Portrait of a Minister (1 Timothy 4:6-16)

Paul speaks of Christ Jesus and calls Him, in this passage, “the living God.” He emphasizes the divinity of our Lord Jesus by calling Him this. So let us follow Paul’s language and speak of a minister approved by Christ Jesus. Exactly, what are the features of this portrait of the Christ-approved pastor (and remember, we can take the same features and apply them to a “disciple approved by Christ Jesus”)?

The first feature is this:

A minister approved by Christ Jesus is a disciplined minister (vv. 6-8).

The training that Paul speaks of in verse 9 is in fact “discipline.” One of the best books I have read on discipleship is based on this very verse and is called Spiritual Disciplines of the Christian Life. Paul is calling for Timothy to be practiced, disciplined, trained as he goes out.

The minister is not naturally given to the life of servanthood and sacrifice and trial that is going on at Ephesus.  He must be “trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine.” Moreover, we read in verse 7 that he should be “trained in godliness.”

At Reformed Theological Seminary, where I serve, we call this training outcome “a mind for truth and a heart for God.” This is the Pauline combination of faith, doctrine, as well as godliness. But what is clear is that God expects training to be in place for ministers and in fact for all of God’s people, but especially for ministers of the gospel.

I once had a young deacon, naive about the ministry and sadly ignorant about the Word of God, tell me, “I see you give a speech a couple a times per week and then get all this vacation time. This sounds like a pretty good gig to me! Where do I sign up?”

In the training of Timothy, Paul trained him in order to bring about God’s kingdom to a most unruly situation. Just look in 1 Timothy and see what this man faced.

• Timothy faced false teachers in 1:3-11;

• Timothy faced the need to be transparent, like Paul, in laying his life bare before enemies in order that they might become, like Paul, a trophy of God’s grace (1:12-17); and he would have to learn that the power of Jesus to plant churches and revitalize churches lies not in his strength but in the power of Jesus moving through a broken man before the cross;

• Timothy must hold to the faith with a good conscience in spite of hardship and in the presence of others who are slipping away (1:18-20);

• Timothy must deal with controversies in worship (chap. 2);

• Timothy must address the issue of how to integrate faith and politics in praying for kings and all in authority (2:1-2);