Foreign hello good people.

Welcome to Daily Bible Refresh with Dr.

Brad Miller, brought to you by Voice of God Daily, the home of the ABC the 1, 2, 3 Bible Study Guide.

This is where we bring the Bible to life to you every day.

Every single day before 6:00am Eastern Time and we read a daily Bible reading from the Revised Common Lectionary.

This is a three year cycle that reads the entire Bible.

We're in year C in the Epiphany season.

We make Bible reading both understandable.

We read only from the New Testament, the message version of the Bible.

Relatable.

We offer you a few points to ponder and applicable.

We give you a question to consider.

We do all that and have a prayer in under 10 minutes.

Our reading for the day is from 1st Timothy 3, verses 1 through 13.

Reading from the Message Leadership in the Church if anyone wants to provide leadership in the church, good.

But there are preconditions.

A leader must be well thought of, committed to his wife, cool and collected, accessible and hospitable.

He must know what he's talking about, not be over fond of wine, not pushy but gentle, not thin skinned, not money hungry.

He must handle his own affairs well, attentive to his own children and having their respect.

For if someone is unable to handle his own affairs, how can he take care of God's church?

He must not be a new believer lest the position go to his head and the devil trip him up.

Outsiders must think well of him or else the devil will figure out a way to lure him into his trap.

The same goes for those who want to be servants in the church.

Serious, not deceitful, not too free with the bottle, not in it for what they can get out of it.

They must be reverent before the mystery of the faith, not using their position to try to run things.

Let them prove themselves first.

If they show they can do it, take them on.

No exceptions are to be made for women.

Same qualifications, serious, dependable, not sharp tongued, not over fond of wine.

Servants in the church are to be committed to their spouse, attentive to their own children, and diligent to looking after their own affairs.

Those who do the servant work will come to be highly respected.

A real credit to this Jesus faith.

Great.

Today friends, we're really exploring this passage that has really historically been used to establish kind of church leadership, hierarchies, if it will, and gender roles.

So let's look at it carefully.

Let's examine it through a progressive lens that speaks to our contemporary context that we live in.

In this year.

Here are some points to ponder.

One of them is leadership as service, not status.

This passage has traditionally been used to create kind of a rigid leadership structure.

It's a deeper message, though.

It's about character and service.

Notice how the qualities described are so highly regarded.

Being hospitable, gentle, accessible are fundamentally about caring for others rather than wielding power.

In our modern context, this suggests that leadership should be collaborative and empowering rather than authoritative.

Point 2 Breaking gender barriers Though written in the patriarchal context of its day, we can see in this text an early creation of inclusive leadership.

The mention of no exceptions are to be made for women is transformative and radical in the message translation.

It actually points to equal standards, not exclusion.

And today we recognize that leadership gifts aren't distributed along gender roles.

We celebrate that vital leadership arises among women and men and has been played out throughout all of church history, even in spite of how institutions have often been barriers to that One more point, and that's community accountability.

The text emphasizes that leaders should be well thought of by both insiders and outsiders.

This suggests that spiritual leadership isn't just about internal church dynamics, but about how we are engaged with the broader community in our polarized world.

This calls for us to be bridge builders who can connect with people across different beliefs and backgrounds.

Here's your action step for the day this week.

Identify one way you can serve your community that doesn't involve holding title or position.

Perhaps it's listening to someone who needs support.

Maybe it's offering hospitality to a neighbor.

Maybe it's providing some service at a at a food pantry, or volunteering quietly behind the scenes.

Remember, true leadership is about service, not status.

We'll pray in just a moment.

They want to remind you that we have an incredible resource as a gift for you, our daily our daily Bible Refresh Listener.

It is called the ABC 123 Bible Study Guide.

You can find it at Voice of God Daily and it just makes the Bible study the Bible as easy and straightforward as ABC.

1, 2, 3.

You can find it there@voiceofgoddaily.com along with almost 800 episodes of this podcast which are designed to help to edify you with the Word of God.

Here's our prayer for the day.

Oh God, help us to reimagine leadership in ways that break down hierarchies rather than build them up.

Give us the courage to serve without seeking recognition, to lead by lifting others, and to create communities where all voices are heard and valued.

Guide us in transforming our churches into spaces where leadership is shared, where gender and other barriers fall away and where your love flows freely through all of us.

Help us remember that our greatest calling is not to positions of power, but to positions of service.

In the spirit of Christ, who came not to be served, but to serve, we pray.

Amen.

It's a joy and a pleasure to be with you here on me on Daily Bible Refresh.

My name is Dr.

Brad Miller.

Please join with me again tomorrow morning.

Bring a friend as we study the Scriptures together that is both understandable, relatable and actionable.

Until then, remember that God's loyal love doesn't run out.

His merciful love hasn't dried up, it's created new every morning.