What Does "Above Reproach" Mean?

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So, a couple of verses, one from Titus chapter 1, verses 6 and 7.

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Namely, if any man is above reproach, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, not accused of dissipation or rebellion, for the overseer must be above reproach as God's steward.

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And 1 Timothy 3, 2, an overseer then must be above reproach. Both of those places emphasize this necessity.

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He must be these things. Yeah, and one thing that, just to go back to the must be and these edicts, is,

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I mean, you think about why God puts things in Scripture the way that He does, and it's often, particularly in regards to this, is because we would be so tempted to adjust those standards and adjust the qualifications if we were given liberty to do so.

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Right, and you can think of a number of scenarios where that might happen. One is if you are looking for a pastor, and it's taken a long time, and so you kind of settle, like, this guy's pretty good, he's almost there, and so you kind of settle for a little bit less and think it's close enough.

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So that's one scenario where we might be tempted to make an adjustment. You know, and I think another one is, we hear a guy preach, so he comes, you know, pulpit supply or, you know, the pulpit search committee, that's what we used to have when

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I was in a lot of my churches. But the pulpit supply committee, they go, they hear a guy, and they think, wow, this guy can really preach.

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He comes to the church, and he preaches a Sunday, and we think, wow, he preaches really well. This is the kind of preaching we want in the church, and we really like the preaching.

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Or maybe we know him, we really like his character, but that's not the standard.

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The standard is the qualifications that God has given us. Right, and so often you don't have the time to observe that, or the opportunity to observe that.

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You've seen him once, and time to make a decision, right? Yeah, so I mean, I think that what we're talking about here is to say, we should really take our time.

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Any church that is considering, I think that elder is probably a little different case than deacons.

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Most time deacons are, you know, from within the body. But take your time and examine the life to make sure that these qualifications are met.

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And again, last week we discussed why that's so important. Yeah, so as we think then about the qualifications, and not being able to get to all of them, one kind of, in my mind, is overarching above them all, and that is that he must be above reproach.

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And the other qualifications, the ones that follow, kind of fill out what does that look like.

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So in these areas, he must be above reproach. Yeah, so it's kind of like a few weeks ago, you and John were talking on the podcast, you know, when you tell your kids, okay, be good at grandpa, grandma and grandpa's house.

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And they're like, yeah, easy, we can do that. And then you start saying, here's what be good means. So above reproach is very general, it is a principle, but then we do get these very helpful specifics.

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Right. So, above reproach, sometimes translated blameless. Still, you could look at those words and think, okay, but what does that mean?

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How do you apply that in this situation to say this person is above reproach? It'd be easy to look at that blameless.

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That's a high standard. But does it mean sinless? Right. It doesn't mean perfection.

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Right. If it means that, then who is qualified? No one. So it can't be that.

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What does it mean? And I do think John Calvin is helpful here, a quote from, I think it's his commentary from First Timothy.

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He does not mean someone who is free from every fault, for no such man could ever be found, but one marred by no disgrace that could diminish his authority.

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He should be a man of unblemished reputation. And so faultless, blameless, blameless, yes, but faultless without sin, no.

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But here's a person whose authority has not been diminished by his faults. You don't look at him and think,

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I'm unwilling to follow this man. And you're concerned that he follow Christ. You look at him, imperfections, but repenting, and he's setting the pace, follow me as I follow

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Christ. Yeah. And I think that that too, so you mentioned it, repentant.

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So it's not saying that he never messes up, but when he does, there's a humility there that drives him to repentance and to turn back to Christ.

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So even in his failures, he is still an example to the flock. Right. And so this,

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I think it comes back to what we were just saying, that here's a life that does not unravel words. Richard Baxter, 17th century pastor said, take heed to yourselves.

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He's writing to pastors. Take heed to yourselves, lest your example contradict your doctrine, and lest you lay such stumbling blocks before the blind as may be the occasion of their ruin.

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Lest you unsay with your lives what you say with your tongues and be the greatest hinderers of the success of your own labors.

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One proud, surly, lordly word, one needless contention, one covetous action may cut the throat of many a sermon and blast the fruit of all that you have been doing.