Religion (2b)

We can also look within the group of Israel to a position and correlate that with a present person in like position. Let's look at kingship. Samuel's discourse to all Israel, 1 Sam. 12, "if both you and the king who reigns over you follow the Lord your God -- good! ... Yet if you persist in doing evil, both you and your king will be swept away" and 13:13-14, "You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. But now your kingdom will not endure." We can see that God, who does not change, had conditions regarding the kingship. Perpetuation over generations depended upon obedience and adherence to God's rules for the kingship. When God's conditions weren't kept, the kingship was removed. As that applied in the OT over the great length of time regarding generations, at present it applies to us as individuals in the NT. God has rules for leaders. We find them listed in 1 Tim. 3 and Titus 1. These "qualifications" aren't a set of achievements and once attained you get a placard to put on the wall and refer people to for your credentials. They're written in the present imperative, as constantly necessary. Not as we must breathe to live but rather as we must be breathing to live. It doesn't matter that you breathed last week. You have to be breathing now. If you stop breathing, then you suffocate and die. It doesn't matter that your pastor used to not be a drunkard, he has to not be a drunkard now. It doesn't matter that your pastor used to be sexually moral, he has to be sexually moral now. It doesn't matter that your pastor didn't used to steal, he has to not be given to dishonest gain now. They're God's rules. They're God's requirements. It is imperative that your pastor meet these qualifications. Initially he must prove himself over a period of time before ordination. That is not to say that God's requirements are completed. He must meet those requirements now. If he doesn't meet the requirements God laid out, then he cannot be in that position. God set things out in the OT. When Saul was disobedient God didn't just remove Saul, he removed Saul's lineage. It wasn't a question of killing Saul and the bad king wasn't king anymore. God removed Saul line from the kingship. He left it so Saul's line had no claim on leadership. So it is today for a person as it was then for the generations. If your pastor doesn't meet the requirements God said he must meet, then he simply isn't a pastor in God's eyes. It doesn't matter what piece of paper you can pull off his wall and hold up for God to see. It doesn't matter how many people in the congregation like him. If he isn't what he must be to be pastor, then he must not be pastor. Because Saul didn't meet God's requirements the kingship did not continue in his line. If your pastor doesn't meet God's requirements then the pastorship doesn't continue in his life. In many areas the principle of proving yourself responsible in the little areas to have responsibility in the big areas applies. Was your pastor a married man while ordained and then went through a divorce? Does he fail to meet the fatherly duties that are required of all fathers? Are his children sexually promiscuous, drug abusing criminals? Then he doesn't manage his own family well and/or his children are wild and disobedient. See the parenthetic I Tim. 3:5.

If you are part of a congregation where the pastor doesn't meet God's explicit standards then you are part of a church that is a perversion of God's will. Leadership that doesn't meet God's standards cannot possibly instruct the congregation in God's will or direction. They are in open rebellion against it. Any that have remained because they weren't sure what to do: First, cannot follow the clear word of God distinctly and explicitly provided for us; Second, are obviously not open to the wooing of the Holy Spirit who would, in the event that your pastor was not able to understand the clearly written (and it is quite clear in Greek, and if your pastor is preaching based on the English translations and all the traditional meanings -- well, that's a whole other blog) instruction God has given us (btw: then he clearly can't ever have been holding firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught) (Holy Spirit who would ...) be urging him out of the pulpit so that a man who truly is of God could step in and lead righteously.

Is it important to have righteous leadership who are in line with the word and will of God?
Is it important to not have unrighteous leadership who are out of line with the word and will of God? (Important to note: In many instances lack of qualification isn't because the person is unrighteous but merely because they haven't proven their ability to lead or have proven an inability to effectively lead in lesser circumstances. This doesn't make them dispicable people, it just means that they have been unable to rise to the elevated standard God has for his leaders. In most cases it just means that they only meet the lower standards that you and I are only meeting.)

I have been under pastors who went through a divorce -- merely couldn't manage the lesser responsibilities of personal family, whose children were sleeping with the hot young wives and other women of the church and beyond, and who left their familial responsibilities to pursue the greater purposes of God. I am definitely not under them now. I urge you to openly evaluate your leadership. Try to prevent the congregation from being led astray, even with the best of intentions. Definitely don't led yourself be led estray.