We ask you too, my brothers, to get to know those who work so hard among
you. They are your spiritual leaders to
keep you on the right path. Because of
this high task of theirs, hold them in highest honour.
1 Thessalonians 5:12-13a (©JB Phillips New Testament)
Today’s Scripture passage is a little difficult exceedingly
difficult! Oh, it’s not that hard to
understand; the text is purely straightforward – a child could figure out that
respect for a leader, especially a spiritual leader, is a responsibility with a
good reason.
This is difficult because some leaders
don’t seem worthy of respect. It’s
doubly difficult for me to speak/write about this because, as a leader, I am
subject to what God says about spiritual leadership.
We have seen examples of leadership
trust violated by the truckload in business, religious organizations, politics
and just about every walk of life; leaders can fall!
So why should we respect them?
Primarily we respect leaders
because of the office, not the person.
The political arena is a grand
example. Our nation has a president who
was elected twice – not everybody respects him, but the office of President of
the United States demands that we give him respect.
And, according to Paul in this
text, we should also try to “get to know” (understand) him because he has an
exceedingly difficult job being the leader of 300+ million people, where half
of the people agree with him and the other half want to burn him at the
stake. Without respect and restraint
there will be nothing the leader can do to effectively discharge his duty. In this case the whole nation suffers when
the President is disrespected.
In church, home, or business life
it is no different. Leadership is a
difficult and risky business. A lawyer
friend of mine was in charge of 40 government lawyers in Tallahassee, Florida. I asked her what it was like to lead that
many lawyers. She told me it was like
“herding cats”.
I feel her pain. The church can be like that, with conflicting
ideas on how things ought to be done, and time demands, and personality
clashes, and, and, and…..
This is why Paul spoke so
strongly about trying very hard to get along, and keeping respect and
perspective toward leaders. The church
and its mission are too important for us to get bogged-down in turf battles and
attitude snits.
Honestly, I’ve been on the other
side; I’ve been a church member who had a hard time respecting a leader to whom
I owed respect. It isn’t easy to be
obedient when you may feel strongly, or even just suspect that the leader isn’t
qualified – spiritually, morally, educationally…or doesn’t have the right
motive.
But in the long run, my thoughts
and suspicions and evaluations are only that – MY thoughts and suspicions
–Scripture is our authority, and Scripture is abundantly clear at this point;
give leaders respect, and let God handle how leadership is set up or taken
down.
For you, today
Having a hard time with a leader
in your church, home, business, or government?
Respect that leader as if (s)he
is created in the image of God.
{Uh-huh!).
Respect that leader by praying for
her or him. There’s no better ally than
Almighty God when it comes to helping a leader get on the ball.
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