The Principles Of A People Of God: (3)

by J.D. Terrell, Carlisle | Category: The Principles Of A People Of God: | Sept 1979

From the principle of authority we move on to think of LEADERSHIP. The authority is Christ's and flows as we have seen from His own majestic claim in resurrection - "all authority hath been given unto Me" (Mat. 28:18). Unless this spiritual dominion is acknowledged in the hearts of His own, the will of the Lord will not be done on earth as it is in heaven. There is no substitute for subject hearts before the rule of Christ and His word. This applies both individually and collectively to the Lord's people.

Now one of the arresting challenges to God's people in the New Testament comes in Heb. 13:17, "Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit to them: for they watch in behalf of your souls, as they that shall give account". What is the relationship between the personal supremacy of Christ and the rule of the church elders here referred to?

Before addressing ourselves to that question more fully, let us return again to the experience and example of 'God's people Israel. A deep principle of their collective life and service is expressed in Psalm 77:20, "Thou leadest Thy people like a flock, by the hand of Moses and Aaron". There never was any question as to who ultimately commanded the allegiance of the nation of Israel. "lam the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have none other gods before Me" (Exod. 20:2,3). There can be no less compromising way of pronouncing authority, complete and absolute. Yet, as we have seen in Psalm 77 God led His people by the hand of Moses and Aaron. Of course, we know that beyond those two outstanding leaders there was delegation to many others. Indeed it is very interesting and instructive to see how God indicated to Moses the sensible and practical approach to his vast administrative problem. In Exod. 18 we read of Moses wisely accepting his father-in-law's advice on the day by day government of this large and growing people. "And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people... and they judged the people at all seasons" (Exod. 18:25,26). Jethro had been explicit about qualifications, "able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating unjust gain" (v.21). It could hardly be challenged that these men operated according to agreed statutes and regulations, based in due course on the divine law of Sinai, delivered to Moses on the mountain top.

In connexion with our Lord's 'all authority' we too have been to the mountain top and shared the awe of eleven loyal but deeply chastened men. We have recalled that the Lord told them to make disciples, baptize them, teach them. In the mercy and grace of God the denials of the High Priest's courtyard gave way to the spiritual boldness of Peter on the day of Pentecost when he "stood up with the eleven". There was no mistake that this emerging Christian community was blessed with men of fearless leadership. In Jerusalem there were the apostles to begin with and later we read of "the apostles and the elders" (Acts 15:4). Initially, of course, the work was confined to Jerusalem but as churches were planted elsewhere we find them under the care and leadership of overseers and elders as indicated, for example, in Titus 1:5, "appoint elders in every city". Just as the word of authority came down from God to Moses and the elders of the tribes of Israel, so the teaching of the Lord to His apostles in the forty resurrection days of instruction became the statute law of God's people for today; applied and administered by the apostles and the elders who took the awesome responsibility of rule in the churches. And the New Testament is as explicit as the Old in the matter of qualification of elders or overseers (1 Tim. 3:1-7). For their dual work is spiritual care and spiritual government. As those responsible to the Chief Shepherd, they shall give account (1 Pet. 5:4; Heb. 13:17).

Space does not allow of detailed consideration of the nature and range of the work of overseers in churches of God. This extremely important subject is being treated more fully by another contributor in this magazine. That there was shepherd care and governmental rule in the New Testament assemblies of God's people, no-one would deny. But the question must be asked, Can a people be governed other than as a people? In other words, God's law for His people must surely be uniform and, if He is to be glorified, uniformly applied among His people. If the Scriptures give direction as to who should be in a church of God and who should not, how can God's people and their leaders not be deeply exercised as to applying such directions in all the churches? Said Paul to the Corinthians, "... even as I teach everywhere in every church"; and again, "And so ordain I in all the churches" (1 Cor. 4:17; 7:17). Now much authoritative instruction for the churches of God of today comes in the epistles through the uniquely endowed apostle Paul. But apostolic leadership was a temporary feature of God's purpose for His people and the question must be faced, How were doctrinal questions, vital to the progress - and even survival of the New Testament pattern of service, to be determined when the towering spiritual stature of the apostles was no longer to be seen? This becomes a crucial issue, we believe, in the service of God's people today. Christians are sadly divided in their service and collective witness because, we suggest, of a wrong approach to this matter. Were the churches each to be shepherded and governed in complete local independence, each separately seeking and judging the mind of the Holy Spirit through a completed canon of Scripture? Or does the Word indicate an elderhood in and among the churches, united, interdependent, and subject collectively to the Spirit through the Word?

Paul might have exercised his special authority in the resolution of the problem presented in Acts 15. But significantly he did not. There, you will recall, we have the question of the range of necessary observance of Old Testament Jewish law among God's people. And Paul and Barnabas wisely brought this to the Jerusalem council where "the apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider of this matter" (Acts 15:6). The happy outcome was that after much questioning the brethren, came to one mind, and arrangements were made for the decrees to be delivered to the churches (16:4). This event in the early history of New Testament churches of God has been represented by some as the rather informal resolution of a local difficulty between two churches. But we submit that the nature of the issues and the handling of the outcome point to a scriptural approach to "holding the pattern of sound words" in our day when elders must resolve important doctrinal matters in the absence of apostolic guidance. They must resolve them for 'the flock of God'. "Tend", said Peter to the elders, "the flock of God which is among you" (1 Pet. 5:2). Link this to Paul's words to the Ephesian elders, "Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock, in the which the Holy Spirit hath made you bishops (overseers), to feed the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood" (Acts 20:28). The church of God in Corinth, like that in Ephesus, was part of 'the flock', part of the people of God. They found themselves unequal to a moral problem (1 Cor. 5) and the church in Antioch (Acts 15) unable to resolve a doctrinal issue. Both received guidance from outside of themselves. There are clearly weighty matters of difference between sincere and God-fearing saints and churches, which call for a divine pattern of collective handling among God's gathered people. Indeed the matter troubling the Corinthian church touched the vital question of a person's being in a church of God or not, as an issue of discipline, and so of being within or without the circle of a people in collective testimony. Furthermore, practical matters of daily living also require a united approach in a loving fellowship of service to the churches. Thus in connexion with the poverty in the churches of Macedonia, Titus was "appointed by the churches", clearly acting in unison through spiritual leaders; and he and his fellows are described as "the messengers of the churches" (2 Cor. 8:1,2,19,23). In a subsequent contribution to this series we shall link the truth of LEADERSHIP among God's people to the closely related truths of ORDER and UNITY.

J.D. Terrell, Carlisle | Sept 1979
The Principles Of A People Of God: