Pastoral Ministry is Warfare

Paul calls Timothy’s ministry “warfare.” I love this (1 Timothy 1:18).

The word means military service, your tour of duty. I’ve heard many pastors who retired or left the ministry talk about their time in it. Certainly sounds like guys returning from the battlefield to swap war stories. I know I have mine.

Ministry isn’t easy and there are many battles to be fought. The first battle is with your own sin, pride, and various other things that can take you down.

That’s why Paul tells Timothy right after this to “hold faith and a good conscience” (1:19). Stick with the faith, you’re not done, the just shall live by faith. A good conscience, which is informed by Scripture and empowered by the Holy Spirit, will keep you from veering from it.

Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. When you lose grip on faith, sin happens. When sin happens, the spiritually mature person’s conscience will alert them.

If you veer from the faith and your conscience is spoiled or hardened, you will make shipwreck of your faith and your ministry will be a disaster.

Paul mentions Hymeneaus and Alexander in verse 20. These two guys did leave the faith and lost their good conscience. Paul handed them over to Satan.

This is the second battle the pastor will face: Battling idiots in the church. False teachers, deceivers, and just plain old ignorant fools are making a mess of the church. The pastor’s overseer and protector job is largely concerned with these people.

One of the hardest parts of being a pastor for me was seeing my own battle with sin, and yet having to discipline someone in the church for their sin and the division they were causing in the church because of it.

“Who am I to do this?”

Part of this was my fault for not taking my sin seriously enough to knock it off. Part of it was insecurity, sometimes brought on by a bad conscience. I knew my sin. I knew the rationalizations my flesh made with it. What if they find out? What if they do ask me “Who are you to tell me” when they actually might have a point?

I hated church discipline situations. Having the awkward conversations that had to be confronted. Hated every second of it.

In hindsight, I could have been better at keeping the faith and a good conscience. If I had done that, I imagine I would have approached these battles with more confidence in the Lord. I kind of have to say though, that my recurring battles with sin did keep me humble and I think that helped in some of these situations.

But that’s probably just more self-justifications.

Ministry is war. If yours isn’t, you either have a perfect church or you’re not paying attention to yourself and your sin, or to people in your church.

I know some happy pastors who don’t view their ministry as warfare. They seem to have zero self-awareness and confront no one on anything ever.

You can indeed have a non-warfare ministry if you desire one. It won’t help anyone and don’t be shocked if false teaching overtakes your church at some point.

And, just so we don’t forget: we wrestle not against flesh and blood. The weapons of our warfare are not physical but spiritual.

There’s another realm of warfare going on too. I felt it several times during my 21 years in ministry warfare. There was definitely something bigger going on. Too many coincidental things to be merely coincidental.

If you’re not feeling the slings and arrows in ministry, you’re probably not doing much spiritual ministry. If you are feeling the battle, congrats! Good job. It means you’re probably doing something right.

At all points of the battle, before, during, or after, hold fast to the faith and a good conscience. Do battle with your own sin and pride.

Don’t shipwreck yourself or others.

Fight the fight!

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