Title: Words for Leaders
Contents
1. Words that begin
God created human beings as spiritual and physical beings with the potential to grow. Therefore, human beings have to constantly grow, not only physically, mentally, but also spiritually. There can be no greater blessing than meeting great parents and great leaders, in that constant education and training are absolutely necessary for this upbringing.
In that sense, the churches in Asia Minor who were being persecuted and persecuted under the rule of the old Romans were enjoying a very precious blessing. They met Peter, who preached and taught the gospel, the truth of eternal life, both verbally and in writing.
Peter is giving valuable counsel to the elders, the leaders of those churches.
2. Peter, one of the elders
To make his exhortation even more effective, Peter introduced himself, “I exhort the elders among you, that I am a fellow elder, a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker of the glory that will be revealed.”
The word “elder” was presbuterus (πρεσβυτ?ρου?), which originally meant “to grow old,” and therefore the true source of the elder's authority was age. Elder was a designation applied to elders, elders of a family, or head of a tribe, but later came to mean the position of a leader who maintained and represented the community.
The elders of the church were leaders who represented the church in a lower status than the apostles. The duties of the elders were to visit and pray for the sick, to give instruction and counsel, to devote themselves to teaching, to manage finances, and to control and care for the soul.
The reason Peter said “the elders together” was not because of his high posture as an apostle, but because he had to be in the position of the listener when giving exhortations or commands to get a good effect.
As he suffers for preaching Christ, he refers to identifying himself with the suffering elders and sharing in the glory of the Lord who will return as a result of that suffering.
3. Counsel to the Elders
Here is Peter's exhortation to the elders:
First, shepherd the flock of God, not out of necessity, but voluntarily according to the will of God.
Perhaps Peter was thinking of the command (John 21:15-17) of the resurrected Lord to “Feed my lambs, feed my sheep, and feed my sheep” on the shores of Tiberias.
Some elders complained that the pastor was very angry and complained that he referred to the members as “sheep” when he was preaching, and the pastor was in trouble.
After all, the idea of comparing God's chosen people to God's flock is deeply rooted in the Old and New Testaments.
What is being emphasized here is that the members of the church belong to God, not the elders and other church leaders. Leaders were merely tasked with feeding and shepherding God's flock.
However, some leaders tend to view the saints as their own, rather than God's. So, rather than nurturing mature Christians according to God's will, there is a serious problem of making them into their own people according to their own will.
At the gym inside Olympic Park, a strange spiritual leader meets occasionally, and wherever he meets, people follow him everywhere in the country. They abandon their parents, husbands, and children, and only follow the leaders' meetings. At that point, the disease is very serious.
All leaders, whether they are parents at home or leaders in the world, must do it voluntarily, not out of necessity, but according to God's will. Correct guidance is possible only when we follow the will of God, the Lord of all, and thus can bring benefit and virtue to many people. Leaders who act according to their own greed as if they were their own when dealing with their children and subordinates are bound to cause great unhappiness. Perhaps no one is more dangerous than a leader who does not know God.
Everyone, consider your children and those under guidance as the flock that God has entrusted to you, and nurture them entirely according to the will of God.
Second, do not do it for an unclean person, but do it with a cheerful will.
The “dirty one” here is aescrokerdos (α?σχροκερδ??), meaning a mean, shameful, or unjust income, or any such gain. And “pleasant meaning” is prothymos (πρθ?μω?), which means ‘without hesitation’, ‘without hesitation’, ‘willingness’, ‘ardently’, ‘with devoted enthusiasm’, etc.
Male and female college students were busy doing other things than studying in the library. They don't hold hands, don't hug each other, and even produce scenes that you can't really see with your eyes open. Unbearable, a decent student sitting next to me said something. “Hey, what kind of inn is the library!” Then another student next to him wiped the saliva from his mouth and got up and said, “Woo, can’t you sleep in the library?” (Kim Woong-rae)
There are many leaders who do not know what their seat is doing. One of the many problems in our society is that there are a lot of public officials who take too much of an unfair income or an unfair advantage. This phenomenon is not an open secret and everyone knows it, right? Officially announced salaries and bureaucratic expenses are obvious, but why do they have so much wealth? I don't know if it was a land trade... A clean leader is rather a world where people are treated like fools, so I don't know how the world works. Sometimes it feels like a person who lacks dignity as a leader, let alone pride as a human being. Isn't this all a national tragedy?
Moreover, it is common for people who are elders and world leaders of today's churches to represent the lay people to go up and down in newspapers and broadcasts while earning unjust income or undue profits, which obscures the glory of the Lord and causes great hindrance to the mission of the gospel. Even thinking about it makes me really sad. If that's the case, I wouldn't get the Hansako eldership...
Therefore, leaders, especially spiritual leaders, should not succumb to the temptations of illicit gain, but only rejoice in nurturing and caring for God's children. The writer of Hebrews tells the church members, “Be obedient to those who lead you and be submissive, for they watch for your souls as they are accountants. Let them do this with joy, and not with sorrow; otherwise It is of no benefit” (13:17).
So all leaders, including religious leaders, should be crazy about work, not money. When leaders work with dedicated zeal, they will believe, obey, and obey.
Third, do not insist on those entrusted to you, but only be an example to the flock. Do not use dictatorship, abuse and misuse of authority, and set an example through practical religious life. Jesus also said, “Jesus called his disciples, and said to them, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles have dominion over them, and their great men exercise authority over them, but it is not so among you. become,” he said.
True leadership's authority lies in serving with devotion and zeal.
4. Conclusion
A true leader recognized by God is a leader who makes people obey and obey. In order to become such a leader, we must volunteer according to God's will instead of being forced to do it, do it with devotion instead of doing it for illicit gain, and set an example instead of being dictatorial to those entrusted with it.
Please, I hope that all of us will become leaders recognized by God in our homes, churches, and societies and receive the crown of glory.
(Poongseong Methodist Church. Book: Complete Commentary on 27 New Testament Books/ Interpretation of Difficult Scriptures I, II/ Salvation Before Jesus Came/Paul’s Understanding of Man/ Prosperous Prayer/ Seasonal Sermonbooks/ Sermonbook 18. T. 426 -3051)