“Let no man despise thee.”—Titus 2:15.
My brother, I feel a pleasure in the work of this day, partly from the love I bear to you, and partly from the love I feel towards the church. I trust you will receive a word of advice on this solemn occasion with candour and attention.
You will observe the passage is not an address to the people, not to despise their minister; but to the minister, not to be despised by the people. If you ask how you are to prevent this, I answer, Contempt is not a voluntary feeling. It is not in the power of men to despise some characters. They may dislike them; they may affect to ridicule them; but they cannot in their hearts despise them. If a minister conducts himself in character, no man will be able to despise him. This, then, is the sentiment which I wish to impress upon you.
Your work as a pastor may be distinguished into three departments—the pulpit, the church, and the world—in each of which I hope you will so conduct yourself as that no man shall be able to despise you. Let me offer to your consideration a few particulars under each.
I. What concerns you in the pulpit, or in the work of preaching the gospel.
1. Avoid all affectation in your manner.—Do not affect the man of learning by useless criticisms: many do this, only to display their knowledge.—Nor yet the orator, by high-sounding words, or airs, or gestures. Useful learning and an impressive delivery should by no means be slighted; but they must not be affected, or men will be sure to despise you.
2. Avoid self-seeking in your ends.—Preach not yourself, but Christ Jesus. Seek not the approbation of men for yourself, but for your doctrine. Study to commend the gospel to the consciences of your hearers, rather than your own orthodoxy, or ingenuity, or zeal, to their admiration. If, instead of endeavouring to secure their reception of the gospel message, you are concerned to recommend yourself to their applause, you will be sure to be despised.
3. Avoid vulgarity and low wit.—Though the pulpit is not the place for affected pomposity, neither is it the place for mean and low language. Few men are more contemptible than those who study to introduce vulgar nonsense and jocose anecdotes, to make people laugh. Sound speech, sound sense, and the greatest seriousness, adorn the pulpit. Without these, you will be despised.
4. Do not advance sentiments without being able to support them by Scripture evidence.—Many content themselves with assertions without proof, and make vehemence supply the place of evidence. But this will cause you to be despised by men of understanding.
5. Beware that you do not preach an unfelt gospel.—If you do, it will be seen, and you will be despised. It will be seen that, though you affect to be in earnest, you do not feel; and that you scarcely believe your own doctrine. We may get into a habit of talking for the truth, and pleading for holiness, and yet be dead ourselves; and if so, we shall be sure to be despised.
6. Let not the fear of man deter you from declaring the whole counsel of God.—Insist on every Divine truth and duty. Where interest or friendship stand in the way, it may be trying; but if you yield, the very parties to whom you yield will despise you. Speak but the truth in love, and speak the whole truth, and you will commend yourself to every man’s conscience, when you can do no more.
7. Never degrade the pulpit by indulging in personalities.—These are for private admonition. “Rebuke with all authority;” but let your personal rebukes be private. To introduce them in the pulpit is unmanly, and would render you despicable. Let us apply the language,
II. To your behaviour in the church, and among your fellow Christians.
1. Do not lord it over God’s heritage.—You will have to preside in the church, and direct its measures; but never assume the lordly priest. Expect your judgment, in some cases, to be overruled, and learn to yield with cheerfulness when the measures you wish to introduce appear to be opposed to the opinion and desires of the majority of your brethren. It is not with a minister of the gospel as with a minister of state—that he must have a majority, or he cannot stand his ground. If we “look on the things of others,” we may, in non-essentials, after speaking our minds, yield and be happy. But if we are determined to carry every point which appears to us desirable, in spite of the opinion of our brethren, though we may not always succeed, we shall invariably be despised for the attempt.
2. Yet have a judgment of your own.—This will become you on every subject; and where it is of importance you ought to be firm and resolute. A minister must not be borne down by the capriciousness of a few. He who is easily turned aside from a good object, and will bear insult without a proper manifestation of his displeasure, will be despised as much as a lordly high priest. If a minister be not firm, discipline will, in many cases, be neglected. People have their friends, and relatives, and favourites; and very few, though the operation be bloodless, have sufficient regard for rectitude to act upon the principle of the sons of Levi.—See Exod. 32:17–29. But you must, or you will be despised.
3. Do not affect the gentleman in your visits.—Do not assume airs of consequence, and take liberties in families, as if, because you are a minister, you are therefore superior as a man. I do not say, do not be a gentleman; but do not affect the great man. Real gentility, and urbanity, and politeness are no mean or despicable attainments. There was much Christian politeness in the apostle Paul. But the affectation of the fine gentleman is great folly; and no men are more despised than those who strut about with lordly dignity, and give themselves consequential airs. You had much better feel yourself a Christian, and consider that you are associating with your fellow Christians, or with those who expect you to exhibit a pattern for their imitation.
4. Yet preserve a dignity of manner and demeanour.—There is no occasion for you, in order to avoid the affectation of gentility, to sink into low buffoonery, vulgarity, or drollery. My brother, the fear of God, and a deep sense of religion, will effectually preserve you from these extremes, and render you respectable, instead of contemptible.
5. Beware of being a loiterer.—Do not acquire a habit of wandering about and doing nothing. Visit, and visit “from house to house.” But look well to your visits: “preach from house to house.” There is work enough in a congregation for a minister to do; but nothing renders him more contemptible and despised than a habit of religious gossiping. Let us apply the text,
III. To your general deportment in the world.
1. Let your conduct correspond with your preaching.—Men will watch you. You may put off the preacher in mixed company; but you must never put off the man of God—the Christian. Whatever you may be in the pulpit, if in the world you be frothy, vain, contentious, captious, unfeeling, unjust, or make engagements you cannot fulfil, you will be despised. On the contrary, consistency of character will wear, and live down opposition.
2. Never be ashamed of religion in any company.—There is no need to introduce it on all occasions, and in all companies. This would render you despised one way. But be not the subject of cowardly timidity. That would render you equally, if not more, despicable. There is nothing in true religion but what admits of a rational defence. There wants nothing to defend religion but firmness of mind. But if you are ashamed of the cause you have espoused, its opponents will heartily despise you.
To conclude.—If the contempt of men be such a matter of dread, how much more the contempt of God! Then so conduct yourself that you may not be ashamed, and not be despised, at his coming!
Fuller, A. G. (1988). “Ministers Should be Concerned with Not Being Despised,” Sermon LXV. The Complete Works of Andrew Fuller: Memoirs, Sermons, Etc. (J. Belcher, Ed.; Vol. 1, pp. 489–491). Sprinkle Publications.