The Minister’s Moral and Spiritual Integrity
by Joel Stephen Williams
In a 2019 Gallup poll once again nurses were rated highest out of twenty-two professions with an approval rating of 85% for their honesty and ethical standards (R J Reinhart, “Nurses Continue to Rate Highest in Honesty, Ethics,” Gallup, 6 January 2020. https://news.gallup.com/poll/274673/nurses-continue-rate-highest-honesty-ethics.aspx). Engineers, other medical professions, police officers, and college teachers were ranked behind nurses but before “ministers” who were tenth with a 40% rating. The decline of respect for ministers among Americans has been a notable trend for many years in this Gallup poll. Moral failure and greed by some high-profile ministers may have contributed to this decline. How should we respond to this problem?
According to a major survey conducted by The Association of Theological Schools, people judge the work of ministers primarily in three ways and in the following order (Daniel O. Aleshire, Earthen Vessels, Eerdmans, 2008, 31):
(1) Do they truly love God?
(2) Do they relate with care and integrity to human beings?
(3) Do they have the knowledge and skills that the job requires?
Lacking professional expertise in certain skills does not automatically doom to failure a minister who is a humble, spiritual servant who truly loves God and who is known for honesty and integrity. But a minister who is an orator in the pulpit, a Bible scholar, and highly skilled in many other areas will most likely face ruin if that minister is known to be a malicious bully, an unfaithful marriage partner, or a spiritual phony. Moral and spiritual integrity are essential for authentic ministry.
The Apostle Paul on Moral and Spiritual Integrity
God’s mercy and patience led Paul into “service” or “ministry” (diakonia) (1 Tim 1:12–17; 2:3–7; 2 Tim 1:8–14). God’s grace teaches us “to renounce impiety and worldly passions” and “to live lives that are self-controlled, upright and godly” (Titus 2:11–14). Paul admonished the young minister Timothy to have “faith and a good conscience” (1 Tim 1:19). He was to practice “godliness” (1 Tim 4:7–8) and to “pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness” (1 Tim 6:11; 2 Tim. 2:22), but especially “love” (1 Tim 4:12; 6:11; 2 Tim 1:7, 13; 2:22). Titus was to be a “model of good works” and Timothy was to “set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity” (Titus 2:7; 1 Tim 4:12). Paul taught Timothy and Titus about moral responsibilities similar to the household codes in his other letters (1 Tim 2:1–15; 5:3–16; Titus 2:1–10; Eph 5:22–6:9; Col 3:18–4:1). The pure and godly lives of Timothy and Titus helped to authenticate the genuineness of their ministry with its sober task of guarding the gospel message and teaching it to others (1 Tim 4:6–8; 5:1–2; 6:20; 2 Tim 1:13–14; 2:2, 22; Titus 2:1–15). If ministers follow biblical teaching like Paul gave Timothy and Titus, with God’s help they will progress in moral and spiritual integrity.
