A minister was out preaching the gospel on the street one day and came across a horrible sinner. As he was preaching, the sinner came up to him and said that he believed and repents of his sin. The minister was overjoyed and told him that he should come to church. The man instantly replied, "Should I prepare a sermon? I would like to hold a meeting with the elders and see if we can make some changes in the church and direct the funds to certain areas I think would be best?" The minister was puzzled. Did this man think that because he was forgiven that he was someone qualified to be an elder?
"I'm not sure what you mean," the minister replied. "You would be coming to church as a layman, not a pastor."
"But I'm forgiven by grace. You just said that it isn't by works. We're all sinners, and that means that you too are a sinner. If you're a sinner and I'm a sinner then we are equally qualified to be a pastor."
"I don't think you understand," the minister said. Although it is true that everyone has sinned, not everyone has come to master themselves in a way so that they walk not in the flesh and sin but in the Spirit. Ministers are to have mastered themselves in such a way so as to not commit egregious sins or have a pattern of conduct in their lives where sin widely marks their character. If a minister sins, it should not be of an egregious nature, i.e., a sin that leads to death or gets the death penalty in the law, but rather sins that can be atoned for in the law, but even they should be fewer and far between rather than making up his overall character."
"That seems like you are saying that you are better than me," the man replied. "That sounds like the sinner and publican story in the Bible, where he says he's not as great as a sinner as the other man."
The minister replied, "Well, first that story isn't about whether someone can have mastered their sin more than another. It's about the fact that both men are sinners and one refuses to acknowledge his sin and the other acknowledges it." There is nothing in that story that has to do with qualifications for ministry but rather it is a story of forgiveness and right standing with God."
"I just think if we're all saved by grace, then no one is better than anyone," said the man.
"I think you're thinking of it as a competition," said the pastor. "It's simply a matter that some are infants, some are children, some are young men, and some are old men, or elders in terms of their maturity in the Lord. It has nothing to do with being better in nature. An old man is not better than an infant. They are both human. But an old man is better at understanding than an infant. An old man is better at lots of things an infant is not as good at doing until he matures. There is a difference between one's value in nature versus what he is fit to do in life. A brain surgeon is not better than I am as a human being, nor is he somehow less in need of God's forgiveness and grace than I am. But he is more qualified to be a brain surgeon than I am."
"I see," said the man. "So being forgiven is a completely different issue than whether someone is qualified for a specific ministry."
"Yes," replied the minister.
"I get it now. I should then just participate in the church as a layman until the day, perhaps, that I might mature. If I evidence immaturity by sinning egregiously or having my life characterized by the struggle of sin then I should refrain from ministry because that is evidence, not that I am not forgiven, but that I have not obtained maturity yet."
"That is correct," said the minister. "If only everyone understood that."
No comments:
Post a Comment