An overseer should be temperate. Temperate here means self-controlled, moderate.
To be of a sober mind is not only to be sensible, but also to be discreet in understanding. In 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus Paul uses the words sober and sobriety a number of times. All the saints in the church life need to be sober in their understanding. All must have the virtue of sobriety. If we have the Christian virtue of sobriety, we shall be very discerning and full of insight. However, we shall be quiet, not talkative. A talkative person is not a sober person. One who is sober is keen in his understanding, but slow to speak.
In our fellowship as Christians, it is very important that we understand others. Should someone come to you for fellowship, you should not say very much. Instead, listen while the other party does the talking. However, many have the habit of interrupting the other party and speaking too quickly. If we are to have the proper fellowship with others, we need to be inwardly like a calm lake. Talkativeness, however, stirs up the water and causes the lake to become muddy.
The elders should take the lead in all positive aspects of the church life. They should take the lead in prayer and in exhibiting the virtue of sobriety. If a brother is able to be silent for fifteen minutes while someone is having fellowship with him, he is able to meet this qualification to be an elder. When anyone is speaking to him, the elder should be a calm, tranquil lake, clear and transparent. This is one of the qualifications of an overseer. Talkativeness disqualifies a brother from being an elder. A proper elder is one who is quiet, calm, keen in understanding, and very discerning.
The Greek word rendered orderly in 3:2 also means decorous. To be orderly, decorous, is to have behavior that always fits the situation. It is to be neither too fast nor too slow, neither too bold nor too timid. A decorous person is one who always does what is fitting. One who is decorous talks when talk is necessary and is silent when silence is required. He can also laugh when laughter is appropriate.
This one qualification shows how difficult it is to be an elder. It is not too much to say that being an elder is the most difficult task on earth. How difficult it is to meet even the one qualification of being orderly or decorous! Even in the way he uses the telephone an elder should be decorous. On the one hand, he should not talk too long; on the other hand, if his conversation is too brief, he may offend others. It is possible to go to an extreme even in the matter of the way we use the telephone. One extreme is that a brother takes the telephone off the hook, refusing to talk to anyone. Another extreme is that his telephone conversations are too long. Neither is orderly.
Elders should also be orderly in the way they speak to others. Sometimes they need to speak loudly; at other times, they should speak softly.
Furthermore, they should be orderly in the way they have their hair cut. To have hair that is either too long or too short is not orderly. By these few examples we can see that the requirements of eldership are virtually without limit.
Because the requirements of an elder are so many and so difficult, it is surely vain for anyone to be ambitious for eldership. Those who have this ambition simply do not know how difficult it is to be an elder. If a brother does not have a genuine aspiration with a pure motive for the Lord’s recovery, he should not desire to be an elder. He should seek to fulfill his ambition outside the church, not in pursuing the eldership. The church is not an arena for a brother to satisfy his ambition.
The eldership is very demanding, and the requirements are extremely high. For this reason, I sympathize with the elders. From experience I know that they will receive telephone calls even in the middle of the night. They have no choice but to answer the telephone and take care of the situation of the one who calls.
At this point I would like to speak a word of comfort and encouragement to those who are children of elders. An elder’s children may be troubled by the fact that their father gives so much of his time to the church. If an elder fails to give adequate time to the church life, he cannot fulfill his responsibility properly. However, because the church takes so much of his time, he has relatively little time to devote to his children. I would encourage the children of elders to realize that for their father to give his time to the church is very acceptable to God. Temporarily the children may have some hardship. But the Lord will reward them. Instead of being disappointed by their situation, they should be glad that their father has consecrated his life and time to the Lord’s recovery. Eventually, the children of an elder will enjoy the Lord’s reward.
To be an elder is a great blessing to one’s family and to the church. It is surely worthwhile for a brother to aspire to oversight. Although being an elder is a most difficult job, it is a great blessing.
Those who are elders in the churches in the Lord’s recovery are burdened by the Lord and chosen according to the insight, oversight, and foresight of the spiritual eyes of the church. They are not elected, and they are very different from those who may be called elders in different denominations.
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