To Encourage You

Hebrews 13:7-9 “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.  Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings”

There are so many voices in this world calling for our attention.  So many supposed solutions to the problems of life.  Yet, the answers are as different as people are different.  So, who should we listen to? How do we ever sort through the noise?  Are there any who can be trusted to tell us the truth?  Is there anyone out there who we can really follow? 

It’s to those questions that we have some answers in the passage above. It’s talking about “leaders,” and specifically, “your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God.”  Of course, the passage is talking to Christians and it’s talking to Christians about the leaders that God has given us.  We aren’t meant to wander aimlessly through life. We are meant to look to certain individuals who have more experience than we do, more wisdom than we do, or who have more knowledge than us because they’ve learned from those who came before them.  But we are to be very discerning as to who we follow.  

So, how do we know who a God-given leader is?  This reminds me of the early part of my career in fisheries biology, my chosen profession.  In the graduate school I attended, there were individuals, and in particular professors, who I looked up to in terms of their knowledge of fisheries. However, as I learned about some of their private lives, I knew that their moral example was not something worth emulating. The same held true all through my professional career. There were individuals who were much more intelligent and experienced than me whom I could emulate from a professional standpoint. But as to the Word of God, many of them were totally ignorant. They never mentioned it.  It had no real place in their lives.  So, again to the question of who we should follow from a spiritual standpoint, knowing that the spiritual impacts every other area of life? 

First, it’s interesting to note how the passage above tells us to look back to those who came before us. It talks about those who taught the Word of God to us at one time or another but now they’ve passed from us, for it talks about considering “the outcome of their way of life.” In other words, these are people whose lives can be examined over the long haul. They’ve lived, they’ve spoken, and they’ve died, and we know enough about them in all of this to know what their lives were really like. Did they finish well? Did they finish like we would want to? Did their walk match their talk?  Or did they speak one way and act another?  Did the passage of time reveal ungodliness, self-centeredness, and other things that would expose them as fakes?  

Sometimes that exposure comes during a person’s lifetime – sometimes later. We can look around us and see those who have been in it for the money, who “imagin(ed) that godliness (was) a means of (financial) gain” (1 Timothy 6:5).  Many of these “leaders” over the course of their lives have been exposed as frauds and reprobates. We are to stay away from such people, as well as their writings, their lifestyle, and those who have taken up their mantle and are going in the same way.  Rather, we are to imitate the faith of those who have lived an exemplary life, men like the apostles who boldly preached the truth in the face of persecution and eventual martyrdom, and those over the centuries who have followed in their footsteps.  

You see, those leaders served Jesus Christ with their whole heart, soul, mind, and strength.  A person that follows Jesus in this way fits a mold that is evident in their teaching, speech, and behavior.  Paul was such a man.  Paul could say to us, “be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). That’s the kind of person we should look to, i.e., a person who shows by their words and life that their example is Jesus. 

But we should note that Paul also said, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.  As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8-9).”  You see, Paul held himself to a very high standard, and he made himself accountable to that standard by encouraging those who followed him to compare what he said to the words of Scripture.  He knew that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” His message doesn’t change, so those who purvey His message must stay consistent to what Jesus has said in His Word (and what He said includes the entire Bible, from cover to cover, not just the red letters of the New Testament). Likewise, those who have followed Christ throughout history share a manner of life that is consistent with the example He gave us.  That’s why we should be so very skeptical of “spiritual leaders” who have some new slant, some new approach, some new twist that no one in history has ever demonstrated before them.  You see, Jesus hasn’t changed and His Words and His life are always the standard to measure others against. If they’re not following Jesus, then we shouldn’t be following them!   

Yes, spiritual leaders are important for our own spiritual growth.  They are given to us by Christ.  But may God give us the wisdom to discern who such leaders are. May he give us the wisdom to only follow those who truly follow Christ.