Faith Concerns of A Minister

➡ Paul, a voiceover for a ministry, discusses the concerns of a faithful pastor, using Apostle Paul as an example. He explains that a faithful pastor is primarily concerned with the spiritual well-being of his flock, focusing on their repentance, discipline, authority, authenticity, obedience, and perfection. He emphasizes that the pastor’s main worry is not about being culturally relevant or technologically advanced, but about maintaining the purity of the church in doctrine and life. Paul concludes that a faithful pastor is accountable for these issues and should be concerned about the sanctification of the church, as it is connected to the blessing and evangelistic power of the church.
➡ A good pastor takes action when he finds sin in his church, instead of feeling sorry for himself or looking for a different church. He understands that not addressing the sin can harm the church and its reputation in the community. The pastor, like Paul in the Bible, confronts the sin to help the sinner and maintain the church’s holiness. This is important because a church marked by sin cannot effectively show the community the transformative power of God.

Hello, my name is Paul, and I am the voiceover for a ministry provided to you by Jim Pugh at God is Government, called Your Daily Bread, taken from Christ’s teaching of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6, verse 11. This is a daily devotion ministry focused not only on uplifting Scripture, but Scripture that will grow your spiritual connection with Christ. We hope that you receive these devotions to uplift you, encourage you, but most importantly advance your knowledge base of the Holy Scriptures. Today’s focused discussion will be on faithful concerns of a minister. The Apostle Paul had the faithful pastor’s concerns.

What is it that concerns a faithful pastor? What is it that concerns Paul? Well, he’s giving us a summary of that, starting in chapter 12, verse 19. Running all the way to chapter 13, verse 10, that whole section is a summation of what concerns Paul. And we could sum it up in a word, he’s concerned with the spiritual well-being of his flock. That’s what he’s concerned about. Corinth was a challenge. The city was gross in terms of its wickedness. People who came to Christ in that city were coming out of very immoral backgrounds.

They brought some of that garbage into the church. He had to write to them 1 Corinthians to confront a long litany of iniquities that they were still engaging in, even though they were in the church and calling themselves believers. Having sorted out those problems in the writing of 1 Corinthians, it wasn’t long until false teachers had come. And along with false teachers came pride, and along with pride came more sin. And Paul could see the subsequent impotence of that unholy situation and the loss of testimony, the loss of evangelistic impact that would follow.

Paul knew that the problem in Corinth was not going to be whether they were culturally relevant or not. The false teachers criticized Paul for not having a relevant message, not taking into account the expectations of the Corinthians for what oratory ought to be because of what they were used to. They had criticized Paul because his persona was unimpressive, and his speech was contemptible. He was a lousy communicator. He didn’t speak in the venue that people were used to hearing. He didn’t have all of the personal charm to woo the audience. He had already addressed the issues that he didn’t speak with men’s wisdom.

And he didn’t come in the wisdom of the world to achieve divine purposes. He already had laid it down that he was going to come and speak the Word of God, and he believed the Word of God, and he believed the Word of God was the power. And behind that came this conviction and commitment to the fact that the Church had to be holy, and what Paul feared in his Church was error and sin. Either one of those destroys the Church. Theological error, theological ignorance or inequity devastates the Church. Paul was concerned for his churches.

He was deeply agitated, no more than for the Church at Corinth. I mean, we’ve gone through this whole letter now for the last couple of years, and over and over and over again we saw the agitation of Paul, the depression that he was experiencing, the pain, the anxiety, the fears over the Church, and always they were connected to sin. He was never concerned that the Church might somehow not be culturally relevant. He was never concerned that somehow the Church might have oblique methodologies. He was never concerned that the Church wasn’t up on the latest technology.

He was only concerned about the purity of the Church, purity of doctrine, purity of life. He was like the Lord of the Church. He had the heart of Christ. He was following Christ. He knew what concerned Christ and what concerned Christ was and is the purity of his Church. He has taken a bride, according to Ephesians 5, and we’re very familiar with the standards that are given there. It says, he wants to present himself in chapter 5 verse 27, the Church, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and blameless.

That’s the kind of Church the Lord wants. He wants a chaste virgin. Paul said, that’s what I want. That’s what I want. He said it back in chapter 11 verse 2, I want to present to Christ the Church that is a pure virgin. He had Christ’s desire for the purity of the Church, doctrinal purity, moral purity. That’s what a faithful pastor is consumed for, with. He’s consumed with the well-being, the spiritual well-being of his flock. Back in chapter 10 verse 8, he said he was concerned with building them up spiritually. Chapter 12 verse 19, same thing at the end of the verse, everything I do is for your building up.

Chapter 13 verse 10 at the end, it’s for building you up, not tearing you down. He was concerned about their spiritual condition, their spiritual well-being. The Church is made up of believers, not non-believers. And our concern in the Church is not to make non-believers happy, but to bring believers to a place of holiness, to bring them to spiritual well-being. And that’s what he’s saying at the end of this epistle. From 1219 to 1310, you have as clear an insight into the faithful pastor’s concerns as anywhere in Scripture. He’s concerned about issues like repentance, discipline, authority, authenticity, obedience, spiritual perfection.

Those are all the issues he deals with. In fact, those six are what we’re going to be dealing with. Repentance, discipline, authority, authenticity, obedience, and perfection. Those are the issues that are on Paul’s heart. He’s concerned for the sanctification of the Church, because that connects to the blessing of the Church, and he wants God’s people to be blessed. And he also is concerned with the sanctification of the Church, because that’s connected to the power of the Church evangelistically, and he wants the community to hear the Gospel and to see a living illustration of its power.

I really believe that all pastors and teachers are held accountable before God for these issues. Being concerned about the repentance, discipline, authority, authenticity, obedience, and perfection of the Church in their charge. Well, let me give you a review of the first one. We did this a couple of weeks ago. The faithful pastor is concerned for the repentance of his people. Go back to verse 20 for a minute. You remember he said in verse 20, I’m afraid. He said it again in verse 21. Paul had some deep-seated fears. What were they? Verse 20 says that when I come, I may find you to be not what I wish, and may be found by you to be not what you wish.

I’m afraid I’m going to come, and you’re not going to be where I want you to be spiritually, and then I’m going to have to become to you what you don’t want. In other words, I’m going to have to take a firm hand with you. I’m afraid to come and find strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances. Those are sins that refer to, listen, the unity of the Church. They assault the unity of the Church. Strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances. They all attack the unity of the Church.

Paul says, I’m afraid I’m going to come and find those kinds of sins. Verse 21, I’m afraid that I’m going to come, and I’m going to be shamed or humiliated, and I’m going to mourn because I’m going to find people sinning from the past, not repenting of the impurity, immorality, and sensuality which they have practiced. Those are sins that attack the purity of the Church. Attacking the unity of the, attacking the purity of the Church, that’s what Paul feared. He feared sin in the past, he feared. That is the greatest threat to the Church.

It’s not its technology or methodology being obsolete. It’s the issue of iniquity in the Church. And so it is that the first thing the faithful pastor concerns himself with is the repentance of his people. Verse 21, I am concerned about those who have sinned. In the past perfect tense, they started sinning in the past, and the indication is they may well be continuing, and they have not repented. Sin among believers is of primary importance and occupies his mind continually. He fears sin in the Church beyond anything else, and the discovery of sin in the Church will bring a shame that humiliates him, and a sorrow that causes him to mourn.

These are the things that excited the passions of his heart. Now, that brings us to the second thing. We’ve already discussed the repentance issue. The faithful pastor is concerned not only with the repentance of his people, but the discipline of his people, the discipline of his people. Sure, he longs for his people to repent, but when they will not, to the degree that they refuse to repent, to that degree, he will discipline them. It’s like a faithful parent. I mean, you would rather see your child obey. You would rather see your child respond appropriately and act and behave in a way that is right and honourable and good.

And if they don’t, I hope you don’t just sit in a corner and sulk. I hope you discipline them. That’s what the Bible calls for, and the same is true in terms of the shepherding of God’s people. The faithful pastor and teachers know that where there is a failure to repent, there must be action taken. When the faithful pastor finds his greatest fears realised and he finds sin in the church, it brings upon him a certain amount of shame because he’s humiliated, because he’s associated with it as the pastor. It brings sadness, his heart is broken and he mourns, but he doesn’t wallow in his disappointment morbidly.

He doesn’t sit in the corner and say, woe is me, and feel sorry for himself. Nor does he try to find another church down the street where there are fewer sinners, or at least their sin isn’t public. He takes action. And that’s what he’s saying in 13, 1 and 2. Having just discussed the issue of non-repentance and the fear that he’s going to come and find some sinning against the unity of the church and some sinning against the purity of the church, he says, when I come, verse 2, the end of the verse, I will not spare anyone.

The time of grace is over. The time of mercy is over. The time of patience has ended. Back in chapter 1, verse 23, I call God as witness to my soul that it spare you I came no more to Corinth. You remember he had come the first time to found the church there. He had done that. He came a second time, what was called a sorrowful visit, a said visit because when he came, they rebelled against him. Somebody took issue with him in public and nobody came to his defence. His heart was broken and he went out of town a broken, distraught man.

And he said, I haven’t come again the third time because I wanted to spare you. I wanted to give you time to repent. I’ve warned you and I haven’t come because I wanted to spare you. But he says, I’m coming now for the third time and when I come, I’m not going to spare anybody. I’m going to act to deal with sinful believers. When it came to sin, for the sake of the sinning believer, Paul wanted to confront that sin. You wouldn’t be a faithful parent if you left your child in a state of disobedience with all of its consequences, when you could discipline them and bring them to a place of obedience and blessing.

Paul is no different than that. He sees the effect of what’s going on in the church, crippling believers and cutting them off from God’s blessing. And he also sees its devastating impact in the community because an unholy church has no power, no witness. You cannot convince a community of the transforming power of God if the church is characterised by sin and wickedness. Thank you for joining us in this exploration of faithful concerns of a minister. Until next time, remember to keep the faith, stay strong and continue to shine your light in the world.

To hear these daily devotions of your daily bread, please log on to goddessgovernment.com. Goodbye, and may your faith always lead the way. [tr:trw].