Someone's Watching You

Linus doesn’t hesitate. In Charlie Brown’s Christmas special, Linus steps right up and quotes Luke’s Gospel account of the shepherds keeping watch over their flock by night as the birth of Jesus approaches. I can almost duplicate the pastoral scene in my living room: lights down low, fire crackling in the fireplace, blankets spread all around, herding dog (yep, I have one of those) curled up at my feet.  

 

Unlike Linus, I hesitate. I hesitate because Christian Scripture sometimes refers to God’s spiritual leaders as shepherds, and as I documented last month I’ve had experiences of being around tyrants dressed in shepherd’s clothing. Interestingly enough, the Bible tells me honestly these experiences of bad spiritual authorities, or authorities gone bad, is nothing new. From the Old Testament prophets going after these guys to John echoing the prophets in his Revelation, it just happens that the dirty bathwater comes with the baby.  

 

For example, here’s an excerpt from Ezekiel 34:1-10: “Prophesy against the shepherds…say to them, ‘You have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them’.”

 

The point here is that there have always been shepherds who use their religious position and authority for personal benefit. When shepherds teach false doctrine or mishandle abuse cases or show favoritism toward the wealthy and power-brokers or otherwise compromise their spiritual and moral authority, we lose trust in them. And when followers lose trust in their leaders, the leaders lose their authority.

 

But the thing is, there’s an old Latin phrase that says, “Abuse does not invalidate use.” While we might have legit reasons to lose trust in some spiritual leaders, such cases do not give us license to toss aside all church leaders into the ditch of derelict shepherds. The Westminster Confession of Faith acknowledges, “The purest churches under heaven are subject both to mixture and error. Nevertheless, there shall be always a Church on earth to worship God according to His will” (Ch. 25, No. 5, citing the parable of the wheat and tares in Matthew 13, along with the unhealthy churches in Revelation 2-3 that include false teachers).

 

If you think of yourself as a Christ-follower, then you know that God has populated his kingdom with shepherds because he knows that sheep need moral authorities over them for the exact same reasons that shepherds can go bad. I might be a tad hesitant to trust spiritual leaders, but I also need to be self-skeptical about my own ability to see straight biblically speaking.

 

I need to know I’m not immune to going south doctrinally when the Bible tells me what I don’t want to hear. I must know it’s possible I can use my people skills to get people to think more of me than they do of Jesus. I have to know the potential within me in which I could be blinded by influence, greed, and sexual misconduct as much as any corrupted pastor. These are some of the reasons I need someone watching me. God’s provision for this comes in the person of a shepherd. And even Linus knows what shepherds do.

 

Here, then, are a few more random thoughts I have on church authority and being watched:

 

~ Even as pastor-shepherds in the church are watching over their flock, the shepherds themselves are also being watched. “Shepherd God’s flock among you, not overseeing out of compulsion but willingly, as God would have you; not out of greed for money but eagerly; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory” (1 Peter 5:2-4).  

 

~ It’s in my own best interest to follow the shepherds God has provided. “Obey your leaders and submit to them, since they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account, so that they can do this with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you” (Hebrews 13:17).

 

~ This does not mean I’m supposed to blindly follow these shepherds. Knowing shepherds can go bad, I’m supposed to take what the pastor-shepherds say, along with how they live out their lives, and compare it to Scripture. “The people [of Berea] were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, since they received the word with eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11).

 

~ Since the Bible, not pastor-shepherds, is the final authority for God’s people, it’s incumbent on me to know the Scriptures well enough to know truth from error. “All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). “Now everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced with the message about righteousness, because he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature—for those whose senses have been trained to distinguish between good and evil” (Hebrews 5:13-14).

 

Because it’s life and health and peace to hear the chief Shepherd say authoritatively, “I will counsel you with my eye upon you” (Psalm 32:8b).