An Important Trait Of A Good Minister

Many things can be said about a good minister of Jesus Christ but one quality stands out among others. This outstanding quality is summarised in the words of Paul to his protégé Timothy:

'If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed.' (1Timothy 4:6)

A good minister of Jesus Christ is well nourished in the words of faith and of good doctrine. A minister who is well informed in other things (like organizational management) but not nourished in the words of faith and good doctrine might be a good Christian, he is however not yet a good minister.

A good minister instructs the brethren rightly from the overflow of the word of Christ that is filling his heart. He gives priority to this word above anything else. If you are looking for a good minister of Jesus Christ, one who is on fire for the Lord. Don't look for too many things, focus on one definitive trait and that is: -

Love for scriptures

A real man of God loves the book. Love and honour for the scriptures is the most prominent trait of a spiritually fit person. This person does not just carry the bible about, he opens and reads from it both privately and during public ministry. If a man does not read the book in public, it is sure sign that he is distant from it in private. Yet, God says that the book is the main tool for ministry. When Joshua emerged as the new leader of the nation of Israel after the departure of Moses, the Lord told him:

'This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.' (Joshua 1:8)

It is interesting to note that God gave this instruction to Joshua in His audible voice. In other words, God, in His very own voice directed Joshua to the book as the secret of success. This means, if someone hears the voice of God audibly and sees the very form of God in visions, he is still doomed to failure if he will not meditate in the book day and night.

Here lies the main challenge of many mordren ministers: they have abandoned the book in favour of either secular wisdom or spectacular encounters. Some seek spectacular voices and appearances, ignoring the ever present supernatural word that is domiciled in the book. But as we have seen from the story of Joshua, every authentic voice from God will point your attention to the book as the way to succeed with God.

Every child of God must know this and demand it from their spiritual leaders and instructors. The ministers must be well nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine or they should get away from behind the sacred desk. It is a serious matter, a matter of life and death! Vain ministers kill people gradually and subtly with vain words that ‘ruin their hearers’.

If someone stands before you in the name of ministry and rants for an entire hour or more with little or no reference to the bible, he is wasting your time, manipulating your soul and corrupting your mind all at the same time. A minister should not 'strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers.' (2 Timothy 2:14)

We all have our various struggles in this area. There are many things calling for our atention and attempting to take us away from the revealed word. We should however, stand firm and immovable as far as commitment to the word is concerned.

This has nothing to do with personality difference or ministry style, it is a matter of love and honour for the written word. Anyone who does not read the scriptures does not love it and is therefore not fit for the work of the ministry.

In his awesome book, How to be Filled with Spiritual Power, Harold J. Chadwick said:

‘Almost without exception, every person great for God has been a person of the Word of God—a person who loved and lived the Word. And almost without exception, the decline of every person great for God can be directly traced to a decline in their love and study of the Word of God. Rather than continuing to feed daily upon the fresh bread of the Word of God, they tried to maintain their spiritual strength with what they had eaten in days and years past. And gradually the ways of the Word slipped away from them and were replaced with the ways of the world.’