Elders
Part 9 - Holy Spirit Selection
Acts 20:28 declares, "Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers." The Holy Spirit places pastors and ruling elders in office in our midst as we select these elders in accordance with the directions of the Spirit.
"An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money" (1 Timothy 3:3-4). To be above reproach means to be without obvious fault and therefore to be above reproof or censure. To be the husband of one wife refers to living monogamously. God forbids bigamy and polygamy. Paul uses the same idiom with reference to widows. A widow worthy of support is "the wife of one man" (1 Timothy 5:9). The idiom therefore does not require marriage nor does dissolution of marriage by death, or biblical divorce, a disqualification.
Elders must be temperate. Calvin likes the term "watchful" [1] To be temperate or watchful, one must not be drunk with wine, power, the love of money, or anything else. The apostle Peter exhorts, "Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:9). To be prudent, refers to being of sound mind; you are properly inclined to the things of God. The word translated respectable means orderly. We must be decent, respectful, and well behaved, people of manners and decorum. We are therefore respectable. In commenting on 1 Timothy 5:17, Calvin notes Paul speaks of two kinds of elders. "He setteth down them that travaileth in the word, and them that are to think upon the man[n]ers..." [2] In order to watch over the manners of others, elders must be men who are orderly and respectable themselves, men that exhibit both common and spiritual courtesies.
Hospitality is a qualification that concerns love of the alien. This is a love of those, not only of like mind, but also of those who are outsiders. They first see and experience the love of Christ in and through the lives of believers. The words apt to teach refer to one's qualifications to teach. The elder is qualified by a combination of graces, gifts, and calling. One who is qualified to teach must also be teachable, having been taught and continuing to be taught of God and his fellow elders. Not addicted to wine literally pertains to one who does not sit by or with wine. This is not the elder's habit.
An elder must also not be pugnacious; he should not be quick tempered, one who strikes out verbally or physically. The contrast is gentleness and peaceableness. Paul reminds us, "The Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth" (2 Timothy 2:24-25).
Finally, elders must be free from the love of money. Money is not bad. The love of money is. "For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs" (1 Timothy 6:10).
Paul penned these requirements under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Sprit gives them. If we want to be sure the Spirit is placing men in office, we must take care to follow the Spirit and use His requirements for office.
