Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

Speaker 2: 0:20

Welcome to a new week of the Daily Blade. This week I want you to keep one question in mind Do I have what it takes to be an overseer? Do I have what it takes to be an overseer? So and the Apostle Paul is actually going to help us with that question we're going to park in 1 Timothy 3, verses 1 through 7, this week. This is where the Apostle Paul is laying out the qualifications of an overseer of the church.

Speaker 2: 0:45

So for some context, paul is writing this letter to his mentee Timothy. It was written in the early 60s AD, after Paul's first Roman imprisonment, and Paul planted Timothy in Ephesus in order to straighten out the church that was in the city. So this church is very important because at this time in history, ephesus is the third most populated city in the world, only behind Rome and Alexandria. And the church in Ephesus is getting dominated at this time by false teachers, false preaching, weak leadership, generalized disorder and so on and so forth. So Paul is writing this letter to his sidekick, timothy, to help give him a playbook for what a healthy church looks like and the actions therein. So at the beginning of 1 Timothy 3, as I said, paul's giving Timothy the qualifications of an overseer of the church. Overseer is commonly translated as bishop, but essentially this is synonymous with an elder of the church. So Paul wants Timothy to know precisely the kinds of people that should be guiding and caring for the local body of believers. So I'll go ahead and read 1 Timothy 3, verses 1 through 7, now in the ESV.

Speaker 2: 1:54

The saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach. Not a drunkard, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity, keeping his children submissive. For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? If someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil. So today we're actually going to focus on verse 1, so I'll read it again here the saying is trustworthy If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. So right from the very beginning here, Paul elucidates that only men are to be overseers.

Speaker 2: 2:54

Okay, now, I know, I know that doesn't comport with modern feminism or what a liberal, apostate church would say, but there's simply no ambiguity in the language of the text. Okay, paul's about to lay out a bunch of different qualifications, but he's attaching those qualifications to one sex, males. Okay, he used the word for he here, not he or she, not they, them, not zur zur's he. So this next part shouldn't really need to be said, but for the sake of clarity I'll say it. This does not mean that men are more important to God than women are, obviously. If you think that you're dumb, so let me help you. God loves men and women equally right, but each is given different roles with different tasks to serve the greater kingdom of God. So if you are at a church that has female pastors, female elders or female bishops, might I be so bold as to suggest that you leave that congregation, because odds are that you're attending and funding what the Apostle John would call a synagogue of Satan and not a biblically-based church. So with all that out of the way, let's continue.

Speaker 2: 4:04

One of the first things Paul mentions is that overseers have ambition. He describes an overseer as someone who aspires to the role of overseer. So they are literally desirous of the task. So I've heard some people say that the only people that should end up being elders are the men that least want the gig, and so they liken it to kind of the reluctant leadership that we heard about, like historical figures like George Washington in the United States or Cincinnatus in Rome. But that's just simply not the case here. Paul straight up says that the desire for the task is noble. Now, we don't really talk about being noble much in our modern context, but, simply put, being noble just means that you possess very high and outstanding qualities.

Speaker 2: 4:47

Okay, now why would it be noble for someone to aspire to a role of high honor? Right, I mean, that seems a little self-serving, does it not? But therein lies the point. If you aspire to the role of overseer, you are aspiring to a role that is defined by how you serve others, not yourself. You see, the weight of what it means to be an overseer of the church is substantial. So it's not for the faint of heart, it's not for weaklings, Because you know, if your favorite descriptor of yourself is that you're a victim, that you're not qualified to be an overseer. If you put your own interests ahead of the interests of the, that you're not qualified to be an overseer. If you put your own interests ahead of the interests of the flock, you're not qualified to be an overseer. If you aspire to the role of overseer out of some sort of misguided, vain conceit, you're not qualified to be an overseer. So again I ask you do you have what it takes to be an overseer? Keep that in mind as we work our way through the week.