Hebreus 13:17

DISCOURSE: 2350
THE DUTY OF PEOPLE, AND THE RESPONSIBILITY OF MINISTERS

Hebreus 13:17. Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.

MAN, as a social being, has duties to the society of which he is a member: and of these duties he must be reminded, no less than of those which are purely personal. The Church of Christ is one great family [Note: Efésios 3:15.], in which, as in every other family, order must be observed, by the exercise of power in those who preside, and a submission to it amongst those who are placed under their direction. The government that shall be exercised in it is appointed by God himself; who has invested his ministers with power to rule, and has required of their people a submission to their authority. But as, on the one hand, there has been amongst some who have presided an unscriptural usurpation of authority, very different from that which God ever committed to them; so, on the other hand, there is amongst others a very unscriptural disregard of that authority which is legitimate, and which every minister of God is bound to exercise in that society over which he presides. For the due administration of order and good government in the Church, the Apostle, having finished his directions respecting personal duties, proceeds to give one, which more immediately relates to our social intercourse, but which is of the greatest consequence to the welfare of that family of which we are members.

In calling your attention to this apostolic precept, I shall have occasion to set before you,

I. The duty of people towards their minister—

A shepherd naturally presides over his flock: and so must a pastor of God’s Church exercise rule over that flock which he feeds, over which the Holy Ghost himself has constituted him an overseer [Note: Atos 20:28.].” Not that civil power was ever delegated by God to his ministers; that exclusively belongs to the civil magistrates [Note: Romanos 13:1.]. If the Lord Jesus Christ, when appealed to as an arbitrator in relation to civil rights, said, “Who made me a ruler and a divider over you [Note: Lucas 12:13.]?” much less can any claim of temporal authority belong to those who are called by him to the administration of affairs which are purely spiritual. Yet is there power given to ministers,

1. As ambassadors from God—

[August as this title is, we claim it as of right belonging to us: for though we would by no means exalt ourselves, it becomes us, and is our bounden duty, to “magnify our office [Note: Romanos 11:13.].” We come from God to you, and proclaim to you in his name the terms on which he will forgive your past rebellion, and receive you to his favour. It is in the very place of Christ that we stand, when we entreat you for his sake to be reconciled to God [Note: 2 Coríntios 5:20.]. The word which we preach to you is God’s: and by you “it must be received, not as the word of man, but, as it is in truth, the word of God [Note: 1 Tessalonicenses 2:13.].” If our testimony be rejected, it is not man, but God himself, that ye reject [Note: Mateus 10:40; 1 Tessalonicenses 4:8. See also 1 Samuel 8:7.]. Doubtless, you must judge how far the voice of the minister accords with the word of God: for it is to that extent only that you are bound to pay any attention to it: and so far are you to be from receiving the word of man implicitly and without examination, that you are required of God himself “not to believe every spirit, but to try the spirits whether they be of God [Note: 1 João 4:1.];” and to “prove all things, and hold fast that only which is good [Note: 1 Tessalonicenses 5:21.].” But when “the word which is delivered to you is that only which your minister has himself received from the Lord [Note: 1 Coríntios 15:3.],” then must you obey it as much as if it was delivered to you by God himself in an audible voice from heaven.

Now then we hesitate not to declare, that all which we preach unto you respecting your fallen state, and the necessity of your believing in Christ as the appointed Saviour of the world, and of your giving up yourselves to him “in body, soul, and spirit, to be sanctified wholly” to his service, is the very truth of God revealed in his Gospel: and whilst we affectionately entreat, we do also authoritatively enjoin, your acceptance of it, and your submission to it: and we affirm, that, if ye reject this Gospel, ye do it at your peril, and with a certainty of incurring God’s everlasting displeasure [Note: Hebreus 2:3; 1 Pedro 4:17.]

2. As stewards over his family—

[This also is a character belonging to us [Note: 1 Coríntios 4:1.], and a character with which a measure of authority is of necessity connected [Note: Lucas 12:42.]. Under that character we must, at the peril of our own souls, be faithful to you, and to our God, whose servants we are [Note: 1 Coríntios 4:2.]. Whatever we judge to be the portion most requisite for your spiritual health, that we must administer, whether it be instruction or exhortation, consolation or reproof. We must no further seek to please you, than will be for your real welfare [Note: Romanos 15:2.]: if we go beyond this, we cannot be servants of Jesus Christ [Note: Gálatas 1:10.]. Of course, in the exercise of discipline, there will be some things which will be more clear, and some which will be of a more dubious character. In those which are clear, and where the word of God has precisely marked the course to be pursued, the submission of the people to the sentence of the minister should be willing and unreserved: and in those which, though not expressly defined by God, are necessary for the maintenance of order, a willing deference should be paid to the judgment of him on whom the great responsibility rests, and to whom authority has been committed by God himself for the good of the whole [Note: 2 Coríntios 10:8; 2 Coríntios 8:10. 1 Timóteo 5:17.]. “Not that ministers are to be lords over God’s heritage [Note: 1 Pedro 5:3.],” or to “have dominion over the faith” of any man [Note: 2 Coríntios 1:24.]: but still, even in dubious matters, a degree of submission is due to them, that order may be observed, and the affairs of the Church be well administered, for the good of the whole [Note: 1 Coríntios 16:15.]. This is the kind of rule which a parent exercises in his family; and in a spirit of paternal love must it be exercised by ministers in the house of God [Note: 1 Timóteo 3:5.]

These observations will acquire additional weight, if we attend to,

II.

The considerations with which this duty is enforced—

Two considerations are here urged, as motives to a cheerful acquiescence in the duty prescribed:

1. The return due to them—

[Ministers have taken upon themselves to seek to the uttermost the spiritual and eternal welfare of those who are committed to their care: and, when duly impressed with the importance of their office, they “watch for souls as those that must give account.” When they undertake this office, they know, that if any perish through their neglect, the blood of those who perish will be required at their hands [Note: Ezequiel 3:17; Ezequiel 33:7.]. Under this fearful responsibility, “they watch for souls,” trembling lest, through their ignorance, or sloth, or cowardice, any have the truth withheld from them, or the means of salvation unprofitably dispensed to them. They feel their insufficiency [Note: 2 Coríntios 2:16.], and are ready at times to regret that ever they made themselves answerable to so awful an extent. But a “dispensation having been committed to them, they know that a woe attends them,” if they discharge not their office with fidelity and diligence [Note: 1 Coríntios 10:16.].

Now then I ask, Is nothing due from you to such friends and benefactors? When they, from love to your souls, and from an ardent desire to impart unto you the blessings of salvation, make “themselves your servants for Christ’s sake [Note: 2 Coríntios 4:5.],” renouncing all worldly cares, pleasures, and advantages, and consecrating all their time and talents exclusively to you, is there no love, no respect, no deference to be shewn to them? This, I am sure, is not God’s judgment respecting them: for he requires, that “you esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake [Note: 1 Tessalonicenses 5:12.]:” and if you refuse them this tribute, you are guilty of gross injustice to them, and of vile ingratitude to God, whose commission and authority they bear.

If you suppose that their living of the altar is a sufficient recompence, I must observe, that there is scarcely a faithful servant in all the Church of God who might not turn his talents to a far better account, if pecuniary emolument be the standard by which his recompence is to be estimated. As for the “shepherds who feed themselves, and not the flock,” I speak not of them: I leave them to their own fearful responsibility [Note: Jeremias 23:1.Ezequiel 34:1; Zacarias 11:17.]: but of faithful pastors, I affirm, that, if they could have the whole world for their hire, they would despise it all in comparison of one soul, whom they may present to God as begotten by their ministry and saved by their efforts [Note: 1 Timóteo 4:16. with 1 Tessalonicenses 2:19.]. I say, then, ye are debtors to them to a great amount: if they have been your spiritual fathers, ye owe them your own souls [Note: Philem. ver. 19.]: and if they are only your instructors, yet, as watching with all tenderness and fidelity for your souls, their griefs and their joys should be the griefs and the joys of you all [Note: 2 Coríntios 2:3.]

2. The benefit accruing to yourselves—

[Daily do they go to God, to give up, as it were, an account of the stewardship committed to them: and this they do either with joy or grief, according as they find success or disappointment in their ministerial labours. See what grief St, Paul experienced when his people walked disorderly [Note: 2 Coríntios 2:4.]: and, on the other hand, with what ecstatic joys he was filled, when they walked worthy of their high calling [Note: 1 Tessalonicenses 3:9.]! So it is with every minister, in proportion as he approves himself faithful to his God. And how deeply are your interests involved in these exercises of your minister’s soul! When he sees you disobedient to the word, and regardless of his paternal admonitions, how do his hands hang down, and his spirit sink within him! Truly, it is “with grief,” and “with groanings,” (as the word imports,) that he goes to his God from day to day. And the whole of his ministry, in its ardour, in its unction, in its whole character, is lowered, when he has to labour amongst a proud, a worldly, a contentious, a gainsaying people. His mouth is stopped; and, instead of finding an enlargement of mind, and a liberty of utterance towards them, he is constrained rather to speak only in tears of anguish [Note: Filipenses 3:18.], and, as it were, in the groans of one that is travailing in birth [Note: Gálatas 4:19.].

On the other hand, in what tender strains did the Apostle address those who had received his word with power, and evinced its influence by a holy and heavenly conversation! He was amongst them “as gentle as a nursing mother; and was so affectionately disposed towards them, that he was willing to impart to them, not the Gospel only, but his own soul also, because they were dear unto him [Note: 1 Tessalonicenses 2:7.].” How would words, proceeding from him in such a strain, “distil as the dew,” and penetrate their inmost souls! And when he felt such enlargement of heart towards them, what corresponding feelings would be generated in their souls [Note: 2 Coríntios 6:11.]! Such then are still the feelings of faithful ministers in this day. They experience either straitness, or enlargement, according as their people evince a disposition that becomes the Gospel, or a state of mind tending to obstruct its influence. And therefore, if you seek nothing but your own “profit,” you should, by a loving, submissive, and obedient spirit, encourage the efforts of your minister, and impart comfort to his soul.

But it is not to the present world only that this consideration must be confined. For though it is true, that a glorified soul can feel no grief, any more than God himself can, yet, for the purpose of impressing our minds, this idea may be predicated of them, as well as of him. And O! think of the joy with which they will present to God their obedient children in the last day [Note: Isaías 8:18; Filipenses 2:16.], and the grief with which they will appear as “swift witnesses” against such as were intractable and disobedient [Note: Malaquias 3:5.]! Verily, their griefs will be “unprofitable indeed to you,” when the very word which they have spoken to you will be found only “a savour of death” unto you, and the means of your more aggravated condemnation [Note: 2 Coríntios 2:15.]

“Suffer ye then a word of exhortation”—

[How long we shall stand in our present relation to each other, God alone knows: but this we know, that I must give up an account to God of my labours, as you also must of your improvement of them. O that I may be found faithful! and may you also so improve my ministry, that I may give up an account of you with joy, and not with grief! Imagine not your work done, when you have heard the word delivered to you. In reality, both your work and mine is then but just begun. We must watch for each other, and each of us for ourselves. And O! may you never have occasion for that painful reflection, “How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof, and have not obeyed the voice of my teacher, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me [Note: Provérbios 5:12.]!” And may I so watch, and so labour, that, like the Apostle himself, I may “be pure from the blood of all men [Note: Atos 20:26. N. B. If this were the subject of a Visitation Sermon, there should be a suitable Address to Ministers also.]!”]