Respect Your Leaders

(1 Thessalonians 5:12-13)

Being a leader in the church is not an easy role. In fact it is a very difficult role because it is not a role where a person is above the church, but rather a servant of the church.

You need to respect your leaders in the church because they are doing God’s will and they are going to be held accountable for what they do.

And, yes, they will make mistakes. Some may even be bad leaders. But the vast majority are doing the best they can to follow the will of God to build and not tear down the church. So respect your leaders who are doing God’s work because they are doing it for you.

Respect your leaders

Those who lead the church have a difficult role because they are dealing with the failures and weaknesses of humanity. They have their own challenges, and then they are called upon to deal with the weaknesses of those in the congregation as well.

This is what this scripture today says.

12 But we beseech you, brethren, to respect those who labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, 13 and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. (1 Thessalonians 5:12-13)

Good leaders are seeking the best they can for the people God has put under their care. They do it out of love for the Lord and for His people. They are truly desiring what is good and best for all in the church.

If you look at the requirements for Elders in the Church, you begin to see how difficult the role can be.

2 Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, 5 for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? 6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. 7 Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil. (1 Timothy 3:2-7 ESV)

This passage refers to an overseer being one who oversees the church as a leader. You can see that the qualifications for an overseer, whether they are an elder, bishop, or the holder of some ministry in the church, are quite strict.

They must be in control of themselves and those around them so that they are capable of caring for the church. This is no easy feat, so respect your leaders so that they can do this role joyfully.

Respect your leaders – They are visible

One of the other reasons to respect your leaders is because they are visible.

Anything that happens in and around the church comes back to the leaders. They are not able to hide in the congregation, but they have to make a stand when or if the time comes. Leaders must stand against the wiles of the devil and how he manipulates people to try to destroy the church.

They also have to stand up when called to account by outsiders. And this is apart from the difficult tasks they do with those inside the church.

The point of all this is that they are visible to the whole world and the community. And the devil will try to “take them down” because that will be the easiest way to destroy the church. If he can destroy or discredit the leaders of the church, he can tear it apart.

But good leaders will rely on the strength of the Lord and the Holy Spirit to stand against the devil and his wiles. They will fight the devil by the spirit and not their own strength, and the Lord will give them the victory.

Respect your leaders – they will suffer

One other thing we will see, and another reason to respect your leaders, is that they will suffer.

They suffer for their own issues and they suffer for the work they do for the Lord. They also suffer for the church to try and keep it strong.

Consider the role of the Apostles in the early church and the sufferings they went through as an example of how the leaders suffer.

9 For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men. 10 We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. 11 To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are ill-clad and buffeted and homeless, 12 and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; 13 when slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become, and are now, as the refuse of the world, the offscouring of all things. 14 I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. (1 Corinthians 4:9-14)

The Apostles as leaders of the church suffered greatly for and on behalf of the church. They suffered because they were visible to both the physical and spiritual forces arrayed against the church against whom they had to make a stand.

And they suffered for the work they were called upon to do as they led the church in the ways of the Lord.

So respect your leaders because they have a hard task given to them by the Lord.

Respect your leaders – but beware of the bad ones

It is evident also that the devil will try to put his people into the leadership roles in the church. If he can do that then he can wreak havoc on and in the church.

And he has succeeded in some churches. There are bad leaders in some churches who abuse the flock under their care and are in it for what they personally can get.

However, the church is the Lords, so I believe the vast majority of those who lead the church are seeking to do God’s will, to the best of their ability. And some are constrained by the quality of teaching they have received.

There is a lot of false doctrine in the church and unfortunately many of the leaders are unaware that it is false. They continue to teach it to others believing they are teaching God’s words, not realising they have been lied to.

As a result often those leaders and their congregations suffer unnecessarily because the doctrine is wrong.

That doesn’t mean the leaders are all bad, as I believe most who go into ministry do it for good purposes. But they have failed when they teach bad doctrine because they have a duty of care to the church and to the Lord to ensure the quality of the teachings are good.

The bad leaders, on the other hand, have no care for the church. They care about themselves and what they can get from the role. And there are many who have become wealthy through false pretenses as they fleece the flock.

Such leaders are a blight and a stain on the good name of the Church, and they will not go unpunished by the Lord.

But respect your leaders who are doing the best they can to follow the will of God and to do His work. Don’t make their job any harder than it is and help them because they are God’s servants on your behalf.

You might also like:

The Servant Leader
Who Is The Greatest
Making A Request Of God
Jesus Is The Servant Leader
Apostles And Elders
A Letter To The Church
The Whole Counsel Of God
Greeting The Brethren