A Message for Ministers from Malachi

Back in the 90s, when I was a young pastor, I took a class on legal issues facing churches and became familiar with an important term, which I’ll share in a moment. We looked at several court cases, one of which involved a couple seeking marital counseling from their minister. They trusted this man of God and hoped he would help them restore their marriage. Instead, he betrayed their trust.

During counseling, the minister developed a relationship with the wife that went beyond the scope of professional ethics. As a result of the minister’s infidelity, the couple’s marriage disintegrated. The man sued the minister, and the case eventually made it to the Supreme Court of their state. The minister pleaded First Amendment protection, but the court decided that the minister was guilty of a “breach of fiduciary duty.”

The Minister as Fiduciary

Fiduciary. I wasn’t familiar with the term in the 90s. I am now and hope you are too, my fellow pastor. As the court record stated:
“A fiduciary is a person having a duty, created by his undertaking, to act primarily for the benefit of another.”

Ministers are supposed to be “fiduciaries” (from the Latin root fidere, “to trust”). People are supposed to be able to trust us. But sadly, far too often, this trust has been violated. And when this happens, people are rightly upset about it. More importantly, so is God.

Malachi: The Prosecuting Attorney

I preached through Malachi recently. Frankly, the book of Malachi sounds a lot like a court case. In the second chapter, the Lord, speaking through His prosecuting attorney Malachi, brings a serious charge against the priests in Israel. What was their crime? Essentially, they were guilty of a breach of fiduciary duty, for they were violating the terms of their God-given assignment.

Malachi gives us much to consider, my fellow shepherds. In Malachi 2:1-9, the Lord indicates that He expects His ministers to embrace two primary commitments. This was true for priests in Malachi’s day. This is also true for us as well. This is our fiduciary responsibility.

A Minister Must Value the Glory of God (Malachi 2:1-3)

What was the priest’s primary responsibility in Israel? We often think that the priests were to offer sacrifices to God. Actually, this was secondary. What the Lord wanted first and foremost from priests was honor. This is what Malachi reminded the priests in his day in Malachi 2:1-2:

“And now, O priests, this command is for you. If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the LORD of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings.”

The Hebrew word for “honor” (kabod) speaks of “weight, reputation, and importance.” The priests in Malachi’s day were to lead the people in recognizing the sheer gravity of the presence of God. The Lord God is holy, separate, unique, and thus worthy of adoration and worship.

But the priests did the opposite. They defiled the glory of God. Malachi says the problem started in their hearts, where they developed a careless, flippant mindset regarding worship. Then it showed up in their demeaning religious actions, as they offered lame and sick animals on the altar.

Pastors, I wonder what Malachi would say to us regarding our ministries. Without question, he would remind us that what matters most is the glory of God. This is why the saints are to gather on the Lord’s Day—not so they can hear a good sermon from us, or be encouraged by the music we select, or enriched by the fellowship. The saints gather so that they might give God glory.

This is our primary assignment, fellow pastors. We are to honor the Lord personally and lead His people corporately in this pursuit. Is fellowship important? Certainly. Is good preaching? Indeed. Vibrant music? Yes, as much as possible. But what our people need most from us is a vertical, God-exalting focus.

Think of it this way: If my aim as a pastor is to make people feel good about themselves (or feel good about me), I have failed them miserably. My calling is to help people take their eyes off of themselves (and certainly off of me) and fix them firmly on God. Our ministries must be God-focused, God-exalting, and God-glorifying.

What produces this vertical focus? Malachi tells us in the next paragraph.

A Minister Must Value the Word of God (Malachi 2:4-9)

In verses 4-7, Malachi contrasts the corrupt priests of his day with the type of priest God intended when He first established Israel’s priesthood. Malachi points to Levi as Exhibit A of a God-pleasing minister. While most of us may not think of Levi as a model minister, Malachi did. In Malachi 2:4 the Lord refers to “my covenant with Levi.” In verse 5 He says, “My covenant with him was one of life and peace…a covenant of fear, and he feared me.” Then He says in verse 6, “True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips.”

Levi shows us that God’s kind of minister values the Word of God, and he does so in two ways. First, he values God’s Word in his personal life. The Lord gives an interesting assessment of Levi, saying, “He feared me.” What produced this fear of God in the heart of Levi? According to Malachi, the truth of God produced this fear.

What was true of Levi should be true of the contemporary minister. He too should fear God and demonstrate an intense loyalty to the truth of God. This is what our people need to see in us, fellow shepherds. They must know without question that our personal lives are shaped by the fear of God and the truth of God.

Secondly, the commended minister values God’s Word in his pastoral life. According to Malachi, he does so in three ways as explained in verses 6-7:

1. He speaks the truth.
2. He lives the truth.
3. He leads others towards the truth.

In verse 6, we are told this regarding Levi: “The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips.” This is what comes out of a commended minister’s mouth. He speaks the Torah, the truth of God. Malachi takes this a step further in verse 7, saying, “For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge.” The minister isn’t to be novel, clever, or innovative. His assignment is to speak God’s truth clearly.

But not just speak it. Verse 6 takes it a step further: “He walked with me in peace and uprightness.” Speaking truth, though necessary, isn’t enough. God’s kind of minister must do more than talk truth. He must model truth.

To what end? Malachi identifies the objective at the end of verse 6: “He turned many away from iniquity.” This is the result of spending time in the presence of God’s kind of minister. This is the effect of his ministry. He helps us turn from iniquity, and by implication, turn towards righteousness.

What energizes this kind of minister? Malachi addresses this vital question pointedly in verse 7: “For he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.” As has been said, God’s kind of minister lives to please an audience of One.

If Malachi was alive today

I’m convinced that if Malachi was alive today, he would remind us of Levi and say, “Ministers! Stop trying to be cutting edge. What your people need to see is the glory of God, and what they need to hear is the Word of God. So tell them what God has said in His Book. And show them the life-transforming power of the Book by your reverent life.”

I can’t tell you how many times in the past four decades of ministry that I have found myself thinking about Pastor Dernlan. He was my pastor in high school and college. To this day I ask myself, “What would Pastor Dernlan do?” It wasn’t just his preaching that God used for my good. It was his life too, all by grace.

This is basic, yet vital. If we want to be used by God as ministers, our people must both hear the truth from us and see it in us. And this leads me to an honest confession. I cannot fulfill my fiduciary responsibility in my own strength. I need the Living God to do an ongoing work in me and then through me, as do you. And He promises to do just that, if we will ask. This is why prayer is essential for the minister. We must pray fervently for the Lord to do what He alone can do through the ministry of His Word in His church, change lives for the glory of His name.

A ministerial action plan for the next three minutes

1. Spend one minute pondering the word “fiduciary”. What implications come to mind for your life and ministry?

2. If you feel overwhelmed as you consider your fiduciary responsibility (and we should), spend two minutes meditating on these encouraging words from 2 Corinthians 3:5-6. “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant.”

©2025 Brad Brandt. All rights reserved. Used with permission.