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About Jesus Steve Sweetman My Journey Through The Ecclesiastical Maze Part 21 Lead,
Follow, Or Get Out Of The Way When
examining the ecclesiastical maze we need to think about submitting to
church leadership, or “submission
and authority” as it’s often called. It’s
been a topic of debate for centuries, but came to the forefront again in
the Shepherding Movement of the 1970’s.
As I write, one church I know of just
split in half because of dominating
leadership. This particular
church is part of a present day Apostolic Movement which I will talk
about later. Hebrews
13:17 in the NIV reads, “obey your leaders and submit to their
authority…” You see the
words “submit and authority” here, thus the reason for the
teaching’s name. The KJV
reads, “obey those who have the rule over you and submit
yourselves…” The words
submit, authority, and rule sound pretty harsh to our modern ears, but
are they as harsh as they sound? If
you want to understand any Biblical subject you need to do more than a
word study and looking up the meaning of Greek words.
To be good Biblical students, you must understand statements in
the context in which they were written.
This context goes beyond the paragraph and book you find the
statement in. It goes to
what the rest of the Bible says on the subject.
It also goes to the lifestyle of the one making the statement.
For example, if Paul says “obey your leaders”, we must look
at Paul’s life and see how he worked such a statement out in practical
situations. Once you have
done all of these things, you’ll have a good understanding of what
submission and authority is all about.
If
you simply take Hebrews 13:17 as it appears to read, I can see how
someone might possibly believe in unquestioned obedience to leadership.
Such leadership style is dictatorial, and if that’s your
understanding of Hebrews 13:17, you’ve got the wrong approach to
leading God’s people. Notice
I said “God’s people”. Despite
popular opinion, pastors don’t have their own people.
I often hear pastors speak about their congregation as being
“their people”, but that’s not Biblical.
Those people belong to God, not to a pastor.
One
basic tenet in the submission and authority teaching is that “you
submit to a leader because he holds the office of a leader”.
I’ll show why this isn’t New Testament thinking. Let
me say this first. The words
“office of pastor” comes from a poor translation of
1 Timothy 3:1 in the King James Bible.
The verse reads, “he that desires the office of a bishop
desires a good thing”. The
word “office” is not found in the original text. It
was added to the English text based on a cultural understanding of
church leadership that isn’t New Testament thinking.
The Bible doesn’t view church leadership in terms of a position
held or an office. One is
not a pastor because he holds the office of pastor.
One is a pastor when he cares for God’s people in accordance
with the Bible. As
an aside, it always bothers me when pastors insist on people calling
them “pastor Bob”, “pastor
Steve”, or “pastor whoever”. Such titles only enhance the idea of
“office” and elevates the pastor over others in a special place of
authority, when in fact the pastor should be seen as a servant.
I’d suggest all pastors be humble enough to encourage people to
call them by their first name. Jesus
pointed out that the Pharisees insisted on being called “rabbi”,
which He considered self-centered and prideful.
(Matthew 23:7)
Before
looking further at Hebrews 13:17 we need a grammar lesson.
The word “leaders” in this verse is a noun, but in the
original text there is no corresponding noun.
A noun is a person, place or thing.
What is found in the original text is a participle.
When you combine a noun with a verb, you get a participle.
So a participle is
more than a person, place or thing.
It’s a person place or thing that is actually doing something,
thus emphasizing an “action”. In
this case the action is “leading”.
Most of us would probably prefer being a noun over a verb because
it’s easier just being someone instead of actually doing something.
When it comes to leading, it’s easier having the title of
leader than actually doing the proper job of leading.
With
this in mind my translation of Hebrews 13:17 is, “obey the ones who
are leading”. This is
confirmed by the R. S. V. Interlinear New Testament.
My point is we are to obey “the ones who are actually
leading”, and I add, leading according to Biblical teaching.
We do not obey a leader merely because he holds the office of
leader or has a name tag calling him a leader.
The proper action of leading takes preeminence over the office.
Therefore, if a pastor is not leading in the way Scripture
teaches, he is not a New Testament pastor, and you don’t submit to
him. It’s that simple.
Authoritarian
or dictatorial leadership usually is seen in a church with one man as
leader. You can’t get away
with being a dictator in a group of co-leaders so easily.
That’s one reason why the New Testament speaks in terms of
leaders, not just a leader. You
will notice in Hebrews 13:17 the writer uses the plural “ones
leading”. Now
we take the next step to see what submission and authority means when
you look at the apostle Paul’s life.
It’s clear that Paul lived the life of a servant, meaning he
didn’t view himself in an elevated place of authority over others.
Without quoting them, there are many verses to support this.
With
this in mind, it’s a little ironic that in the Shepherding Movement we
viewed people as being under us or over us, and the closer one was to
the top of the authority chain, the better we felt about ourselves.
If
you read second Corinthians seriously you’ll see how Paul viewed
himself as a leader. I’ll
quote a few statements from Paul that shed light on the subject.
Paul spoke from a place of humility as seen in 2 Corinthians 1:8.
He says, “we were under
great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired
even of life”. That
doesn’t sound like a guy living “high on the hog” as a dictator.
He continued by saying, “ I call God as my witness … not that
we lord it over your faith but we work with you for your joy”.
Paul didn’t demand unquestioned submission. Besides,
Jesus told us not to lord it over others. (Matthew 20:25, 26) Paul
uses the word “obedience” in 2 Corinthians 2:9 when he said, “I
wrote to you to see if you could stand the test and be obedient”.
The obedience he spoke of here is in relation to forgiveness, a
teaching of Jesus. The
obedience here is to Jesus, not to Paul. Paul
didn’t have the mentality that said, “obey me or move on”, as I
have heard in the past few years by some.
He said, “we …
have opened wide our hearts to you.
We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are
withholding yours from us”. Paul
loved the Corinthians. He
didn’t “release” these people from his authority as some practice
today. He also didn’t tell
them to move on. Here
are a few more of Paul’s statements from second Corinthians that show
he didn’t exercise dictatorial rule.
You can draw your own conclusions.
“We have such a place in our hearts that we would live or die
for you”. “I
appeal to you … I beg you”. (chapter 10:1, 2) “I
boast freely of the authority the Lord gave us to build you up”.
(chapter 10:8) “I will
very gladly spend for you everything I have, and expend myself as
well”. (chapter 12:15)
None of these words sounds like they were spoken by a
leader who demanded strict obedience to himself.
It’s
clear to me that Paul’s way of living shows us clearly how he thought
about Hebrews 13:17 and submission and authority.
Paul didn’t demand submission from a place of dictatorial
authority. Yes, he did
demand submission, but the submission was to Jesus, not to himself.
It’s thus clear to me that Hebrews 13:17 should not be
understood in a dictatorial way. It’s
not as harsh as it sounds upon first reading.
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