1 Timothy 3

I just finished reading 1 Timothy 3, which for a long time has been noted as a passage about qualifications for elders or overseers and deacons. I wonder if we have been wrong to think of this passage in that way. I could be wrong, but I tend to view this list of character attributes as something we should all aspire toward, as Paul writes in 3:1. Rather than thinking of this as a list of qualifications, perhaps it should be a character sketch of an example for the church.

I find that 3:15 actually supports this idea. Paul was writing these things so that they would know how to behave in the household of God. If your leaders are being the kind of people you want everyone in the church to be, then they are leading by example, and this is what we see as a mandate for leaders in the New Testament. We are to be servant leaders, serving as examples to the flock and helping them to become what we ourselves are in the process of becoming.Think about the cyclical pattern this creates. If I am becoming more like Christ, and I am helping someone else become more like Christ, then they will help others become more like Christ, and those people will help others become more like Christ, and so on.

It is difficult for leaders not to take control of things. As I look through this list of character traits, I wonder if control was really a part of leadership. Is that what it means to manage a household or the household of God? Look back through the character traits and ask yourself if control is really what this list is all about. The entire concept of "do what I say and not what I do" is a recipe for disaster if we bring it into the church. All it will accomplish is a group of people who tell others what to do but have no desire to do those things themselves.

People follow our example more than our instructions. It may seem bold, but Paul instructed the church on more than one occasion to imitate him as he imitated Jesus. That should be our way of leading others. Do what I do because I am doing what Jesus said and did. Are you leading by example or do you covet the "office" of leadership more than the responsibility of leadership?