Slow Is Fast and Fast Is Slow

“Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others; keep yourself pure” (1Tim 5:22).

Too many businesses and churches lose their organizational minds when they have a opening at the top. People freak out. We need a new leader yesterday!! While it’s critical to fill that position, it’s even more important to find the right person. A bad leadership choice will cripple an organization for years. The best way to find a leader quickly is to find a leader slowly.

Paul was well aware of this principle back in the first century and shares it in a letter to his protege Timothy. “Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others; keep yourself pure” (v22). Filling a leadership void? Take your time. Pump your brakes. Check yourself before you wreck yourself. A quick choice of a bad leader is devastating. Sin spreads. Hearts break. People leave. If that’s not bad awful enough, you get to start the search all over again.  What seems like a painfully slow search actually saves time in the long run.

The church at Ephesus knows the pain of a bad leadership choices all too well. Been there. Done that. Got the t-shirt. Dropped off the t-shirt at Goodwill. It’s the whole reason Tim the lead pastor there in the first place. At some point after Paul planted the megachurch in this big port city, a team of spiritual hucksters weaseled their way into positions of influence. They sold Ephesian believers a snake oil mixture of “myths and endless genealogies” (1Tim 1:4) that led to “vain discussions” (1Tim 1:6). The apostle pulls no punches when he calls them “liars whose consciences are seared” who taught doctrine that was downright demonic (1Tim 4:1-2).

Paul gives Tim a handy dandy list of godliness and integrity to use when looking for new elders (1Tim 3:1-7) and deacons (1Tim 3:8-14). Make sure to honor those leaders who do a great job, especially as teachers and preachers (1Tim 5:17-18). Don’t mess with every accusation made against an elder if there aren’t a minimum of two witnesses (1Tim 5:19). If need be and the evidence is there, it’s time for an intervention, for the good of both the leader and the church (1Tim 5:21). Leadership is no place for prejudice or playing favorites (1Tim 5:22). 

It’s at his point that the apostle goes out of his way to point out the critical importance of taking your time when selecting your leaders. “Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands” (v23). You see the physical laying hands on people throughout the Bible. It’s done for three reasons. One, as a means of blessing. Two, as means of healing. Three, to demonstrate the call to leadership. That’s what Paul’s talking about here. 

It started way back in the day when God set apart the Levites for service (Num 8:10) and Joshua as Moses’ successor (Num 27:18, 23). The first church put its paws on the original deacon team (Acts 6:3-6). Paul was on the receiving end when believers in Antioch endorsed him and his buddy Barnabas as missionaries (Acts 13:1-3). And he reminds Tim of the time when “the council of elders laid their hands on you” (1Tim 4:14).

Don’t make the mistake of thinking the laying on of hands is the transfer of some sort of mysterious mojo to the new leader. Instead this ceremony accomplishes a couple of important purposes. Those on the receiving end realize in a significant way that things in their life have changed. They’re accountable to God and His people in their new role as servant/leaders. Meanwhile the church sees this as a unified endorsement of those stepping into leadership. They’re telling these ministers they have their backs. They’ll support them in many ways, not the least of which is prayer. 

But long before you get your jazz hands ready for such a ceremony, Paul tells us to take our foot off the accelerator. “Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands” (v22). When it comes to finding new leaders, take your time. We need to do our due diligence. Checking the background of a potential pastor, elder, or deacon against the biblical qualifications (1Tim 3:1-14; Titus 1:5-9) takes time. This is no time for the microwave. Selecting leaders is best done in the crockpot. Or as Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones like to sing, “Time is on your side.”

Don’t get me wrong. Leadership is critical. Any organization like a church is like plane. It can only fly for so long on autopilot before things go badly. That’s why Solomon writes, “Where there is no prophetic vision, the people cast off restraint” (Prov 29:18). While good leadership is critical, bad leadership is fatal. Don’t let the urgency of a leadership void freak you out and lead you to a decision you’ll soon regret. That’s why Solomon also writes, “Like an archer who wounds everyone is the one who hires a passing fool or drunkard” (Prov 26:10). Rash decisions lead to collateral damage. People get hurt.

Take. Your. Time. Stephen Covey says, “With people, if you want to save time, don’t be efficient. Slow is fast and fast is slow.” Slow is fast. Fast is slow. You’re inviting danger by failing to check out any leader before they serve. Just ask the folks in the Ephesian church. I’ll bet you they would do anything they could take a mulligan on their previous elder choices. Do everything possible to prevent a scandal on the front end. Slow is fast. Fast is slow.

Paul goes on to tell Tim not to “take part in the sins of others” (v22). He uses a Greek verb here (Gr. koinoneo) that means to share, have in common, or jointly participate with others. If you’ve spent much time in church growing up, you’ve heard the word koinonia. You probably had koinonia at a potluck dinner in the Fellowship Hall. But the original language has less to do with a plateful of fried chicken and potato salad and more to do with being teammates in something. The apostle is quite clear here. Don’t play for Team Sin.

So what in the world does this have to do with leadership? So very glad you asked. Paul is probably warning against the dangerous impact of leaders whom we fail to check out. When we don’t fully vet any leadership candidate ahead of time, we’re giving them the stamp of approval to continue in their sin. We’re telling them everything is okay. By doing so, we “take part in the sins of others” (v22). We also expose those under the care of the church as potential targets and victims of this unchecked leader. 

In their new position of leverage, a sinning leader could influence the other elders negatively. He has the distinct possibility of dragging the entire leadership team into his sinful activity. Just a little bit pollution has the potential to corrupt everything. That’s why Jesus warns His posse to have a zero-tolerance policy for the “leaven of the Pharisees” (Mt 16:6, 11-12; Mk 8:15; Lk 12:1). He’s NOT suggesting they go gluten-free.

Just in case there’s any doubt about the importance of sin-free leadership, the apostle tells the Ephesian lead pastor to “keep yourself pure” (v22). The grammar of the Greek has some interesting implications. The verb here (Gr. tereo) is in the present active imperative form. That simply means we can easily translate this as “keep on keeping yourself pure.” Tim’s doing a good job already. Paul is just encouraging him to keep on keeping on. 

This is NOT some sort of keep-yourself-clean-so-you-can-keep-yourself-saved kinda deal. Remember, there’s no way to make ourselves squeaky clean enough to enter God’s kingdom in the first place, much less stay that way. The only way that happens is when Jesus saves us when we trust in His sinless life and substitutionary death. He lives the perfect life we fail to live. He dies the brutal death for our sin we should have died. He rises to new life that we don’t deserve. Christ does for us what we could never dream of doing for ourselves.

In telling Tim to “keep yourself pure” (v22), Paul emphasizes here is the importance of Tim’s role as a pastor for believers in the local congregation. As a spiritual leader in the Ephesian church, his personal walk with Jesus and integrity must be top priorities. As we said before, sin in such a position of influence can cause widespread damage throughout the flock. You don’t have to go into gory detail believers in this church. The evidence in Ephesus is all around them. It’s why Tim is pastor to start with. 

As a matter of fact, the entire crisis at this church is a case study in how NOT to find and fill leadership positions. At some point, people panicked when there was a vacancy at the top. Instead of doing their due diligence, they got ahead of God and quickly installed someone as an elder or deacon who had no business being there. It wasn’t long before these unqualified and unchecked leaders took down others who took part in their sin. As a result, personal purity took a backseat. A rush job to find leaders is an incredibly slippery slope. 

A leadership vacuum is wrong time to rush. Slow your roll. Pump your brakes. A quick choice of a bad leader is devastating. Sin spreads. Hearts break. People leave. If that’s not bad awful enough, you get to start the search all over again.  What seems like a painfully slow search actually saves time in the long run. The best way to find a leader quickly is to find a leader slowly. Slow is fast. Fast is slow.