The Character of Christian Ministry

This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. If you would like to learn more about us, please visit us at our website at graceedmonton .ca. You can also find us on Instagram, Grace Church, Y-E-G, all one word, or on Facebook.

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The Stakes of Faithful Christian Ministry

Well, brothers and sisters, having the privilege to preach here again, I want to speak today on the theme of what I'm calling the character of Christian ministry. And as we venture into this text, I want to ask you a question, a couple of questions.

How do you tell, whether it's listening to a sermon online, or watching something on YouTube, or sitting here, or visiting a church in another city, how do you tell a good pastor, a good elder, I'm using those terms synonymously, from a bad one?

How do you tell a good one from a bad one? Or to drill in a bit deeper, how do you discern whether a man is a true and faithful undershepherd who loves the flock and serves it well, as opposed to a self-interested hireling who loves his own ministry to the flock and who seeks to serve himself well?

If we can use our imaginations for a moment, imagine just for a moment that because of providential reasons beyond our control, one day the Lord took both Sam and I on the same day, and the blink of an eye, this church goes from having a plurality of elders to no elders at all.

Brothers and sisters, if all of you were left in that moment with nothing but the congregation and your Bibles and a list of possible elder candidates before you, what would be the criteria that you would use to look for new leaders?

And criteria, if I can say this, qualitatively different, related to, but qualitatively different from that which we find in 1 Timothy 3, looking at the character qualifications that we did a few weeks ago, or to bring you a little bit closer to reality, when we are evaluating new elders in this church, or existing elders in this church, Sam and Bysel, what is the biblical criteria that we should look for?

What is the manner of life and the philosophy of ministry that we must hold the officers of this church to? Or the way by which we evaluate preachers online, or the leaders of a church in a different city, if the Lord should have you to move somewhere else and be part of a new church.

Or men, I know that there are men here in the midst of this church who aspire to some form of pastoral ministry, or even ministry as a deacon, and I ask you, what is the biblical standard for a faithful gospel ministry?

What is the model or character of a ministry that builds up the church and brings glory to our God? The fact of the matter is there are few things that have greater bearing on a church's health or unhealth than the ministerial character of the church's leaders.

Not just their character as in who they are, but the character of their ministry. Will Helmus Brackle, you haven't heard his name I think many times before, he was a 17th century Reformed theologian, and he once wrote this, and you can tell me if the stakes could be any higher.

He said, an unqualified minister is the most despicable and harmful preacher to be found in the world. He is a disgrace to the church, a stumbling block whereby many fall into eternal perdition and the cause of damnation of many souls.

Wow, what words. At the same time, Jonathan Edwards has written, this is from a sermon that he preached entitled The True Excellence of a Gospel Minister. He said, if your minister burns and shines with zeal and light, it will be for your light and life.

An excellent minister is the greatest blessing of anything in the world that ever God bestows upon his people. So to summarize, a bad pastor brings ruin everywhere that he goes. Meanwhile, a faithful pastor brings some of the highest blessings that God bestows upon his people.

So the stakes could not be, truly could not be any higher. And therefore, brethren, it behooves us to know how to tell the difference between a good minister of the gospel and a bad one. One brings light and life, and the other brings devastation and destruction.

But the question becomes, how are we to know the difference between the good and the faithful and the bad and the destructive? And I'm glad you've asked. What we see here is that Paul gives us in this passage, 1 Timothy 4, 11 through 16, a portrait of what a truly faithful Christian ministry looks like.

As Paul writes to Timothy, he shows us, at least as I see it, a fourfold character of Christian ministry. Four things that we need to see in every minister in every church. And this ministry, this fourfold ministry is characterized then by an exemplary life, rightly ordered priorities in the church, an unflinching or zealous resolve, and then a diligent self-watchfulness.

Now we're going to go through these together. And as I do, I'm mindful of this, that not everyone in this church aspires to or should aspire to pastoral ministry. And yet this has, though we're speaking about ministers of the gospel, direct application to every single person in this room.

For one, as it deals with the church, this must be, we need to know this, because this must, must, must be what we expect from the ministers of the gospel in this church. It must conform the way that we pray for the men who serve as elders and who are training, preparing to serve as elders in this church.

It must be a non-negotiable, so that if Sam and I are driving to a conference one day, and in the blink of an eye we are gone, we know for certain this church is in good hands, that you know the standard.

Or should you move to another city, we don't find you in three years or in five years the disciple of a heritage. And for those who are in ministry or who aspire to ministry, this is the character of ministry that we must pursue with all of our vehemence, with all of our might, that here Paul gives us truly a wonderful benchmark by which we must we must measure our ministry to keep ourselves above this limit if we are to serve Christ and to serve his church well.

So we have then just six verses in front of us. We're going to divide it four ways. And the first facet of faithful Christian ministry that we find, we can see in verses 11 and 12. And this is, we'll call it the example of Christian ministry or the exemplary nature of Christian ministry.

Exemplary Life in Speech, Conduct, Love, Faith, and Purity

In verse 11, this is what we read. Paul writes, inspired by the God, command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.

As Paul is writing to Timothy, he brings up this, the contents of his instruction, the contents of his letters again, you'll remember that Timothy was in the church in Ephesus dealing with all of the problems that were happening.

And verse 11, now Paul comes to him and says, command and teach these things. And what are these things? Do you know that expression, these things, actually appears in the two letters to Timothy eight different times.

It speaks to all of the contents that Paul is writing to Timothy, that this is to go not only to Timothy, but beyond Timothy, through Timothy into the church. So what we're learning here is that the instructions that are found in this book are not just for one man in particular, but for the church as a whole.

And we in fact do see an escalation of Paul speaking about these things. In first Timothy chapter three and verse 14, we're told that Paul wrote these things that one may know how to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God.

In chapter four and verse six, we see that Paul writes that Timothy is to put these things before the church. So he's written it, you're to put it before and now even further to command and teach these things in verse 11.

And some may ask that perhaps on what basis can we apply Paul's instructions to Timothy to the whole church? And it is based on this, this escalation, this repetition of bringing these things before the church.

And as Paul writes here in verse 12, he tells Timothy, let no one despise you for your youth. It's really interesting when you look at all the scholarship that has been done on this passage, so much time and energy has been put into this question.

How old was Timothy? It just seems to be a point of curiosity that every scholar wants to dig into. Some have looked at the use of this word youth in its original form to ascertain how old he was. Most will say that this term for youth speaks to someone who is under the age of 40.

Others have sought to reverse engineer the biblical chronology, so to work their way back from the letter and go on. I'm not going to take you through all of the tomes of work that have been done on this, but except to summarize and to say that it's widely believed that Timothy accompanied Paul, if we do reverse engineer it a bit, in Acts chapter 16, sometime Timothy would have been maybe in his late teens or early 20s.

We know that Timothy was circumcised by the Apostle Paul. They carried on in that second missionary journey. And because about 10 years has elapsed between that missionary journey and now Paul's first letter to Timothy, it's very likely that Timothy was either in his late 20s or in his early 30s.

And even in that time period, this was considered to be relatively youthful. It was unrelated, but a few months ago I was reading something from one of the apostolic fathers, Irenaeus, and I made a little note in the margin of my Bible so that I remembered to say this as we were going through, but Irenaeus is quoted as saying that 30 is the first stage of a young man's age and extends to 40, he says, as we all admit.

So according to Irenaeus, if you're 39 years or younger, you're still a young man. And if you're like me and you're 40 years or older, I'll let you draw the conclusions. So we can ascertain that Timothy was, at his oldest, still in his 30s.

And while we don't know his exact age, what's very likely is that he was probably younger than some of the elders in the church in Ephesus and younger than some of the false teachers that were there as well.

And not unlike our culture today, the Greco-Roman world placed a great deal of emphasis on age and life experience. This seems in fact to be almost a universal principle. We can look back into the Old Testament in 1 Samuel 17 and verse 42.

Do you remember what Goliath said about David when he came before him with his stone and his sling? He said, you're going to send this young man, this ruddy youth to do your fighting for you so as to minimize him based solely on his age?

There seems to be something baked into the mindsets of humanity, of our culture in general, that age for some reason is of great importance. That's why when, I trust, when you were a child just as when I was a child, when I went to the playground and I met someone new, I was concerned about two things.

Who are you and how old are you? And if you're older than me, you come with some measure of prestige that I do not have. And that's why young children count not just in years but in halves and in quarters.

I'm seven and three quarters year old. Oh, you're seven and a half. I'm older. So you must submit. And here we have this principle played out. And yet it's interesting. Paul says to Timothy, you might be more youthful.

That matters not. Set an example for the believers in your conduct. But Paul's encouragement is this. Because you're young, Timothy, you need to wait just a few years. Wait until you're 40. You're beyond Irenaeus's standard for a young man.

And then begin your ministry. But instead, silence your critics by your godly example. And this seems to be something that is universally accepted at least. Just as we appreciate age to the degree that we do, I think that we've all met someone who is much younger than us.

And we think this is surely sobering. That they are probably where I should be. And maybe I feel like they should be where I am right now. The Greek philosopher Plato, I don't quote him too liberally, but he did say this.

One time he was accused of living immorally. And having at least determined or demonstrated his innocence, he began teaching to people after him. He said, we must live in such a way that all men will see that the charge is false.

And there is certainly truth in that. That our age matters to some degree, but we must live in such a way that when accusations are brought against us, it is seen to be untrue. And what Paul is doing here is he's telling Timothy not only to live in such a way that your youthfulness will not be looked down upon, but this is simply the nature of Christian ministry.

When we see this in Paul's letters in 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 1, he says, be imitators of me as I am of Christ. In Philippians chapter 3 and verse 17, he says, brothers, join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example that you have in us.

When Peter was speaking to the elders of the dispersed church in 1 Peter 5 and verse 2, he tells them, shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.

I was thinking about our church just this week, and I didn't do the math. I didn't think of every person in this room, put your age into a calculator to determine a median age, but I would guess that probably the median age of this church is somewhere between 30 and 40.

Still in the young man, young woman stage. Some of you are younger, some of you are older, like me. And what this passage, I think, shows us is that brothers and sisters, even if you are not called to gospel ministry, even if you are not an elder, even if you are not a deacon, oh, silence your critics, but by your godly life.

When did the Lord would allow us so that men and women who are 20 and 30 and 40 and 50 years older than us come and they see a bunch of young people and they go, well, this is true, this church must not be very mature.

And then they get to know us and they say, alas, I am challenged by the way that even these young people live. Now, here is Paul writes to Timothy, he gives him some different categories to be examples in.

He says to be an example in speech. So often, scripture addresses the speech of the people of God. In Ephesians chapter four, verse 29, we read, let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only as is good for building up as fits the occasion that may give grace to those who hear.

In Colossians 4, let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. Brothers and sisters, I'm going to ask you, are you cultivating godly speech?

And this is something I want to assure you that is far more than merely developing a verbal filter. We know what this is like, right? That we have a filter in some places and then we walk through the threshold of our door and the filter is gone and we are seen to be who we truly are.

This is more than developing a filter. But what did the Lord Jesus teach us about our speech? That out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Brethren, if we are to have sanctified speech, we must first have sanctified hearts.

We must feel our hearts for the truth of God's word. We must seek to condition our hearts so that whether at church or at work or at home, we are consistent in our godly speech. Paul tells Timothy that he is to be an example in his conduct or in his life, it is sometimes translated, so that speech in and of itself is simply not enough.

The Lord said to some of his followers in Luke 6 46, why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not do what I tell you? And then what did he do? He taught them how they were to build their lives upon the rock solid foundation of his word and so being wise, not building their houses upon the sand but upon that which which God has spoken and commanded.

And this means then that the gospel ministers and God's people in general must not only be mouthpieces of God but men of God and women of God. That this translates into a godly life. We're told that ministers, Christian ministers, Timothy is to be an example in love.

The minister of the gospel must model what has been called, quote another brother, an unconquerable benevolence, the kind of love that takes up a whole man's personality. I say this with great concern for each of you, that if you should move from this church at some point and find yourself looking for a church, do not evaluate a potential pastor, do not evaluate us as pastors in this church based solely on oratory gifts or on magnetic personalities, but ask yourself wherever you go, even in the podcast you listen to, is it evident to me that this man truly loves the flock of God that has been entrusted to him?

That he loves them truly? Or does he merely, as I said already, love his ministry and the flock itself becomes a meal ticket to a bigger brand and a bigger budget and a bigger building? Paul says that the minister of God must be an example in faith.

We should never join ourselves with a church where the man or the men who preach the gospel do not believe that same gospel with all of their hearts. Find a church, find pastors, find elders who have staked their all on Christ, and if they have not staked their all on Christ, they are not worth following.

Watch their words, watch their lives, watch the emphasis in their preaching, watch the melody line of their lives, that it must be gospel through and through. It must be examples in purity. This word means a moral purity.

It means sometimes it could be translated as a pure heart, to have rightly ordered desires, that we should expect elders of our church to act with the utmost propriety. I will say it is our policy, and you can keep us to this policy, that the elders of this church, sisters, we will not meet you at a in private.

We are not going to. We did it to our sister a few weeks ago. We sent her home in an Uber. We're just not going to drive you. Why is that? It's not because we don't love you, it's because we want to treat you honorably.

We want to act with purity in our motives, in every aspect of our conduct. And so brothers and sisters, what do we do with this first example then, the example of Christian ministry? We must expect this level of godliness from our leaders.

We must create a non-negotiable standard, where we don't simply look for oratory gifts, but we look for an example of a godly life. And for men who aspire here to pastoral ministry, it is interesting.

I think that many people today believe that Christian ministry, that your public ministry begins the moment you step behind the pulpit, and you have an audience of God's people. And that simply is not true.

But the beginning of a man who aspires to eldership, aspires to Christian ministry, the beginning of his Christian ministry, the beginning of his public ministry, begins when people begin to look at you and say, Lord, make me like that man.

He is the kind of man that I want to be. This is something that Sam and I have resolved. Last year, we took some time, and we walked just along a trail in my neighborhood, and we thought about this very carefully, and we said, from now on, if there are men who want to stand behind the pulpit of this church on the Lord's day, we're not merely going to look for giftedness in preaching.

We're not even going to look simply for Bible quiz knowledge. They can tell you exactly what chapter and verse this particular thing happened. We're going to look for men who are examples in every respect.

Men who we see, there is a very good reason why you're not here on Sunday. There's a very good reason why you're not here on Thursdays. We're looking for men who are servant-hearted, who are just as eager to push a dolly with a stack of chairs on it as they are to get behind the pulpit and speak to God's people, because you love God's people whether they are looking or not.

The minister of the gospel is not a talking head, but he must be the whole package. I think something that Ian Bound said, and boy, I texted Sam this morning, I said, brother, this has been working on me.

It's probably going to work on you. Ian Bound said, preaching is not the performance of an hour. It is the outflow of a life. It takes 20 years, I would say more, to make a sermon, because it takes 20 years to make the man.

The true sermon is the thing of life. The sermon grows because the man grows. We see another facet of Christian ministry in verse 13, and we might call this the priorities of Christian ministry. In verse 13 we read, until I come, devote yourself to the public greeting of scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.

The Public Reading of Scripture, Exhortation, and Teaching

There are other traditions that call themselves Christian that claim, some of you know what I'm talking about, they have the most historic liturgy. They claim that because they have this unbroken liturgy that has lasted over a thousand years, they are the closest representation of the ancient faith.

This is not true. I agree with one brother's observation, who speaks about Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism, and he said that their smells and their bells and their icons are simply seeker-sensitive churches that were designed to appeal to the medieval mindset.

So when we look at that, we say, look at, they've got the bells, they've got the censors, they've got all of this stuff, surely this is old, it must be true. It's just a 500-year-old seeker-sensitive version of Christianity, and a poor version at that.

But in the Reformation, the church rediscovered the ancient faith with its biblically ordered priorities. And verse 13, I think, spells out very clearly what those biblically ordered priorities are. What does Paul say?

Devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, and to teaching. Some of you, I'm sure some people who have come through our doors only once, maybe once in and once out and never come back, they might have said, that service is just too long for me.

I think, how many chapters of the Bible did they read in that service? Sam and I have talked about this before. When we get a 72-verse chapter in Acts, do we cut it in half or do we say, reading Scripture is important, we're going to read the whole chapter?

What we see in Scripture again and again and again is that when the church comes together, when Sam and I, children and grandchildren, when Sam and I go to be with the Lord, or the Lord providentially takes us elsewhere, and you're looking for new elders, look for elders in this church who say, we are going to read God's Word, because that is what is important.

In Luke 4 and verse 16, we see an example of this. And he came, this is Jesus, to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him.

He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it is written, here reading from Isaiah 61 and verse 1, the Spirit of the Lord is upon you, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.

He sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed. What does the Lord do when the people come together to worship? This is God in human flesh.

What does he concern himself with? But with the reading of Scripture, as was the custom in the synagogue amongst the people of God. Or in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 27, some might ask, or they might say, I've heard many Christians in fact say this, I am concerned with the words in red.

These are the words of Jesus, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I'll concern myself with that. Everything else, that's Paul, that's Peter, that's John, that's Luke, that's not important to me. I want the words in red only.

But what does Paul say in 1 Thessalonians 5 .27? I put you under oath before the Lord, speaking of the letter that he has written to them, to have this letter read to all the brothers. So that it was expected that when the church came together, they came and they read the Scriptures together.

In the book of Ephesians, some might ask, why do we have the children in our services? Because in the book of Ephesians, as the reader would have been reading that letter, they would have gone through all of these instructions on various things.

And then what does it say in Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 1? It addresses the children. Honor your parents in the Lord, for this is right. When the Bible, in the Bible, when the church came together, they made it a priority to read God's Word.

We don't find rock concerts. We don't find the veneration of icons. We find God's Word. In his first apology, this is Justin Martyr's first apology. It was written about 150 AD. The early church father, Justin Martyr, he recorded the description of a typical worship service on the Lord's Day.

And I want you to hear this with me. And two, I will point this out. This is within about 50 years of the passing of John, John the Apostle, the last gospel writer. Church did not meet on Saturdays until the Roman Catholic Church enacted things in the 5th century or the 6th century.

But in 150 AD, and on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together in one place. And the memoirs of the apostles, that's the New Testament, or the writings of the prophets are read as long as time permits, as long as time permits.

Then when the reader has ceased, the president or the one presiding over the service verbally instructs and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray. As we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine are brought.

And the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings according to his ability. And the people ascent saying, Amen. I want you to hear something. Is that not what we do every single Sunday?

That is more ancient than the smells and the bells and the icons and the swirling chandeliers and the long adorned robes. It is to come together and it is to hear God from his word. That is why we read God's word.

Now, the Lord has given us Bibles that we can go home and read for ourselves. And so maybe we don't read a full epistle or a full gospel in one sitting. But by the Lord's grace, we will read the word.

But it's not limited only to reading the word. What do we see here? Devote yourself to public reading, to exhortation, and to teaching. This word exhortation is like a Swiss army knife kind of word. It can be translated in so many different ways.

It can mean to exhort, to encourage, to comfort, to console, to appeal, to summon. It includes the whole broad range of Christian preaching. And brothers and sisters, when the church comes together, it's not like the home church idea.

We're going to read the passage. The guy will sit at the front and he'll say, what does this mean to you? And the man and the woman and everyone else, they say what it means to them. And we all go, ah.

It warms my heart. It means that to you. It means this to me. We're good. Let's live it the way we would like. But what is it? It is coming before God's people. It is reading the word. And it is exhorting from the word.

It's preaching. It's the preaching of the word. It's exactly what Paul tells Timothy to do in 2 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 2. While other people are scratching itching ears and tickling this interest and that interest, as for you in the sight of God, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing, preach the word with authority.

It's not a suggestion. It is the word of God. So that Spurgeon says, some will say, stop preaching. Stop preaching. But he adds, we must preach. Let the sun stop shining and we will preach in darkness.

Let the waves stop their ebb and flow and still our voice shall preach the gospel. Let the world stop its revolutions. Let the planet stay their motion. We will still preach the gospel. Let us never appoint people in this church who have no interest in preaching the gospel.

You might find a guy online and he has every political view. You just think, I'm so aligned with this guy. And go and listen to one of the sermons at his church. If he does not preach the gospel, block that channel on your podcast player.

Amen. Blow up your podcast player. Do not listen to him. Or to read, or to exhort, but also to teach. Not TED Talks. Not emotional preaching that finds no basis in truth. But this is the marriage between heat and light.

And it must be both. And if it is not, it is not true preaching. Brothers and sisters, this means that for us to be a biblically ordered church and for the church to have Christian ministers fulfilling their responsibilities, it means that to be a member of such a church is undoubtedly, invariably demanding.

It means that I have to take my tick-tock swiping finger that is used to fast flashes of light that stimulates my mind and my emotions and gives me boosts of whatever neurotransmitter. To set that aside and say, I will hear God's word read.

And I'm going to pay attention because it's God's word. And I'm going to hear God's word preached. And I'm going to have at times my sensibilities offended because God's word is going to come into direct collision with my sinful, faulty, unsanctified worldviews, perspectives, attitudes, and behaviors.

And I'm going to come. And every once in a while, the guy behind the pulpit is going to explain something that is hard. And I am going to have to grab a hold of my mind and say, no, we must hear this.

We must learn this. We must know this. And then if you aspire to the office of elder, if you aspire to Christian ministry, if you aspire to the office of deacon, you must occupy yourself with knowing God and knowing his word.

If you think that the call to ministry can be divorced from the call to study, you are woefully wrong. When I went into law enforcement, I remember the people in our training saying, you know, you see all of that stuff on TV about the police chases and the foot chases and the guns and the shooting and all of that.

That is television. That is not real police work. Most of the police work, unfortunately, is spent behind a desk on a computer typing reports. That is just the nature of police work. But will I tell you for every hour that a faithful man spends in his office, there are dozens and dozens and dozens of hours spent alone at a desk with God's word open, seeking to know the scriptures that you might not only understand it and apply it to your own life, but clearly teach it.

I explain this to the men that come, the first year students that come into our institute. I read them a quote, a commentary that is on Ezra chapter 7 and verse 10. It's from D .A. Carson, where he says that the call to pastoral ministry or the life of pastoral ministry is often a lonely one.

And it's not a woe is me story. I'm telling you this, what I am doing right now is the greatest privilege in the world. So there's not a word of complaint. But there are days on Saturday evening. I know this when the other brothers are preaching.

So I would use that as an example. And I am at home with my family, eating popcorn and having a movie night or going to the playground and riding my bicycle. And I will think about Sam. And I know exactly what Sam is doing at that moment.

He's not riding a bicycle in the sun. He's at a desk, crying out to God, saying, Oh, God, help me. I don't know how to explain this. Or I know what it means, but I can't feel it. Why is there this incongruity between that which your word says and that which my cold, hard, dull heart feels?

Man, you must be willing. And it is the best thing that you can do in the world is to pour your life into knowing God, knowing his word, and then saying, I'm going to mine the depths of God's word. I'm going to find every rare jewel.

I'm going to bring it to the surface. I'm not going to tell them about it. I'm just going to say, behold, look at these precious jewels. Behold your God. In Ezra 710, we see an example of this. For Ezra said, his heart to study the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.

And the ordering of that might sound odd, but it's exactly right. He said his heart to study and then to do. And only once he has studied and then done, only then does he teach. Do you see that? So man, if you are into studying and teaching, but not in doing, you can come speak to us.

We will encourage you. We will counsel you, but you will not be teaching. It is study and then do and then teach. John Calvin says about this, he says, how shall pastors teach others if they be not eager to learn?