This coming Lord’s Day, we will be looking at Hebrews 13:17 and its call for people in the church to relate to their leaders. Too many pastors in evangelicalism use this verse to beat up people. I heard one pastor say that this verse means that the church is to obey her leaders “no ifs, ands or buts.” The only problem is that this verse comes with a context and language. For instance, in highlighting the work of these leaders as “oversight of souls”, the readers of Hebrews are mindful that this is an entire congregation job, as well (Hebrews 3:12-13, Hebrews 12:15) So, leaders aren’t to be obeyed or given a free pass on sin, having a hard heart, being proud, arrogant, or teaching false doctrine. But, they are to lead so persuasively with their lives and teaching that people would want to put their trust and confidence in them.
Along these lines, then, I am LOVING Tom Schreiner’s message at a recent SBTS chapel. It’s entitled, Shepherding God’s Flock from Acts 20:17-38. Around the 15:15 mark, here’s what he said:
“Pastors and teachers, I’m speaking to myself here too, we can become deeply unspiritual and selfish even while preaching on the importance of being godly. We must remember that everything that happens in the church and in the ministry is for our sanctification as well, as pastors, it’s for our holiness. I think there’s an amazing tool of the devil here: We can teach people how God uses trials to sanctify them and to make them holy and we can forget, amazingly, that the trials we’re receiving in our own church are meant for our holiness and our sanctification. Instead, we can begin to view the difficult people in our churches–and they’re there–we can begin to view them as opponents instead of loving them, instead of recognizing that God’s using them to make us more like Jesus…we may forget that we are sinners who need forgiveness everyday and we may inadvertently hold our people to a standard that we don’t match ourselves. We can become bitter about our flock, instead of loving them. We can get together and criticize our sheep, instead of caring for them. So, we need the grace of God everyday, don’t we? We need the Holy Spirit to love our flock the way God wants us to do so. We need to be quick to confess our own sins and our own shortcomings as pastors. We too stand in need of the wonderful grace of God.”
This is the kind of leader that is to be obeyed and submitted to in Hebrews 13:17. More to come on that response tomorrow…
