Sometimes a minister is tempted to travel too much, rather than attend fully and adequately to his church. All ministers must travel a little and visit other churches and preach. There must be some exchanging going on. But here and there you will find men who get a taste for this and makes a name for them, and they feel approved and wanted, and they go hither and thither. And their name in a region or community perhaps becomes more important than the church at home. It might that have been a problem with Archippus.
Or was it home building? He has grown up in wealthy home, was he tempted with his own home? Did he have fads and phases where he gave too much attention to the church extension or something like that? Or did he concentrate only on one aspect of the ministry, the teaching and neglect the evangelism and the young as well as the old. Did he attend to all the departments of the ministry?
Or was it that he was severely discouraged because all Christians let alone ministers will be attacked by Satan and know Satan’s darkest hour, and times when they are crushed by the temptations of Satan and drawn to despair and doubt, and there is a low patch. Was he discouraged? Did he need to take steps to ignore the suggestions of Satan, seek the strength of the Lord and redouble his efforts?
He needed to watch his time, he needed to watch the departments in the church. He needed to review his syllabus – was his teaching balanced? Was there evangelism and doctrine and exhortation and bringing glory to the Lord? Did he watch himself. He is an example to the flock. Is he most carefully watching his own conduct? Is he watching out for error and intruders and deviations? We have read about the Judaisers and all the others and the Gnostics who would come in and pollute the church. Was he a defender of the faith? So many departments to watch. You see it today, even in the ministry. There was a man who wrote a number of Christian books and very long ones while his church fell to pieces. He was not evangelising, he was distracted. Some ministers are chairmen of so many missionary societies and they travel to chair this and that important meeting and their churches have been at death’s door, with no increase.