6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil.
Two very distinct things jump out at me in this verse. The first is that leadership can lead to judgment; it is not a road to guaranteed spiritual success. In fact leadership can be entered with the wrong motives. Not every in leadership is there for the right reasons. Many times leaders rise to leadership, not because God is calling them to leadership, but because they are trying to resolve in internal issue from their upbringing. Perhaps they did not make sufficient emotional connections with their parents and so they rise to leadership thinking they will finally get the emotional strokes they need. Of course leaders often get the pats on the back when things go well, but they also get the arrows when things go wrong. The problem with receiving pats on the back is the backwards nature of this kind of service. Unconsciously, they are serving to get the pats on the back, not for the growth and wellbeing of those being served. This is often the stance of young, usually immature leaders. They have an abundance of energy, but not the maturity to build for the long haul. They rise like a bottle rocket, only to fall just as rapidly. But their fall affects not only them, but those who have risen on the hot air they produced. Spiritual growth can be rapid, but more often looks like a long, gentle incline with a few large steps along the way. It is the day to day living out a relationship that builds spiritual maturity, not the rapid emotional bumps in the road. I have to laugh when I see the Eharmony commercials on TV. People who started a relationship only months before are presented as success stories. From someone who has been married for over 28 years, the first years of honeymoon are easy. The emotions that brought us together feel great, but don’t last a lifetime. Instead, they can get replaced with much deeper and more abiding emotions than lust and excitement. Don’t get me wrong, we still have lust and excitement, but we also have much more than that. When someone is raised up to leadership too soon, I am wary of their reactions to their first hard challenges, when the romance and excitement of leadership are not there and they must stick through the fight of relationship. That is why Paul warns against raising into leadership too rapidly. The second thing I see in this passage is a simple declaration. Judgment day is coming for Satan. He will have to give an account for his actions. This reinforces two facts: Satan exists and judgment is real, both of which are not popular topics of preaching and teaching today, but which are true none the less.
The Arnold Journey 