Be shepherds of God’s flock that is among you, watching over them not out of compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not out of greed, but out of eagerness;shepherd the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion, but voluntarily; not for dishonest gain, but willingly;Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;Tend the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not of constraint, but willingly, according to the will of God; nor yet for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;
3 sermons cite this verse
I can't read this without my mind going back to John 21. The author of these words is the same guy that Jesus there by a charcoal fire early on that Galilean morning says, Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep. feed my sheep. And now it's near the end of his life and as a much older, wiser man, he who has faithfully fed the sheep of God is now encouraging younger elders to do the same thing. Feed the Lord's sheep. You know, Peter identifies himself here as a fellow elder. And it's the only time that word appears in all the New Testament. He's not just an elder, a fellow elder. He wants them to see he's one of them. But he appeals to them on the basis of two credentials. that he's a witness of Christ's sufferings and a partaker of the glory that is about to be revealed. I'm intrigued by the connection of these two things, suffering and glory. This has been something of a theme in 1 Peter all the way back in chapter 1 and verse 11. …
… it on to the next trustee. He says, guard it. That verb is an aorist imperative. It's got the same decisive force that we saw yesterday in that word shepherd in 1 Peter 5 2. Paul repeats this exact command in 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 14 when he tells him there again guard the good deposit entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit. It's not even Paul who entrusted it to him. It's the Spirit of God himself and whatever else might change across a ministry this charge doesn't. You know, a minister of the gospel is entrusted with two things that are not his own. A flock to tend and a deposit to guard. And he's to protect both the same way. Not by seizing control of the flock or trying to sound impressive with the deposit, but by staying humble enough that grace, not ambition, governs everything he does. A few years ago, a young man that I'd had in class at Southern Seminary came into my office, and he showed me a document. It was a letter, handwritten. Actually, it was a bit of homework. …
The temptation, I think, in coming to the end of a book like this, and it's probably a temptation coming to the end of many of these New Testament letters, is to think that when we come to the end, what we have here is just a nice little disjointed lesson, rather than seeing this chapter as being connected with everything that has come before it. we're apt to think that what Peter is communicating is well dear saints before I wrap things up and let you go I did want to change gears a little bit and just give you a few words about eldership and everyone if they're having the letter read to them oh really Peter we're almost done and we have a lesson on eldership before you finish your letter. But we would be wrong to think that Peter is simply tacking on here a lesson about eldership because who doesn't want polity whenever you can get it? No, what he's telling us is very much connected to everything that you have been hearing and studying over the summer. …