Faithful in Personal Character
Paul begins 1 Timothy 3 talking about the type of person who should enter a ministry role: "Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task. Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money." (1 Timothy 3:1-3)
A little later Paul says: "In the same way, deacons are to be worthy of respect, sincere, not indulging in much wine, and not pursuing dishonest gain. They must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience." (1 Timothy 3:8-9)
Then he says: "In the same way, the women are to be worthy of respect, not malicious talkers but temperate and trustworthy in everything." (1 Timothy 3:11)
Staying on the Path When Temptation Calls
You see the thread running through those three passages. Paul is saying: be a person of integrity and character. Be above reproach. Be a real Christian, whose life reflects the things you say you believe.
Virgil Mills, a Nazarene pastor in the US, writes this in a sermon of his:
"When I was a child, my mother used to take us to Mary Gray Bird Sanctuary in central Indiana. It was an interesting place with birds and a number of nature displays. There were also several marked paths for hiking. It was really important to stay on the path if you wanted to get back to your point of origin. You couldn't plan to successfully complete the path by only partially following the correct path. Guaranteed success required absolute obedience to the marked trail. Being especially sensitive to poison ivy, I knew the importance of keeping to the path in order to avoid exposure to the dreaded plant."
It's a good picture of the Christian life. Stay on the right path. Be obedient. Live the calling!
There's always godless 'sinful ivy' out there - temptations of all sorts, trying to get you off that path. Paul mentions them: infidelity, drunkenness, indulgence, lack of self-control, violence, maliciousness, love for money and dishonest gain. These are the areas of poison ivy that pull you off the path you should be on - whether you're an overseer of a church, a deacon, or just a man or woman living for Jesus.
Stay on the path. Enjoy the beautiful sights and sounds on the right path, and reject the poison ivy, the temptations to sin in these ways. This is our calling, as followers of Jesus, to look like Him!!!
True Holiness Comes From a Changed Heart
Now, this is not just about pulling yourself together, or committing to tighter morals. This is about a life of holiness, where your heart is cleansed so you can follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
You can't do this in your own strength! Your sinful nature pulls you straight into those patches of poison ivy! But if your heart has been cleansed and you are walking under the influence of the Spirit and not the flesh, those temptations come and you resist them.
To have a clear conscience as Paul says, you need to have died to yourself and have given yourself totally over to God. If you haven't done that, you're just fighting a losing battle, where these values and principles in these verses are wishes, which you sometimes get right and sometimes don't.
So today, if you have recognised some of these sins in yourself, don't despair. Repent, and put them behind you, then do what Paul says - hold tight to the deep truths of the faith and walk in holiness by His grace.
With Christ, and only with Him, you can live a faithful Christian life of integrity and holiness.
God calls every believer to a life of integrity, not just those in church leadership.