Pastoral Authority
PASTORAL AUTHORITY
Arthur W. Pink (1886-1952) Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.—Hebrews 13:17
T O obey and submit to their spiritual leaders is what church members are here exhorted unto…To ignore those rulers or to rebel against their authority is to despise the One Who has appointed them.
It is abundantly clear from these words that in the days of the apostles there were two distinct classes among God's people, namely, the rulers and those that were ruled; and as this is not merely a historical statement but a specific exhortation, it is equally clear that the same is binding upon Christians throughout the entire course of this dispensation.
This, of course, presupposes a settled church state among them, in which the distinctive duties of each class is here distinctly defined, according to the office of the one and the obligation of the other. The duties here prescribed contain a succinct summary of all that relates to church rule and order, for all that concerns its welfare is comprised in the due obedience of the church to its rulers and their due discharge of their office.
["Them that have the rule"] have received power from Christ to preside over His assemblies; to declare His will and execute His laws; to reprove, rebuke, exhort with all authority and longsuffering. They have no arbitrary power except what Christ has given them, yet within the limits He has prescribed, they are rulers, and it is the duty of their members to obey them. "It is of equal importance that the office-bearers in a church should not aspire to a higher degree of authority and should not be content with a lower degree of authority than that which their Master has assigned them; and that the members of a church should equally guard against basely submitting to a tyranny which Christ has never instituted and lawlessly rebelling against a government which He has appointed."1
John Owen declared that the twofold duty here enjoined with respect to the ecclesiastical leaders has respect unto the two parts of their office,
1 John Brown, An Exposition of the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Hebrews, ed. D. Smith, Vol.
2 (Edinburgh; London: W. Oliphant & Co.; Hamilton, Adams, & Co., 1862), 235.
Free Grace Broadcaster • Issue 263 namely, teaching and ruling: "obey their teaching and submit to their rule." While it be true that their doctrine or preaching is to be obeyed— so far as it accords with the truth—and that their authority is to be yielded unto as it respects their ordering of the church's life, yet we rather regard the two exhortations as having a distributive force, the second amplifying the first. The word obey in our text means an obedience that follows being persuaded: the mind is first carried along with the preacher so that it believes, and then the will acts…"And submit yourselves" seems to us to have reference unto the spirit in which they were to obey—obedience was not to be merely an outward act, but prompted by submissive hearts.
Thus, we take it that "obey them that have the rule over you" is not to be restricted to their teaching (as Owen defined it), but includes their ruling of the church as well; while the "submit yourselves" has a wider significance than yielding to their rule, referring to the spirit that was to regulate the whole of their obedience. As Calvin well expressed it,
"He commands first obedience and then honor to be rendered to them.
These two things are necessarily required, so that the people might have confidence in their pastors and reverence for them also. But it ought at the same time to be noticed that the apostle speaks only of those who faithfully performed their office; for they who have nothing but the title, nay, who use the title of pastors for the purpose of destroying the church, deserve but little reverence and still less confidence. And this also is what the apostle plainly sets forth when he says that they watched for their souls—a duty that is not performed but by those who are faithful rulers."2
The duty here enjoined, then, may be summed up in: cultivate an obedient, compliant, and submissive spirit unto your pastors and church officers. To obey and submit denotes such a subjection as of inferiors to superiors. It is not a servile3 subjection, but that reverent respect that God requires, a submission that issues from love and that has for its end the honoring of those to whom honor is due. It would therefore include the doing of everything in the power of the members that would make the lot of their rulers easier and lighter, and, of course, would take in providing for their temporal sustenance. Those rulers are appointed by God, standing in His immediate stead, so that the Lord Christ declared, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me; and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me" (Joh 13:20).
2 John Calvin, ed. J. Owen, Commentary on the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 352-353.
3 servile – slave-like, groveling submission.
Pastoral Authority
It scarcely needs pointing out that those words are not to be taken absolutely, any more than are "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers" (Rom 13:1) or "As the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing" (Eph 5:24). Each of these exhortations is qualified by others: the members of a gospel church are no more required to receive the pastor's teaching when it be flagrantly opposed to Holy Writ, or to submit to any ruling of his that is manifestly dishonoring to Christ and injurious to His people, than they are to yield to a mandate of Nebuchadnezzar if he sets up an image to himself and commands all to fall down and worship it, or if an ungodly husband required from his wife anything contrary to the laws of nature. No, it is not a blind and implicit obedience that is here enjoined, for it would be quite contrary to the whole tenor of gospel obedience, which is "our reasonable service" (Rom 12:1). The subjection required by our text is only unto that office established by Christ Himself. If any usurp that office, and under cloak thereof do teach or enjoin things contrary to what
Christ has instituted, then no obedience unto them is required by this command. But it is just at this point that most difficulty is experienced today. For many years past, large numbers of professing Christians have been demanding that the religious leaders should speak unto them
"smooth things," yea, prophesy unto them "deceits" (Isa 30:10), declining to listen unto what condemned their carnal and worldly lives and refusing to heed the holy requirements of God. In consequence, He has suffered their descendants to reap the evil sowings of their fathers, by largely withholding "pastors according to mine heart" (Jer 3:15), and allowing thousands of unregenerate men to occupy the modern pulpit.
Instead of "obeying" and "submitting" to them, God requires His people to turn away from and have nothing to do with them.
The true servants of Christ are to be identified by the marks specified in 1 Timothy 3:1-7. They are men who are "apt to teach" (3:2) being qualified by the Spirit to open up the Scriptures and apply them to the consciences and lives of their hearers. They are "not greedy of filthy lucre" nor covetous (3:3), demanding a salary that would enable them to live above the level of their members and declining to serve if there were no pay attached to it. "Not a novice" (3:6) with little or no experience in the spiritual ups and downs of God's tried people, but one who has himself tested and proved the reliability and sufficiency of what he recommends to his hearers. He must be a man who is "not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine," but "a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate" (Ti 1:7-8), or otherwise he could not commend what he teaches by his own example. The servants of Christ, then, are endued with a
Free Grace Broadcaster • Issue 263 measure of the Spirit of their Master, and it is by that they are to be distinguished from the false.
To refuse obedience and submission unto such…is to despise a divine institution, for the office of the pastor is as much the Lord's own appointment as is the church itself or the gifts and graces of its individual members. It is true that men will and do abuse the good gifts of God, but if some pastors are arbitrary, are not some members unruly? If there be pride in the pulpit, is there none in the pew? Alas, in this Laodicean and communistic age, when it has become the fashion to "despise dominion and speak evil of dignities" (Jude 1:8) and when "the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honorable" (Isa 3:5), almost every individual considers himself qualified to judge and direct both civil and ecclesiastical rulers, to prescribe for both state and church, to scrutinize and criticize everything that is being done, and to say what ought to be done. May the Lord have mercy and subdue the turbulent ragings of pride.
"For they watch for your souls." This is adduced as a reason why we should show proper respect unto church rulers. "The word used is peculiar unto this place, and it denotes a watchfulness with the greatest care and diligence, and that not without trouble or danger; as Jacob kept and watched the flocks of Laban in the night."4 The true under-shepherds of Christ have no selfish aims, but rather the spiritual and eternal good of those who are entrusted to their care. Many a minister of the gospel is often awake, burning midnight oil, while the members of his flock are asleep. Many a one can say, "I will very gladly spend and be spent for you" (2Co 12:15). The ministerial office is no idler's one: it makes demands on heart, mind, and nervous energy, such as none other does.
Here, then, is a motive to move the members to be gladly subservient to their rulers. The more labor anyone undertakes for our sake and the more difficulty and danger he incurs for us, the greater are our obligations to him. Such is the office of bishops or elders; and the heavier the burden they bear, the more honor they deserve. Let, then, our gratitude be evidenced by giving them that which is their due. "We beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; And to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. And be at peace among yourselves" (1Th 5:12-13). Let us also add that young men aspiring unto the ministerial office need to think twice about entering a calling that demands ceaseless self-sacrifice, unremitting toil, and a love for Christ and His people that alone
4 John Owen, An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews, ed. W. H. Goold, Vol. 24, Works of John
Owen (Edinburgh: Johnstone and Hunter, 1854), 465.
Pastoral Authority
will sustain amid sore discouragements.
"They watch for your souls as they that must give account" supplies a further motive. They are placed in a position of trust, commissioned by the Lord to Whom they are immediately responsible. They often render an account to Him now, keeping up a constant intercourse with Him, spreading before Him the state and needs of His people, seeking supplies of grace. A full and final account must be rendered of their stewardship in the Day to come. Unspeakably solemn consideration is that, and this it is which actuates them, for they "watch for the souls of their church as those who must give account." They bear in mind the awful warning of Ezekiel 33:5 and seek to heed the exhortation of 1 Timothy 4:16.
"That they may do it with joy, and not with grief." Here is a further reason why church members should give to their rulers that which is due them. If on the one hand nothing is more encouraging to a pastor than for his people to be responsive and docile, it is equally true that nothing is more disheartening and saddening to him than to meet with opposition from those whose highest interests he is serving with all his might. Every Christian minister who is entitled to that designation, can, in his measure, say with the apostle, "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth" (3Jo 1:4).
"For that is unprofitable for you" furnishes the final motive. For the members of a church to so conduct themselves as to be a constant source of grief unto their minister is to despise their own mercies. It not only prevents their receiving his instruction into their hearts, which results in their spiritual barrenness, but it also saps his vigor, quenches his zeal, causing him to proceed with a heavy heart instead of with cheerfulness.
What is still more solemn and serious, the Lord Himself is highly displeased, and the tokens of His favor are withdrawn, for He is very sensitive of the mistreatment of His stewards.
From Studies in the Scriptures, available from CHAPEL LIBRARY.
_______________________ Arthur W. Pink (1886-1952): Pastor, itinerate Bible teacher, author; born in Nottingham, England, UK.
Without [prayer], no man can or doth preach to them as he ought, nor perform any other duty of his pastoral office. From hence may any man take the best measure of the discharge of his duty towards his flock. He that doth constantly, diligently, fervently pray for them, will have a testimony in himself of his own sincerity.—John Owen