#DailyDevotion Obey & Submit To Your Pastor
Heb. 13 17Your leaders, who have to give an account, watch over you. Obey them and submit to them so that they may be happy in their work and not have to grieve, because that isn’t good for you. 18Pray for us as we’re sure we have a good conscience and want to live right in every way. 191 urge you the more earnestly to do this that I may be brought back to you sooner.
Pastors often have a hard time talking about passages like this. It makes us feel like we’re buttering our own bread. We’re worried about being perceived as Herr Pastor or beating our own chest. But since this devotion is not just for my people but for Christians in general, I’m going to try to lay that aside for now.
Your leaders are your pastors/priests/deacons/vicars or whatever you call the man Christ called through the Church to publicly preach, teach, and administer the sacraments in your location. They have been given a great responsibility. They have to give an account to our LORD Jesus on the Last Day of their ministry to you. They have been appointed to watch over you to make sure you make it from birth, to the grave, and to the resurrection of eternal life. It is an awesome responsibility. They have to give an account for your soul. They have to answer to Jesus Christ if something they did or taught that estranged you from the LORD Jesus Christ.
Since this is the case, the author tells us to obey them and submit to them. This of course is in all matters of the Spirit. Matters of the Spirit do and should pour out in all aspects of our lives. Just as all aspects of our lives can pour into matters of the Spirit, unfortunately. When they teach you God’s Word, listen and obey them. Don’t argue with them, “that was then, this is now.” If they can show you from the Scriptures, in context, what they are teaching is true, you are bound by the Christian faith to follow it. In other matters of the life of the Church, their thoughts and opinions should be considered highly because it deals with our life together as the family of God. He is “like” the father and husband of the church inasmuch as he stands by the command of the Father and Husband of the Church in His place. Remember he must give an account of his work to Jesus Christ.
Do this so your pastor can be happy in his work and not grieve. It doesn’t help you any to have a miserable pastor. There are some in congregations who view their pastor as a patsy and since they have no control over their own lives inflict all their anger etc., upon the pastor because they don’t think he can fight back. We pastors call these people alligators. Since these people often work in secret, the pastor should call them out publicly before the congregation. He should call them to repent of breaking the 4th commandment. The pastor has the weight of the congregation, all their spiritual ills, their sufferings, their problems, and the like. If you want to see a pastor deflated and not do the work well he has been given to do, let people who make his ministry hard to prosper. But if you want a pastor that flourishes, help him out and call these people to repent when you see them at work. Don’t let them operate in secret with secret meetings. It is the devil’s work.
As the author requests, pray for your pastors every day. Pray they have a good conscience, live holy lives, have the strength to bear the load, have everything their family needs, and the Holy Spirit inspires them as they write their sermons.
O LORD Jesus, King of the Church, strengthen all You call to be Your pastors, give them courage, and provide for all their needs. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.