December 22, 2018
Malachi 2:1-4
“And now, you priests, this warning is for you. If you do not listen, and if you do not resolve to honor my name,” says the Lord Almighty, “I will send a curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them, because you have not resolved to honor me.
“Because of you I will rebuke your descendants; I will smear on your faces the dung from your festival sacrifices, and you will be carried off with it. And you will know that I have sent you this warning so that my covenant with Levi may continue,” says the Lord Almighty.”
If you are a Priest or a pastor this message is directed to you, not those who you are called to be a shepherd too. 2 Timothy is instructions for every follower of Christ, and yet many pastors and priest do not meet the requirement. “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”Note: Are not all of us called to share the good news of the gospel, and to help the unresourced and the needed. It matters not the hat we wear at work, boss, sales, doctor, etc., we are all called to minister.
What follows is not man’s requirements but God’s for one who desires to be an overseer of his church. It is found in 1 Timothy 3:1-7, “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 a snare of the devil.”
I had more than one person ask why not a woman pastor, and my reply is she does not fulfill God’s requirement? I do not know how a woman can be the husband of one wife, but it does not stop there, the apostle Paul gives us this insight or instruction in 1 Timothy 2:12, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.” It has not one thing to do with their ability, my wife has often shared what she has learned from Ann Graham Lott, and she is a very gifted teacher, but the role of pastor puts them in authority over a man.
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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