1 Timothy 3:2a – Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife,
In addition to the general nobility of the office of elder, Paul expects ministers to be “above reproach.” While the message of the Gospel might be foolishness to the world, ministers of the gospel are not to act in a foolish manner that would bring reproach to Christ. They are to be “respectable” (1 Tim 3:2). Reproach is related to the character of the minister. It encompasses all of the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23). As will become more evident in the following verses, Paul expected pastors to exemplify these fruits in their life and ministry by the power of the Holy Spirit. But for now, it is important to note that there is an inextricable link between a pastor’s character and their public ministry. As Robert Murray McCheyne once stated,
Get your texts from God—your thoughts, your words, from God. In great measure, according to the purity and perfections of the instrument, will be success. It is not great talents God blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God. A word spoken by you when your conscience is clear, and your heart full of God’s Spirit, is worth ten thousand words spoken in unbelief and sin.
McCheyne agreed with Paul: a pastor must be above reproach. God values personal character in His pastors more than pulpit cadence or considerable platform. A pastor may publically boast of thousands of twitter followers, book deals, and speaking engagements while being essentially prayerless and ensnared with pornography in private. The church world will look upon him as a success, but God will look upon him as a living contradiction to the gospel that he proclaims to others. Character matters, even if many within evangelicalism would privately and publicly diminish its importance in various ways.
In keeping with the theme of living above reproach, Paul expresses his concern about the quality of a minister’s marriage. Paul expected pastors to exhibit a Christ-like faithfulness to their wives. As Ephesians 5:22-33 teaches, a special relationship exists between Christ’s relationship to his church and the husband’s relationship with his wife. Just as Christ is committed to loving and providing for the church, so also, husbands should be committed to caring for their wives. And if this is true of the average Christian in the pew, then it is especially true that God will judge the pastor in the pulpit “more strictly” (James 3:1).
If the quality of a pastor’s marriage is a qualification for ministry, then the ministry cannot become a mistress that wrecks his marriage. This means that pastors must not neglect their marriage in the name of ministry. The demands of your marriage are not a distraction from ministry; they are the frontline of your ministry. As Martin Luther wrote, “There is no estate to which Satan is more opposed as to marriage.” If Luther was right, then pastors should expect their marriages to be one of the most important contexts for spiritual warfare.
Pastor, if you would live above reproach in Spirit-enabled integrity, then you must protect your marriage from the physical and digital adulteress of Proverbs 5:5, whose “feet go down to death.” In light of the grace of Christ that has set you free from the condemning power of sin, you must by the Holy Spirit “put to death what is earthly in you,” walking “according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh.” You must resolve to “avoid all appearances of evil” for the sake of Christ and your wife. You must guard your marriage at all cost!
CBH
