273. Elders

Peter exhorts the elders to shepherd the flock of God and to oversee it. He also exhorts the younger ones to submit themselves to the elders. 1 Pet. 5.

How often we have seen younger people rebelling against their elders to their own destruction. Here the term “younger” also includes those who are advanced in years but who have been converted later in life. Church elders have to meet rigorous conditions. They are to “shepherd the flock of God . . . not by compulsion, but willingly, not for dishonest gain, but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.”

When the Chief Shepherd appears, they will receive an “unfading crown of glory” for this unselfishness.

In situations where there are elders who really meet these conditions, and who watch over the souls for whom they have to give account, it is disastrous for younger ones to exalt themselves against them. Time and time again we have seen the terrible consequences of such behavior.

The lambs and the sheep need to be watched because they cannot look after themselves. That is why God places shepherds in the church to look after them. Peter was quite aware of these things.

Nonetheless there are younger people who say: “I do not care what people say; I live before God.” Despite this they need help from people time and time again and can never manage on their own. They even admit as much themselves when they have finally cooled down, and when the Spirit of God has come over them. God ordains men in the church as apostles, prophets, shepherds, and teachers, and these have an ear to hear. Moreover they have a mind to walk on the way so that no rivalry exists among them. However there are those who want to be something when actually they are nothing. When they, through the ministry of others, have received some light, they immediately imagine themselves to be teachers. These lords, who reign without us, of course need to be corrected. Otherwise everything will descend into chaos. When they are corrected, they immediately get offended because someone touches their “imagined greatness,” and then we can expect to hear one of these timeworn phrases: “l don’t care what people think.”

It is under such circumstances that the clay breaks and things fall apart. Fellowship is destroyed. Then lords like these “go out on their own.” Yet it will be manifest for everyone that they make no progress, because God is a righteous God.

Just as there were those who rejoiced for awhile in the light of John, so it is with people who rejoice in the light they have received through other brothers. Yet on the day when they choose to use that light to “become lords,” it gets pitch black for them. Suddenly they need someone (an angel, one in a thousand) to lead them out of this darkness. Once again they are in need of peoples’ help. However it requires great humility to receive the help that one previously had rejected.

Stop! Look! Listen! But don’t listen to Satan. It is the Spirit of God that will lead us into all truth.