KEY SCRIPTURE:1Ti 3:2 KJV” A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;”

We continue our discussion that the pastor must be blameless. We would consider some of the common areas where a pastor may be found wanting. There are a number of aspects of the life of a pastor that the scriptures will be talking about. I will discuss one area of the pastor’s life that easily causes him not to be blameless.

This very aspect is about how to handle the influence or the pressure from the people he’s leading, as well as the expectations from those outside the church. King Saul was found wanting because he always played to the gallery.
That is, he wanted to please the people. Just consider his answer to Prophet Samuel 1Samuel 15:15 KJV” And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.” God had given him an instruction to follow, yet he allowed his men to do that which opposed the word of God. Many pastors would rather act to please the people than to do what God has asked them to do. Gal 1:10 KJV” For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.” There are many such pastors who literally fear men than God. There are certain messages that they would not preach, because that would be stepping on the toes of a rich man in his congregation who is a good giver.

The man of God, Moses, attracted the displeasure of God by acting out of anger because of the actions of the Israelites. Instead of speaking to the rock, he hit the rock for the second time. There are many pastors who are acting out of anger and even bitterness because of certain misdeeds of some of the congregation members. Some pastors may miss heaven because of offences. In Galatians 2, the apostle Peter, because of his fear of the Jewish Christians, acted in a way that isolated the non-Jewish Christians. Apostle Paul said the following about him. Gal 2:11 KJV “But when Peter came to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.” Peter was to blame because he was afraid of the reaction of the people. Any man of God who would not be moved by the action or reaction of the people is truly free, who is set on a course to do great things for the Lord.

Dear Pastor, the one who called you is God. He would finally judge and reward you. He is the one who enlisted you into the ministry, and he is the one you are to please or be afraid of.

THOUGHT: FEAR GOD AND NOT MAN

FURTHER STUDIES

Joh 5:34 KJV But I receive not testimony from man: but these things I say, that ye might be saved.

Gal 1:16 KJV “To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:”