Teflon Pastors

614 - Today's Prime Time Devo comes from 1Ti 3:2 A bishop then must be blameless, Continuing a look at qualifications for spiritual leaders in the New Testament church. The first qualification of the spiritual leader of the congregation is he is to be blameless. Well, good luck with that one. Especially given the fact that he is likely a recent convert to Christianity and who knows what kind of sins lay in his past! I don't want to say that Zacchaeus would be a qualified candidate to serve as a spiritual leader, but he is a good example of someone, who upon meeting Jesus and being converted, became a man who was blameless or without reproach. He made it clear to all that if they had thought ill of him before as he carried out his tax collecting duties, they would no longer have cause to do so. Lu 19:8 Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold." In the culture of these church plants, it's likely some of these candidates were former scoundrels like Zacchaeus, who were now blameless! So the pastoral candidate must be a man, who literally is “not able to be taken hold of.” He is that new creation spoken of in 2Co 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. He is a changed man in accordance with Eph 4:20-22, “But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, Ronald Reagan was known as “the Teflon President,” because try as they may, no one could make any attacks on his character stick to him. This is the first qualification of the pastoral candidate. A proven track record of a man touched by Jesus! A man who is still a sinner, but not to the point where people would have cause to speak evil of him.