Every man ought to aspire to the office of a deacon or elder in the local church. The qualifications for church leaders are not just for them. The reason God set and mandated them for church leaders is that they would be examples for all. “Like people, like priest” (Hosea 4:9). What God requires of these model leaders He ultimately requires of every leader.
In laying down Scriptural qualifications for elders and deacons, Paul places the most stress on the state of their households. A man must know how to “rule” his own household well before he can be trusted with leadership in the local church. Furthermore the prerequisite for home rule is self-rule. The Bible says much about the necessity of “temperance,” or self-control.
The father in the home must not neglect the duty of ruling. He must accept responsibility to teach and to train the children entrusted to him. This is his most important calling. It requires personal consecration, continual dependence upon God for wisdom, and attention to details.
Your children will be able to overlook many faults in your sincere efforts to train them if they know that you love them. True love is of God (1 John 4:7), and that's from Whom you must get it. Natural instinct is not enough. We need to maintain the rule of love as a principle of action, earnestly sought in prayer and carefully cultivated in all our family life. Even if we did not know love in our own upbringing, we can learn it from our Heavenly Father.
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Bob Vradenburgh is the senior pastor of Friendship Baptist Church in Raleigh, North Carolina. He has spent 40 years in full-time Christian service: the first 20 years as a missionary and the past 20 years in the pastorate. Bob’s passion is the expository preaching of God’s Word,...
