The Church must have authentically godly leaders or she will stand in danger of divine discipline.
Today’s reading: Jeremiah 9-10; 1 Timothy 3
24 Correct me, O Lord, but in justice;
not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing.
25 Pour out your wrath on the nations that know you not… Jeremiah 10:24-25a
14 I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, 15 if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. 1 Timothy 3:14-15
Jeremiah was devastated by the sin of his people, God’s people, but he did not become self-righteous. He knew that even as he preached against the sins of the nation, he himself needed God’s guidance. He pleaded for God’s just correction with restrained anger. Jeremiah understood the power and holiness of God and his own failures that could bring him to nothing.
Paul, in writing to Timothy, instructs him in the standards for elders and deacons in the church. Their personal lives need to be exemplary in every way. These instructions cannot wait until Paul’s next visit to Timothy. The matter of godly behavior is urgent. The church, he writes, is “the household of God.” God lives in His people, the Church. Furthermore, it is God’s church, not Timothy’s, not Paul’s. Finally, it is “the pillar and buttress of the truth.” The church must not have phony, hypocritical, self-righteous leaders. They will not be perfect, but they must be teachable, repentant, god-fearing men.
Jeremiah was the kind of man that Paul wanted Timothy to have as elders and deacons in Ephesus. If you are a church officer, do you seek to grow in conformity to these Scriptural standards? As a church member, do you hold your officers to such standards, in humility, knowing that we all stand in need of God’s gentle correction? God is a God of wrath. He will not let His name be associated with sin in His Church. Think about it.
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