New Men for a New Decade

"Now if Timotheus come, see that he may be with you without fear: for he worketh the work of the Lord, as I also do" (1 Cor. 16:10).

During A.D. 51 and 52 the apostle Paul had spent eighteen months of intensive evangelism in metropolitan Corinth and had succeeded in establishing there a thriving Christian community, comprised mainly of lower-class Gentile believers. As still holds true in such cases, the preacher and his converts, through the following years, maintained a glowing mutual affection. Thus it is not surprising that we find Paul some sic years later in Ephesus, receiving a visit from certain Corinthians. Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus had come to ask the apostle's opinion on the delicate issues of marriage, virginity, eating of idols' meat, and the resurrection which were proving to be highly divisive issues in the church. Neither is it particularly unusual that in his scholarly, yet practical, reply to their inquiry, the preacher promises to drop in as soon as possible with a personal visit to the brethren at Corinth.

What is outstandingly noteworthy, however, is that in the face of some potentially explosive and irritating circumstances, such as: (1) The need to review some fundamental doctrines which he had no doubt gone over before; (2) the need to quiet the debate over who had contributed more to Corinth, he or Apollo; (3) the need to keep a clear-cut dichotomy be tween Judaism and Christianity without alienating the minority Jewish member ship, the apostle kept his wits about him and adroitly, yet firmly, outlined not only God's requisites for the believers but the place and the position of the preacher with his people and with his fellow ministers. We see this delicate portrayal of proper relations shining throughout the several chapters of 1 Corinthians but nowhere more clearly than in the conclusion where he exhorts the church concerning his associate Timothy by whom reply was being sent: "Now if Timotheus come, see that he may be with you without fear."

Notice how sensitive the apostle is to the ethics of his position, of the relationship of the preacher and the church. Most versions including the King James read, "Now if Timotheus come." A minority of translations, however, read, "When Timotheus comes." Scholarship and circumstance strongly suggest that the latter version would be more meaningful and accurate. Of course, "if" and "when" are both con junctions. But "if" is subjunctive, indicating Timothy might or might not arrive. But "when" is imperative, indicating that Timothy was on his way.

The Church Needs a Pastor

Timothy's going to Corinth with a message from Paul is analogous to every church's need of ministerial direction and encouragement. Show me a Corinth and I will show you the need of a Timothy. There is no group in society as stagnant and woeful as a church without a pastor. The family may lose its father and the mother will take up the slack. An army may in battle lose its captain and a sergeant or corporal will rise to direct the charge. A work gang may lose its foreman and some skilled understudy will take over very effectively. But a church without a pastor is an anomaly. Really, it is not a church at all. The sheep must have a shepherd. Judgment-bound men need a medium; a darkened society must have some man of God to refract and distribute the light of God. Dying men need words of hope and even the organized community we call the church sometimes stubborn, sometimes blinded by tradition, sometimes highly self-opinionated -- needs the preacher. Corinth must have a Timothy to buoy its spirits, to bless its babies, to pray for its sick, to counsel its youth, to bury its dead, to supervise its elections, to boost its finances, to faithfully and unceasingly point its face to the skies.

But, gentlemen, Corinth needs and wants preachers, messengers of God, men who are easily distinguished, not simply be cause they dress in black or carry little look-alike cases for their Bibles and hymnals, but because they are so close to the Almighty that their very presence brings the fear of God.

Corinth needs preachers, not basketball coaches, not PR geniuses, not business executives, not school teachers, not bus drivers, not glorified janitors, not financiers, not construction managers, not health clinicians, not philosophers, not psychoanalysts, not salesmen, not legal advisers. We may in emergencies properly perform one or any of these functions and we should be prepared to do them all, if necessary; but never forget what we are. We are under-shepherds of Christ ordained for tasks legitimate for no other group on earth, and recipients of spiritual enlightenment and physical protection available to no other group on earth. We are preachers, not because we are not equipped to do something else, but because we would not be happy doing anything else. And we are to the church what the bee is to the flower, the pilot to the ship, the cane to the blind, the lens to the astronomer. We are God's way of completing the marvelous transactions of salvation earthly instruments of a divine process, mortal digits for an immortal equation, finite tools of infinite instrumentality necessary to God and man.

This positive image of what we are and who we are is vital to a healthy relation ship with our members. We must feel it and believe it if our members are to be awed by the beauty and the holiness of our calling. Paul, in his humility, often confessed his individual inadequacies, but time and time again he exalted his calling and related to his members as a special instrument of Heaven. We see it in his letters as he writes to the Galatians, "Paul, an apostle (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead)" (Gal. 1:1). To the Romans, "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God" (Rom. 1:1). And to the Corinthians, "Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God" (1 Cor. 1:1).

Man of Authority

Some men seek to build their image by quoting from great authorities, but may I remind you, brethren, that there is a vast difference between quoting authorities and speaking with the authority of God. The former means a man has read a few books or subscribes to some professional journals. The latter means that he has found himself a man of God and that he accepts all the privileges and responsibilities of his ambassadorship and that in an age that denigrates value judgments and suspicions all creeds that speak of intangible benefits and futuristic bliss, in an age when so many impugn the motives of all, he is still willing to stand up in prophet-like posture on the authority of the Word of God and cry, "Sinner, come to Christ!"

Of course the minister must understand that even this image of a unique relation ship of pastor with people will not be above criticism or occasional censure by the very people who love him and whom he seeks to lead. It is one of the prices we pay in the grand attempt at rescue. And brethren, "so persecuted they the prophets" who were before us. We must be prepared for this.

If you are just out of school they say you are too young.

If you are gray-haired and experienced they say you have lost your pep.

If your family is large then you are too busy at home.

If you have no children you are not a good example.

If you preach vigorously you are not very deep.

If you are the lecturer type then you are not dynamic.

If you are friendly and smiling you are probably too common.

If you are serious and sober you are much too stuffy.

If your car is new then you are rather extravagant.

If it is old it is an embarrassing thing to the church.

If your wife helps out in the program she is trying to run affairs.

If she is quiet and reserved then she is rather stuck-up.

You see, there is little chance that any minister will meet everybody's model, but in spite of it all, for the sake of Christ, the preacher must love the enemy; he must reach out for the reproachable. He must smile and shake hands with his tormentors, not breaking the bruised reed or quenching the smoking flax, and must gently, tenderly, by precept and example, lead the flock of God, ever aware of the dignity, the peculiarity, and the uniqueness of his calling.

You and Your Fellow Ministers

The second view that our text presents is that of the pastor's relationship to his fellow worker. In Paul's words, "see that he may be with you without fear," we have a magnanimity worthy of present-day ministerial emulation. A full reading in Phillips translation is, "If Timothy comes to you, put him at his ease. He is as genuine a worker for the Lord as I am, and there is therefore no reason to look down on him. Send him on his way in peace, for I am expecting him to come to me here with the other Christian brothers. As for our brother Apollos, I pressed him strongly to go to you with the rest, but it was definitely not God's will for him to do so then. However, he will come to you as soon as an opportunity occurs" (1 Cor. 16:10-13).*

I would have you to note the following: First, Brother Paul was completely unselfish and unthreatened by the love of his members for the other ministers. At first thought we might ignore his solicitous attitude for Timothy, for he was, after all, Paul's protege. But then he could have stated it otherwise. He could have said, I am sending you this young intern, Timothy. He is a good boy, but he hasn't had much experience yet, so be nice to him.

And, what about Apollos? There was a real lively debate going on in Corinth as to who was the better preacher, Paul, Apollos or Peter. Albert Wikenhauser, in his book, New Testament Introduction, page 388, describes the Cephas party of the Corinthian church as a group of Jewish Christians who had heard Peter preach elsewhere. They had immigrated to Corinth and not only talked about the power of the preacher of Pentecost but probably doubted Paul's apostolate since he was not a personal disciple of Jesus.

The Apollos group consisted of Corinthian Christians that had been baptized by Apollos, who, incidentally, succeeded Paul as the pastor of the Corinthian church. Apollos' followers were probably the more professional and educated members of the church and no doubt were enamored by the stylish speech of this Alexandrian Jew who spoke in the classic tradition of Grecian rhetoric and philosophy.

The Pauline party, probably the largest segment of the church, was dedicated to his style and methods. And how does Paul react to all of this? Does he chide? Does he attack? Does he threaten? Does he emit any sly innuendos against his brethren? Does he seek to exalt himself or defend his record? No, he gives Apollos "good ink" by calling his name numerous times in the letter and concludes by recommending a visit from him in the near future.

Gentlemen, I submit to you that it takes a big man to give unqualified recommendation to his brother and especially, as in Paul's case, to those who provide competition in our sphere or range of activity.

Preferring One Another

I am not so sure that I fully comprehend as yet what the apostle meant in Romans 12:10 when he exhorted "in honour preferring one another," but I think I do know what the admonition requires and what the results will be when it is acted upon. First, it requires the inner security and joy of a man who has discovered what kind of animal he is. One of the chief aids to selflessness is self-awareness. There are just so many talents that God has given us, and few men have more than one or two, and if one will listen to his members, to his brethren, and most assuredly to his wife and look at the facts candidly, he will come, in a few years to understand and dis cover where his talents lie.

The program of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and, probably more broadly, Christianity itself, calls for evangelists, pas tors, administrators, and departmental men. Each of us is one of these or perhaps some combination of two or three, and when a man has made that discovery, when he has been convicted of his directions, he ceases his vain strivings to be what he is not and begins to feel the comfortable joys that derive from the unperturbed sureness in the breast of a preacher who has found himself. He is busy, not in outdoing his brethren in many fields, but in being a steady worker in all his responsibilities and in concentrating in those areas of his particular strength.

There was a short banjo-legged, muscular outfielder on the 1968 champion Detroit Tigers baseball team named Gates Brown. Now Brown could not run very well. He could not field very gracefully. Brown's arm wasn't the strongest one around either. In fact, there was only one thing Brown could do very well. He could hit. His manager said of him one time, "Brown thinks he can hit. Brown believes he can hit. Brown can hit." So what is Gates Brown? He is the most prized pinch hitter in the American League and he is happy doing it because he knows who he is and who he is not.

True Values

The second aid to contentment and magnanimity in the ministry is a proper system of values. A Seventh-day Adventist preacher or any preacher for that matter must guard against artificial priorities. It is hard for us to accept the fact that a desk job in the office, or the pulpit of the largest city in the conference is not the most noble way to spend our career. Our system of values seems to underrate the pastor of the average-sized church. Thus the preacher who thinks he deserves more status or responsibility than he has is necessarily bitter and critical of his brethren. On the other hand, any preacher who is plunging unreservedly into the work at hand, whether he deserves better things or not, will invariably find enough work to exhaust his powers, enough people to gladden his spirits, enough love to warm his heart, and enough patience, by the grace of God, to be faithful. Such a man has already fulfilled the chief basis of heavenly commendation and he has further more arrived at that mental posture with out which even the largest, most prestigious responsibility becomes unpleasant; and unencumbered by the standards of men he can look his fellows in the eye and say with the poet: "Stone walls do not a prison make Nor iron bars a cage." He can say to himself, "My mind to me a kingdom is."

Not Afraid

Third, such untarnished openness to ward our brethren requires a fear of God which pales into insignificance all fear of men. A man cannot be free to create, free to preach, free to express himself with his members, or his peers in the motel room, or the brethren at the conference table as long as he is afraid. The intern may be excused for his reserved relationship to his elders, but that veteran preacher, though ordained, has never lived who is still bottled up by the opinions of men; who is so busy memorizing the "shibboleths" that he cannot say "Jehovah-jireh"; who is so occupied with biding his time that he prostitutes his tenure; who is so busy protecting his vested interests that he loses his investments. Because Christ was a free spirit, He feared no man. Life to Him was an abundant adventure.

It didn't really matter to Jesus what the public opinion polls of His day said. And you will recall that they turned against Him very early. By the age of twelve He had made enemies in the Temple. By His teens He had alienated His brethren, and by age thirty he had fully incensed the religious establishment of His day. Yet He was free. Jesus loved men. Jesus reverenced life, Jesus respected age and experience, but He feared only God. He was ethical, courteous, and kind; yet though he followed the Father's plan in all things in the eyes of men He was an innovator. His mission on earth and His highest joy was to bring relief to suffering and ignorance and He used whatever legal and necessary methods available to accomplish His purposes. He was not concerned with precedents or acceptance. His question was not, what will happen to me or my career? or how will they catagorize me? but, what is right? He asked not, what will the brethren think? but, how can the job best be done? He was apolitical and positively uncompromising in His God-given, he-man individuality.

Searching Questions

And how about us, fellow ministers? Has the fear of God released us from the shackles of human sanctions? Can we, do we, relate to one another with pure motives and openhearted concern? How does it feel when the people squeeze our hands and tell us we are wonderful; when the group that couldn't make it with the former pastor surreptitiously tell us of his purported mistakes; when vacancies occur which seem more luscious than our present post; when our lieutenants in a former district call and tell us about the blunders of our successor? Do we really wish each other well? or do we secretly hope that a particular brother will miss his putt or slice his tee shot just enough to ensure a better score for us! Perhaps it isn't the only answer to the spiritual revival we need as a precursor to the loud cry, but of this I am sure: When the Seventh-day Adventist ministry becomes fully possessed of its mission and completely selfless in its fraternal relationship we shall have taken a major step toward the apocalypse and then, and only then, will we be able to duplicate the feats of the forthright apostle who wrote to the saints at Corinth, "Now if Timotheus come, see that he may be with you without fear: for he worketh the work of the Lord, as I also do."