Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.
A bishop or overseer must have a good report from those outside the church, those not of the faith, or he will fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. This standard governs fitness for ministry and church office, from licensure and service as minister, elder, and overseer to conference and General Conference leadership, mission work, and other weighty trusts. That good report begins at home, where daily faithfulness, a well-ordered household with obedient children, tender loyalty to wife, and an example in eating, dressing, and working fit a man for grave responsibilities in the church. No one is to be hurried into office without testing of character, experience, judgment, and godly influence, for setting an unproved or ill-reported man over the church sanctions his errors and brings continual trouble to the work. Falling into reproach gives the enemy his opportunity to turn the soul aside, and escape comes only by conversion, repentance with its fruits, confession and restitution, and a changed life kept by Christ.
Leaders Must Have Good Report
The overseer or bishop must have a good report from those who are without, that is from those not of the faith and outside the church, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. This is a qualification for church leadership to be put into daily practice and to be carefully studied as part of the specifications for every office connected with the church. A minister must be fit for the work and have a good reputation beyond the church, and conference presidents as overseers of the flock must be men of good repute and integrity whose character, words, and conduct honor Christ, with knowledge of Scripture and experience in faith and patience to meekly instruct opposers.
The requirement governs fitness for licensure for the ministry, for service as minister, elder, and overseer, for conference presidents as overseers, for a General Conference president, for fitness for wider or foreign mission work, and for choice of those to carry responsibilities such as business manager in sanitarium work at its beginning. The standard of 1 Timothy 3:1-7 must be given more regard in granting license, and no one is to be placed in a position of trust in the sanitarium without being tested and tried, lest past mistakes be repeated. A person whose life is ruled by worldly things is unfit even to serve as local elder, while the General Conference president must govern his household wisely in the fear of God with love and fear of God shaping his conduct. Good repute shown by works agreeing with profession, especially among family, neighbors, and those who know the person best, decides fitness for a more distant or foreign mission, and an elder must have proper self-government, good influence, and sound character.
The good report begins with daily faithfulness in home life as the education for grave church responsibilities, beginning with home training. A minister must have a well-disciplined family to be fit to set the church in order, with children under control of father and mother and parents under control of God, requiring obedience and order in the household. He is to treat his wife tenderly with all the care, comfort, and encouragement promised in the marriage vow, giving her not the slightest occasion to question his loyalty or sincere desire to fulfill his obligations to her and to his children. His life is to give church and world a right example whose light shines in correct eating, dressing, and working in right lines, and to neglect this home work is to neglect church order and eclipse that light, while a remiss home experience reveals the same defective character in church management and refusal to see its necessity blinds to obedience in other lines.
No one is to be hurried into office without being tried, proved, and found qualified, for ability to pray and speak well does not prove a call from God. Examination must consider history since professing the truth, Christian experience and living reality in the things of God, knowledge of Scripture and faithfulness to present truth, experience in faith and patience, sound judgment, self-government, good influence, sound character, and ability to represent the cause honorably and guard against disgrace and the devil's trap. The business manager occupies a very important place and must daily be managed by the Lord, understanding the Lord's will, discerning needs and prayerfully doing them, using authority with dignity and knowledge, revealing Christ and justice, judgment, and love in word and act, able to give religious instruction and exert spiritual influence, to deal with minds while controlled by the Spirit, to speak wisdom in encouragement, to discern and correct mistakes, to harmonize and counsel with fellow workers, to possess adaptability, and to speak the points of faith as occasion requires.
Appointing a man whose conduct among those who know him best does not commend him sanctions his errors and harms the church. Such a man should not be given influence in the church nor placed in the pulpit to teach, but leaders must choose one who loves and fears God, is sound in principle and consistent in word and action with Christlike influence, and is not ruled by the enemy. Placing a defective leader over the church brings continual trouble upon it, and unfit preaching gives inferiority to the work, so only those proved and tested as fitted for the place should occupy the pulpit. The one who recommends an unfit man is accountable for that harm and must keep himself pure from unholy influence.
Reproach and the Devil's Snare
The call for a good report reaches beyond overseers to Christians generally, for a circumspect life both benefits the one who lives it and stands as a bright light showing others the way to heaven. Virtue, honesty, kindness and faithful integrity can win the esteem of unbelievers without loss of religion, and true courtesy joined with truth and justice makes a life useful and attractive and makes influence in the church valuable.
Reproach exposes a person to the devil's snare, which is the enemy's attempt to lead people away from the right course. The snare includes the spiritual danger of surroundings, so that workers connected with publishing and medical work, especially young men and young women, must be closely guarded and not placed where they will be in danger of being ensnared. A name, distinction or office sought from worldly ambition can imperil the soul and become a snare that turns a person from Christ, and a name or reputation without spiritual life and connection with God does not bring honor to God. Untrustworthy exaggerated claims and repeated misconduct belong to that same danger, where a poor reputation among outsiders brings reproach and entanglement, and condemning others for trouble one's own conduct helped cause calls for speaking and acting with care lest meekness be lost and further trials follow.
Falling into reproach and the snare follows an unwatchful and unfaithful profession that dishonors the cause professed to be loved. It follows giving way to accusing, gossiping and magnifying others' faults until self-deceived and fastened, with the opportunity to correct the heart eventually passing away. It follows unchristian conduct that harms God's cause, untrustworthy exaggerated claims and repeated misconduct, improper preference for another man's wife that discouraged her husband and drove him toward his former habits, and a leader's wrong example and rejected principles despite good works or high position. It follows accepting deceptive controlling propositions as though a human were God, false impressions and extreme religious enthusiasm that turn from the path of duty, and failure to honor God, to seek Him with broken and contrite heart, to make wrongs right, and to heed instruction with repentance and its fruits. Selfish motives shaped by worldly interest, social position and respectability can prevent thorough repentance and mar Christian character, and this is seen in the need to save the labor in Christiania from being made ineffective and to save medical and publishing workers, especially young men and women, from dangerous places.
Escape and rescue require conversion, repentance with works meet for repentance, confession, restitution, thorough correction, and recognizing the wrong as wrong with no excuse. A servant of God must be free from Satan's snare and steady enough to help others, for one whose own feet are entangled or sliding cannot effectively rescue souls or strengthen the fearful and wavering, and must first seek freedom and power from Christ. Preservation comes through God's guidance about whom to fear and trust, honoring God amid coming trials, and speaking and acting with care and meekness to prevent further entanglement. Workers must be kept out of ensnaring surroundings, and wise, patient work that reaches the heart can rescue the soul caught by Satan and lead to trust in God. Then a changed life shaped by love, faith and childlike simplicity makes faith in Christ evident to others.
A bishop or overseer must have a good report from those outside the church, those not of the faith, or he will fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. This standard governs fitness for ministry and church office, from licensure and service as minister, elder, and overseer to conference and General Conference leadership, mission work, and other weighty trusts. That good report begins at home, where daily faithfulness, a well-ordered household with obedient children, tender loyalty to wife, and an example in eating, dressing, and working fit a man for grave responsibilities in the church. No one is to be hurried into office without testing of character, experience, judgment, and godly influence, for setting an unproved or ill-reported man over the church sanctions his errors and brings continual trouble to the work. Falling into reproach gives the enemy his opportunity to turn the soul aside, and escape comes only by conversion, repentance with its fruits, confession and restitution, and a changed life kept by Christ.
Leaders Must Have Good Report
The overseer or bishop must have a good report from those who are without, that is from those not of the faith and outside the church, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. This is a qualification for church leadership to be put into daily practice and to be carefully studied as part of the specifications for every office connected with the church. A minister must be fit for the work and have a good reputation beyond the church, and conference presidents as overseers of the flock must be men of good repute and integrity whose character, words, and conduct honor Christ, with knowledge of Scripture and experience in faith and patience to meekly instruct opposers.
The requirement governs fitness for licensure for the ministry, for service as minister, elder, and overseer, for conference presidents as overseers, for a General Conference president, for fitness for wider or foreign mission work, and for choice of those to carry responsibilities such as business manager in sanitarium work at its beginning. The standard of 1 Timothy 3:1-7 must be given more regard in granting license, and no one is to be placed in a position of trust in the sanitarium without being tested and tried, lest past mistakes be repeated. A person whose life is ruled by worldly things is unfit even to serve as local elder, while the General Conference president must govern his household wisely in the fear of God with love and fear of God shaping his conduct. Good repute shown by works agreeing with profession, especially among family, neighbors, and those who know the person best, decides fitness for a more distant or foreign mission, and an elder must have proper self-government, good influence, and sound character.
The good report begins with daily faithfulness in home life as the education for grave church responsibilities, beginning with home training. A minister must have a well-disciplined family to be fit to set the church in order, with children under control of father and mother and parents under control of God, requiring obedience and order in the household. He is to treat his wife tenderly with all the care, comfort, and encouragement promised in the marriage vow, giving her not the slightest occasion to question his loyalty or sincere desire to fulfill his obligations to her and to his children. His life is to give church and world a right example whose light shines in correct eating, dressing, and working in right lines, and to neglect this home work is to neglect church order and eclipse that light, while a remiss home experience reveals the same defective character in church management and refusal to see its necessity blinds to obedience in other lines.
No one is to be hurried into office without being tried, proved, and found qualified, for ability to pray and speak well does not prove a call from God. Examination must consider history since professing the truth, Christian experience and living reality in the things of God, knowledge of Scripture and faithfulness to present truth, experience in faith and patience, sound judgment, self-government, good influence, sound character, and ability to represent the cause honorably and guard against disgrace and the devil's trap. The business manager occupies a very important place and must daily be managed by the Lord, understanding the Lord's will, discerning needs and prayerfully doing them, using authority with dignity and knowledge, revealing Christ and justice, judgment, and love in word and act, able to give religious instruction and exert spiritual influence, to deal with minds while controlled by the Spirit, to speak wisdom in encouragement, to discern and correct mistakes, to harmonize and counsel with fellow workers, to possess adaptability, and to speak the points of faith as occasion requires.
Appointing a man whose conduct among those who know him best does not commend him sanctions his errors and harms the church. Such a man should not be given influence in the church nor placed in the pulpit to teach, but leaders must choose one who loves and fears God, is sound in principle and consistent in word and action with Christlike influence, and is not ruled by the enemy. Placing a defective leader over the church brings continual trouble upon it, and unfit preaching gives inferiority to the work, so only those proved and tested as fitted for the place should occupy the pulpit. The one who recommends an unfit man is accountable for that harm and must keep himself pure from unholy influence.
Reproach and the Devil's Snare
The call for a good report reaches beyond overseers to Christians generally, for a circumspect life both benefits the one who lives it and stands as a bright light showing others the way to heaven. Virtue, honesty, kindness and faithful integrity can win the esteem of unbelievers without loss of religion, and true courtesy joined with truth and justice makes a life useful and attractive and makes influence in the church valuable.
Reproach exposes a person to the devil's snare, which is the enemy's attempt to lead people away from the right course. The snare includes the spiritual danger of surroundings, so that workers connected with publishing and medical work, especially young men and young women, must be closely guarded and not placed where they will be in danger of being ensnared. A name, distinction or office sought from worldly ambition can imperil the soul and become a snare that turns a person from Christ, and a name or reputation without spiritual life and connection with God does not bring honor to God. Untrustworthy exaggerated claims and repeated misconduct belong to that same danger, where a poor reputation among outsiders brings reproach and entanglement, and condemning others for trouble one's own conduct helped cause calls for speaking and acting with care lest meekness be lost and further trials follow.
Falling into reproach and the snare follows an unwatchful and unfaithful profession that dishonors the cause professed to be loved. It follows giving way to accusing, gossiping and magnifying others' faults until self-deceived and fastened, with the opportunity to correct the heart eventually passing away. It follows unchristian conduct that harms God's cause, untrustworthy exaggerated claims and repeated misconduct, improper preference for another man's wife that discouraged her husband and drove him toward his former habits, and a leader's wrong example and rejected principles despite good works or high position. It follows accepting deceptive controlling propositions as though a human were God, false impressions and extreme religious enthusiasm that turn from the path of duty, and failure to honor God, to seek Him with broken and contrite heart, to make wrongs right, and to heed instruction with repentance and its fruits. Selfish motives shaped by worldly interest, social position and respectability can prevent thorough repentance and mar Christian character, and this is seen in the need to save the labor in Christiania from being made ineffective and to save medical and publishing workers, especially young men and women, from dangerous places.
Escape and rescue require conversion, repentance with works meet for repentance, confession, restitution, thorough correction, and recognizing the wrong as wrong with no excuse. A servant of God must be free from Satan's snare and steady enough to help others, for one whose own feet are entangled or sliding cannot effectively rescue souls or strengthen the fearful and wavering, and must first seek freedom and power from Christ. Preservation comes through God's guidance about whom to fear and trust, honoring God amid coming trials, and speaking and acting with care and meekness to prevent further entanglement. Workers must be kept out of ensnaring surroundings, and wise, patient work that reaches the heart can rescue the soul caught by Satan and lead to trust in God. Then a changed life shaped by love, faith and childlike simplicity makes faith in Christ evident to others.