Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Shield of the Church: The Necessity of an Irreproachable Life

Transcript

The Shield of the Church: The Necessity of an Irreproachable Life · Reformed Thinking

• 0:00
  Welcome to Reform Thinking, it is great to have you with us for
• 0:02
  another session. I am your host and I'm here with
• 0:04
  my Co host and expert guide as we get ready to tackle another
• 0:09
  stack of research and theological notes.
• 0:11
  It is good to be here. And as always, we're coming at
• 0:14
  our subject today from a pretty specific vantage point.
• 0:16
  We're standing on the heritage of the Reformation, holding to
• 0:19
  the Westminster Confession of Faith and, you know, looking to
• 0:22
  Scripture is the final word for how we live and how we run the
• 0:25
  church. Today we're opening up a file
• 0:27
  that feels I'm incredibly urgent.
• 0:30
  If you just look at the headlines coming out of the
• 0:31
  Western church over the last few years, you see a lot of
• 0:34
  collapse. You see leaders falling,
• 0:37
  scandals. It can be pretty disheartening,
• 0:39
  really. So we're going back to the
• 0:41
  source code today. We're looking at the
• 0:43
  qualifications for elders, and we're zeroing in on the very
• 0:46
  first requirement listed in First Timothy 3.2 and also in
• 0:50
  Titus 1.67. The phrase is above reproach.
• 0:54
  It's a weighty phrase and justice to give everyone a road
• 0:58
  map. We're pulling from 2 main
• 0:59
  sources today above Reproach, the foundational qualification
• 1:03
  for elders and the shield of the Church.
• 1:06
  And both of these texts, they make a really compelling case
• 1:09
  that this qualification isn't just item one on a list, it's
• 1:13
  the governing headline for the whole office.
• 1:16
  That concept governing headline that really stopped me in my
• 1:20
  tracks when I was reading through the material.
• 1:22
  I think most of us when we see a list of requirements like you
• 1:26
  know, husband of one wife, sober minded, hospitable, able to
• 1:30
  teach, we treat it like a rubric for a job interview.
• 1:33
  Right, like a checklist, Yeah. Checklist.
• 1:34
  You check the boxes, you tally the score, and if he gets enough
• 1:37
  points, he gets the job. But you're saying the structure
• 1:39
  is different. It operates in a completely
• 1:41
  different way. The argument here is that above
• 1:43
  reproach is the umbrella. It's the summary statement,
• 1:47
  Every single qualification that follows.
• 1:49
  How a man treats his wife, how he manages his money, how he
• 1:51
  controls his temper. Those are just the specific data
• 1:54
  points that prove he is in fact above reproach.
• 1:57
  So if he fails in one of those specific areas.
• 2:00
  Then he hasn't just failed a sub point, he's failed the headline
• 2:03
  requirement. The whole thing falls apart.
• 2:05
  OK, before we get into the weeds what that looks like, I want to
• 2:08
  ask about the necessity of this. The sources point out that in
• 2:12
  First Timothy 3.2, there's a specific Greek word that Paul
• 2:15
  uses that sort of frames this whole conversation.
• 2:17
  It's the word day. Yes, day.
• 2:20
  It's a tiny word with massive implications.
• 2:25
  It translates to must. An overseer must be above
• 2:29
  reproach. Now we need to be careful with
• 2:31
  how we hear that in English. In our modern context, must can
• 2:35
  sometimes feel like a strong suggestion.
• 2:37
  Right, like you really must try this restaurant or we really
• 2:41
  must get together sometime. Just means it's a good idea.
• 2:44
  Exactly. It's a strong preference, but in
• 2:46
  the Greek New Testament, this term day, it denotes the kind of
• 2:49
  logical and divine necessity. It's closer to how we might talk
• 2:53
  about a lot of physics, like an object in motion must stay in
• 2:56
  motion. It's not pulsing.
• 2:58
  Ideally it'd be great if your elders were decent guys.
• 3:01
  No, it's a non negotiable. It is.
• 3:03
  He's saying that in God's economy this is a non negotiable
• 3:06
  state of being. If a man doesn't have this
• 3:09
  quality, you don't just have a flawed elder, you have someone
• 3:12
  who, in the eyes of scripture, isn't an elder at all.
• 3:15
  The stakes feel incredibly high right from that first verb, and
• 3:20
  the source material connects this must to the very nature of
• 3:24
  the church itself. Later in that same letter, First
• 3:27
  Timothy 3.15, Paul calls the church the pillar and buttress
• 3:31
  of the truth. And that's the context we have
• 3:33
  to keep in our minds. We're not just talking about
• 3:35
  corporate hiring practices or, you know, filling a slot on an
• 3:38
  org chart. If the church is the pillar
• 3:40
  holding up the truth of the Gospel for a watching world to
• 3:43
  see, then the leaders of that church are the visible supports
• 3:47
  of that pillar. So if the looters are
• 3:48
  compromised. If the elder is scandalous, the
• 3:51
  truth itself appears unstable to the people watching.
• 3:53
  We aren't just protecting a man's career or a church's
• 3:55
  reputation. We're safeguarding the
• 3:57
  credibility of the gospel message itself.
• 3:59
  So let's unpack the mechanics of this term.
• 4:02
  What does above reproach actually mean?
• 4:04
  Because I have to be honest, to my modern ear, it sounds
• 4:08
  impossible. Sounds like you have to be
• 4:09
  perfect. If I'm sitting in the Pew
• 4:11
  thinking, well, I got angry in traffic this morning, I'm
• 4:13
  already out. But the sources, they give us a
• 4:15
  really fascinating breakdown of the Greek word used here, an
• 4:19
  epileptos. This is one of the most vivid
• 4:22
  images in the New Testament and I wish more people understood
• 4:25
  where it comes from. The word an epileptose is a
• 4:27
  compound word. It literally means not able to
• 4:31
  be taken hold of or not able to be seized.
• 4:35
  The source material brings up a wrestling metaphor here that I
• 4:38
  found. It's so helpful to visualize
• 4:41
  this. It's a fantastic visual.
• 4:42
  In the ancient world, this word would immediately bring to mind
• 4:45
  the image of a wrestler in the gymnasium.
• 4:47
  So picture two men. They're oiled up, sweating,
• 4:50
  grappling with each other. The whole point of wrestling is
• 4:53
  to find a handle. You're looking for a wrist, an
• 4:57
  ankle, a loose piece of clothing, anything you can grab
• 5:00
  to get leverage and throw your opponent to the ground.
• 5:02
  So if a wrestler is an epileptose.
• 5:04
  It means he offers no handle. He's smooth.
• 5:06
  Every time his opponent reaches out to grab him, they're and
• 5:09
  just slips off. There's no rough edge, no loose
• 5:13
  garment, nothing to get a grip on.
• 5:15
  Wow, that is a powerful image. So applying that spiritually to
• 5:18
  a pastor or an elder, it means he has to live a life that
• 5:21
  offers no handle to the enemy. You've got it.
• 5:24
  The opponent in the spiritual sense is, you know, often the
• 5:28
  accuser, Satan, or just broadly the critics of the church.
• 5:32
  Out in the world, an elder has to live in such a way that when
• 5:35
  someone tries to drag him down, and by extension drag the church
• 5:38
  down with them, they just can't find a grip.
• 5:41
  So they can't find a secret vice a hidden financial issue.
• 5:43
  A pattern of lying, A history of duplicity.
• 5:46
  Nothing. He's unassailable.
• 5:47
  Now there's a related term in Titus 1.6 Anenkalitos, which we
• 5:51
  often translate as blameless. The sources distinguish this a
• 5:55
  little from the wrestling term. This one's more forensic like
• 5:58
  courtroom language. That's a great way to put it.
• 6:01
  An Anclitos is legal language. It means not chargeable.
• 6:05
  And we have to be really, really careful here to understand what
• 6:08
  this does and does not mean. It does not mean that no one
• 6:11
  will ever accuse the man. That's just not realistic.
• 6:14
  No, of course not. Jesus himself was accused of all
• 6:17
  sorts of things, being a drunkard, a glutton.
• 6:19
  Exactly. Blasphemy.
• 6:21
  Simply being accused doesn't make you guilty.
• 6:24
  We live in a world where, you know anyone can say anything
• 6:26
  online. Sure.
• 6:27
  So not chargeable means that when the accusation is brought
• 6:30
  forward, and when it's investigated by reasonable
• 6:33
  people and held up to the light of truth, the charge doesn't
• 6:36
  stick. There's no evidence to support a
• 6:38
  conviction. It means the man's life is lived
• 6:40
  in such a way that a credible indictment just can't be
• 6:43
  sustained against him. I want to pause here because I
• 6:46
  can hear the objection forming in some listeners minds, and
• 6:49
  frankly, it's an objection the source material sees coming a
• 6:51
  mile away. If the standard is no handle and
• 6:55
  no charge that sticks, are we asking for sinless perfection?
• 7:00
  Because if we are, then nobody can serve.
• 7:03
  The apostle John tells us in first John 1.8.
• 7:06
  If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.
• 7:09
  So how do we square above reproach with the fact that
• 7:13
  every man is a Sinner? That is the crucial theological
• 7:16
  distinction we have to make. We are absolutely not talking
• 7:18
  about sinless perfection. The Reformed tradition has
• 7:20
  always been very clear on this. What we're doing is we're
• 7:23
  contrasting remaining sin with reigning scandal.
• 7:26
  Remaining sin versus reigning scandal?
• 7:28
  OK, let's dig into that distinction.
• 7:30
  Every Christian, and that that includes every elder, has
• 7:33
  remaining sin. We all stumble.
• 7:35
  We all have moments of impatience or selfish thoughts
• 7:38
  or flashes of pride. But a reigning scandal or a
• 7:41
  reigning sin is different. It's a settled pattern of
• 7:44
  character that openly contradicts the gospel, he
• 7:47
  confesses. So an elder might lose his
• 7:49
  temper. He might, but does he
• 7:51
  immediately humble himself, go apologize to his family or his
• 7:54
  session, and seek the Spirit's help?
• 7:56
  Or is he known as a bully? Is that his reputation?
• 7:58
  That's the difference. So it's about the trajectory and
• 8:01
  the pattern of the life, not just a single isolated stumble.
• 8:05
  It's about integrity. Integrity means wholeness.
• 8:08
  It means the man you see in the pulpit on Sunday is the same man
• 8:12
  you see at his dinner table on Tuesday.
• 8:14
  Doesn't mean he never sins, but it does mean he doesn't hide his
• 8:17
  sin. He doesn't rationalize it, and
• 8:19
  he isn't characterized by sins that bring public disgrace.
• 8:23
  When he does sin, he deals with it in a way that lines up with
• 8:27
  the very gospel he preaches. That brings us to the where the
• 8:31
  arenas where this blamelessness has to be proven.
• 8:34
  And the sources point out that Paul doesn't just leave this as
• 8:36
  a vague concept. He points to very specific
• 8:39
  places where we should go looking for these handles.
• 8:42
  And the first one which might make some people a little
• 8:44
  nervous is the household. It is the ultimate proving
• 8:48
  ground. Paul asked This a really logical
• 8:50
  question in First Timothy 3.5. He says if someone does not know
• 8:53
  how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's
• 8:56
  church? The logic moves from the lesser
• 8:58
  to the greater. Right, if a man can't shepherd
• 9:01
  the three or four people living under his own roof who he sees
• 9:03
  every day. How can he possibly shepherd the
• 9:05
  whole flock of God? It's the first Test.
• 9:07
  The text mentions being the husband of one wife and having
• 9:11
  children who are not open to the charge of debauchery or
• 9:15
  insubordination. This can be a really sensitive
• 9:18
  topic, especially the part about the children.
• 9:19
  I think a lot of people wonder does this mean if my teenager
• 9:23
  rebels I lose my job? We need to look at that really
• 9:25
  closely. Husband of one wife definitely
• 9:28
  speaks to marital fidelity. I mean, sexual integrity is one
• 9:31
  of the most common ways that leaders give the enemy a handle,
• 9:34
  but it also speaks to a singular devotion.
• 9:38
  As for the children, the source material is careful to clarify
• 9:41
  this is not a demand for the children to be regenerate
• 9:44
  Christians. An elder cannot guarantee the
• 9:46
  salvation of his kids. Salvation is from the Lord.
• 9:49
  Of course, you can't force your child to believe.
• 9:51
  You can't. But the requirement is that his
• 9:54
  home isn't characterized by riotous chaos or open
• 9:57
  insubordination. The Greek here indicates a kind
• 10:01
  of wild, dissolute life that the father is either ignoring or
• 10:05
  maybe even enabling. The home is where leadership is
• 10:08
  least performative. That's a good way to put it.
• 10:10
  You can fake it on a stage for an hour on Sunday.
• 10:12
  You can put on the suit and the smile.
• 10:14
  You can't fake it with your teenagers for 10 years.
• 10:17
  If the home is a place of chaos or neglect or hypocrisy, the man
• 10:21
  is disqualified, no matter how eloquent his theology is.
• 10:25
  So, moving for the home to the man's own temperament, the
• 10:28
  sources call these the vices of authority.
• 10:30
  I thought that was a very insightful phrase.
• 10:32
  Vices of authority is a great way to put it.
• 10:34
  Paul specifically targets things like arrogance, a quick temper,
• 10:38
  violence, and being a drunkard. And you have to ask, why these
• 10:42
  specific things? Because these are the
• 10:44
  corruptions that latched themselves onto power.
• 10:47
  When a man is given authority, the temptation is to use it to
• 10:51
  dominate, to bully, or to indulge himself.
• 10:53
  It's interesting because often in the corporate world, or even
• 10:56
  in some church growth models, the strong leader is prized.
• 11:00
  You know the guy who takes charge, He's aggressive.
• 11:02
  Maybe he breaks a few eggs to make an omelette.
• 11:04
  But Paul seems to be saying that if you're a brawler or
• 11:06
  pugnacious, you're out. A man who is quarrelsome or a
• 11:09
  bully is disqualified. It doesn't matter if he's right
• 11:12
  in his theological argument. If his disposition is violent,
• 11:15
  either physically or does verbally, he's not above
• 11:18
  reproach. An elder is a shepherd, not
• 11:21
  Aceo, who drives results through intimidation.
• 11:25
  The requirement is to be gentle, self controlled.
• 11:28
  So if you have a pastor who screams at his staff.
• 11:30
  Or belittles people who disagree with him in a meeting.
• 11:33
  He is offering a massive handle to the enemy.
• 11:35
  He's disqualified. Then there's money.
• 11:38
  Not a lover of money, not greedy for game.
• 11:40
  Greed is a subtle handle. It usually shows up in things
• 11:44
  like manipulative fundraising or really opaque church finances,
• 11:48
  or using the ministry to build a personal lifestyle that's
• 11:51
  completely disconnected from the reality of the flock.
• 11:54
  A lover of money will eventually compromise the truth, because
• 11:57
  the truth often costs you money. If your main drive is personal
• 12:00
  game, you'll soften the message when that message threatens the
• 12:03
  donor base. There's one more arena that the
• 12:05
  sources emphasize, and I think it's one we often overlook or
• 12:08
  even dismiss. First Timothy 3.7 says an elder
• 12:11
  must be well thought of by outsiders.
• 12:13
  Yes, this is fascinating, isn't it?
• 12:17
  It is because I can imagine a listener saying wait a minute,
• 12:21
  Jesus said the world will hate us, why should I care if the non
• 12:25
  believing world likes my pastor? That is a critical distinction
• 12:28
  to make. The source explains that this
• 12:30
  does not mean the world has to like his theology.
• 12:33
  They might hate the gospel, they might find the cross offensive,
• 12:37
  but they should not be able to look at the man himself and
• 12:40
  legitimately call him a crook or a liar or an adulterer.
• 12:44
  So it's about his moral credibility, not his popularity.
• 12:47
  That's it. The text says.
• 12:49
  This is to avoid falling into disgrace and the snare of the
• 12:51
  devil. If a neighbor can say, oh, that
• 12:53
  pastor, he cheated me on a contracting job or yeah, I see
• 12:56
  him stumbling drunk at the bar every Friday, then the gospel he
• 12:59
  preaches is mocked. His reputation acts as a shield,
• 13:03
  and if that shield is broken, the mud that's thrown at the man
• 13:05
  hits the church. That concept of the shield
• 13:09
  really gets to the heart of why this matters, and it leads us
• 13:12
  into the theological rationale, the why behind this high
• 13:15
  standard. It's not just about the man,
• 13:17
  it's about what he represents. The sources bring up the concept
• 13:20
  of the steward from Titus 1.7 a. Steward is a manager of someone
• 13:25
  else's property and this is so important to understand.
• 13:28
  The church does not belong to the elders, it belongs to
• 13:31
  Christ. The elder is managing God's
• 13:34
  household. And what's the number one
• 13:36
  requirement for a steward? Fidelity.
• 13:38
  Trustworthiness. Fidelity, you wouldn't hire a
• 13:41
  bank manager who had a reputation for embezzlement, no
• 13:44
  matter how charming he was. In the same way, God does not
• 13:47
  appoint stewards who bring shame on his house.
• 13:50
  Now I want to get into a bit of the historical theology was in
• 13:52
  the source material, mention the Donatist heresy.
• 13:55
  This is where we need to put on our thinking caps because it
• 13:57
  gets a little technical, but it's so important for how we
• 14:00
  view the Church. How does this above reproach
• 14:03
  standard interact with the validity of the sacraments?
• 14:06
  This is a vital nuance, especially for us holding to the
• 14:09
  Westminster Confession. The Donatists in the early
• 14:12
  church, this was back in the 4th and 5th centuries, they argued
• 14:16
  that if a priest was a Sinner, or if he had compromised during
• 14:19
  persecution, then the religious acts he performed were null and
• 14:23
  void. So if a bad priest baptized you,
• 14:26
  you weren't actually baptized. Which would be terrifying
• 14:29
  because you never know for sure. If you were truly baptized,
• 14:32
  you'd have to be constantly investigating The Secret Life of
• 14:35
  your minister. It creates total insecurity.
• 14:38
  It places the validity of God's grace on the moral performance
• 14:41
  of a human being. The Reform view following
• 14:44
  Augustine and the Westminster Confession says no, the validity
• 14:47
  of the sacraments, baptism in the Lord's Supper depends on
• 14:50
  Christ's promise and the Holy Spirit, not the piety of the
• 14:53
  minister. So if an elder baptizes my child
• 14:56
  and later turns out to be a scoundrel.
• 14:57
  The baptism is still valid. The gold of the sacrament is not
• 15:01
  ruined by The Dirty hands of the postman delivering it.
• 15:04
  However, and this is a big however, isn't it?
• 15:07
  It is a very big However, while the sacrament is valid, the man
• 15:11
  is disqualified. We do not say, Oh, well, the
• 15:13
  sacrament works, so it doesn't really matter how he lives.
• 15:16
  No, he forfeits his office. We demand holiness not to make
• 15:21
  the mechanics of grace work, but to make the ministry credible
• 15:24
  and, frankly, safe for the sheep.
• 15:27
  It protects the flock, that's the key.
• 15:29
  That's it. A reproachable man is a danger
• 15:32
  to the spiritual health of the people.
• 15:33
  Even if his administration of the sacraments is technically
• 15:36
  valid, he confuses the people about the character of God.
• 15:40
  And this brings us right into the conflict we see today.
• 15:43
  The source material identifies several modern pressure points
• 15:46
  where the church is tempted to just ignore Paul's instructions.
• 15:49
  We've touched on the CEO model, but let's go a bit deeper.
• 15:52
  Why do churches keep hiring these talented men who have
• 15:55
  obvious character flaws? It's the idol of pragmatism.
• 15:58
  The question becomes, does it work instead of is it holy?
• 16:02
  We see a man who is a vision caster, A dynamic speaker,
• 16:06
  someone who can draw a crowd, and we think, well, surely God's
• 16:08
  hand is on him because he's successful.
• 16:10
  We look at the numbers, the budget, the building program.
• 16:13
  We confuse gifts with fruit. That is the trap.
• 16:16
  We swap Paul's list, which is almost entirely about character,
• 16:20
  for the world's list, which is all about competency and
• 16:22
  charisma. And the danger, as the sources
• 16:25
  point out, is that hiring talent without testing character is
• 16:28
  like building a house on sand. Eventually the cracks in the
• 16:31
  foundation, the lack of self-control, the pride will
• 16:34
  bring the whole structure crashing down, and the wreckage
• 16:37
  is usually devastating for everyone involved.
• 16:40
  Another pressure point the sources mentioned is therapeutic
• 16:43
  minimalism. This is the tendency to rebrand
• 16:46
  disqualifying sins as just struggles or brokenness.
• 16:51
  This is a pervasive issue in our culture, and it has just seeped
• 16:54
  into the church. Now look, we want to be
• 16:56
  compassionate, but there's a world of difference between a
• 16:59
  Christian struggling against sin and a leader who is disqualified
• 17:02
  by sin. The source argues that
• 17:04
  repentance isn't just processing your feelings or admitting
• 17:06
  you're broken, it's turning away from the behavior.
• 17:10
  If a man has a pattern of violence or financial
• 17:12
  dishonesty, we can't just call that a struggle and leave him in
• 17:15
  the pulpit because he's being vulnerable about it.
• 17:17
  It just diminishes the seriousness of the office.
• 17:20
  And it endangers the sheep. If we treat disqualifying sins
• 17:23
  as mere brokenness, we're basically saying that character
• 17:26
  doesn't matter as long as you're honest about how messed up you
• 17:28
  are. But Paul says you must be above
• 17:31
  reproach. Vulnerability is not a
• 17:33
  substitute for integrity. There's one more pressure point
• 17:36
  that the sources were very, very strong on and it feels so
• 17:40
  relevant to recent news cycles, the privacy myth and the use of
• 17:44
  NDA's non disclosure agreements. This is a critical point.
• 17:47
  The argument is that above reproach means living in the
• 17:50
  light. The source material takes an
• 17:53
  incredibly strong stance against using NDA's to hide moral
• 17:57
  failures in church leadership. The logic being that if you have
• 18:00
  to legally bind someone to silence to protect the
• 18:03
  reputation of the leader, he is by definition already
• 18:06
  reproachable. That is the reality.
• 18:08
  If you are hiding sin behind a legal wall, you are the very
• 18:11
  antithesis of an epileptose. You're creating a handle a
• 18:14
  scandal and then paying lawyers to make sure nobody can grab it.
• 18:18
  But God sees it. The church is a public
• 18:20
  institution and its leaders are public figures.
• 18:23
  Transparency is non negotiable. You can't have a private life
• 18:27
  that contradicts your public ministry.
• 18:29
  An NDA that's designed to conceal sin is, in effect, a
• 18:32
  confession that the leader is not blameless.
• 18:35
  So what happens when there's an accusation?
• 18:38
  Because we live in a messy world, the source material
• 18:41
  outlines a process, and it warns against falling into one of two
• 18:44
  ditches. What are those two ditches?
• 18:46
  The first ditch is trial by gossip.
• 18:48
  This is believing every rumor, every tweet, every whisper that
• 18:51
  comes along. Paul guards against this in
• 18:53
  First Timothy 5.19 by requiring two or three witnesses.
• 18:57
  We don't ruin a man's life based on hearsay or anonymous e-mail.
• 19:01
  There has to be due process and real evidence.
• 19:04
  And the second ditch. The second ditch is the cover
• 19:06
  up. This is protecting the powerful.
• 19:09
  It's sweeping things under the rug to save the church's brand
• 19:12
  or protect a popular pastor. This is where we see sessions or
• 19:15
  boards ignoring credible evidence because they just don't
• 19:18
  want the scandal. So how do we walk that middle
• 19:20
  path between those two? We follow the biblical text.
• 19:23
  First Timothy 5.0 says that those elders who persist in sin
• 19:26
  must be rebuked in the presence of all.
• 19:28
  That's a terrifying verse in the presence of all.
• 19:32
  It sounds so harsh to our modern years.
• 19:34
  It is solemn, but it's necessary.
• 19:37
  Public thin requires public correction, and the reason Paul
• 19:40
  gives is so that the rest may stand in fear.
• 19:43
  It's a deterrent. It shows that God is holy and
• 19:46
  that the church does not play favorites.
• 19:49
  The source material really emphasizes that this has to be
• 19:52
  done without partiality. It doesn't matter how big the
• 19:55
  pastor's podcast is or how many books he sold.
• 19:58
  If he's disqualified, he must be corrected.
• 20:00
  We cannot have a 2 tiered justice.
• 20:02
  System in the Church. And this leads to the really
• 20:05
  difficult question of restoration.
• 20:08
  The source makes a key distinction between restoration
• 20:10
  to fellowship and restoration to office.
• 20:13
  This is where so many churches get confused.
• 20:15
  We believe in forgiveness. If a fallen elder repents, he is
• 20:19
  forgiven by Christ and he should be welcomed to the Lord's Table
• 20:22
  as a brother. He's restored to fellowship, but
• 20:25
  forgiveness does not equal re qualification.
• 20:27
  Because the office is based on trust and reputation, which have
• 20:30
  been broken. That is the distinction.
• 20:32
  He may be forgiven, but he is no longer above reproach.
• 20:35
  He has lost the moral standing required to shepherd.
• 20:39
  Trust is the currency of leadership, and once it's been
• 20:42
  squandered like that, it may never be fully recovered for the
• 20:45
  purpose of the office, even if the man is fully restored to
• 20:48
  Christ. So there are consequences to sin
• 20:51
  that forgiveness doesn't just erase.
• 20:53
  Absolutely. A bank teller who steals money
• 20:55
  might be forgiven by the bank president, but he probably won't
• 20:59
  get his job back working at the Vault.
• 21:00
  We've covered the what, the where, the why, and the process,
• 21:04
  but I want to land where our sources land, which is on a
• 21:08
  crystal logical focus. Because if we just leave it
• 21:10
  there, it feels like a heavy burden of law.
• 21:12
  You know, be perfect or else. But the sources point us to
• 21:16
  Christ as the true and epileptose.
• 21:18
  We have to end here. If we preach this standard
• 21:20
  without Christ, we just create either Pharisees or despairing
• 21:23
  hypocrites. Jesus is the only one who truly
• 21:26
  has no handle. He is the one described in
• 21:28
  Hebrews 7.2 sex as Holy Innocent, unstained.
• 21:32
  He's the only one the accuser could not get a grip on.
• 21:35
  Even when Pilate tried him, what did he say?
• 21:37
  I find no guilt in him. Jesus is the substance, the
• 21:41
  elder is just the shadow. And the beauty of the gospel, as
• 21:44
  the sources highlight, is the great exchange.
• 21:47
  Christ took our reproach, our shame, our handles, our guilt
• 21:50
  upon Himself on the cross, so that we can be counted blameless
• 21:54
  in Him. So for the elder, this isn't
• 21:56
  just about white knuckling it and trying harder to be a good
• 21:59
  person. No, not at all.
• 22:00
  It's about union with Christ. An elder's integrity is a fruit
• 22:04
  that grows from abiding in the vine.
• 22:06
  He reflects the character of the Chief Shepherd because he's
• 22:08
  united to him. It's a derivative glory.
• 22:12
  The elder shines because he's standing in the light of Christ.
• 22:15
  It's the Spirit of Christ in him that produces the self-control,
• 22:18
  the gentleness, the fidelity. That puts the pressure where it
• 22:21
  belongs, on the grace of God at work in a man's life.
• 22:23
  Indeed, it's not just willpower, it's grace from beginning to
• 22:27
  end. As we wrap up this deep dive
• 22:29
  into reformed thinking on the eldership, the sources leave us
• 22:33
  with a challenge. First, to the men listening.
• 22:35
  The challenge to the men, whether you're an elder now
• 22:38
  aspiring to be 1 or just a man in the church, is to examine
• 22:42
  your life for handles. Where are the loose ends?
• 22:45
  Where are the secret indulgences?
• 22:48
  Deal with them now. Mortify them by the Spirit
• 22:51
  before they become a public snare.
• 22:53
  Don't wait for exposure to force the issue.
• 22:55
  And to the church as a whole. The challenge is to value
• 22:58
  character over charisma. When you are looking for
• 23:01
  leaders, don't look for the man who can hold a room captive.
• 23:05
  Look for the man whose life is captive to Christ.
• 23:08
  Look for the man who is boringly faithful.
• 23:10
  The standard is high because the Church is precious.
• 23:13
  It was bought with the blood of Christ.
• 23:15
  We dare not entrusted to men who are not safe.
• 23:17
  Boringly faithful. I like that we could use a lot
• 23:20
  more boring faithfulness in the church today.
• 23:22
  Amen to that. Thank you for walking us through
• 23:24
  this. It is a sobering topic, but a
• 23:26
  joyful one when we realize it's all designed to protect the
• 23:29
  flock we love. It is a shield indeed.
• 23:32
  And thank you to our listeners for joining us on this edition
• 23:34
  of Reformed Thinking. We hope this conversation helps
• 23:38
  you uphold the pillar and buttress of the truth in your
• 23:40
  own local congregation. Until next time.