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

Alright, happy hump day, fellas. This week we are doing a deep dive into the qualifications for overseers as described by the Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 3, verses 1 through 7. I'll read it again here. 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? 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 the snare of the devil. Now, today we're focusing on verse 3, but before we get to that, let me remind you of the question that you should be considering all week Do I have what it takes to be an overseer? So back to verse 3 here Not a drunkard, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. All right, so let's dig in.

Speaker 2: 1:34

Paul says an overseer is not a drunkard. So some translations say that an overseer is not given to wine or not addicted to wine. So is this saying that an elder or pastor at your church can't ever drink alcohol? I mean no, not at all. That's not what this is saying. So let me remind you that our Savior Jesus drank alcohol. I know breaking news to Baptists and Church of Christers out there, but Matthew says in chapter 11, verse 19 of his gospel the Son of man came eating and drinking and they say look at him, a glutton and a drunkard. Now, guys, obviously you can see in the context there they weren't describing him drinking water or sports drinks or something. Here the accusation of drunkard tells us that much. So, yes, an overseer can drink alcohol, but they should not ever get drunk, nor should they be dependent on alcohol for any reason. Again, as it says in other parts of the qualification list, it's going to be really, really hard to be sober-minded and self-controlled if you're hammered right.

Speaker 2: 2:31

Then Paul says that an overseer is not violent, but gentle. So Paul's saying that you can't conceal, carry or train jujitsu, right, Wrong, okay. So the literal meaning of this is that an overseer is not a striker or not pugnacious. So word of the day there. Pugnacious just means belligerently hostile or combative or something like that.

Speaker 2: 2:52

So many of you have heard me and Joby say this before, but it's very close to how Jordan Peterson describes meekness. So meekness is not weakness. Meekness is knowing how to offensively and defensively use your sword, but you leave it sheathed unless it's necessary to unsheath it, right? So it's like when you hear a story about a Navy SEAL that you know busts into a terrorist house in the middle of the night, separates that guy from his life, but then has the tenderness to redirect the evil guy's children away from the situation right. So an overseer should be able to win a bar fight, but he's not going to start one.

Speaker 2: 3:28

Then Paul says that an overseer is not quarrelsome. And yes, I know, I know you can save your emails. This one is hard for Joby and me. I mean, we're both susceptible to this one. So an overseer is not contentious, not a brawler. Now I know a lot of you guys in the audience are just like Joby and I. You like to fight. Most of the time it's a verbal fight, so you get into, but you're okay with the situation getting physically kinetic as well. Look, I get it. But the point of the, the point of delineation here, is that you're not walking around with a chip on your shoulder, right? You're not the, you're not the guy in the room. You know, seeing if you can get another guy to make eye contact with you so that you can scream out hey bro, you got a problem right Again, you have strength, but it's under control.

Speaker 2: 4:10

And then Paul says an overseer is not a lover of money. So basically, you're not covetous, right, you're not drawn to covetousness. Now most people get the quote wrong when they say money is the root of all evil, when the quote actually comes later in 1 Timothy 6.10, which says that the love of money is the root of all evil. So an overseer is not going to be blinded by his own greed, he's not going to be consumed by the process of acquiring more possessions or power, you know, while increasing his net worth. Okay. So again I leave you with this question Do I have what it takes to be an overseer? You should be turning that question over and over and over in your brain this week. All right, guys, come back tomorrow.

Speaker 1: 4:56

Thank you for listening to today's episode Before you go. If you wanna help equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five-star rating and review. Stay sharp.