New Thoughts: (04/14/23-04/17/23)
As Paul moves on from the subject of the Last Day, attention quite
rightly turns to instruction as to the current day. If we are not to
simply let go of this life in disregard for it, how are we to live in
this expectant hope of salvation? And that necessarily turns on the
matter of relationship. The next several verses touch on the various
relationships that come about in the life of the Christian, the life of
the Church, and it begins with our relation to those we might say are at
the top of the org chart. It’s probably not the best idea to bring that
sort of corporate lingo into the discussion because it’s likely to shift
our thinking to that which befits the corporate setting, and what befits
the corporate setting is not the model we are to have for the corporate
life of the Church. We have ministers and elders, not CEOs and managers
Not where I’d thought to start this morning, but as the point is made,
I suppose I should pursue it a bit. We have this tendency in us to
assess our experiences in one area of life by what we know from other
areas. When we encounter something new and out of the ordinary, it is
in our nature to seek through our memories for nearest approximations.
We are catalogers by nature. We need to figure out where this new thing
fits in our scheme of categories. And so we come to Christianity,
bringing with us all the sundry experiences of life up to this point,
and our first reaction to this new phenomena of faith is to try and fit
it into the mold of existing knowledge. And it just doesn’t fit. It
won’t. It can’t. This is something completely other, a new category of
life never before experienced, even if somewhere deep down inside we’ve
had the sense of such things. We have perhaps noticed that something
was missing, known there must be a higher purpose to the business of
life, but here is our first encounter with that higher purpose, a higher
Being, and He just doesn’t align with our experiences to date. We shall
have to learn much that is new, and that inevitably means we shall have
to unlearn much we thought settled and certain. Oh dear.
Well, one major point that we need to unlearn is how governance works.
That does not mean we need to simply shrug off civil governance, dismiss
those who rule the nation as having no say over us. It does, however,
mean that when we look to those who have been given charge of our
spiritual development, civil government is not what we look to as
providing our categories. The corporate boardroom is no better a
choice. That is not to say that those who govern the church should have
no concern for the economics required to maintain the staff and
facilities. But it does mean that these financial, material concerns
are at best secondary. No, we’re not given permit to underpay our
workers any more than we are called to build magnificent edifices with
every luxury and extravagance, while we lose sight of heaven. We are
called to be good stewards of that with which God has entrusted us. And
that applies top to bottom, throughout this collective body we call the
Church. So, Paul begins with consideration of those who have been
entrusted with the work of leading the local body, and how that local
body ought to relate to them.
That instruction begins with a call to know them. Translations vary
widely in how this point is presented. The NASB, among many others,
opts for appreciate them. Others try respect them, or acknowledge
them. Recognize them. What is most curious to me is where Mr. Clarke
arrived at the belief that the term used here was ginooskoo.
I can find no basis for that statement. It is to know, but it is a form
of eido that appears in the text, not ginosko, and that puts us into a much different
place for interpretation. Eido quite naturally moves us into the realm
of the senses. It is the same term used of seeing, perceiving, although
in a slightly different form of the word. It is knowledge gained from
what the senses report. We might, then, suggest that the call here is
to get the real sense of these who are laboring so hard to give you
instruction in the Lord, and to provide you with true and godly
guidance. If you will but see them for what they are doing and why,
then you will have every reason to appreciate them, to honor them, and
to truly love them for what they have taken up as their task in life.
Looking at this previously, I noted that there is a connection here, in
this call to know and appreciate those who provide guidance and
instruction in the Church and the call upon them to be hospitable.
Hospitality has far more to supply to the life of the church than a
chance to enjoy a meal together, and chat about inconsequentialities.
That is our custom, assuredly, and again, something we pick up from life
in general and then sort of assume that the hospitality commanded of the
Church must look the same. Oh! We’ll have a potluck. We can all hang
out and play games, enjoy a picnic, or what have you. And there’s
nothing particularly wrong with those pursuits, but the call is higher.
These are occasions to really get to know one another, and most
importantly, to discover God’s work in each other. If this is not where
things are going in our get togethers, then we have not as yet pursued
hospitality. We’ve been stuck on the level of entertaining ourselves.
It kind of puts me in mind of those love feasts in Corinth, which,
while done in the ostensible pursuit of Christian fellowship and unity,
in fact proved entirely counter-productive. All the right components
were there, and yes, people were gathered, but the focus remained on
eating and drinking, with the added component of establishing a pecking
order. Oh, look at him, sitting with the elders. Oh, who is pastor
favoring with his company today? Why does nobody ever sit with that
couple? Is there something we should know? Human nature pollutes the
effort and we are left with nothing of godliness to the whole affair.
It doesn’t have to be that way. It may be that the scale of such
events makes that sort of outcome almost inevitable. The call on the
elder is not to host gala events, but to be hospitable. And honestly,
it’s not just on them to be so. It’s on all of us. Our homes should be
open to one another. We should be open to one
another. And frankly, I think nothing is more foreign and downright
frightening to us than that. How often have you been to somebody’s home
only to hear them apologize for the state of their house. Who cares? I
didn’t come to do an inspection of the premises. Or, how well do you
suppose you’d be received were you to just drop by so-and-so’s house and
knock. Would they welcome you in for tea, or would they be quick with
excuses for why they really can’t visit just now? There have been times
when I would venture to do just that, just swing by on the off chance.
But in general, we tend to be too busy with living to truly live
So, I endeavor to be available to those who may drop by in my life, and
I would be lying if I said it was not a struggle. As our daughter has
moved cross country, I am likely to receive texts at odd hours in the
day, and it probably isn’t going to be a convenient moment. I do have
to work, after all, and her hours are shifted from mine such that her
free moments are likely to either be at busy moments of the workday, or
at moments when I’m thinking of little more than crawling into bed. My
days, after all, start much earlier than most folks would consider
healthy or wise, let alone necessary. But the body wakes up, and here I
am. Today has been relatively late, by my standards. The point,
though, is that when she connects, I wish to be as available as I can
possibly be to hear, to share, to connect to the degree we can connect.
And I would have to observe, at this point, the significant challenge I
am having in applying this same attitude to my beloved wife, with whom I
share these facilities all day every day. Somehow, the nearness and the
availability translate as grant to put off for later. Can’t you see I’m
working? Don’t you see I’m busy? What’s so urgent that it can’t wait?
Oh dear. And it’s been much harder of late, as she has been pursuing
this crazy long period of fasting. Truth be told, it puts me too much
in mind of the passing of my father last year, and leads to concerns
that her time may be short as well. No, she doesn’t see it that way,
and honestly, my reaction to such thinking is hardly the stuff of godly
leadership. But concern does weird things in a person, and the looming
sense of loss, on my part, tends to lead to starting the process of
separation early. Call it preparation or conditioning or something.
Call it stupid. It almost certainly is. And it does not make for a
caring and compassionate husband, rather nearer a wounded animal on
defense. This is quite the opposite of hospitality.
HELP! Lord, the call here is clear to me. It has
little enough to do with the immediate subject matter of this verse,
but it has much to do with my present day to day exercise of being
Yours. How am I to minister to this situation, Father? I have
nothing in myself to offer, and what advice I might give is, as You
well know, not going to be received at all. If indeed my love has
such direct line to Your headquarters as she believes, then I pray You
give her the wisdom and the strength to deal with the physical
stresses she has put upon herself. If in fact this is Your doing, and
Your direction given her, then let us both abide in the peace of
knowing You have things in hand, however much the evidence suggests
otherwise. If You are in fact calling her home, which is not
impossible, certainly, then let us be at peace with that, and love one
another to the end. But if there is that which I can and should be
doing, those acts of love that Love demands, please, would You help me
to set aside these concerns of self-preservation, and give what is
needed. I am well beyond the point of being out of my depth here.
Yes, I am angry, because it seems to me a self-inflicted wounding, and
does not appear to me to have come at Your direction, however much it
is claimed otherwise. Where I am wrong, correct me, for I am surely
in need of correction. And I would beg You please to have mercy upon
this woman, and to supply not merely the physical healing that is her
present felt need, but a true and deep spiritual healing. If she is
being misguided in such things, break her free of it. It is clear
enough to me that I cannot. So I shall have, once more, to entrust
her to You. And that is surely wise. Help us, oh faithful Shepherd.
The need is great in both of us.
It’s interesting, isn’t it, that this is not so much a call upon the
elders and pastors to be hospitable as it is a call upon us to enter
into their hospitality. Get to know them, really know them. That
doesn’t mean that we get all up in their business and become nosy
busybodies. Obviously, this will not answer. But we have opportunity
to see these men and women in action, to observe how they seek to
faithfully fulfill the duties given them. In these alone we see
something of their character. I could argue that we don’t see enough,
that the few hours we may spend in near proximity week to week are
insufficient to really get the measure of the man. Having served as an
elder for a season, I can say that certainly holds true from the
perspective of those in the office. However hard they labor, however
much they may seek to know those they shepherd, there is only so much
time in the day, and one can only really get to know another to the
degree they allow themselves to be known.
But observe that Paul expressly tells us to know them by their work
among us. This isn’t a call to make it a point to have dinner with them
weekly, to invite them to some fun day you are having. It’s not about
socializing at all, really. It’s about recognizing just how much they
are giving of themselves to this work of shepherding God’s church. This
should tell you quite a bit about what they are really like. This
should give you a sense of the man, that he would take upon himself the
weight of this office, and trust me, it is a significant weight. And if
we have done our due diligence in serving our Lord in seeking His choice
as to who shall serve, then we should know well enough how deserving of
our appreciation and esteem these leaders truly are. So, notice them.
I don’t mean simply that we should acknowledge how they have been of aid
to us personally. We are not the measure. But see how they have cared
for this flock. See the sacrifice they are making to do so. It is not
insignificant. It can seem so. We are not given, generally, to know
the details, nor should we be. There is much that goes on in
shepherding the sheep that the sheep, if they are well served, shall
remain ignorant of. There is much that the shepherd simply cannot speak
about as to what has been required of them to do. But they bear it, one
hopes, with grace, with patience, with no overweening pride of office.
So, yes. It’s about the work that is being done, not the man who is
doing it. That which they are called to do, as Barnes observes, can
only do good so long as it is rightly done. The work of the shepherd, “injures
no man, but contributes to the happiness of all.” That is
certainly so within the church, but it is true as well in the world
outside the church. There, too, the work they are doing promotes good,
and only good. And for those blessed with the leadership of sound
pastors and elders, they are well-served as concerns the world to come,
in which they shall know eternal blessedness, and shall, one suspects,
know cause for eternal gratefulness to these servants of our Lord. As
to those servants, I would have to concur with Barnes. “A man
who sincerely devotes himself to such a work has a claim on the kind
regards of his fellow-men.” That may seem self-serving coming
from a pastor, but it is not. It is simply acknowledging realities.
Part of our challenge in heeding this instruction comes, I think, from
losing sight of just how much we have needed training, and continue to
do so. Most of us would recognize a time in our developing life as a
Christian when we were quite clearly in need of training. It would only
be the more true for those who, like these Thessalonians, were not
life-long Christians, but came to faith from out of a lifetime of
worldliness. I think I have said already that we face this challenge of
experiences, of ways of thinking and being that really don’t have any
proper alignment to past experience. We need training to this Way. We
needed it at the outset of our Christian experience, and if we will but
look honestly at ourselves, we must see that the need is no less,
really. The problem is that as we learn, we may tend toward a mindset
that thinks, “Now I have learned. Now I am fit to teach.”
Perhaps you are – in some aspects of this Christian life. But I will
guarantee you that there remain vast swaths in which you and I both
remain, even abide in need of such training. This growth of spirit and
character is not, after all, something in which we eventually reach
perfection and can just glide thereafter. No! It has not yet appeared
what we shall be. Nor shall it appear until that day we have been
contemplating of late, when we stand before Him and see Him as He truly
is, having been made – by Him – to be like Him, truly like Him. Does
this mean that we, too, shall be God, with the same unbounded power and
knowledge? I don’t think so, no. But as concerns holiness, which is
really what matters, apparently we shall be, for He Who is perfectly and
infinitely Holy cannot and shall not abide the least vestiges of sin in
His presence. Sin must flee from perfect Holiness.
Where do we obtain this training? Some would insist that, “me
and my Bible,” are enough. Doesn’t John say, after all, that
we are in need of no man to teach us, given we have the Spirit to
teach? Of course, in doing so, John is a man teaching us. So, clearly
this is not an outright rejection of the teaching offices. How could it
be? “God gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as
evangelists, some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the
saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of
Christ” (Eph 4:11-12). What? Do you think the
Ephesian church lacked the indwelling Spirit? I think not! No, some
are given to the church, to those who are the called.
And they are given from among the church of the called. They are one of
the spiritual gifts given her that she may indeed grow and prosper in
the Spirit and in faith.
So, when we are blessed with those who indeed give great effort to
pastor and to teach, these being the most often encountered offices from
that list, we have every reason to love them for the work they are
doing. For it can be a rather thankless work, at least as concerns the
response of those for whom the work is done. No, it is not thankless as
regards our Lord, for He shall reward each man according to his work.
We might do well to consider that a large part of our work consists in
how we receive and honor these workers, and heed that which they are
saying by way of godly instruction. But love and appreciate these
teachers, these pastors. For, as the Wycliffe Translators Commentary
notes, “The task of maintaining and strengthening the believers
is worthy of respect in itself.”
And this is not a labor to be undertaken with an eye to personal gain.
If there is out there some pastor who has taken up this office with
thoughts of having a relatively easy life, and being given a degree of
prestigious honor, he is going to be sorely disappointed, I think.
Else, he is going to be such as finds a church full of dupes of which he
can take advantage. That is not improbable, certainly. We see it all
around, as churches employ so-called pastors who have no love for the
God Who Is. It’s there in spades with the prosperity gospel, with the
name it and claim it adherents. It’s there, I hate to say, in all of
us, if only in latent form. And it takes a true shepherd, a true man of
God serving according to God’s appointing, to train us out of such
thinking, to turn us to serious pursuit of faith, and to a love of God
as He reveals Himself, not as we might fashion Him to be were it up to
us.
And so, as Calvin observes, “It is not so much for the advantage
of ministers as of the whole Church, that those who faithfully preside
over it should be held in esteem.” Note the condition placed
on this: Those who faithfully preside. This is not
a blanket, eyes-closed, trust in whoever happens along in that role. It
is an esteem earned by faithful pursuit of the duties assigned. And for
those so assigned to duty, understand the awesome responsibility that
has been set upon their shoulders. Recognize that they who serve
faithfully understand that weight of responsibility only too well. And,
as the season for selecting elders rolls around again, recognize this,
too: However fluent the man may be in matters of word and doctrine,
this alone is not guarantee of fitness for such an office. One can be
confident of his understanding of sound doctrine, and even correct in
that understanding, and yet be of such a nature as lacks entirely in
having his character and demeanor shaped by sound doctrine. One can
know full well and yet fail to live it. It seems as though this ought
not to be possible, but even the most cursory examination of ourselves
would surely turn up evidence from our own development that proves it
true. We know and yet we do not do. And we do things which we know
full well are wrong. We know, each one of us, that agony which Paul
gave expression to in Romans. I see my members waging
war against my mind. I see myself a prisoner of the law of sin in my
members. What a wretch I am! Who will set me free from this body of
death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! In faith, I see
then, that on the one hand my mind, my character is given to serving the
law of God, but at the same time, my flesh remains bound to the law of
sin. But, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who
are in Christ Jesus” (Ro 7:23-8:1).
We are a mess. And if we have lost sight of that truth, we have not
done ourselves any favors. That doesn’t mean we wallow in it, and it
certainly doesn’t mean we just give up and let our sinful flesh have its
way. But it does mean we remain aware of our continued great need for
Christ, and in that need, our great need for those who faithfully serve
Him in this task of training, of equipping, of admonishing. And seeing
their work, done on our thankless behalf, we shall find great cause to
esteem them for what they have done, in spite of us.
I am somewhat rehashing thoughts explored previously, but I don’t see
any great harm in doing so. We have this terrible tendency to measure
our pastors on their capacity to tell us something new. There is
something in us that longs for novelty. We want to hear new songs in
worship, to hear new truths picked out of the Scriptures. This gets to
be more of a problem as we gain in years spent in church. Some of us
simply don’t like reruns, so when we learn that the preaching is going
to be on this book again, or that the worship team is
playing that song again, we may tend to tune out. We
can run that risk coming back to a book we have spent time studying. Oh
yes, I already covered this.
I can feel it somewhat as I do these readings for our men’s group.
This week, it happens that the reading assignments are mostly in 1Peter,
and it’s easy to fall into just skimming the text, and recalling points
that struck me when I was studying that book as I am now studying this
one. But God’s Word is surely rich enough, and our attention span small
enough, that a fresh reading, now with a few more years of experience
and, hopefully, growth, one might yet see things here that had not
really hit home before, or if they had, that we have since managed to
forget. But it’s not fresh revelation that’s needed. It’s not
novelty. Even as Peter himself says in this letter (or perhaps it’s the
other one), we are always in need of reminding. We need refreshers on
what we already know, because we are a forgetful people.
Somehow, we know this holds in the course of our day to day living, but
we think it has lost application when it comes to our life of faith.
But we have the Spirit to remind us, right? Well yes. And why do you
suppose He needs to remind you? Have you forgotten? And, for all that,
why do you suppose that His efforts in reminding you must somehow skip
past these men appointed for the very purpose of reminding you? He
appointed them, after all. Did you forget that, too? Oh, you had your
vote. This is a congregational church, after all. And perhaps you’ve
forgotten so much that you think the fact that you voted, as did your
fellow congregants, means God had no hand in it at all. Well, if you
think that, I should think it a very clear marker that you need some
serious reminding. And here, in these men called by God to take up the
weight of office, are those who, by His grace, are equipped precisely to
that end.
So, we have our call here, to not merely accept, nor even to simply
support, but to truly honor and love these whom God has seen fit to see
to our care and nurture. It’s not really a part of this brief passage,
but part of that loving honor consists in being slow to receive a
negative report as concerns our leadership. This is not a turning of
blind eyes upon those who abuse their office as cover for sin. Neither
is it a call to tolerate those who take up the title without taking up
the responsibilities entailed. But to those who earnestly labor? They
more than earn this consideration from us. Many suppose themselves
wiser. Many suppose they know the right way to address this issue or
that, and without full knowledge of the facts decide that the elders or
the pastor are failing to address things as they should, or that those
things which they have addressed, they have done with less of godliness
to their decisions. But the truth is, you don’t know. Neither, in most
cases, are your elders in any position to lay all the facts and
deliberations before you to satisfy your curiosity. There are matters
of privacy, matters of preserving dignity even as we deal with sin. And
this so very often leaves the elder unable to defend himself against
false accusations and misunderstandings. And yet, they labor on, and
they labor diligently.
The sense here is of intense labor, exhausting labor, and while it may
not be of a manual sort, I can assure you it truly is exhausting. These
are weighty matters that must be dealt with, for it’s not mere issues of
civil dispute, but concerns of an eternal nature, matters of soul. So,
no, don’t be foxes in the Lord’s fields, spreading ruin in your wake.
And if such has been your propensity, repent. These are laborers,
whether you see or understand their labors or not, and they are working
hard to comfort, instruct and edify those they serve in this house.
Every one of them understands this. As Calvin notes, they have been
called not as loiterers but as laborers working hard. This being the
case, the very nature of their work on our behalf should be more than
sufficient cause for our esteem.
And note well that Paul’s call here is to such a superabundance of
esteem for them that even the normal word for superabundance won’t
satisfy him. Give them all honor, for they are worthy of it. Honor
them for what the Lord has chosen to do through them. Honor them
knowing that in doing so you honor your Lord who appointed them. Honor
them because it is well-deserved, and, as was observed earlier, this is
to the benefit of the Church. The Church is thus doubly benefited. It
benefits already from the work that such laborers do on behalf of the
body. And knowing that they are rightly esteemed for seeing to their
duties gives them greater energy in which to labor the more. There is a
corollary, of course. Those who feel themselves unrecognized for what
they have been doing on behalf of the flock will tend, being only human
after all, to slacken their efforts, to skate by on the minimum. And
how shall that ever be of benefit to the Church? No! Recognize the
sacrifice involved in accepting this service role, whether as lifetime
vocation as a pastor or for but a season as an elder.
And again, honor alone is not enough. We see here that love and honor
are firmly, indivisibly connected. If indeed you hold them in due
honor, there will be love for them, that peculiar, beneficent agape love
which is in us of that love which God has shown to us. He loved us when
we were yet His enemies. I might observe that these officers of the
Church often find it needful to likewise love those who have set
themselves as opposed to said officers. They have loved sacrificially,
perhaps not laying down their lives for the sheep as yet, but certainly
laying aside a significant portion of the normal prerogatives of life.
They are on call always. They are serving as models of sound Christian
character always, to the best of their abilities, and I dare say in
Christ, even beyond their abilities.
Part of the call to love these servants of our Lord is certainly to be
found in seeing that they are well provided for. Look. The pastoral
ministry is never going to be a path to riches, if it is pursued with
heavenward direction. The pastor who has grown wealthy from his
ministry is not likely to be found to have been a true pastor, a true
servant, seeing to the needs of his fellow servants. But the pastor who
is kept in want of necessary provision, who must wonder daily whether he
can properly provide for his family, cannot but be distracted from his
official duties by such needs.
This morning I find myself rather distracted in my own turn, having
spent most of the night at the ER seeing my wife admitted. And I praise
God that she has been, and that in spite of her preferences, she is
getting the care she truly needs, and getting better, rather than simply
insisting she is doing so in spite of the evidence. I do continue to
pray, Father, that You will superintend those who are seeing to her
care, that they may cause her no undue stress, but may simply see to
those things needful to her healing and restoration. And thank You,
again, for hearing my cries, knowing my concerns, and doing what was
necessary to bring this to pass. All honor is due You, and let us in
turn honor those whom You have trained (whether they recognize Your
hand in it or not) to be of such benefit to the physical needs of Your
people.
Anyway, let us, to the extent it lies with us to do so, see to it that
those entrusted with our spiritual health are free of unwanted
distractions such that they may indeed focus on the work given them.
And let us seek, by our loving support and regard for them, to render
their labors less strenuous, more fruitful. Let us strive to see their
work as God’s work, to recognize that which God is doing in and through
them. And let us pray the more that they will indeed prove true and
diligent sub-shepherds of our Savior.
As perhaps a final note to this study, I would remind myself, and
whoever else might happen to read these thoughts of mine that what we
are about here is not some congeniality contest. It is well and good
that the pastor should have a winsome way, that his manner should be
gracious and gentle, yet with the sternness of a father where it is
needful. But as with a doctor, bedside manner is secondary to skillful
application of that which has been entrusted to them. I might prefer a
doctor with cheerful and humane ways of dealing with his charges. It
seems to me that in my experience, it’s been the nurses who are far and
away better in this regard. But a cheerful, friendly doctor who can’t
actually provide useful assistance, who cannot diagnose the illness and
see to its healing is of no use. On the other hand, be his manner ever
so gruff, that doctor who can actually bring about healing and
restoration of the body will prove most welcome. How much more the
pastor? Here is one addressing not matters of temporary pain and
illness, but matters of eternal import, matters of life and death on a
much grander scale than the hospital staff, generally speaking,
comprehend. That’s not to say there aren’t many good and faithful
Christians in the employ of the hospitals, but too many, perhaps, rely
solely on science and education, laying aside matters of spiritual
health. And many, no doubt, continue to follow the gods of their
cultures. But these are no more than idols, and if there is skill in
their hands to heal, it is because God, the Creator of all that is, has
seen fit to equip them with that skill.
I bounce back and forth, it seems, between this hospital experience,
and the life of the church. Well, they’re not all that dissimilar, are
they? One deals with the physical, and the other with the spiritual,
yet both deal with disease. And as I have been suggesting, those who
deal with the spiritual disease of sin in us, and who train us to ways
of righteousness, do a far greater work for the results of their
successful work with us last into eternity, long after this body,
however often repaired and rejuvenated, will have past back to the dust
whence it came. Honor such men. Give effort to appreciating them.
Observe their labors on your behalf, observe the earnestness of their
care over you, even if certain of their mannerisms perhaps come across
wrong, or simply don’t match your personality profile. It’s not about
finding mutual enjoyments. It’s about knowing God and enjoying Him
forever. That’s their focus, however it may come across. That should
be our focus, and when it is, no doubt we shall indeed find we have eyes
to see their value for its true worth, and to give them that loving
honor they so richly deserve.
