Qualifications

Introduction

It’s that time of year again, exam season. Students all over the country, whether in secondary or higher education, are doing last minute cramming ahead of the dreaded exams. In these days of course projects and work based learning, exams still have a vital role in determining who has made the grade and who has grasped their subject. That’s why the diligent student has been and is working so hard, they recognise the importance of passing their exams, they understand the importance of ‘qualifications’. The quantity and standard of their qualifications will be important in their search for employment or the furthering of their studies.

I have been thinking recently about qualifications, not GCSE’s, A-Levels or University Degrees but rather the qualifications of the Christian. What qualifications do we need to serve God?

Before discussing the subject any further it would be important to mention the obvious qualification, Salvation. We cannot serve God unless we have a relationship with Him. When we entered this world we were all born in sin and as such we had no relationship with God. We were in fact His enemies, as Romans says ‘the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.’ Our carnal or fleshly mind was not subject to God. However, through the blessing of Salvation we can have a living relationship with God. Our Saviour taught us to address him as ‘Father’ and so through Salvation we move from a situation where we have no relationship with God to one where we are His children. If you do not have that saving relationship with God then you cannot serve God. My own local assembly recognises the importance of this fact and has included the following qualification for a Church Pastor in the church constitution where it states ‘he must be a born again believer.’

‘Ye must be born again.’ John 3 v7

As I have already said the qualification of Salvation should be an obvious one, however, once we are saved we are all in a position to serve God in one capacity or another. That’s not to say that we all will, or indeed can fulfil the same roles within the Lord’s work. As members of the Body of Christ, we all have different functions to perform. To use the body analogy some of us are eyes watching out, some of us are mouths speaking out, some of us are hands reaching out and some of us are feet going out. Not everyone can be a Preacher, not everyone can be a Missionary, not everyone can be an Elder, a Deacon, a Sunday-School teacher etc but we all should be doing something. So what qualifies us to do the thing that we are doing or that we aspire to do?

I want to consider this question in a series of blogs. I want to look at two from a negative point of view and two from a positive point of view. I want to consider the misunderstandings that place an over emphasis on formal theological training and on physical maturity. I then intend to consider the gifts given to the Church and then finally the importance of humility.