself to Godliness: Character

THE PASTOR’S JOB DESCRIPTION PART 5a:
Conforming Himself to Godliness
1 Timothy 4:6-16; 6:6-16


Introduction:

Last week I talked about the pastor’s job of conforming the church to godliness. But what I spent most of my time doing was providing a snapshot of what a godly church looked like. A lot of what the pastor does to conform the church to that snapshot of godliness has to do with how he models a godly life to his members. Just as a godly church Body must practice discipline, so also must a pastor discipline himself to conform himself to godliness.

Paul says he must do two things to conform himself to godliness:
1) His character and how it is reflected in his lifestyle;
2) His doctrine and how it is reflected in his preaching and teaching.
Picking up again in 1 Timothy, let’s read chapter 4:6-16

I. The Need for Godliness
Verse 13 deals with the second area: that is, the pastor models godliness to his congregation in his doctrine and how it is imparted by his preaching and teaching. The preaching and teaching ministry of the pastor is a subject of such magnitude that it deserves at least an entire sermon to itself and so I will put that topic off until next week. This week I want to focus on the pastor’s need to model a lifestyle of godly character.

The 19th century Baptist pastor, John Kershaw once wrote, “God saves all kinds of people, even ministers” (Reforming Pastoral Ministry 59).
Paul said something very similar, “Not many wise, not many noble, God chooses the foolish things out of this life.”

Knowing that prevented me from being too surprised when an older Christian man once told me that I was handicapped as a pastor because I came from a single parent home. Pastors must sometimes endure the most trivial criticisms from members. But endure them we must if we are to allow God to use suffering and affliction for our edification.

Yet, “One of the minister’s greatest dangers is that he handles the sacred so frequently that it becomes banal to him” (Reforming 59). It’s what Spurgeon called ministerialism, exhorting others to holiness but not moving an inch in that direction ourselves…. Kind of like the Pharisees.

Joel Beeke explains the utter necessity of pastoral godliness this way: “To be godly means to live like God (Eph 5:1-2)” (Reforming 59). It is the foundation of pastoral ministry. “It is not great talents God blesses so much as likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God” (Sprugeon).

On the other hand, If the pastor’s walk does not line up with his talk, as John Owen says, “more will fall down in the night of his life than he built in the day of his doctrine.” Just think of the devastating effect of the televangelist scandals of the 1980’s.

If it were not for God’s irresistible grace, those moral failures would have been a lasting excuse for my ignoring the claims of Christianity.

It is far better to do away with preaching then to give our ears to preachers who do not believe the things that they preach. Many preachers have warned others not to come to that place of torment, who were racing to it themselves; many preachers are now in hell, who a hundred times called upon their hearers to use the utmost care and diligence to escape it” (Richard Baxter).

I was recently given a copy of the book, “The Christian Ministry” by Charles Bridges, a 19th century Anglican leader. I realized about the second page in that if I hade been given that book before I went into seminary, I might have more vigorously resisted the call to ministry.

According to Bridges, God has ordained three repositories of His truth: 1) the scriptures; 2) the hearts of Christians; and 3) the Christian Minister. He “has deposited ‘the treasure in earthen vessels’ for the edification and enriching of the church in successive ages” (2).

It is not because there is anything that makes pastors any more valuable than any other person in the church, but that they are “entrusted with the most responsible and enriching blessing; [that is] rendering the highest possible service to their fellow men, [and that] most nearly [attaches them] with the glory of the Saviour” (2-3).

“While we speak to men, we speak in God’s stead” (6). And the pastor must never be coerced to discredit the dignity of his office pressures of ministerialism or conventionality.

Spurgeon writes, “Whatever ‘call’ a man may pretend to have, if he is not called to holiness, he certainly has not been called to the ministry.” The sum of our labour, “is to honor God, and to save men” (Bridges 8). “Who is sufficient for these things?”

II. Godly Excercise
Fortunately for the pastor, God has provided direction on how he might avoid the pitfalls of convention and exercise himself toward godliness. You know, if your pastor isn’t in as good a shape as he should be, that may not be a terrible thing. There are certainly worse things that could happen.

“For bodily exercise profit a little, but godliness is profitable for all things.” In other words, better a fat godly pastor then a fit ungodly one.

The exercise of godliness that Paul speaks of is an allusion to the Greek athletes who would exercise in the nude so as to be unencumbered by clothing. Hebrews 12:1-3 says this,

1 …since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Here’s why we exercise godliness: verse 12: so we can “be an example to believers….” Why? So that believers can also exercise themselves in godliness.

III. Six Characteristics
Paul lists six Characteristics in which the pastor can be an example and exercise himself in godliness.

1. Word: Logos. It has to do with my speech- my conversation- how I exercise my tongue. The pastor’s office can often become ground zero for all the divisive gossip that permeates the church. That’s why I am so careful even what I tell my wife. But it is always a struggle for the pastor, as it is with all Christians, “See how great a forest a little fire can kindle. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity… it sets on fire the course of nature: and is itself set on fire by Hell,” (James 3:5-8) it can be such a tool of the devil.

We must be so careful how we use our tongues, Proverbs says, “Whoever spreads slander is a fool… but he who restrains his lips is wise” (10:18-21). We can destroy our neighbours by our tongue, or we can use our tongue to deliver him from danger (Proverbs 11:9). “He who covers transgression seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates friends” (17:9).

It’s our choice, build up, or tear down. Why do we so often prefer to assume the worst intentions of others and expect others to assume the best intentions in us? We condemn others for the smallest word and justify ourselves for the most immeasurable offenses against others?

“A soft answer turns away wrath… and the lips of the wise disperse knowledge” (Proverbs 15:1,7). “A word spoken at the right time, how good it is!” (15:22). “A fool is counted wise when he shuts his lips” (17:28).

The best way to keep our tongues in check is by taking every thought captive and conforming it to the Word of God. That means that we allow the Word to saturate our thought life by meditating and thinking on it constantly, so that when our thoughts are not directed upward in prayer, they are directed inward by the searching light of God’s Word- the Sword of the Spirit.

2. Conduct: it has to do with the pastor’s manner of living, or his behaviour. “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in meekness of wisdom” (James 3:13).

Ephesians chapter 4 gives the best picture of how this conduct should appear (Read 4:22 to 32)

3. Love: Paul is speaking of agape love. It’s unusual that the Apostle Paul is often distinguished from the Apostle John because of Love. We often hear that Paul was the apostle of doctrine but John was the Apostle of love. Ironically, John only used the word Agape-love about 23 times in the New Testament, but Paul used it over 73 times.

That error in understanding Paul comes from the false assumption that to be dogmatic and doctrinal is to be unloving, but the opposite is actually true. At the heart of one of the most controversial letters in the New Testament, 1 Corinthians, Paul devotes an entire chapter to the topic of love, and it’s probably one of the most beautiful pieces of literature ever written about love (chapter 13).

Let’s not forget that the goal of Paul’s command is love and that whoever loves Jesus keeps his commandments (Jn 15:13). Speaking the truth in love is loving without hypocrisy (Romans 12:9). Tolerating lies is duplicitous.

4. Spirit: this speaks of the disposition of the inner man. “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7).

5. Faith: or faithfulness. Faith is what the pastor… what all believers must cling to with a clear conscience. This is the good fight of faith and by it we lay hold to eternal life (1 Tim 6:11). At the end of my life, I want to be able to say with Paul, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7).

A pastor who is not a man of faith is the greatest barrier to the work of the church and ready tool for the hand of Satan.

6. Purity: This speaks of chastity and sexual purity; of abstaining from all adultery and fornication. Again this has to do with the pastor’s thought life: “whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy- meditate on these things” (Phil 4:8).

When we meditate on these things, we weed out vain and sinful thoughts, which give birth to vain and sinful behaviour. Meditation upon the Word of God is a weapon against temptation “Your Word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11). If you find that you are not having victory over sin and temptation, here is the surest remedy, memorize scripture.

Conclusion
Horatius Bonar wrote, “Holiness extends to every part of our life, influences everything we are, or do, or think, or speak, or plan, small or great, outward or inward, negative or positive, our loving, our hating, our sorrowing, our rejoicing, our recreations, our business, our friendships, our relationships, our silence, our speech, our reading, our writing, our going out and our coming in….”

Indeed this churches greatest need is for my holiness. And, though I have not yet arrived, it is the goal I press toward. And if I let you down, may it be in something petty, like my disorganization, or my lousy sense of humour, our my pedigree, or some other foolish thing that this fallen world has imputed to me. But may I never fail this church in modeling Christlike godliness. May I never fail to show you the way. Pray for me. My wish is to say with Paul, “follow me, for I follow Christ,” even to the cross.