Biblical Eldership Church Leadership

Paul ’s Letters to the Churches

ESTEEM AND LOVE YOUR LEADERS

In verse 12, Paul appeals to the congregation to acknowledge all those who lead and admonish the body, and in verse 13 he appeals to the congregation to “esteem them very highly in love.” The magnitude to which the church is to esteem its leaders is expressed by the inten sive adverb “very highly,” which means “superabundantly” or “most exceedingly.” Biblical commentator George G. Findlay (1849-1919) speaks of this exuberant word as “the strongest intensive possible to the language. So deep and warm should be the affection uniting pas tors and their flocks.”ll Vlfilliam Hendriksen, founder and leading au thor of the New Testament Commentary series, adds this masteer com ment: “Note the piling up of prefixes in this word: the ocean of esteem having reached its outermost perimeter, reaches even higher and be gins to flow outward, overflowing its banks?”2 The church, then, has a divine obligation to highly esteem its spiritual leaders. God cares about how people treat those who are in authority. The Bible exhorts us not only to obey, but to honor our rulers (Rom. 13:7; 1 Peter 2217). When Paul, for example, realized he had spoken rudely to the high priest, Ananias, he apologized by saying, “I was not aware, brethren, that he was high priest; for it is written, ‘You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people’” (Acts 2325). If the disobedience and ingratitude of people toward their civil leaders concerns God deeply, imagine how much greater is His concern that His people properly honor their spiritual leaders! Our natural tendency is to take our leaders for granted, forget what they have done for us, complain rather than be thankful, accentuate the bad, and disregard the good. For example, God gave Israel some of the greatest leaders in human history—men like Moses and David. Yet during difficult times, the people were ready in a moment to stone both Moses and David. Due to our basic ingratitude and complaining spirit, the Scripture exhorts us to highly honor our spiritual leaders. To the injunction to “esteem them very highly,” Paul adds the beau tiful and comprehensive phrase, “in love.” We usually emphasize the importance of church shepherds loving the people, and that is neces sary, but here Paul turns the tables and charges the people to love their shepherds. To Paul, love is the divine glue that holds the leaders and congregation together through all the disagreements and hurts of con gregational life.

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