Portrait of a Minister (1 Timothy 4:6-16)...Continued from page 2

Michael Milton

In order to face these perils, we must encourage those who are called to be ministers to submit their lives to other pastor-scholars for an extended period. During this time there will be Pauline-like oversight, instruction and spiritual formation in order to produce the soldier of the Lord for the battles we face in our own day. For in the training up of ministers, we build up the church.

But let me ask you: How do you approach your life as a believer? No, you may not be called, but you are a soldier in the army of the Lord, as well. The answer drawn from this and many other places in the Word of God is that you, too, need training. For some of you that may even mean coming to a seminary. But for most it means sitting regularly under the preaching of the Word of God right here. It means involvement in a small group or Sunday School class. It means daily Bible study and time with God in His Word. It means seasons of prayer, formulated from the Word itself.

How are you doing in your training in godliness?

So this is the first feature: discipline. Now look at the second feature of this Scriptural portrait.

A minister approved by Christ Jesus is a diligent minister (v. 10).

For we read in verse 10, “For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.” The minister approved by Christ Jesus is one who is not just diligent in keeping busy. He is not diligent in becoming a veritable ringmaster of programs and executive oversight of a religious store. No, this man is diligent in preaching Jesus Christ as the Savior of all people.

It was Lesslie Newbigin who said that if the church does not exist to fulfill God’s purposes on earth, then it ceases to be the church. And we must say that this passage would lead us to affirm that and to add that if a minister is not toiling and striving to preach Jesus as Savior to the whole world, if a minister is not looking to preach Jesus as Savior to his flock, to his community, and also to the whole world, if he is not a global-minded minister concerned about the purposes of Jesus Christ in the earth, then he ceases to be a minister of

Christ.

I am a reserve Army chaplain. Recently I did my duty at my new duty station at the Pentagon. While there, I talked to a number of our military leaders. And I heard over and over again that one thing they are concerned about is that our nation seems to forget that we are at war. Things look peaceful because there are no firefights in the streets of New York. And many in the media seem to focus on other things. But the truth is we are at war. Our troops are holding the peace we won in Iraq and battling with Islamic fundamentalists in Afghanistan and in other parts of the world. They were telling me that we are acting like we are at peace. But we are at war. And thus we must work and pray and support our troops in the battle.

One of the greatest devices of the devil is to make us believe that we are at peace. But the Bible tells us that we are in a spiritual warfare. And we are all soldiers in the Army of the Lord. Our work is spiritual, not physical. Our weapons are supernatural, and the work of the minister is to toil and strive to preach Jesus as Savior to the world. This is a ministry and a minister and a believer’s work that is approved by God.

The first feature was discipline and the second diligence. A third feature of the portrait is this:

A minister approved by Christ Jesus is a godly minister (v. 12).

Nothing could be more plain when we read these words: “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.”

Before Paul gets to doctrine, Paul focuses on life because if you can recite the Shorter Catechism backward?or for that matter recite the whole Book of Psalms perfectly?but you have not love, have not godliness in your speech and in your faith in Jesus and in purity of life, what good is it? Indeed, all of the doctrine in the world is useless without godliness. And so Paul begins with a heart for God.

At the seminary we like to say that we want to produce pastors who have a mind for truth but who also have a heart for God. And if we have a heart for God we will want to please Him with our very lives.

Recently I spoke to a young woman who is at our seminary to be trained to become a missionary. She wants to minister to Muslims in the Middle East. She has come here to get her doctrine, to be trained in the things of God, to learn the Bible’s teachings, to sit under godly pastor-scholars in order to be filled with the truth of Christ’s teachings so that she can bring that teaching to others. But before she did that, she first had a love of Islamic peoples. Love drove her to learning. Love drove her to minister.

And this is the pattern in the Word of God: “For God so loved the world, that He sent His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but will have eternal life.”