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| 1 Timothy 3:7 |
Moreover he must have a good report
of them which are without; lest he fall into
reproach and the snare of the devil.
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Note:
before doing a study on any
single verse, read all the verses from the beginning
of the chapter to this point and maybe a verse or
two beyond. Do this so you have the verse in context
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Let us begin in the Barclay Commentary for 1
Timothy 3:1-7 where we left off in our study of
verse 6.
THE CHARACTER OF THE CHRISTIAN LEADER
THE Christian leader must be hospitable (philoxenos).
This is a quality on which the New Testament lays
much stress. Paul bids the Roman church to ‘extend
hospitality’ (Romans 12:13). ‘Be hospitable to one
another without complaining’, says Peter (1 Peter
4:9). In the Shepherd of Hermas, one of the very
early Christian writings, it is laid down: ‘The
episkopos must be hospitable, a man who gladly and
at all times welcomes into his house the servants of
God.’ The Christian leader must be a man with an
open heart and an open house.
Quoted verses:
Romans 12:13
Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to
hospitality.
1 Peter 4:9
Use hospitality one to another without grudging.
The ancient world was very careful of the rights of
guests. Strangers were under the protection of Zeus
Xenios, whose title was Protector of Strangers. In
the ancient world, inns were notoriously bad. In one
of Aristophanes’ plays, Heracles asks his companion
where they will stay for the night; and the answer
is: ‘Where the fleas are fewest.’ Plato speaks of
the innkeeper being like a pirate who holds his
guests to ransom. Inns tended to be dirty and
expensive and, above all, immoral. The ancient world
had a system of what were called guest friendships.
Over generations, families had arrangements to give
each other accommodation and hospitality. Often, the
members of the families came eventually to be
unknown to each other by sight and identified
themselves by means of what were called tallies. A
stranger seeking accommodation would produce one
half of some object; the host would possess the
other half of the tally; and when the two halves
fitted each other the host knew that he had found
his guest, and the guest knew that the host was
indeed the longstanding family friend.
In the Christian Church, there were wandering
teachers and preachers who needed hospitality. There
were also many slaves with no homes of their own to
whom it was a great privilege to have the right of
entry to a Christian home. It was of the greatest
blessing that Christians should have open to them at
all times Christian homes in which they could meet
like-minded people. We live in a world where there
are still many who are far from home, many who are
strangers in a strange place, many who live in
conditions where it is hard to be a Christian. The
door of the Christian home and the welcome of the
Christian heart should be open to all who find
themselves in such situations.
The Christian leader must be didaktikos, that is,
must possess an aptitude for teaching. It has been
said that his duty is ‘to preach to the unconverted
and to teach the converted’. There are two things to
be said about this. First, it is one of the
disasters of modern times that the teaching ministry
of the Church is not being carried out as it should
be. There is any amount of topical preaching and any
amount of encouragement; but there is little use in
urging people to be Christians when they do not know
what being a Christian means. Instruction is a
primary duty of the Christian preacher and leader.
The second thing is this. The finest and the most
effective teaching is done not by speaking but by
being. Even those with no gift of words can teach,
by living in such a way that in them others see the
reflection of the Master. A saint has been defined
as someone ‘in whom Christ lives again’.
The Christian leader must not be a man who assaults
others (ple¯kte¯s, a
striker). That this instruction was not
unnecessary is seen in one of the very early
regulations of the Apostolic Canons: ‘A bishop,
priest or deacon who smites the faithful when they
err, or the unbelievers when they commit injury, and
desires by such means as this to terrify them, we
command to be deposed; for nowhere hath the Lord
taught us this. When he was reviled, he reviled not
again, but the contrary. When he was smitten, he
smote not again; when he suffered, he threatened
not.’ It would be most unlikely that any Christian
leader today would strike another Christian, but the
fact remains that blustering, bullying, irritable,
bad tempered speech or action is forbidden to
Christians.
The Christian leader must be gentle. The Greek is
epieike¯s, another of these completely
untranslatable words. The noun is epieikeia, and
Aristotle describes it as ‘that which corrects
justice’ and as that which ‘is just and better than
justice’. He said that it was that quality which
corrects the law when the law errs because of its
generality. What he means is that sometimes it may
actually be unjust to apply the strict letter of the
law. R. C. Trench said that epieikeia means
‘retreating from the letter of right better to
preserve the spirit of right’ and is ‘the spirit
which recognizes the impossibility of cleaving to
all formal law . . . that recognizes the danger that
ever waits upon the assertion of legal rights, lest
they should be pushed into moral wrongs...the spirit
which rectifies and redresses the injustice of
justice'. Aristotle describes in full the action of
epieikeia: ‘To pardon human failings; to look to the
law-giver, not to the law; to the intention, not to
the action; to the whole, not to the part; to the
character of the actor in the long run and not in
the present moment; to remember good rather than
evil, and the good that one has received rather than
the good that one has done; to bear being injured;
to wish to settle a matter by words rather than
deeds.’ If there is a matter under dispute, it can
be settled by consulting a book of practice and
procedure, or it can be settled by consulting Jesus
Christ. If there is a matter of debate, it can be
settled in law, or it can be settled in love. The
atmosphere of many churches would be radically
changed if there was more epieikeia within them.
The Christian leader must be peaceable (amachos).
The Greek word means disinclined to fight. There are
people who, as we might put it, are ‘trigger-happy’
in their relationships with other people. But real
Christian leaders want nothing so much as they want
peace with other people.
The Christian leader must be free from the love of
money. He will never do anything simply for profit’s
sake. He will know that there are values which are
beyond all monetary value. ~Barclay
Commentary
Now to the commentaries.
Moreover he must have a good
report of them which are without - Who are
without the church; that is, of those who are not
Christians. This includes, of course, “all” classes
of those who are not Christians - pagans, infidels,
Jews, moral people, and scoffers. The idea is, that
he must have a fair reputation with them for
integrity of character. His life must be in their
view upright. He must not be addicted to anything
which they regard as inconsistent with good morals.
His deportment must be such that they shall regard
it as not inconsistent with his profession. He must
be true and just and honest in his dealings with his
fellow-men, and so live that they cannot say that he
has wronged them. He must not give occasion for
scandal or reproach in his contact with the other
sex, but must be regarded as a man of a pure life
and of a holy walk. The “reason” for this injunction
is obvious. ~ Barnes Notes
It is his business to endeavor to do such people
good, and to persuade them to become [more
mature] Christians [firstfruits].
“But no minister of the gospel can possibly do such
people good, unless they regard him as an upright
and honest man.” No matter how he preaches or prays;
no matter how orthodox, learned, or apparently
devout he may be, all his efforts will be in vain
unless they regard him as a man of incorruptible
integrity. If they hate religion themselves, they
insist justly that since he has professed it he
shall be governed by its principles; or if they feel
its importance, they will not be influenced to
embrace it by a man that they regard as hypocritical
and impure. Go to a man whom you have defrauded, or
who regards you as having done or attempted wrong to
any other one, and talk to him about the necessity
of religion, and he will instinctively say that he
does not “want” a religion which will not make its
professor true, honest, and pure. It is impossible,
therefore, for a minister to over-estimate the
importance of having a fair character in the view of
the world, and no man should be introduced into the
ministry, or sustained in it, who has not a fair
reputation. ~ Barnes Notes
Lest he fall into reproach
- That is, in such a way as to bring dishonor on the
ministerial character. His life will be such as to
give people occasion to reproach the cause of
religion. ~ Barnes Notes
And the snare of the devil
- The snare which the devil lays to entrap
and ruin the ministers of the gospel and all good
people. The snare to which reference is here made,
is that of “blasting the character and influence of
the minister of the gospel.” The idea is, that Satan
lays this snare so to entangle him as to secure this
object, and the means which he uses is the vigilance
and suspicion of those who are out of the church. If
there is anything of this kind in the life of a
minister which they can make use of, they will be
ready to do it. Hence, the necessity on his part of
an upright and blameless life. Satan is constantly
aiming at this thing; the world is watching for it,
and if the minister has any “propensity” which is
not in entire accordance with honesty, Satan will
take advantage of it and lead him into the snare.
~ Barnes Notes
Now from the Adam Clarke commentary...
The sixteenth requisite is, that he
should have a good report of
them which are without - That he should be
one who had not been previously a profligate [recklessly
wasteful; wildly extravagant], or
scandalous in his life. Such a person, when
converted, may be a worthy private member of
religious society; but I believe God rarely calls
such to the work of the ministry, and never to the
episcopate [the position,
term, or office of a bishop]. Them that
are without are the Jews, Gentiles, and the
unconverted of all kinds. For the meaning of this
term see the note on Colossians 4:5.
~Adam Clarke
Quoted verse:
Colossians 4:5
Walk in wisdom toward them that are without,
redeeming the time.
Lest he fall into reproach
- For his former scandalous life.
~Adam Clarke
And the snare of the devil - Snares and temptations,
such as he fell in and fell by before. This is
called the snare of the devil; for, as he well knows
the constitution of such persons, and what is most
likely to prevail, he infers that what was effectual
before to their transgressing may be so still;
therefore on all suitable occasions he tempts them
to their old sins. Backsliders in general fall by
those sins to which they were addicted previously to
their conversion. Former inveterate habits will
revive in him who does not continue to deny himself,
and watch unto prayer.
The snare of the devil.
- Some would translate παγιδα του διαβολου, the
snare of the accuser; and they give the same meaning
to the word in 1Timothy 3:6, because it is evident
that διαβολους has that meaning, 1Timothy 3:11, and
our translators render it slanderers. Now, though
διαβολος signifies an accuser, yet I do not see that
it can, with any propriety, be restrained to this
meaning in the texts in question, and especially as
the word is emphatically applied to Satan himself;
for he who, in Revelation 12:10, is called the
accuser of the brethren, is, in Revelation 12:9,
called the great dragon, the old serpent, the Devil,
διαβολος, and Satan. ~Adam
Clarke
Quoted verses:
1 Timothy 3:6
Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he
fall into the condemnation of the devil.
1 Timothy 3:11
Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers,
sober, faithful in all things.
Revelation 12:10
And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is
come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our
God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of
our brethren is cast down, which accused them before
our God day and night.
Revelation 12:9
And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent,
called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the
whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his
angels were cast out with him.
Let us contrast these two commentaries with the John
Gill...
Moreover, he must have a good
report of them which are without - That is,
"without the church", as the Arabic version reads;
for wicked men, though they dislike the principles
and profession of godly ministers, and despise their
office, yet cannot but speak well of their becoming
life and conversation. And this part of their
character is necessary to invite persons to hear
them, and to recommend their ministry to them, as
well as for the reasons that follow:
~John Gill
lest he fall into reproach
- into the reproach of men; not only of the world,
but of professors of religion; who may be apt to
upbraid him with his past sins; especially such that
may fall under his censures, admonitions, and
reproofs, which hereby will become in a great
measure useless and ineffectual:
~John Gill
and the snare of the devil
- lest Satan should take encouragement from hence to
tempt him to other and greater sins; or lest finding
himself slighted and despised by the people of God,
because of his former sins, he should break out into
anger and revenge against them; or into despondency
and despair in himself; or should be negligent of
his duty, and timorous of exhorting and reproving
others, lest they should retort upon him, and
reproach him with his former crimes. The Jews have a
regard to the wisdom, prudence, gravity, and
manners, of a man they appoint as a minister of a
congregation. Their rule is this (z): [z
= Maimon. Hilchot Tephilla, c. 8. sect. 11.]
"they do not appoint a messenger or minister of a
congregation, but he who is the greatest in the
congregation for wisdom and works; and if he is an
elderly man, it is the better; and they take care
that the messenger or minister of the congregation
be a man whose voice is pleasant, and he is used to
read: but he whose beard is not full grown, though
he is a very considerable man, he may not be a
minister of the congregation, because of the honour
of the congregation.''
~John Gill |
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