Being Examples to the Flock

[Christsfreeservant]

“So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble’” (1 Peter 5:1-5 ESV).​

I have a question. How many of you reading this attend gatherings of the church where you know, without a doubt, that your pastors, elders, deacons, and Bible teachers are chosen by biblical criteria and not by a popular vote of the people, and not on the basis of personality and popularity? For, on the basis of what most appear to be teaching these days, it seems to me not many are being held to high biblical standards of conduct but are selected or voted in more on the basis of personality and winsomeness.

For the Scriptures have very strict spiritual qualifications for those who are to serve as elders, deacons, and overseers (includes pastors, shepherds). They are to be men above reproach, respectable, sober-minded, self-controlled, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent, not arrogant, not quick-tempered, not greedy for gain, upright, holy, and disciplined, etc. (not the complete list). And deacons have a slightly different list, perhaps. But they are all to be godly men living holy lives in obedience to the Lord.

[Titus 1:5-9; 1 Timothy 3:1-13; 1 Peter 5:1-4]

For, if the church overall were to seriously follow these requirements in the selecting of their spiritual leaders, the church, overall, would not be on the spiritual decline that it is on today. The church, as the body of Christ would be functioning spiritually as God intended, and they would be going out into the world with the truth of the gospel, and they would be turning hearts and lives away from living in sin to now living holy, morally pure, upright, honest, godly, and faithful lives, in practice, in obedience to the Lord Jesus.

Now, I am not being idealistic here. I don’t expect that, even then, that everyone is going to be perfect and that the body of Christ will from then on live in perfect unity with one another. Even the early church had issues, a lot of which were addressed in the epistles of the New Testament, which were largely letters to these churches giving them instructions in what they needed to put off and what they needed to put on, and in how they should be conducting their lives as followers of Jesus Christ.

But today? Wow!! The church in America has gotten so far away from what God intended his church, his bride to be. So many of these “shepherds” of the people are wolves in sheep’s clothing who masquerade themselves as servants of righteousness, but by what they teach, they are really serving the devil and his purposes. For so many of them are teaching an altered character of God/Christ, and an altered gospel, and an altered idea of what the church is and how she is to function as the body of Christ.

And they are leading so many people astray. For so many of them are, by what they teach, giving “believers” permission to continue in deliberate and habitual sin without conscience, so they don’t feel guilty for sinning. And if they should begin to feel guilt, many are being told to “just claim who you are in Christ,” which is a list composed by humans, some of it biblical, but often taken out of context and applied to people who legitimately and biblically are not truly “in Christ” by genuine God-given faith in him.

So, this passage in 1 Peter 5 is really what is needed today. But it starts off with addressing them as though they are true biblical elders, for they are “partakers in the glory that is going to be revealed.” So these are people who have been crucified with Christ in death to sin and who were raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. So, these are those who are living above reproach in obedience to the Lord and not in sin.

But they obviously were not perfect people, and so they needed these instructions so that they would become the kind of spiritual leaders in the church which God wanted them to be, and for the sake of the flock. Even though they were in positions of leadership and rulership over the flock, they were being instructed here to do so by godly example to the flock, by how they lived. They were to lead their flock by example and not with an iron fist, and not domineering tyrannically over those in their charge. Amen!

But this is never to mean that they can dilute and alter the commands of God and the word of God to make it more palatable and more appeasing to human flesh and to the ungodly of this world. This in no way is suggesting that they should reduce the holiness of God to something less, or that they should dilute the truth of the gospel to make it less offensive to the flesh. But they should be tenderhearted and compassionate and reasonable and men who are listening to and who are following God and not other men.

“Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’”​

Behold Our God

By Jonathan Baird / Meghan Baird / Ryan Baird / Stephen Altrogge

Who has held the oceans in his hands?
Who has numbered every grain of sand?
Kings and nations tremble at his voice
All creation rises to rejoice

Who has given counsel to the Lord?
Who can question any of his words?
Who can teach, the one who knows all things?
Who can fathom all his wondrous deeds?

Who has felt the nails upon his hands?
Bearing all the guilt of sinful man
God eternal, humbled to the grave
Jesus, Savior, risen now to reign

Behold our God, seated on his throne
Come, let us adore him
Behold our king, nothing can compare
Come, let us adore him

You will reign forever (let Your glory fill the Earth)

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