12 Characteristics of a Godly Pastor

Blamelessness, Mercy, and Hiding Sin

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But his past sins are an opportunity to display God's mercy. And a godly elder does not attempt to hide his sin, past or present, no matter how big or small the sin was. This is what it means to be blameless.

It's not that someone does not sin, but that when they sin, they do not try to cover it up, or hide it. Paul murdered Christians. And he does not mind sharing that with us, or with his readers, to show his own humbleness and amazement that God would use him of all people.

To The Wrap Report, with your host, Andrew Rapoport. Where we provide biblical interpretation and application. This is a ministry of Striving for Eternity and the Christian Podcast Community. For more content, or to request a speaker for your church, go to strivingforeternity .org.

Welcome to another edition of The Wrap Report. I'm your host, Andrew Rapoport, the Executive Director of Striving for Eternity and the Christian Podcast Community, of which this podcast is a proud member.

The Purpose of the Pastoral Epistles

We are here to give you biblical interpretations and applications for all things of the Christian life. And as we're continuing in our study on the topic of what is a pastor, I said that we would do this week is to get into the characteristics of a pastor, the qualifications.

And when we talk about qualifications, people immediately think 1 Timothy and Titus. And I'm glad that you did, because we're sort of going to go there, but not where you think. We're actually going to stay in 1 and 2 Timothy.

Now, you're thinking of 1 Timothy and Titus in the characteristics that are mentioned there for a pastor and deacons. We will look at that in the next episode in this series. But in this one, I want to do an overview of, well, the pastoral epistles, really 1 and 2 Timothy, at least those two, and look at Paul's instruction to Timothy.

And in there, we're going to look at 12 different characteristics of a godly elder. And so I think when we're looking at what is a pastor, these are the things that Paul is going to say we should look at.

And so as we look at these 12 characteristics of a godly elder, an elder can be the best or the worst thing for a church. A sinful or selfish elder is the church's destruction. However, a godly elder is the church's blessing.

Now, most people, as I said, would go to 1 Timothy 3, 1 -7, or Titus 1, 10 -16 for the qualifications of an elder. But we're going to take a little bit of a different view of this and look at 12 characteristics that Paul points out to Timothy throughout the books that he gives to Timothy.

A Pure Heart, Good Conscience, and Sincere Faith

We're going to start off. I hope you have your Bible with you. But if not, I will read the scriptures for you. But 1 Timothy 1, 3 -5 says this, As I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus, that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes, rather than godly edification, which is faith.

Now, the purpose of this commandment is love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. The reason that Paul was leaving Timothy in Ephesus was to fulfill the role of an elder in teaching sound doctrine and refuting false doctrine.

That's what it says in verse 5 there. The purpose of this commandment is love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith. Timothy was charged to carry this out as a role of elder, and what does it say?

In love. Yes, this is a loving thing. And he describes three characteristics. The first three that we're going to look at, a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. Those are the first three.

So let's look at the first one, a pure heart. We see in 1 Timothy 1 .5. Now, I want to let you know the word pure here in the negative sense means to be free from corrupt desires or sin and guilt. Positively, it means to be blameless, to be innocent, unstained, without guilt of anything.

The idea of heart is referring to the center or seat of the spiritual life. It's the idea of the soul or the mind. It's the foundation of the thoughts, passions, desires, appetites, affections, purposes, and endeavors.

This does not mean that an elder must be sinless, otherwise no one would be qualified. Yes, you, myself, your pastor, my pastor, every pastor, everybody listening would be disqualified if it means we have to be sinless.

It does refer to the fact that an elder must know in his innermost being that he's in a right standing before God. And if he does sin, he would confess it and repent. A pure heart can be seen in a man that asks forgiveness quickly from another and does not justify his sinfulness.

Now, next episode in this series, we will look more detail about the idea of being blameless, but just for a quick overview here, it's the idea of someone who has nothing that anyone can nail to them.

In other words, this is a person who, yes, he would sin, but when he sins, he's quick to acknowledge it and repent of it. You say, well, that means if he repents, he never does it again. Well, no, because every human being does it again.

We are continually repenting, but the idea is of a pure heart is that he knows that he has asked forgiveness. He is reconciled where he can reconcile, and he does what is right, and he knows that he's doing right before God.

That's the idea of this. The second one that we saw, if you're going to have a man that is a godly pastor, is he has to be of a good conscience. We see this not only in 1 Timothy 1 .5, but also in 2 Timothy 1 .3.

I thank God whom I serve with a pure conscience. The word good in 1 Timothy 1 .5 refers to a good constitution or nature, a moral quality. In general, the conscience refers to the part of the soul that distinguishes between what is morally good and morally bad.

An elder should be a man that does not struggle with determining basic moral issues. He should know right from wrong and have a pattern of doing what is right. There are many pastors in Paul's day and in ours who have rejected a good conscience, as we will see in a moment in 1 Timothy 1 .19.

Too many pastors have rejected what they once knew as good to please people or, even worse, please themselves. Too many pastors justify their own sin or blame others so that they will not look bad before their congregation.

Some refer to this as the Superman syndrome, that pastors have to pretend or act as if they're perfect, if they're Superman, like no one should see that they struggle as well as everyone else. However, one's conscience must remain good and not influenced by the world around them.

A godly elder's conscience will remain pure. A good conscience can be seen in a man that doesn't struggle or hesitate or waver to do what's right. We could think of Joseph when he's tempted with Potiphar's wife and she's trying to grab him.

What does he do? He flees. That's a good conscience of someone who has got a conscience where he knows he will run quickly, and if wrong, he will be quick to ask forgiveness and reconcile. The third thing that Paul mentions here in 1 Timothy 1 .5 is a sincere faith.

Now, sincere has the idea of being genuine or without hypocrisy, and faith refers to the conviction of truth of anything, to believe to a complete trust or a trustworthiness or to be in a state of complete dependability.

Paul goes on to describe this faith to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1 .18 -19 where he says, This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, having faith and a good conscience, which some, having rejected concerning the faith, have suffered shipwreck.

Timothy must fight the good fight of faith because pastors who do not do this suffer a life of a shipwrecked faith. There is no Christian life which does not involve serious moral striving. Without this, the life falls victim both to error and perversion in conduct.

We need serious moral striving. A godly elder believes in the truth of the scriptures no matter what the outcome. Many men behind pulpits today jettison the truth for pragmatics. What works? What's going to get people coming to the church?

Pastors are turning to whatever works to quote-unquote grow their church. Many of these men are shipwrecking their own faith in the process and also the faith of that congregation. The reality is that God never requires a pastor to grow the church.

Let me say that again. The reality is God never requires the pastor to grow the church. That is the Holy Spirit's job. And the man with a sincere faith leaves it to the Holy Spirit, trusts the Holy Spirit.

However, God calls each of us to have a sincere and genuine faith and trust of the Lord. The elder is especially to be trusting God at His Word and not with an expectation of the outcome. A godly elder is not one who is concerned with the results but the process.

Let me say that again. A godly elder is not concerned with the results but the process. A sincere faith can be seen in a man that makes right decisions even when they're unpopular, and he does not worry about the outcome.

This is someone who's willing to stand in the face of the culture of his day because he's appealing to an audience of one God. A good conscience will tell you if you have a pure heart is based in a sincere faith.

So a godly elder will have a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. Let us now look at what Paul says in 1 Timothy 1, 12 -14, where he says,. And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.

Although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, an insolent man, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

Paul is not ashamed of his past sins. Paul sees his past sins as an opportunity to glorify God. His past sins are many, but his past sins are an opportunity to display God's mercy. And a godly elder does not attempt to hide his sin, past or present, no matter how big or small the sin was.

This is what it means to be blameless. It's not that someone does not sin, but that when they sin, they do not try to cover it up or hide it. Paul murdered Christians, and he does not mind sharing that with us or with his readers to show his own humbleness and amazement that God would use him of all people.

This does not mean that the pastor should openly discuss his past sins. No, no, no, no. But it is that he should not be attempting to cover them up. If a pastor attempts to cover his sin, he may disqualify himself because he'll no longer be blameless.

A man not willing to admit to sins is especially public ones. Well, Paul's were pretty public. They may try to hide other things, too. Pride says hide the sin. Pastors who try to hide their sins because they think that people will not respect them if they knew, that is the type of thinking that is nothing but pride.

And a prideful man does not belong behind a pulpit. A man that is not ashamed of his past sins is humbled by them. He does not try to hide them. It doesn't mean he has to share all his sins all the time or share all of his sins with everyone.

But it means that when his sins are present, he does not try to cover them up and run from them. He faces them head-on, acknowledges them, and then repents from them so that no one can hold it against him.

Quiet and Peaceable Life

Now, to balance this out, let us see what Paul further says to Timothy in 1 Timothy 2, 1 -2. He says, Therefore I exalt, first of all, the supplications, prayers, and intercessions of giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings, and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.

Now, Paul states that all men are in authority to live a quiet and peaceable life. And this is our fifth characteristic, leading a quiet and peaceable life. Paul includes himself with this when he says, We, we lead a quiet and peaceable life.

Elders are men in authority, therefore Paul applies this passage to elders as well. The word for quiet means tranquil, a peaceful existence, or a peaceful attitude. The word here used, peaceable, is very similar, but specifically refers to the idea of someone who is settled, or steadfast, or immovable.

This describes someone who is comfortable with who they are, and not trying to be someone they're not. A pastor is not a man seeking to be the center of attention. Paul states that all men that are in authority should live in such a way that their lives are marked by an immovable comfort in their contentment with where God has placed them in life.

And a man that is looking for a platform, or looking to build something, to build a church and have lots of people in that church, a man who is trying to make something of a congregation and fill the pews, or to build some sort of recognition, is not a man who's comfortable or content with where God has him.

God may have someone to have a very small church and faithfully pass to that all their life. And can that pastor be quiet and peaceable with that? In other words, can he be unmoving? Can he be steadfast and settled with the idea that that's where God would have him?

Can he be content with that? This talks about the character of a person. Now, is there anything wrong with desiring to see that labor that the pastor does be heard by more people? No, not necessarily.

But it shouldn't be that he's trying to make something happen. Leave that job to the Holy Spirit. It's his job, and quite frankly, he does it much better than you and I ever could. So godly elders, first, have a pure heart.

Second, have a good conscience. Third, have a sincere faith. Fourth, not ashamed of admitting to their own sins. Fifth, leading a quiet and peaceable life. And now to the sixth characteristic, a good teacher.

Sound Doctrine and the Pastor as Teacher

He says this in 1 Timothy 4, 6. If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourishing in the words of faith and the good doctrine which you have carefully followed.

A godly elder is a good teacher. In fact, that's one of the qualifications that we'll see in the next episode in this series of a pastor, is that he is to be a teacher. He has to be gifted to teach. A pastor is one who can teach, not necessarily preach.

There is a difference, by the way, between teaching and preaching. Teaching is, though, required for preaching, but preaching is the idea of more of a one-way direction. So we might be able to say that what I'm doing here in the podcast is preaching, because there's no dialogue here, but I can't do this in such a way where it's more teaching as well.

Maybe I read comments people have given and we engage with it that way. That would also be a way of teaching. Now, teaching is a communication of information. A good teacher is not defined by how well-studied he is.

A good teacher is not defined by how much knowledge he has. A good teacher is defined by how well the students understand the material. So this doesn't mean I'd be all high and lofty in my speech. No, it has to be well-communicated.

A good teacher is one that can communicate difficult things in an easy-to-understand way. As a teacher, he must desire to educate people, not show off his own knowledge or study. He must love to teach, not to preach.

What's the difference, Andrew? Well, teaching is more interactive than preaching is, but the issue is he must love for the people he's teaching to understand the material more than people looking at him and being enamored with his abilities.

It's important to understand that a godly teaching requires sound doctrine. Paul mentions the idea of sound doctrine 11 times in these two books. Kind of thinking when the books aren't that big, 11 times, pretty important.

The thought is spoken of more than any other in these books. Paul encourages Timothy to be in sound doctrine. What is sound doctrine, you ask? Well, I'm glad you asked that. The word sound is not actually an adjective, as we may think of it in the English, but a verb, and a present active verb.

That describes what we should be doing to doctrine. It's something we should be doing to be sound. If we were to try to translate it, we should be sounding doctrine. Now, I know that doesn't make much sense in English.

We all have a doctrine, we all have a set of teachings that we believe, but we must be about the process of making that doctrine sound. An elder must be about the business of sounding his doctrine. That means that elders, like Paul in Acts 17, we should all be Bereans, but the pastor should be as well.

He should be encouraged by people who compare what he says with Scripture. And he should be looking to the Scriptures to look at his doctrine. He shouldn't be offended when someone corrects him or points something out.

All pastors say something wrong in a pulpit. There's going to be some where your mind is thinking faster than the words can come out, and you say something, mix up your words, or say something wrong. But a godly elder is not one who's offended when someone points that out.

We all have areas of our doctrine that need correcting as well. None of us have perfect doctrine, not even me. Now, granted, we all think our doctrine's right, otherwise we would change it. But we don't know where it is.

Now, there will be a day we stand at the feet of Christ and he's going to correct us. We don't know where that area is today, though. Too many pastors let their authority as a leader interfere with their doctrine.

And they tend to preach more than teach. In other words, they tend to want to have a monologue rather than a dialogue. They're more concerned with their communication and what they're saying rather than you receiving and understanding.

The reason for this may be that the teacher is one who interacts with students, but the preacher is one who just disseminates information and not the receiving of it. Some start to forget that they are not the authority, though, of the church.

The Word of God is. That's our authority. The authority of the church itself, the pastor, is really Christ. I knew one man that would always say to me, Andrew, this is why we're the pastors and they're the sheep.

And I had to remind this man, don't forget, we're sheep also. The pastor's not above the flock. The pastor is part of the flock and the true shepherd is Jesus Christ and the true authority is the Word of God.

This is one reason we can never stop trusting the Lord and depending completely on him. Especially the pastor must do this. The pastor must study diligently the Word of God and not the books of men. Some men, they know all the books.

They read all the good books of the Puritans and everyone. And yet they're not spending that amount of time in the study of the Word of God. I'm not saying that we shouldn't read books from men. That's a good thing to do.

But they're not even comparable to the Word of God. The godly elder is going to be one who studies the Word of God to take it into his own heart first and make it his own before he goes and teaches. A teacher can be seen in a man who's refined by doctrine as he studies and is excited to educate others.

An Example to the Believers

Tied very closely to the godly pastor being a teacher is that he also must be an example to others. And this is our seventh qualification now. We see this in 1 Timothy 4 .12. Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

An example to others. Now, Paul tells Timothy, be an example to the believers in the world in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, and in purity. Pretty much covers all of life, doesn't it? The Greek word for example here, though, is very interesting.

It comes from the root word to strike, to beat, or to wound. And you go, what? That doesn't seem to make much sense, Andrew. Well, this is an interesting word because it has the meaning of the mark or impression that is left behind after a strike or a blow from an object such as a hammer.

It's the word used in John 20 .25 that refers to the scars left behind in the resurrected body of Christ. It also has the meaning of pattern of conformity to which a thing must be made. The other interesting part of this word is that in the ethical sense, it is a pattern of warning.

The example is the mark left behind from a blow of a hammer or a copied pattern. An elder is to be the mark of Christ left behind for the church to pattern their lives after. We as a church are to be the mark of Christ left behind in the world.

We are to be the mark that is made when Christ impacts the world, especially the elder, is to be the mark for the church. And a godly elder's good example gives his words meaning and power. If he says, love your wife like Christ loved the church, and you see him live it out in his life, you're more apt to obey it yourself.

The word example is used, as I said, as a word of warning. Paul is warning Timothy to mark his actions in a life to be watched and seen by others. An elder must be careful to leave a godly impact or pattern in life, conduct, love, spirit, faith, and purity.

To impact or pattern in these areas cannot be done from a distance. This involves close intimate relations between elders in the congregation. A godly pastor is not hiding from others or surrounding himself with a select few.

He is part of the congregation. This is a thing that many pastors make a mistake of doing, is to hide themselves from the congregation, to separate themselves, so that way very few people may be able to see them and see their sins.

Trying to hide that, you can't be an example in the shadows. No, this is life on life, and especially in those days where everyone lived in a small town. Everyone knew what everyone else did. The elder was one whose life was, well, as we would say, in a fishbowl.

Everyone could watch it, and it's hard. But folks, it's not just the pastor whose life should be in the fishbowl. All of us should be this example. We should make a mark on the world, mark on our own families.

But especially the pastor should be one a godly pastor leaves a good mark behind. We've seen that a godly pastor is to have, one, a pure heart, two, a good conscience, three, a sincere faith, four, not ashamed of his past, five, leading a quiet and peaceful life, six, a good teacher, seven, an example to others, and now we see, number eight, that he endures hardship.

Enduring Hardship Like a Good Soldier

He endures hardship. Look at what it says in 2 Timothy 2, 3 and 4. You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.

No godly elder says that ministry is easy. Far from it. Ministry is difficult. In fact, ministry is extremely difficult. And Paul illustrates godly elders, like Timothy, as a good soldier, having to endure hardship.

The phrase endure hardship means to suffer evils and distress, to be afflicted, to withstand trouble. When a pastor starts to avoid difficulties and tough decisions, he's like a soldier who engages in warfare and then entangles himself with the affairs of this life.

A good soldier does not worry about his retirement plan when someone's coming after him with a sword. No, when someone's coming after him with a sword, he's not worried about the future. He's worried about the right here and now.

And he's got to endure that. Ministry is difficult. This is why I want to encourage you again. Be praying for your pastors. Maybe I could say as well, understanding the hardship of the ministry, a question to ask ourselves, are we the ones that inflict the distress and trouble on our pastors?

Ooh, sorry, did that hit you too close? Did that hit home a little too hard? If that's the case, maybe you should not just be praying for your pastor, but praying with your pastor, maybe even asking his forgiveness.

I want to encourage you to do things like that. The reality is sometimes people can be very difficult and very hard on their pastor. Having expectations for their pastor that are just too much and trying to force a pastor to live up to something he cannot.

Pastors can struggle with that as well. A godly pastor, as we've already said, won't do that. He's going to serve God, but he's got to walk into it knowing the difficulties of it. And many pastors avoid dealing with sin in the church because it is hard.

We've discussed being sound in our doctrine. We cannot be sound if we avoid the difficult issues that life presents. However, when you find a man who always addresses the issue, no matter how difficult they may be, he has leadership quality that could make him a godly elder.

Many times people will avoid an elder who's not afraid of dealing with hardship because they know that they will not get away with evil that they plan. The reality is that it is easy to avoid sin, and many men that I know will avoid making those difficult decisions because it's hard, and they go around thinking it'll be easier if they ignore it, but those problems get worse and worse.

A godly elder deals with sin issues when they begin, when he first sees them, and starts with them when they're small before they become a big issue. An elder must remember him who enlisted him as a soldier.

The pastor's job is to please God, not men and definitely not himself. The elder who desires to please God knows that hardships will come and will always be ready for it, like a soldier must always be ready for battle during warfare.

The godly elder will survive the hardship because his focus is on Christ, the source of his salvation and trust, and is therefore always prepared for battle. One who endures hardship can be seen in a man who is not discouraged by the battle or the return to battle.

He's not crying over spilt milk. A godly elder endures hardship like a good soldier, but also he's one who follows rules. We see this in 2 Timothy, and this is number nine. 2 Timothy 2 .5 says,. This is very simply the fact that an elder must follow rules, whether it's the rules of Scripture or maybe the bylaws of their church or the government.

The pastor must be one who follows rules, not one who tries to avoid them. This is the same way for an athlete. He must follow the rules of competition. If a leader starts to justify the breaking of rules, how can he expect to receive an award, any more than a runner who skips one leg of a race to win?

Some time ago, there was the New York City Marathon, and they awarded a man first place for crossing the finish line, only to discover somewhere in the middle of the race, the man was seen on the subway taking a shortcut.

The prize was removed from him, and in the place of glory, it was now replaced with disgrace. Winning is not winning if the rules are not followed. It is called disqualification. The reason people break rules is because their focus is on the results.

We are not called to seek for results. Results are God's work. The process is ours. God chooses to call His children to obedience, not to results. A godly elder is one who follows the rules and leaves the results to the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit can bring about the results that the Holy Spirit wants to bring about. It's much better to be in line with Him. Not only is a godly elder one who endures hardship as a soldier, one who follows rules as an athlete, but he's also, according to Paul, described as one who is hardworking as a farmer in 2 Timothy 2 .6.

The hardworking farmer must be first to partake in his crops. Paul uses the illustration of a farmer to depict hardworking. A farmer is one who must wake before the sunrise, work all day long with no guarantee that his hard work will pay off.

The farmer could lose his whole crop in a fire or by animals or weather, and yet the farmer must persevere or he will definitely have no crop. The word hardworking here means to grow weary or to tire from the work and labor.

A truly hardworking man never says this about himself. Others say it about him. A hardworking man always sees the work ahead of him and not behind him. A godly pastor is one who's looking at the work that's in front of him.

Avoid a pastor who starts to look to make things easy for himself or complains that the work is too hard. A godly elder will wake up, work himself to the point of weariness for the Lord's sake, go back to bed, wake up again, start it all over again the next day.

But one who's looking for the easy path or saying how hard everything is, how much he's worked, oh, look at me, I've done so much in the past, is not a man who's hardworking because he's not looking really at the work ahead.

This working is for the ministry of the Lord and is focused on the people of God. Closely related to hardworking with a focus on God is the idea of being diligent, and that's number 11. We see this in 2 Timothy 2 .15.

The first half of that says, Be diligent to present yourselves approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed. Now, a diligent person is a person who exerts himself to make every effort to do a task.

The Greek word for approved here means genuine, as pertaining to something that is tested. It has to do with money. It has to do with acceptable coins of money. Now, let me read something from Donald Barnhouse.

He explained it this way, quote, In the ancient world, there was no banking system as we know it today, and no paper money. All money was made from metal. Heated liquid poured into molds and allowed to cool.

When the coins were cooled, it was necessary to smooth off the uneven edges. The coins were comparatively soft. Of course, many people shaved them a little bit close. In one country, more than 80 laws were passed in Athens to stop the practice of shaving down the coins than in circulation.

But some money changers were men of integrity who would accept no counterfeit money. They were men of honor who put only genuine full-weighted money into circulation. Such men were called dikonos, or approved, unquote.

And that's the word here for approved that Donald Barnhouse is referring to. An elder should do all they can to present themselves approved unto God. The approval must be from God and not from men. A pastor who is seeking the approval of men will eventually change from Scripture as his authority to the people as his authority.

Whatever the people want, he will try to provide to keep them happy with him. However, the godly elder seeks to be pleasing to the Lord. And if the people are pleased, that's a side benefit. The godly man's focus is to trust the Lord.

And this is something that is so hard for so many. Because, again, and we're going to deal with this in a later episode, but it is so hard because the way we go about hiring a pastor, we hire them from outside the church.

And what people have a tendency to do is because they're hired. They're not part of the church, really. It's not like they grew up in the church. There's this notion where if things don't work out, the pastor can pick up and leave and find another church.

And if the church doesn't like him, they could just vote him out and get another pastor. But it should be more seen the way a marriage is. There should be no divorce between pastor and congregation. They should work diligently in that congregation.

They should be approved unto God. But it's so easy to make it where the pastor feels this feeling in the way we do things today, like he's got to please the people to save a job. But a godly elder is going to be one that only is focused on his approval of God.