Set My Heart

DEVOTION
1 TIMOTHY
SET MY HEART
1 Tim 3:1-7
3:1 Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task. 2 Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. 5(If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God's church?) 6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. 7 He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil's trap.
NIV
It is difficult to separate all this out. I need to keep it all together as it strictly deals with but one issue, the overseer, the person who is in charge of the church. Now as I am not one of these people or think I will ever be one of these people, I see absolutely no value in what this has to do with me. If I am not careful all this would serve is to cause me to judge whether people who serve in this capacity are fulfilling all these requirements. Perhaps that is one of the purposes of these words. It is my responsibility to be under the authority of the man God appointed to shepherd the local church. But this I do not believe is the office of shepherd, but rather the office of bishop, a higher position in the realm of Christendom. Although I think in today’s view this has been applied to Pastors, or Elders. Still, if I am to sit under the teaching and leadership of a man, he ought to meet these standards. Therefore I am in need of being watchful of who leads the church. I should check to see if the man who occupies that office strives to fulfill the requirements set out here. Now it is not a bad thing for me to also live according to the same standards. I think it would serve me well to seek those qualities in my own life. I wonder if God regards in some sense all men who serve in a leadership, shepherding, teaching, preaching roll as men who need to fulfill these standards. Because I do such, because I have the opportunity and the privilege to preach from his word, I suppose it would be right for me to consider well these words and apply them to my life. I certainly am not in charge of the church, but if I preach, I have some charge over those under my voice, at least a charge by God to speak his truth. I have in some sense a spiritual responsibility or at least held accountable by God for what I teach and preach. I think I could just ignore these standards as well and just believe they only apply to those few chosen men who actually lead the church. Maybe I should just do that and forget about them as they may not apply to me. Whether they do or not may be nothing more than supposition on my part. Yet the Spirit bears witness to them as applying to me. So I set my heart.