MEDITATIONS & WEEKLY SCRIPTURES

"Led by God"

Week of October 27, 2024

“He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” Ephesians 4:11-12

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You need leadership. It is for your good. You were designed to be led. First by God himself — through the God-man, Jesus, who now wields all authority in heaven and on earth at the Father’s right hand. God made us to be led, every one of us. He designed our minds, hearts, and bodies not to thrive in autonomy but to flourish under the wisdom, provision, and care of worthy leaders — and, most of all, under Christ himself. But there is more. Christ has appointed human leaders, in submission to him, in local congregations.                                  

One of the ways Christ governs his church and blesses her is by giving her the gift of leaders under him (Ephesians 4:11–12). The mention of “shepherds and teachers” is of special significance because it is intensely personal to you as a Christian. It includes the pastors of your particular local church. You’ve never met one of Jesus’s apostles (even as their writings remain precious to us beyond words!), but chances are you know a pastor. Faithful pastors are a gift from Christ to guide and keep his church today. Have some pastors made terrible mistakes, sinned grievously, and harmed the very ones they were commissioned to protect? Sadly, yes, some have. However, such failures did not fulfill the vision of true Christian leadership. Such failures fell short of God’s vision or departed from it altogether. In fact, such failures show what real leadership in the church should be.

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Churches want happy pastors. Not dutiful clergy. Not groaning ministers. The kind of pastors we all want are the ones who want to do the work and labor with joy for our joy. We want pastors who serve “not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you” (1 Peter 5:2). God himself wants pastors who labor from the heart. He wants them to aspire to the work (1 Timothy 3:1) and do it with joy (Hebrews 13:17). Not dutifully or under obligation, but willingly, eagerly, and happily. And not just “as God would have you” but “as God himself does.”

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It says something about our God that he would have it this way. He is a God most glorified not by raw duty but by eagerness and enjoyment, and he himself cares for his people willingly, eagerly, and happily. Happy pastors, not groaning elders, make for happy churches and a glorified Savior. Pastors who enjoy the work and work with joy are a benefit and an advantage to their people (Hebrews 13:17).