Biblical Eldership Church Leadership

Servant Leadership

what I have done to you? You call Me teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13:12 14). Here we see that the symbol of our Lord is the servant’s towel, not the cleric’s robe. If our beloved Teacher and Lord stooped in love to wash His disciples’ feet, then we should gladly stoop to minister to the needs and restoration of our fellow brothers and sisters. Only when we learn what it means to wash one another’s feet and clothe ourselves in humility will we have any hope of living together in peace and unity. JOHN 13:34,352 LOVE. The secret to a good eldership team, a healthy church, and all relationships with our brothers and sisters is Christ’s new commandment: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34,35).

Thus we are to love one another with the same intensity as Christ loved us.

THREE LESSONS

Our Lord’s repeated instruction on love, humility, and servanthood, teaches us three important lessons. First, God hates pride. In the list of seven sins that God especially hates, pride is at the top (Prov. 6:16 19). Proverbs says, “Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lor ” (Prov. 16:53). Those are strong words. The Scripture also says, “When pride comes, then comes dishonor, but with the humble is wisdom” (Prov. 11:2; italics added). James echoes a similar thought in his writings: “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 426). God hates pride so much that He gave Paul a thorn in the flesh to keep him from exalting himself and to force him to be dependent on his Creator (2 Cor. 1227-10). One of the awful things about pride is that it deceives us; we may

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