1 Timothy 4:13-16 Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.
The thrust of this section is for Timothy to labor to take care of his soul. As a man who has the charge to under-shepherd the church, Timothy has a lot of responsibilities to watch and care for the souls of others. But he can't do this if he doesn't first take care of His own soul.
The pastor has to give himself to development and improvement and care first for his own soul. He needs to be improving in his preaching, learning in the study of God's Word, meditating on His duty to God and God's people. He needs to look at his life, his preaching, his doctrine and seek to grow. It is really easy to start going through the motions. It's easy to fall back on old sermons and old themes and just repeat without going over them again for the profit of your own soul.
Church, are you ensuring your pastor has the time and the resources to give himself wholly to the work?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment