GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
ACTS 20:28
28 Pay close attention to yourselves and to all the flock for which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Shepherd the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.
The word for “overseer” in Greek is “bishop” (ἐπίσκoπος). Whatever way this word is defined by those modern churches that use the term, Paul presents the Bible’s definition simply and clearly: They shepherd and feed the flock of the church, the flock that doesn’t belong to them, but to Christ, “which he bought with his own blood.” When churches use the title today, they find out just how quickly a single word can go to a man’s head, puff up his ego, and blow him up like a birthday balloon, full of his own hot air until there’s nothing left for him to do except pop!
See here that the Holy Spirit is the one who truly makes bishops. The task of the bishop, who should be a kind of caretaker to pastors, should be teaching and instructing, coaching the way that James coaches Christians in general, but coaching pastors and teachers in the best ways to carry out their duties to God’s holy people. The shepherds and bishops should not live apart from their people, but among them, as the prophet says, “There will be a place for shepherds and sheep pens” (Zephaniah 2:6). The bishops should know the flock as well as the pastors, if possible, to guide them. In Hebrew, one of the words for “teach” is yarah, which often means “to throw” (Lamentations 3:53) or “shoot” (Proverbs 26:18). But it also means “teach” (Exodus 4:12,15; Leviticus 10:11), with the idea that to teach, one must throw a lesson or an idea again and again until the pupil catches it. If they can’t catch it one way, the teacher must change his method, and throw it another way, until it is caught. The role of a pastor is to throw and throw the gospel so that it can be grasped by his people. The role of a bishop should be to see to it that the pastor keeps throwing and throwing his lesson, and changing the way he throws when he needs to, so that the precious flock can catch it.
At the same time, pastor and bishop must “pay close attention” to themselves. This means, on the one hand, their personal and emotional health. A pastor who works himself to death, or falls into a pit of depression, cannot serve his people. But on the other hand, he must also watch his life of faith. He will have temptations, and he will have private sins, and these he must confess and receive forgiveness over. But if he falls into a public sin, his people will think of the sin when they see him, and he won’t be able to serve them any longer. This is what Paul would later tell Timothy when he said, “Now the overseer (bishop or pastor) must be above reproach” (1 Timothy 3:2). No man is perfect, but a pastor should lead a Christian life.
We should also notice that Paul is saying this to a group of elders from a single small church. Today it would seem strange to some to have a handful of bishops together with several pastors all serving one church in a fairly small town. But these were bishops and pastors who understood that the shepherds should set their tents among the sheep (Song of Solomon 1:8), that the care of the flock was the most important task, and that a man should never seek the role of pastor or bishop for his own glory, but because he loves the flock. A pastor’s congregation should seem to him like the Garden of Eden, a place he would never want to leave, a place he would want to tend and take care of for as long as his strength and the will of God would let him. To be a shepherd, tending the church of God! No man deserves this. No man is up to the task, except by the grace of God. Be patient with and pray for those who are called.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: www.wlchapel.org/connect-grow/ministries/adults/daily-devotions/gwfy-archive/2020
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Acts 20:28 A true bishop