The Evangelist and His Work
Practicing What We Preach, Part II

The Preacher's Relations With Family

How a preacher or any other person relates to his kinsmen is the product of the influence he has allowed God's will to have on his own life. Thereby he provides insight into his own attitude toward God's word. If he is unwilling to accept it, it is highly unlikely he will persuade others knowing of his own sins to conform to such matters, especially those young in faith or not Christians.

If he treats his wife unkindly, abuses her, fails to value her and appreciate her, denigrates her to others, or in other ways fails to be the kind of husband he ought, he will have little force in urging others to obey God. A hypocrite in this area of Biblical teaching has little potential.

Deserving special emphasis here is the need to remain faithful to one's wife and to avoid risky situations and entanglements with other females that could lead to unfaithfulness, or at least questionable activities. A preacher should be keenly aware of the potential for evil in his life, that of the woman (or man, God forbid), those family members affected by his sin, and observers in the church and in the world. He can be the example directing precious souls to either heaven or hell. Because King David gave "great occasion to the enemies of Jehovah to blaspheme," the Lord announced the effects of sin in his life and in his family. (2 Sam. 12) Continuing strife, rebellion from within the family-Absalom, and the death of the child conceived would all follow. The rest of the account of David's life depicts the erosion of his kingdom and the destruction of his family. The lesson is clear: lost influence has devastating results, even among those closest to the sin causing such loss, for they are the ones most strongly influenced and then disappointed.

Be careful about those influences to which you subject yourself, for they often make you what you become and your family what they become. The lascivious environment, contributed to by television, music, pornography, other forms of entertainment, indecent attire, and the general laxity existing in morals, encourage the very lifestyle that God disapproves. Preacher, guard your heart, because issuing from it are the fruits of your thinking and deliberation. (Prov. 4:23)

His Dealings With Elders

A preacher does not occupy a special position in God's systematic arrangement for a local church except as to function. He is just as much one overseen and tended by local elders as any other part of the congregation. Likewise, he has no more right to reject the spiritual counsel of elders and to rebuff their righteous influence than any other person. It is just as wrong for a preacher to become a Diotrephes as it was for Diotrephes to love the preeminence (3 John 9). Preachers who once accepted elders but then turn against them because of their reproof or legitimate opposition to some pet idea or project of the preacher show themselves suspect in motives and methods. It is just as wrong for a preacher to resort to selfish demands, pressure campaigns, petition drives, fanning up opposition, secret meeting with ulterior motives, and similar weapons as it is for elders, Christians, or anybody else to do so. All self-willed men are not found among elders, though the apostle did warn against such trait in elders.

Egotistical, antagonistic, lazy, self-serving preachers should be no more tolerated than the immoral. Their attitudes and method of operation always lead to problems. These problems become manifest in dealing with elders and with others in the church. The root of such problems is the preacher's failure to deny self and to crucify self. The fruit of the problems is divided churches, estranged relationships, a scoffing world, lost souls, and Satan's glee. In just a few years some preachers can destroy more good influence than it took several decades to build. Such preachers are preaching the wrong message in their lives; in fact, they would do the Lord, brethren, and themselves a favor if they would quit preaching.