A Holy Charge (5)

 

A Holy Charge (5)

 

“But we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children. Having so fond an affection for you, we were well – pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us. For you recall, brethren, our labor and hardship, how working night and day so as not to be a burden to any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God” (1 Thessalonians 2:7 – 9).

 

There are many passages where Paul writes of the nature and character of his service in Christ; they speak of the content of his Message, of his joys and sorrows, his motivations, his hopes and disappointments, and of his heart. Since these are letters he is writing, isn’t this what we would expect? Paul is giving his life for the people he writes to, he is giving them his heart. These letters are Valintine’s cards with deep love and affection, and deep content.

 

Is there a more tender picture to be found than of a “nursing mother tenderly caring for her own children”? (In verse 11 we see that he also pictures himself as a father.) Paul and his friends were not simply imparting the Gospel of God to the Thessalonians, “but also our own lives.”

 

Is this our picture of Gospel ministry today? Is this the image that servants of the Gospel seek to portray, and is it the image that congregations seek? Is it the image that elders and deacons exhibit? Sunday school teachers? Small group leaders? Is it the nature of our service to Christ and to His People, to one another?

 

Since this is the way Paul was toward the Thessalonians, it was, I think, the way he expected the servant leaders in the Thessalonian church to be toward their brothers and sisters (1 Thess. 5:12 – 13). They were to labor among the flock, and have charge over the flock, as a nursing mother with her own children, as well as “exhorting and encouraging and imploring…as a father would his own children” (2:11), giving the church not only the Gospel, but “also their own lives” (2:8).

 

Is this the way that we view leadership? This is the Way of Jesus.

 

“You know that the rulers of the nations lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:24 – 28).

 

All moral and ethical and righteous leadership is sacrificial – whether explicitly in the Kingdom of God or in the world; Satanic so-called leadership is narcissistic, self-seeking, and self-serving – wherever it may be found.

 

Yet we have Christian organizations teaching worldly models of “leadership.” Yet we have Christians and their leaders bowing down to so-called leaders of this world and nation, aligning themselves with people and movements who exalt and glorify themselves. Are we not like ancient Israel who want a king, like the idolatrous nations, to rule over us? Are we not similar to the civic and religious leaders who shouted to Pilate, “Crucify Jesus! We have no king but Caesar!”?

 

Do our training institutions, Bible colleges and seminaries, focus on “content” to the exclusion of teaching and modeling the character and nature of Gospel ministry? What good is content without heart? Where is sustainability in the soul without love? Paul’s ministry, whether in person or through letters, is a marriage of love and content, of a nursing mother and an imploring father.

 

Pastors were once charged with the care of souls. Today they are paid to be CEOs, to produce numbers and entertainment and churn out self-help messages, to hold Sunday morning group therapy sessions, or Sunday cultural and political and nationalistic rallies. The avatars of Johnny Carson, Ed McMahon, and Doc Severson appear on church platforms across our nation Sunday mornings…and we call it “worship,” we call it preaching, we call it being relevant. (Sorry…not really…for the Johnny Carson reference, I am out of the loop on current entertainment figures.)

 

Is Jesus no longer enough?

 

What Paul writes to the Thessalonians about Gospel ministry and servant leadership was counter cultural 2,000 years ago, and it is counter cultural today. It was counter cultural within Judaism then; it is counter cultural within Christianity today.

 

Yet, this is the Way of Jesus.

 

“If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13:14).

 

What is your view of leadership?

 

Is it Biblical? Does it align with Paul?

 

With Jesus?