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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.

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All right, welcome back. 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 going to focus on verse two, but before we get to that, let me remind you the question that you should be considering all week Do I have what it takes to be an overseer? So back to verse two. Here, therefore, an overseer must be above reproach the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach. So let's break it down. Paul says an overseer should be above reproach. So I actually like how the King James Version translates this as blameless, and another translation is irreproachable. So he's not saying that this man is really really good at hiding his bad qualities and, you know, just painting over his sins. It's saying that this man lives with high levels of integrity at all times, regardless of if people are watching or not. His character is solid, you know. It doesn't mean that he's sinless, of course, but his life doesn't invite scandals and he has no, you know, glaring public flaws.

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Then Paul says that an overseer is a husband of one wife. So in its most literal form, paul is saying that overseers are one-woman men. Right. So this echoes the one-flesh union God describes in Genesis 2, and this is a direct repudiation of the common Jewish and pagan practice of polygamy. And it also rejects that. You know, men that kind of serially divorce and remarry and divorce and remarry, and they do it all on unbiblical grounds. It just rejects that and it's a call for a man to love and serve his wife as Christ loves and serves his church, which is, you know, a covenantal kind of love.

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Then Paul says that an overseer is sober-minded. So other translations say that this man is vigilant, clear-headed, watchful, temperate. So this dude isn't asleep at the wheel, okay. He is sharp, he's level-headed and also he stands ready to be able to push back the wolf that could be threatening the flock, whether it's, you know, literal attack, like physical attack, or the attack of false doctrine, you know biblical compromise or really any manner of temptation. Then Paul says that an overseer is self-controlled. So other translations say that this man is sober, prudent, sensible. So essentially not a hothead, right. He's not making rash decisions and going off all half-cocked in all directions at all times. He's just not impulsive, he's mature, he doesn't blow his top, right.

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Then Paul says that an overseer is respectable. So other translations say that this man is well-behaved, orderly, overall, just very respectable, right. So essentially his life isn't a circus, right? You know, he's got all his ducks in a row. You don't look at his life and think, man, this dude's kind of a mess. Then Paul says that an overseer is hospitable. So the Greek word used for hospitable literally means lover of strangers. Okay, so you know those types of guys, right, you might even be one of those types of guys, but these guys are very welcoming, so they are very liberal in how they share their resources and colloquially we could refer to this guy, as you know, kind of a dude that would just give you the shirt off of his back.

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And then Paul says that an overseer is able to teach. So this ability is not just a skill at teaching, but also a willingness to do so. So this is the one that trips a lot of guys up because of the generalized fear of speaking in public. Right, but an overseer is someone that may not always feel the most comfortable standing up and opening his mouth, but he's willing to do it because of the benefits that come on the back end, right? So not everyone is going to be a rock star, public speaker or preacher or anything like that, but an overseer has wisdom to transfer and he must be willing to open his mouth in order to do that. Okay, now, before I leave you today, remember this question do I have what it takes to be an overseer? See you back here tomorrow.

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