Loving God, An Elder's First Priority - 01
Where do you start?
The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, “The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.” 1 Timothy 3:1
Therefore every godly man should want to become an overseer (elder) in his church. Yet, not every man is qualified to hold the office.
To begin, you should not aspire to be an elder if you do not love God first. It is the first and greatest command. It is your purpose for life. And no matter your age, sex, race, level of intelligence, you are supposed to love the Lord with your whole effort “heart, soul and mind.”1
It is what Jesus told us.
And Jesus was quoting from Moses, ““Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Deuteronomy 6:4-5
So it is not a New Testament doctrine. It has been around from the beginning. Again, it is your purpose. It is the purpose of everyone made in God’s image: toddler and grandfather, male and female, African and Mexican.
It is not only your purpose as a person to love God through and through, but if it is mankind’s purpose it must then be your pursuit. It is what you must run after.
The 18th Century preacher, Joseph Benson, wrote, “We must love Him…with a superlative love; we must love God above any creature whatsoever, and love nothing besides him, but what we love for him, and in subordination to him.”2
You see, your love for God will determine how you love others. You cannot love a friend, or a wife, or child properly without loving God first and fully. The better we love Him, the better we will love others, including congregants.
This takes time. Learning to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind begins with your first Christian breath. The Holy Spirit regenerates you and you begin to learn to love.
This means a seven year old boy joyously riding his bike down the sidewalk, oblivious to the cares of the world, gets to express his love to God just as an eighty-three year-old grandmother. Both will express it based upon their current faith, knowledge and capacity, but both can comply with God’s command. Neither the boy nor the grandmother is qualified to be an elder, but not because they failed to love God.
This is important. The man who aspires to be an elder should not want to be one because he wants to teach. And he should not be appointed to the office because people think he “knows his Bible.” Rather, the man who aspires to be an elder should want to be one because he loves God so much and his earnest desire is to help others love Him too. Appoint that man to the office!
Matthew 23:34-40
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/deuteronomy/6-5.htm