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Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach…

1 Timothy 3:2

God places His emphasis on character for those whom He calls to serve Him. The requirements here for the “overseer” refer to the maturity of the pastor of the church. (The titles overseer, pastor or shepherd, and elder normally refer to the same position in Scripture, Acts 20:17,28 and 1 Peter 5:1-4.)

We never see a precise job description in the Bible for the work of shepherding God’s people. We see many examples in Scripture and we can gather the basic gist and idea of God from these passages - to care for the health of the local church, for the spiritual development of God’s people, for their moral and spiritual progress, combining teaching, guiding, organizing, counseling, encouraging, leading, commanding, loving, to make peace among the members, to encourage the exercise of their spiritual gifts, to train and equip them all for service as well, all under the Lordship of Christ and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

But the issue of character is always placed first in God’s word. God does not ignore the importance of wisdom, experience, and knowledge. The Scripture says that by wisdom a house is built, and by wisdom the church is built and people are built up in to mature followers of Christ. The first deacons of the church in Acts 6 were said to be full of wisdom, but more important than this was that they were first filled with the Spirit.

This principle - that character comes first - is emphasized throughout the Bible and is applicable in all areas of our lives, in the home and family, in being a good spouse and parent, in the work place, and in friendships as well. Seek first, Christ taught, His kingdom and His righteousness, and then the other things of life may be added to this (Matthew 6:33), but not before.

You may list all of your concerns on paper - whether money, health, family, marriage, friendship, or whatever - but at the top of the list you should write “Character” or “Personal maturity” or “commitment to God.” That is the greatest concern of God for us.

Do you need money? First, seek to be a person of Christian character. Do you need healing? Character first and commitment to Christ. Do you need a new job? Seek first His face and then seek His hand. Draw close to Him and worship Him and seek to become in all ways the Christian He has called you to be, and then see if these other concerns are still all that important to you.

The person of true character is ready to receive blessings because he seeks them not. He has found all that this soul truly desires in the Lord Jesus Himself. He is ready to handle responsibility for he does not do so out of a sense of low self-esteem, hoping that some title will make him feel better about himself.

A.W. Tozer wrote: “Humble yourself and cease to care what men think. A meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. Rather,… he has stopped being fooled about himself. He knows well that the world will never see him as God sees him and he has stopped caring. He has obtained a place of soul rest. The old struggle to defend himself is over.”

leadership character

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Psalm 139:23-24

Self-examination is not merely a good idea; it is essential to living life in Christ to the fullest. To Socrates the words are attributed, “The unexamined life is not worth living,” and this is not only good philosophy, it is basic Christianity. Our hope in God based on His assurances of love toward us should protect our hearts from fear and the danger of discouragement as we examine ourselves. We dare to believe that He loves us and has saved us in Christ regardless of what we will find in our hearts. He has a wonderful and beautiful plan for us and He has told us this many ways so that we can be confident and assured of His love.

But we are still to examine ourselves, to search our hearts along with the light of His word, guided by His Spirit. Before the communion meal our Lord introduced we are to search our hearts to see what is there and to confess and forsake everything wrong and impure. Along with our confession of evil, we regularly find the need to confess our lack of faith in God’s love and our acceptance in Him. The psalmist prayed that his thoughts and cares, “anxious thoughts” according to the NIV, would be revealed. The psalmist pleaded for God to sort through the things that consumed his mind to see what energy had been wasted on worthless and worldly cares. Anxiety exists because we have not trusted Christ enough and taken worries meant for Him to carry upon ourselves.

The psalmist wrote these words after he had prayed against those who hate the Lord, and who rise up against Him and His people. There are certainly people like this in the world, but it is as though he quickly realized the danger this prayer posed for him. We need to be careful that our awareness of immorality and of evil in the world does not lead us to self-pride and spiritual vanity.

Examination requires a standard, and the most fundamental challenge about self-examination is finding a proper standard to compare ourselves to. The only true standard will be the word of God, and particularly the life of Christ, as we let the Spirit guide and lead us. To do this among a community of believers, spiritual people who are honest and considerate, as well as insightful, is also a help. There should be a community for each of us, regardless of positions, titles, or past achievements, where we can find honest and gracious feedback – not negative, preachy, or judgmental.

But there are other standards – dangerous standards – that we can use. If we compare our achievements to the achievements of others, then that may be of some value, but very little, for who is to say that others’ abilities and gifts are greater or lesser than ours? Perhaps we may feel good about ourselves wrongly because we have achieved more than others, but they may have exceeded us in terms of overcoming personal obstacles and set backs. Or perhaps they have done just the opposite, that they were lazy and our best achievements, the ones we have worked so hard for are equal to what they did half asleep at the wheel?

We each can be haunted by the negative criticisms leveled at us from childhood, the tauntings of playground bullies, or even close family members. These can creep back into our minds unexpectedly, especially if we were regularly exposed. Developing positive attitudes of hope and possibilities – the old positive thinking perspective – is a biblical way of looking at life. More than being obsessed by failures and hopelessness, we should live confidently trusting in the hope of God. The promises of Romans 8:28, that God is working all things together for good, should protect our hearts at all time.

Another danger is that we may become self-obsessed, narcissistic, craving the approval and attention of others. There is a real danger of feeding this beast that resides in each of our hearts. Among the first questions we should ask ourselves in our self-examination is whether we are self-centered, rather than Christ-centered.

To be searched by God, however, is quite a different matter altogether. Self examination always calls us to die to self in order to live to God, and there is no other way to live to God. This requires courage and faith – courage to see ourselves and our weaknesses for what they are and the faith to see Christ as who He truly is. John Ortberg has given this powerful insight:

A scene in C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce wonderfully portrays death-and-resurrection spirituality. A man is approached by an angel. The man carries a lizard on his shoulder; the lizard represents a spirit of lust, of habitually mismanaged sexuality that has turned into calcified habit, dominating the man’s time and thoughts. The man hates the lizard, but can’t abide the thought of life without it.

The angel offers to kill the lizard. The man recoils. He doesn’t want anything that drastic. He doesn’t want the lizard dead—just manageable. He would prefer a gradual process of lizard-management.

The angel tells him the gradual process is of no use at all. Death is the only way. This moment contains all moments. The angel will kill the lizard, but cannot do so without the man’s permission. In his misery and despair, the man finally consents. There is a horrible burning, and the man and the lizard fall to the ground, apparently dead.

But not dead. The man rises—more solid and strong and glorious than ever before. And the lizard rises as well—only transformed into a spirited stallion. Though he must die to sinful sexuality, it is not destroyed. It is redeemed.

“Nothing, not even the best and noblest, can go on as it is now,” writes Lewis. “Nothing, not even what is lowest and most bestial, will not be raised again if it submits to death. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body …. Lust is a poor, weak, whimpering whispering thing compared with that richness and energy of desire which will arise when lust has been killed.”[1]

Self-examination should result in surrender to God and to His purpose, and surrender results in new life and new hope.

leadership leadership, self-examination