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1 Peter 5:2<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly;<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n A church leader is to behave like a loving shepherd.<\/p>\n Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The word translated \u201cexhort<\/span>\u201d in yesterday\u2019s verse is from the Greek parakalo<\/span><\/em>, which literally means \u201cto call alongside.\u201d It is interpreted as meaning \u201cto council, to give advice, and to comfort.\u201d This is the name given to the Holy Spirit by Christ himself:<\/p>\n But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name<\/span><\/em> \u2026\u201d (John 14:26<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n The word \u201cComforter<\/span>\u201d in this verse is the same word translated \u201cexhort\u201d in 1 Peter 5:2<\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\n <\/span>\u201cShepherd<\/span>\u201d is from the Greek word poimanate<\/span><\/em> and the word \u201cflock\u201d is from poimnion<\/span><\/em>. Even without knowing Greek it is easy to see that these two words have the same root. The first one means \u201cto take care of a group of animals, to feed them, to protect them, to care for them.\u201d This is what a Shepherd does for his flock. The second word means \u201ca flock or group of animals.\u201d<\/p>\n The words \u201cserving as overseers<\/span>\u201d are from the single Greek word episkopountes<\/span><\/em>, which literally means \u201cto watch over\u201d or \u201cto oversee.\u201d It is the same word that is translated \u201cbishop\u201d in some places in the Bible. Again, notice that this is not a separate or higher ranking position within the priesthood, rather it is the responsibility of each and every pastor (elder) of every local congregation.<\/p>\n Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Today\u2019s verse gets into the first part of Peter\u2019s exhortation to the elders (or pastors) of the churches to which this letter was written. The advice that Peter is giving these elders is to feed the flock<\/em>. Although it is not specifically identified here, Peter\u2019s implication is that we who are called to be overseers of God\u2019s flock are to provide spiritual food for the flock.<\/p>\n The way a pastor is to oversee the flock is not by compulsion<\/em> (Greek anagkast\u014ds<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cnot out of necessity\u201d or \u201cnot because you have to\u201d), but willingly<\/em> (Greek ekousi\u014ds<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cvoluntarily\u201d), certainly not for base gain<\/em> (Greek me aischrokerd\u014ds<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cnot for the sake of dishonorable gain\u201d), but readily (Greek prothum\u014ds<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cwillingly\u201d or \u201cgladly\u201d).<\/p>\n Hence, a church elder should not take on the responsibility of overseeing the local congregation because he is forced to do so. Neither should he take on this responsibility because he believes he will receive personal gain in the form of money or power. In other words, he should not be doing this for selfish reasons. He should, instead, take on this responsibility readily and willingly because he wants to serve God in this way. He should feel that he has been personally called by God to care for the flock, whether it consists of five or five thousand.<\/p>\n Application<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Does that describe your pastor? Does he regularly supply you with spiritual food? Does he consider the welfare of the flock under his care as more important than his own desires? If so, you are certainly blessed!<\/p>\n In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2009 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n <\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 1 Peter 5:2 Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; Truth to Learn A church leader is to behave like a loving shepherd. Behind the Words The word translated \u201cexhort\u201d in yesterday\u2019s verse is from the Greek parakalo, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[161,162,163,164,165],"class_list":["post-765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-eagerly","tag-flock","tag-overseer","tag-shepherd","tag-willingly"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-cl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"signature\"](\"\/signature.gif\")
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