Biblical Eldership Church Leadership

Hebrews: Obey Your Leaders

Christian living (Rom. 16219; 2 Cor. 229; Phil. 2212; Philem. 21; 1 Peter 122,14). Submission is the fruit of genuine humility and faith. It is a mark of the Spirit-filled life (Eph. 5218-629). The Bible says, first and foremost, “Submit therefore to God. . .” (James 427a). True sub mission to God naturally expresses itself in obedience and submission to earthly authority. Thus genuine submission to God and His Word expresses itself in obedience and submission in the home, in marriage, at work, in society, and in the local assembly of believers. The effectiveness of any body of church leaders is measurably af fected by the response of the people they lead. People who are stub born and unsubmissive are unteachable and incapable of changing for their own good. Consider the nation of Israel: because of continual disobedience, the nation as a whole did not enter the Promised Land (Heb. 3:16-4:16). The same is true today. When God’s people act in dependently and in self-will, there is little growth, peace, or joy in the ministry of the local church. Only when believers properly submit to their spiritual leaders does the local church have any chance to be the growing, loving, joyous family God intends it to be. William Kelly admirably summarizes for us the importance of this subject when he writes: “Christ Himself led the way here below in this path of invari able and unswerving obedience. . .[believers] are only blessed as they walk in obedience and submission, instead of a vain clamor for their own rights, which if realized would be Satan’s slavery.”5 We should not overlook the fact that the inspired writer calls upon his readers to submit to a plurality of leaders. He doesn’t say, “obey your leader, and submit to him;” he says, “obey your leaders.” As we have observed throughout our study, a team of shepherd leaders, not one person, is responsible to guard the spiritual welfare of a local con gregation of believers. The Greek word for “leaders” used here is hégoumenoi, from the verb he‘geomai, which is a generic term like our English word leader. It can be used to describe military, political, or religious leaders. In the Greek Old Testament, he'goumenos was used to describe the heads of tribes (Deut. 5223), a commander of an army (Judg. 11211), the ruler of the nation Israel (2 Sam. 522; 728), a superintendent of the treasury (1 Chron. 26224), and the chief priest (2 Chron. 19211). In Acts, Silas and Judas are called “leading [hegoumenous] men among the breth ren” (Acts 15:22). In a paradoxical statement about leadership, Jesus says, “let him who is the greatest among you become as the youngest,

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