0714 THE FIRST HOME TEST

JULY 14 = 1 TIMOTHY 3

THE FIRST HOME TEST

Do you know who knows more about your life than you might imagine? Your postal carrier. Your trash collector. Your Amazon Prime robot. They say that you can learn a lot about a person by looking at their checkbook, their trash can, and their calendar. I recognize that those three terms are all kind of old now, but the point is still the same. Whatever we might claim about ourselves, and whatever mask we put on at the church gathering, we see our true priorities by seeing what we actually spend money on. How much do we really give to charity, or spend on entertainment, or rack up in credit? Then, what do we throw away after using it? And what might we be ashamed of if people from the church saw what we have consumed or used during the last week? What does our calendar reveal about our true priorities, as opposed to merely our lip service? 

In this chapter, Paul gives a list of qualifications for shepherds and deacons. He has several items on his list, but let’s focus on what we might consider to be the first and most important of the tests: his home life.

Paul starts by saying that the overseer (shepherd / pastor / elder / bishop) is to be “above reproach.” And he begins the list of qualities of a deacon (servant / minister) as saying that they are to be “worthy of respect.” I think that most of the items on each list have to do with things that are not the same as the image we convey at church. In fact, the best and most accurate test for a man is his family. After all, says Paul,

“(If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?)”

How, indeed, shall a spiritual shepherd be proven? If he cannot “manage” his own family, then how do you give him less time and more souls and expect that he will do a better job with them? How could he advise other fathers and husbands, or empathetically listen to the complaints of the next generation against their parents? So Paul says, 

“He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect.”

How do you know if a man manages his own family well? Look at the condition and order of the house itself. Then look at the people and their relationships, especially their relationships with him. 

And just how does a father get his children to obey him, anyway? And how does he do that with gentleness and love? To be sure, if he has not demonstrated mastery of that combination of gentleness and patience necessary to shepherd someone through the complexities of life, if he is distracted with family rebellion and unhappy wife and disorder under his own roof. So while he takes a long, hard look in the mirror, we do the same. And we ask, “Does he have time and energy, insight and consistency? Is there enough for the larger family of faith in his life? Can he handle it all?

The final item on the list is that overseers “must have a good reputation with outsiders.” So you might say an elder must be examined “inside” (family) and “out” (outsiders) before they are assigned to shepherd the “middle circle” of the church. The church’s reputation with the community is affected by the reputation of its  spiritual leaders. If you don’t yet know a man’s reputation with outsiders, then perhaps it is too hasty a season to lay hands on him.

And for deacons, he says, “they must first be tested.” So you might say that  deacons need a test before their evaluation. That’s a lot of scrutiny.

In the final judgment, Jesus said that everyone must give an accounting of every idle word. May you and I be ready for the final quiz.

Yes, this WILL be on the final exam. Amen.