 |  |
"Obey them that have the rule over you (are your leaders), 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."
Some very important characteristics of the true leader are given here:
(1)
They speak the Word of God.
(2)
Their faith is such that it is worth imitating.
(3)
The issue of their conversation is Christ.
(4)
They watch on behalf of your souls.
(5)
They will have to render an account.
The reference to "imitating" makes one think of Phil. 3: 17-19: "Be joint-imitators
of me, and mark those who walk . . . . . whose end is perdition".
A great variety of opinion has been expressed by writers on the meaning of the word
"end" in Heb. 13: 7. Some take it to refer to the martyrdom or death of these leaders.
The word is ekbasis, and occurs in but one other place in the N.T., namely, I Cor. 10: 13,
where the A.V. translates it "a way to escape". Has it ever struck the reader that it is
somewhat strange to read of "a way of escape" being provided, "that ye may be able to
bear it"? If we escape the temptation, how do we bear it? A more accurate rendering and
one which seems to give the apostle's meaning is, "God . . . . . will not suffer you to be
tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make the issue, that ye
may be able to bear it".
This verse in I Cor. 10: is in a context exactly parallel with Heb. 3: and 4: Just as
the trial of the Corinthians was bearable because they knew that God held the issues in
His hand, because the trials had an object and a purpose of which they had been made
aware, so in Heb. 13: 7 we hear once again the words of 12: 11, "nevertheless
afterward".
In chapter 13: 17 the Hebrew believers are exhorted to obey their leaders.
Hegeomai, the word for a leader, means to think or esteem, then to lead and to rule. We
read in Acts 15: 22 that Judas and Silas were "chief" men among the brethren. In
Acts 14: 12 Paul was reckoned the "chief" speaker. The apostle enjoined a ready
obedience and submission to any who were Scripturally qualified to lead, and this would
be readily yielded by a believer to any who manifested the mark of the true pastor. "They
watch for your souls, as they that must give account". The leader who answers to this
description has no sinecure. He has a position of utmost responsibility and is accountable
to the Lord. He must continually act in the light of this: "that they may do it with joy,
and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you".
Some connect the words, "that they may do it", with the rendering of an account at the
judgment seat of Christ. Others connect the words with the present watching. Possibly
the double thought is intended, for whatever is true here has its counterpart when the
account is given: "Look to yourselves, that ye destroy not the things which ye have
wrought, but that ye receive a full reward" (II John 8, R.V. margin). This reference in
II John 8 is followed by a warning concerning the doctrine of Christ.