Be an Example to the Flock (1 Peter 5:3)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/15/2017 7:40 AM

My Worship Time                                                                     Focus: Be an example to the Flock

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  1 Peter 5:3

            Message of the verse: “3 nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock.”

            I have to say that this verse brings back some very bad memories to me, for we sat under a pastor who did the opposite of what this verse tells a pastor to do and so we had to leave the church, and then seven months later the pastor left.

            Dr. Wiersbe writes “The contrast is between dictatorship and leadership.  You cannot drive sheep; you must go before them and lead them.  It has been well said that the church needs leaders who serve and servants who lead.  A Christian leader said to me, ‘The trouble today is that we have too many celebrities and not enough servants.’” 

            A good leader is one who brings an example to the sheep by solving the tension between being “among” the sheep and being “over” the sheep.  If the pastor practices what he preaches then the flock will be willing to follow him. 

            The problem of lording it over the flock has always been a problem within the walls of the church and I suppose the reason that this is a problem is that leaders love power and also that leaders do not display humility.  Jesus was the most humble Man who ever walked on the earth and that should be an example not only to the leaders of the church, but also to the sheep that are in the church too.  God has many bad things to say about pride, which is the opposite of being humble.

7/15/2017 7:54 AM