Welcome to the Daily Blade . The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit , the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil . Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson , and they stand ready to equip men for the fight . Let's sharpen up .
Alright , happy hump day , fellas . This week we are doing a deep dive into the qualifications for overseers as described by the Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 3 , verses 1 through 7 . I'll read it again here . The saying is trustworthy If anyone aspires to the office of overseer , he desires a noble task . Therefore , an overseer must be above reproach the husband of one wife , sober-minded , self-controlled , respectable , hospitable , able to teach . Not a drunkard , not violent , but gentle , not quarrelsome , not a lover of money . He must manage his own household well , with all dignity , keeping his children submissive , for if someone does not know how to manage his own household , how will he care for God's church ? He must not be a recent convert or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil . Moreover , he must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace , into the snare of the devil . Now , today we're focusing on verse 3 , but before we get to that , let me remind you of the question that you should be considering all week Do I have what it takes to be an overseer ? So back to verse 3 here Not a drunkard , not violent , but gentle , not quarrelsome
, not a lover of money . All right , so let's dig in .
Speaker 2Paul says an overseer is not a drunkard . So some translations say that an overseer is not given to wine or not addicted to wine . So is this saying that an elder or pastor at your church can't ever drink alcohol ? I mean no , not at all . That's not what this is saying . So let me remind you that our Savior Jesus drank alcohol . I know breaking news to Baptists and Church of Christers out there , but Matthew says in chapter 11 , verse 19 of his gospel the Son of man came eating and drinking and they say look at him , a glutton and a drunkard . Now , guys , obviously you can see in the context there they weren't describing him drinking water or sports drinks or something . Here the accusation of drunkard tells us that much . So , yes , an overseer can drink alcohol , but they should not ever get drunk , nor should they be dependent on alcohol for any reason . Again , as it says in other parts of the qualification list , it's going to be really , really hard to be sober-minded and self-controlled if you're hammered right .
Speaker 2Then Paul says that an overseer is not violent ,
but gentle . So Paul's saying that you can't conceal , carry or train jujitsu , right , Wrong , okay . So the literal meaning of this is that an overseer is not a striker or not pugnacious . So word of the day there . Pugnacious just means belligerently hostile or combative or something like that .
Speaker 2So many of you have heard me and Joby say this before , but it's very close to how Jordan Peterson describes meekness . So meekness is not weakness . Meekness is knowing how to offensively and defensively use your sword , but you leave it sheathed unless it's necessary to unsheath it , right ? So it's like when you hear a story about a Navy SEAL that you know busts into a terrorist house in the middle of the night , separates that guy from his life , but then has the tenderness to redirect the evil guy's children away from the situation right . So an overseer should be able to win a bar fight , but he's not going to start one .
Speaker 2Then Paul says that an overseer is not
quarrelsome . And yes , I know , I know you can save your emails . This one is hard for Joby and me . I mean , we're both susceptible to this one . So an overseer is not contentious , not a brawler . Now I know a lot of you guys in the audience are just like Joby and I . You like to fight . Most of the time it's a verbal fight , so you get into , but you're okay with the situation getting physically kinetic as well . Look , I get it . But the point of the , the point of delineation here , is that you're not walking around with a chip on your shoulder , right ? You're not the , you're not the guy in the room . You know , seeing if you can get another guy to make eye contact with you so that you can scream out hey bro , you got a problem right Again , you have strength , but it's under control .
Speaker 2And then Paul says an overseer is not a lover of money . So basically , you're not covetous , right , you're not drawn to covetousness . Now most people get the quote wrong when they say money is the root of all evil , when the quote actually comes later in 1 Timothy 6.10 , which says that the love of money is the root of all evil . So an overseer is not going to be blinded by his own greed , he's not going to be consumed by the process of acquiring more possessions or power , you know , while increasing his net worth . Okay . So again I leave you with this question Do I have what it takes to be an
overseer ? You should be turning that question over and over and over in your brain this week . All right , guys , come back tomorrow .
Speaker 1Thank you for listening to today's episode Before you go . If you wanna help equip other men for the fight , share this podcast around and leave us a five-star rating and review . Stay sharp .