1 Peter 5:2

Feed; teach and rule, Matthew 2:6 1 Thessalonians 21:15 Acts 20:28. The flock of God; the church. Which is among you; which is with you, or committed to your charge; intimating that the flock not being their own, they were to give an account of it to him that had set them over it. Taking the oversight thereof; or, being bishops, or acting as bishops over it, i.e. superintending, inspecting, and watching over it with all care, Acts 20:28,29. Not by constraint; not merely because ye must: what men do out of compulsion, they do more slightly and perfunctorily, as those that would not do it if they could help it: see the like expression, 2 Corinthians 9:7. But willingly; cheerfully and freely, as Exodus 36:2 Psalms 54:6: compare 1 Corinthians 9:17. Not for filthy lucre; not out of covetousness, or a design of making a gain of the work; it being a shameful thing for a shepherd to feed the sheep out of love to the fleece: see Titus 1:7 1 Timothy 3:3,8. But of a ready mind; out of a good affection to the welfare of the flock, in opposition to the private gain before mentioned. He doth not do his work freely, and of a ready mind, who is either driven to it by necessity, or drawn by covetousness.