One passage of the New Testament direction for leadership in the church has grown to be a very favorite passage of mine for learning to serve others in the church based on satisfaction in Christ alone with the Lord.  This New Testament passage is the apostle Paul’s instruction in the First Epistle to Timothy about choosing overseers (or pastors, teaching elders, or traditionally “bishops”) and deacons for the church.  Knowing the Gospel with the Lord involves encouraging elders and overseers and deacons to mutual fellowship and discipleship between one another in the name of Christ for their respective leadership examples for the church with the Lord.

And knowing the Gospel with the Lord involves putting one’s personal life to tests of faith from Christians and non-Christians, for bringing oneself to mature understanding of justification by faith alone and imputed righteousness in Christ with the Lord, and for knowing freedom in Christ to serve fellow Christians in the church and provide Gospel witness to non-Christians outside the church and in the secular public with the Lord.

“Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

Likewise deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money, holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience.  But let these also first be tested; then let them serve as deacons, being found blameless.”  (1 Tim. 3:7-10)

Here Paul is concerned about the proper view of faith in the Gospel among leaders in the church, and these leaders’ reputations before the unchurched public.  Paul reminds Timothy, and prospective pastors and deacons, about Jesus’ reputation among the Jews of Israel, and among the Gentile Romans like Pontius Pilate or the Greeks who came to see Jesus in the Gospel account of John.  Jesus’ reputation was to preach the Gospel as the foundation of blamelessness in His own sacrifice for His believers.  And Jesus upheld this blamelessness and perfect obedience before God and before unbelievers, winning unbelievers’ admiration about Him through His good deeds and mercy ministry and humble submission to the cross, even as they put Him away to the cross.  Jesus’ upholding of blamelessness becomes credited blamelessness for Christians; when we put our sin with Jesus, He puts His righteousness with us.

This is particularly significant for pastors and deacons.  Pastors are to preach Jesus’ righteousness based on personally knowing Jesus’ righteousness for their own lives.  And pastors are to disciple and encourage deacons about the mercy ministry and good deeds and humble example of Jesus for their own leadership for fellow Christians in the church.  And both prospective pastors and prospective deacons are to submit themselves to tests of faith among their Christian brethren and among unchurched friends, in order that these prospective leaders uphold the church as a model of Gospel counterculture toward their unchurched friends and peers in secular culture.

This testing and discipling and mentoring attitude of 1 Timothy is spelled out over and over again by Paul.  He keeps telling Timothy, “Here is a trustworthy statement,” that Jesus came to save sinners, of whom Paul is chief.

“This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.  However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe in Him for everlasting life.”                      (1 Tim. 1:15-16)

Paul is saying to Timothy: It’s okay, the Gospel is real.  Jesus came into the world for sinners.  I am the chief of sinners.  I have received salvation from Jesus.  I have also received authority from Jesus; I disciple you as an elder pastor to a younger pastor, and as a fellow Christian.  I have received authority from Jesus for how the church is to be run among pastors and deacons.  Here is a trustworthy statement for you to follow and to pass on to other pastors, and to deacons.  This apostolic authority and fatherly mentoring example of Paul is spelled out all over his instructions for the pattern of worship in the Christian church.

Knowing the Gospel with the Lord means knowing real acceptance of adoption from God, the Heavenly Father for believers, and knowing faith in Christ as a justifying faith based on Jesus’ perfect substitutionary obedience and imputed righteousness for believers at the cross, all for knowing and enjoying a personal walk by grace with the Lord.  And knowing the Gospel with the Lord means upholding prospective elders and deacons as leaders for the church of Christ, in submitting these candidates to tests of faith in Christ in their lives and approving these candidates for leadership in the church of Christ with the Lord, and encouraging these elders and deacons to discipleship between each other in the name of Christ for the church with the Lord.  And knowing the Gospel with the Lord means losing all things of personal self-made righteousness and self-made reputation by tests of faith from fellow Christians in the church and non-Christians outside the church, for knowing real righteousness in Christ alone and new freedom in Christ alone to serve fellow Christians in the church, and serve the Gospel among non-Christians in their home cities for bringing these non-Christians to saving faith in Christ with the Lord.

I find this passage of 1 Timothy helpful for applying my own life to tests of faith of the Gospel among Christians and non-Christians with the Lord.  I do not consider myself a candidate for pastoral leadership or diaconal leadership in the church.  (Whether that ever changes, I leave that to the Lord’s discernment.)  But I find this passage of 1 Timothy very helpful for lay Christians as well as for leading Christians.  Very often, we get stuck up in our own reputations and our own self-made righteousness, and our ethics and our words fall into entanglement with hypocrisy and lewd behaviors among non-Christians in public.  And submitting the personal life to tests of faith, real examinations of faith, of the Gospel message by non-Christians brings the personal life to a deep awareness of perfect and true righteousness from Christ alone, in coming to a real grasp of grace with the Lord.  My obedience wilts under pressure; Jesus’ obedience never wilted.  That means everything for my understanding of faith, and for my fellow Christians’ understanding of faith.  It is not “me” who has to be preached to non-believers; rather, it has to be “Jesus.”

And knowing the Gospel as a real foundation for knowing new freedom in Christ from bondage to sin and contradiction and hypocrisy with the Lord means also knowing this foundation for serving other people with an others-oriented attitude, among Christians in the church and among non-Christians in public, in a personal walk by the grace of Christ with the Lord.  When I submit my life to examinations of faith by fellow Christians, I then receive these fellow Christians’ approval for serving them in the church.  When I put myself to the test among non-Christians, in suffering loss of personal reputation among non-Christians, I know satisfaction for my life in Christ alone with the Lord, and I find new freedom in Christ to tell good news to these non-believers, and to serve the mercy ministry and good deeds of the Gospel among these non-believers in my walk by grace with the Lord.

This Gospel touchstone for elders and deacons in 1 Timothy also comes down to my very words, as well as fellow Christians’ words.  We bear tongues that live as very deadly tongues and wreak havoc on friendships and fellowships in the church.  Submitting oneself to tests of faith of the Gospel among Christians, and non-Christians, in a walk by grace with the Lord also involves submitting one’s own tongue to the test among these people for getting a real grasp of grace in Christ alone with the Lord.  There is a reason I do not spread gossip about fellow Christians and their local churches.  It is because I submit myself to tests of my tongue by fellow Christians, and I lose the desire for gossip by these tests of my tongue in my walk with the Lord.  I have learned to repent my desire for gossip, in suffering the loss of gossip by my suffering from fellow Christians and their tongues, for my deep grasp of righteousness in Christ alone with the Lord, and in knowing a new freedom in Christ for serving fellow Christians, even at a layman level, in the body life of the church with the Lord.

This Gospel touchstone of 1 Timothy also applies to my tests of my tongue and my faith from non-Christians.  Having grown up among friends and family members who do not know the Gospel, my unrighteous talk and desire for gossip constantly get encouraged by their flesh.  And moreover, when I act and speak in self-righteousness and self-importance against them, my life is immediately put to the test by these people, and my reputation rightly falters under the spotlight.  But if I know the Gospel as a good word for my tongue with the Lord, I learn to bridle my tongue and reshape my language to the new language of the Gospel with the Lord.  I learn to not be double-tongued; I may not be a deacon, but my tongue is just as guilty to sin as a deacon’s tongue.

And I learn to repent my desire for gossip, in suffering and losing my desire for gossip and self-worship by the hands and words of non-Christians, even my closest friends and family members, and all for my own grasp of satisfaction in one to one relationship with the Lord alone.  The Lord is my true home and my true Heavenly Father; when I gossip or brag myself as important, I show that this world is made my substitute home apart from God – I’ve made an idol of my earthly surroundings.  And suffering losses of personal reputation and gossip through tests of my tongue by non-Christians, even by those who are close to me, will bring me to a deep appreciative grasp of righteousness in Jesus alone with the Lord.  I put away false words and put a guard on my mouth before my unbelieving loved ones in my walk with the Lord.  And in putting a guard on my mouth with the Lord, I point my unbelieving loved ones to the true righteousness of the Gospel message with the Lord.

And so here I include some very golden nuggets on Gospel-rooted satisfaction and testing people for leadership in the church from Jack Miller, the late architect of the Sonship program and professor of practical theology at Westminster Seminary.

“. . . [My] counsel is always to be cautious about working closely with believers who have a history of conflicts which have not been resolved.  I do not say never work with folks who have had conflicts.  Obviously we all have had our struggles with other people.  But do be very careful about giving power positions or roles of influence to leaders who have behind them a record of unreconciled conflicts.  Believe me, in one hasty day or hour you can undo years of your own hard work.

. . . [There] are qualities which can be discerned in immature leaders.  I mean persons who are habitually unable to work through conflicts to resolution.  In general I have found they have –

1. A desire to get their own way at all costs and/or be prominent
2. An inability to admit and correct sins in themselves
3. A strong trend toward blaming others and self-righteous gossiping
4. A failure to practice deep and ongoing forgiveness
5. An unwillingness to listen

Actually these are failings in all of us.  I know I struggle with each of these weaknesses.  But here is the key: the immature or neophyte leader cannot admit that he has any root problems in these areas.  That is, there is no vigorous [grappling] with root sins, just insecure defensiveness.”  (Jack Miller qtd. in           Heart of a Servant Leader: Letters from Jack Miller, P&R Publishing, 2004,      pp. 209-210)

This is good stuff from Miller.  If you know deep ongoing satisfaction and forgiveness in Christ alone, you will be able to suffer the loss of sins, the real life of repenting sins, in your service to other Christians in the church.  And it really goes down to your very words: If you know Jesus as the substitutionary Word, the Word born in flesh, for your life, you do not need to speak your mind and spread false words and self-righteous gossip among people, especially in the visible church.

Knowing the Gospel with the Lord means submitting the personal life to tests of faith and tests of the tongue by Christians in the church and non-Christians in public, all for knowing real satisfaction in Christ alone and knowing real freedom in His name for serving non-Christians with the mercy ministry of the Gospel and serving fellow Christians in the church with the Lord.  Suffering the loss of gossip and false words by tests from people with the Lord will lead to expressing real others-oriented service of the Gospel as a real counterculture for the secular city with the Lord.