Texts of Scripture and Questions to Ponder

What evidence is there that the Old Testament saints anticipated a bodily resurrection? (Hint: We should approach this in the light of Hebrews 11:13-16.)

Enoch	Genesis 5:21-24; Hebrews 11:5
Abraham	Genesis 22; Romans 4, especially vss. 16-25; Hebrews 11:17-19
David	2 Samuel 12:18-23
Elijah	2 Kings 2:11-12
Elisha	2 Kings 13:21
Job	Job 19:25-27
The Psalmists	Psalm 16:7-11; 17:15; 23:4-6; 73:1-28; 116:15
The Prophets	Isaiah 53:7-12; Daniel 12:1-2; Malachi

What did Jesus do or say related to His upcoming death and resurrection?

• Jesus raised the dead: Matthew 3:9; 10:8; 27:50-53; 11:4-5; Mark 5:25-43; Luke 7:11-16; John 11:30-44, and so did the apostles (Matthew 10:8; 11:2-6; Acts 9:32-43; 20:9-11).
• He told His disciples and others of His upcoming death and resurrection: Matthew 12:38-40; 16:21; 17:9; 17:22-23; 20:18-19; 26:32; Mark 14:28; Luke 9:22; John 2:19-22; 6:38-54; 12:1, 9, 17ff.
• Jesus staked His entire ministry on the fact that He would rise from the dead: Matthew 12:38-40. (The apostles did the same thing – basing their preaching the gospel on the fact of Christ’s resurrection: Acts 1:22; 2:24; 2:31-32; 3:15, 26; 4:2, 10, 33; 5:30; 10:40; 13:27-39; 17:18; 24:14-15; 24:21; 26:23.)

During His earthly ministry, how did Jesus’ disciples respond to revelations concerning His death and resurrection (Matthew 16:21ff.; Mark 9:9-14; 9:31-37; 16:9-11)? Were they predisposed to believe in His resurrection? What changed this?

How important was the resurrection of Jesus (and of all the dead) to the N.T. writers? What did they make of the resurrection, its meaning, and its application to us? How does the resurrection of Jesus Christ impact people today?

• Acts 1:22; 2:14-47; 3:6; 4:2, 10, 33; 5:30-32; 13:26-39; 17:18; 17:30-34; 23:6-10; 24:14-15; 24:21; 26:21-23.
• Romans 1:4; 4:16-25; 5:12-21; 6:1-11; 8:11; 10:6-10; 10:38-43
• 1 Corinthians 15
• Ephesians 4:7ff.
• Philippians 1:19-26; 3:7-11
• 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10
• 2 Timothy 2:15-18
• Hebrews 11:13-16
• 1 Peter 1:3; 3:21-22
• Revelation 20:4-15

According to Hebrews 11:13-16, Romans 4:13-25, Romans 10:9, and 1 Corinthians 15, what is the relationship between believing in a physical, bodily resurrection and saving faith?

Name several reasons for believing in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead?

• John 21:14
• 1 Corinthians 15:1-9; Acts 2:32; 3:15; 9:1-22; 13:30-31
• Acts 2:23-32; 17:2-3;
• John 16:7-11 (especially verse 10).
• Romans 8:11
• Acts 3:3-16; 4:8-10

If we preach that Christ was raised from the dead, and thus all the dead (believers and unbelievers) will also be raised, how is it that the doctrine of the resurrection can be joyfully embraced by Christians (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18), and yet fearfully anticipated by unbelievers (Acts 10:42; Philippians 2:9-11; Hebrews 2:14-15; Daniel 12:2; Revelation 1:18; 20:12-15)?

How had Jesus exposed the hypocrisy of the Sadducees regarding the resurrection (Matthew 22:23-34)? Why is it that the Jewish religious leaders (particularly the Sadducees) so strongly resisted the proclamation of the resurrection by the apostles (see Matthew 27:62-64; Acts 4:1-2; 5:17; 23:6-7)?

This will be a thought-provoker. Why is it that when we celebrate communion (the Lord’s table) we focus on the incarnation (the bread) and on the death of Jesus Christ (the wine), but nothing is specifically stated regarding the resurrection of Jesus (though it is implied in 1 Corinthians 11:26)? (Hint: What symbol could represent the resurrection of Jesus?)

What is the significance of the resurrection? What difference does it make whether or not one believes in the resurrection?

What are some differences between the biblical doctrine of the resurrection (of Christ, and of all the dead) and a belief in reincarnation?

So, summing up the teaching of the Scriptures on the resurrection of our Lord, what is it that we can and should celebrate this Easter? In what ways does the resurrection prompt our worship, as well as our efforts to share the gospel with unbelievers?

On completion of our graduate work in theology at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in 1970, my husband and I moved with our two children to Fayetteville, Arkansas. My husband assumed the pastorate of First Baptist Church of Fayetteville, and I continued my role as his helper-but with some major adjustments. First, the responsibility of caring for a premature crying machine added to the already arduous task of keeping up with a card-carrying member of the Terrible Twos’ Society was a life-changing jolt to the efficient routine of working as a highly paid executive secretary by day and amusing a drop-in toddler at night. Second, my weekend responsibilities as a pastor’s wife in New Orleans, which I had previously fulfilled as a mere addendum to my role as a “professional woman,” were certainly not from the script that had been presented to me on our arrival in Fayetteville. There I was to play the part of a young wife, following the steps of an accomplished pastor’s wife who had enjoyed star billing for many years and whose wardrobe did not include two babies! Third, the intellectually stimulating and mind-stretching dialogue of a theological community definitely overshadowed the dissonant and monosyllabic monologue of a frenzied mother whose only moment for reflection came within the confines of the bathroom-and that only if she managed to enter the room alone, which was a feat in itself!

Confusion and frustration were mine as I wondered if this, too, really would pass and, if indeed it passed, whether I also would be passed by forever as to any worthwhile contribution to society. During my seminary days I had maintained a rigorous schedule as a full-time student, studying both Hebrew and Greek, coupled with multiple part-time jobs and the responsibilities of a pastor’s wife. After completing my master’s degree, I entered motherhood and moved to a full-time job while my husband completed his doctoral work. Though I pursued motherhood as enthusiastically as I had every other adventure in my life-I even breast-fed my son for thirteen months, while working full-time-I can see in looking back that my first and freshest energies, not to mention the most productive part of my day, were devoted to professional pursuits away from home. When we moved to Arkansas, a void in my life came to the forefront. My theological training seemed a waste for the task of motherhood before me. In the midst of this frustrating time, I turned to the Lord. I determined in my daily quiet time to read through the Bible systematically with a new purpose: to determine God’s message for me personally as a woman, a wife, and a mother. This experience became the catalyst for my life and ministry. From it came a series of messages titled “The Bible Speaks on Being a Woman,” which I have been sharing with women over the years. My life and goals and perspective were forever changed. In every single book of the Bible I found God’s word for me. That word was not always comforting; in fact, sometimes it was like a sword to my heart; but always I knew that it was authoritative and, if authoritative, true, regardless of culture, circumstances, or perceived relevance. I came to realize that God did not expect me to determine how to adapt His Word to my situation. Instead, He expected me to adapt myself to the consistently and clearly presented principles found in His Word. God did not expect me to interpret His principles in light of my gifts and intellect, but He admonished me “to be conformed to the likeness of his Son” (Romans 8:29),¹ including gifts and intellect and creativity. God was not waiting for me to determine what directives were relevant for me as a twentieth-century American woman, but He was making clear throughout Scripture His demand for my absolute obedience, even willing submission in the Spirit of Christ Himself, who said, “I delight to do Thy will, O my God” (Psalm 40:8, NASB).

Consequently, my chosen role of wife and mother took on new significance; my extensive academic preparation and professional experience I viewed in a new light; my commitment to marriage and home gained an added dimension-a divine contractual relationship reaching beyond my husband and me to include the Creator God Himself, who said “Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate” (Matthew 19:6).

Bearing a new liberated identity, many women have devoted themselves to ambitious busyness everywhere but in the home. They are enmeshed in overwhelming voluntarism to achieve accolades and recognition in the community, or they are surrogate wives and mothers dedicated to hatching professional pursuits that promise power and pocketbook. Instead of encouraging adolescents to cut the apron strings of mother and venture out into society, we are begging mothers not to cut the apron strings on their babies and catapult them prematurely into a menacing world! Mom and hot apple pie have been replaced by institutional day care centers and cold apple turnovers at McDonald’s!

Women have been liberated right out of the genuine freedom they enjoyed for centuries to oversee the home, rear the children, and pursue personal creativity; they have been brainwashed to believe that the absence of a titled, payroll occupation enslaves a woman to failure, boredom, and imprisonment within the confines of home. Though feminism speaks of liberation, self-fulfillment, personal rights, and breaking down barriers, these phrases inevitably mean the opposite.² In fact, the opposite is true because a salaried job and titled position can inhibit a woman’s natural nesting instinct and maternity by inverting her priorities so that failures almost inevitably come in the rearing of her own children and the building of an earthly shelter for those whom she loves most. The mundane accompanies every task, however high paying or prestigious the job, so that escape from boredom is not inevitable just because your workplace is not at home. And where is the time for personal creativity when you are in essence working two jobs-one at home and one away?

In our quest to be all we are meant to be, let us not forget what we are meant to be! The question has never been whether a woman wants the best for her husband and children and even for herself. Rather the real question is this: Is being someone’s wife and another’s mother really worth the investment of a life? Does it take preparation of skills, concentration of energies, and the commitment of both to keep a home? The secular presuppositions of the present age, as well as one’s own assumptions and priorities, must continually be tested against the sure written Word of God, which warns us, “… but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1).

Is Homemaking a Challenging Career?

A career or professional pursuit requires training and preparation as well as commitment and dedication over the long haul; it demands consistent activity and progressive achievement; it is a combination of training and preparation, commitment and loyalty, energy and time, excellence and achievement. Finding an efficient, capable person who is professionally adequate in many and varied careers simultaneously is rare indeed. For example, would you want your family physician to be your postman and policeman as well? I doubt it. Why? Because you want him to specialize and sharpen his expertise in medicine. Yet, you are certainly aware that your doctor dictates letters and reports and that he may on occasion sit down with a troubled patient as counselor. Within most careers there is a diversity of opportunity but never to the neglect of the priority responsibility. If the doctor gives the most productive part of his day to reports or counseling sessions and if, accordingly, he neglects updating his professional skills and treats patients haphazardly, the doctor will soon have no need to make reports or do counseling because his patient load will dwindle. In other words, there is specialization in purpose and preparation but generalization in service and opportunity.

Homemaking is a career. The dictionary defines the homemaker as “one who manages a household, especially a wife and mother.” There are reasons why I believe this career is important enough to demand a woman’s diligent preparation, foremost commitment, full energies, and greatest creativity. A homemaker does her job without the enticement of a paycheck, but she cannot be duplicated for any amount of money, for “She is worth far more than rubies” (Proverbs 31:10). Dorothy Morrison wrote, “Homemaking is not employment for slothful, unimaginative, incapable women. It has as much challenge and opportunity, success and failure, growth and expansion, perks and incentives, as any corporate career.”³

Homemaking-A Divine Assignment

Keeping the home is God’s assignment to the wife-even down to changing the sheets, doing the laundry, and scrubbing the floors. In Titus 2:3-5, Paul admonishes the older women to teach the younger women, among other things, “to love their husbands and children, … to be busy at home” (oikourgous, Greek, literally “home-workers”). The home was once described as “… a place apart, a walled garden, in which certain virtues too easily crushed by modern life could be preserved,” and the mother in this home was described as “The Angel in the House.”⁴ A 1982 Gallup poll showed that more than eight out of ten respondents (82 percent) assigned top priority on an eleven-point scale to the importance of family life. Families, health, and self-respect all were rated as more important than the possession of material goods.⁵

Few women realize what great service they are doing for mankind and for the kingdom of Christ when they provide a shelter for the family and good mothering-the foundation on which all else is built. A mother builds something far more magnificent than any cathedral-the dwelling place for an immortal soul (both her child’s fleshly tabernacle and his earthly abode).** No professional pursuit so uniquely combines the most menial tasks with the most meaningful opportunities.

**Electronic Edition Editor Note: Whether consciously so or not, it appears that this is an adaptation from a Cardinal Mindszenty quote from his book "The Mother": "She has built something more magnificent than any cathedral—a dwelling for an immortal soul, the tiny perfection of her baby's body." In our opinion this is too close in wording not to notate.**

The Book of Proverbs is for me the most practical book in the Bible. No other book is more saturated with home and family and the relationships therein. No other book has any more to say to women specifically.

Proverbs 31 contains a full-length portrait of a godly heroine finished in minute detail. The passage is significant not only for what it includes but also for what it omits. There is no mention of rights or pursuit of self-serving interests; neither is the husband assigned to domestic pursuits. In fact, his occupation with other tasks is clearly stated, “Her husband has full confidence in her. … Her husband is respected at the city gate, where he takes his seat among the elders of the land” (Proverbs 31:11, 23). This beautiful and perfect ode of praise to womanhood is written as an acrostic with the first word of each verse beginning with one of the twenty-two successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

This description of God’s “Bionic/Wonder Woman” is often labeled an “Alphabetic Ode,” “The Golden ABC’s of the Perfect Wife,” “The Portrait of the Wife of Many Parts,” “A Paradigm for Brides-to-Be.” Perhaps its literary form is designed to make the passage easier to commit to memory, or its acrostic style may be a literary device used to emphasize that these characteristics describe God’s ideal woman-committed homemaker, chaste helpmeet, upright and God-fearing woman of strength. Though no woman can match skills and creativity perfectly with this model, all can identify their respective talents within the composite, and all can strive for the spiritual excellence of this woman of strength. This passage is recited in many Jewish homes on the eve of Sabbath, not only setting the high challenge for wife and mother but also expressing gratitude for her awesome service to the household.⁶

At least half of Proverbs 31:10-31 is occupied with personal and domestic energy. The New Testament, too, is clear in its emphasis on a woman’s needed and necessary energy and efficiency in managing her household (Titus 2:5; 1 Timothy 2:10; 5:14). When Jesus reprimanded Martha, He did not condemn the vital housework she was doing; neither did He decry the gracious hospitality extended to Himself (Jesus did not say only one thing is needful but pointed to the one thing Martha had omitted). He did admonish her not to be encumbered or burdened by her work to the exclusion of spiritual sustenance, which Mary had so faithfully sought (Luke 10:38-42). One is never to neglect spiritual preparation-not even for the joy of serving others.

The best way to make homemaking a joyous task is to offer it as unto the Lord; the only way to avoid the drudgery in such mundane tasks is to bathe the tasks with prayer and catch a vision of the divine challenge in making and nurturing a home. Brother Lawrence, a member of the barefoot Carmelite monks in Paris in the 1600s, set a worthy example: “Lord of all pots and pans and things … Make me a saint by getting meals and washing up the plates! … The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer, and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen … I possess God in as great tranquillity as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament.”

Many people are surprised to discover how much time it actually takes to run a household and care for a family. Having a career was far easier for me than being a homemaker! None of my former positions required my being on the job twenty-four hours every day. None of my varied professional pursuits demanded such a variety of skills and abilities as I have exercised in homemaking. Automatic, labor-saving devices save much physical work, but increased mobility and multiplied outside activities add to the overall time demands so that the preparation and care of the family shelter are important enough for God Himself to assign that responsibility. Of course, much of the world would agree that being a housekeeper is acceptable as long as you are not caring for your own home; treating men with attentive devotion would also be right as long as the man is the boss in the office and not your husband; caring for children would even be deemed heroic service for which presidential awards could be given as long as the children are someone else’s and not your own. We must not be overcome by the surrogacy of this age, which offers even a substitute womb for those so encumbered by lofty pursuits that they cannot accept God-given roles and assignments.

Homemaking-A Source of Self-Esteem

Women join men in the search for accomplishments and positive evaluations. We all have an innate desire to have worth. God’s ideal woman has such worth. In fact, her worth cannot be fixed or estimated-it is “far more than rubies” (Proverbs 31:10). The question is, of course, clear: Who has such worth? The Hebrew word hayil, translated “virtuous” but more literally “strength,”⁷ is found also in Proverbs 12:4; 31:29, and Ruth 3:11. It is further translated as activity, ability, valor, wealth, efficiency, endurance, capability, energy. This woman of strength enjoys dignity and importance in the administrative affairs of her home. She is a valuable helpmeet for her husband. She is a complement to her husband and a necessary completing part of his being.

There is beautiful reciprocity in this mutual relationship between husband and wife, just as there is between Christ and the church. Christ is the head of the church and the church is delighted to serve Him (Ephesians 5:23; Philippians 3:7-8). Christ finds joy in the church, and the church finds in Christ an inheritance of untold value. This husband has confidence in his wife’s ability as the manager of the household affairs. She is absolutely dependable. The gain that accrues to her husband from her thrift and industry assures that he “lacks nothing of value” (Proverbs 31:11). This “woman of strength” is a visionary investor. With her savings or inheritance, “She considers a field and buys it” (Proverbs 31:16). Unlike the unfaithful servant who hid the talent given to him by his master (Matthew 25:24-25), this prudent wife is continually adding to her husband’s investments because “she plants a vineyard” (Proverbs 31:16).

The woman of strength is an elegant lady. Tapestry for bedding, carpeting, pillows was a sign of a carefully-decorated home interior. Silk cloth had not yet been invented, but she undoubtedly used the fine flax or linen cloth that was the best of the day, and purple garments, indicating wealth or high rank, which were rare indeed (Proverbs 31:22). God’s woman does give time and effort to her appearance. These words were written about the wife of the great eighteenth-century preacher Jonathan Edwards,

But Sarah’s husband made it clear that he treasured her as more than a housekeeping drudge and the mother of extra farmhands. So she stayed attractive, and fifteen years later she was still able to entrance men much younger than she was.⁸

The “woman of strength” was a source of tremendous pride to her husband. Her complete management of the household freed her husband to concentrate on his labors. Her husband respected her for neatness of dress, appreciated the fact that his wife was held in high esteem, and was willing to “… let her works bring her praise at the city gate” (Proverbs 31:31), but there is no hint in the passage that she had any other purpose than to meet the needs of her family in the best possible way.

Is Homemaking a Worthy Service?

In the Scriptures, the concern of godly women was not discrimination in vocation but rather the barrenness of the womb. Women were not pining away, pleading with the Almighty to be priests or prophets. They were praying for the blessing of bearing children. In Israel, every Jewish mother hoped to become the mother of the Messiah, who had been promised to Eve, the first mother (Genesis 3:15).

Hannah was brokenhearted over her childlessness (1 Samuel 1:1-2:1). Feeling forsaken of God, her maternal instinct prompted agonizing prayer with the burning intent of giving the boy back to God as a living sacrifice. Hannah deemed this the highest service. This motivation was not borne out of slavery to procreative responsibility. In conversations with her husband and Eli the priest, she was treated as an equal. The decision of when to go to Shiloh was left entirely with Hannah, and she not only was given the privilege of announcing the name of the child but also apparently chose the name Samuel, saying, “Because I asked the Lord for him” (1 Samuel 1:20, 22). Hannah was her own woman, but for her this meant committing herself to the purposes of God.

Hannah went from brokenhearted barrenness to extraordinarily privileged maternity. Though Hannah’s psalm of thanksgiving marked her as a poetess and prophetess with a spiritual lyric equal to any psalm and full of theological truth, and though her words became the basis for Mary’s Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55), Hannah did not reckon her literary acclaim equal to the nurturing of her child. Her greatest reward was not the birth of a son, however, but the gift to God of that son, who perhaps beyond all men had power with and from God. Moments of unequaled joy are coupled with difficult and time-consuming work. Children are not things to be acquired, used according to time and schedule, showcased for personal satisfaction, and then put aside for personal ambition and convenience.

Rearing the next generation is a coveted task despite the unprecedented attacks on motherhood. Some women want to limit parenthood to the labor room, settling for a “maternity sabbatical” in which they birth a baby during a few weeks’ leave before rushing back to their lofty pursuits. Mrs. Uyterlinde returned to her job as an executive secretary at an insurance company four months after the birth of her triplets, saying, “I could only do that with the help of two full-time housekeepers.” She continued, “Working is easier than being at home, but I give them my total attention when I am at home. Luckily they don’t all want it at the same time.”⁹

Others opt to take parenthood a bit more seriously and thus choose the “mommy track” work plan so that their hours have some flexibility while the children are very young.¹⁰ Still others depict motherhood as an awful condition, suffocating and degrading-psychic suicide. Their banner is “Motherhood-Just Say No!” God’s warning through the prophet Ezekiel could not be more timely:

And you took your sons and daughters whom you bore to me and sacrificed them as food to the idols… . Everyone who quotes proverbs will quote this proverb about you: “Like mother, like daughter.” You are a true daughter of your mother, who despised her husband and her children; and you are a true sister of your sisters, who despised their husbands and their children. (Ezekiel 16:20, 44-45).

Motherhood is both a demanding and a rewarding profession. Unfortunately, the reward often comes much later in life, but a prime characteristic of the good mother is unselfishness; she can wait for the final realization of her rewards. No one-not teacher, preacher, or psychologist-has the same opportunity to mold minds, nurture bodies, and develop potential usefulness like a mother. It is both practical and consistent with the basic qualities that nature has given male and female that the woman who bears and nurses the baby should care for the young and for the dwelling in which the young live. Though a woman approaching the twenty-first century is different in many ways from her foremothers, she is in at least one way forever the same. Some would say that she is a servant of her biological fate, to which she has to adjust her other pursuits. Of course, this may be interpreted as mere slavery with the procreative and nurturing tasks as the shackles; but, on the other hand, this biological duty may also be accepted as a divinely assigned destiny with the awesome opportunity for a woman to link hand and heart with the Creator God in bearing and preparing the next generation as the binding cord.

Despite pressures and difficulties, the job can be overwhelmingly satisfying and amazingly productive, because the result of really competent mothering will be passed from generation to generation. Products in the marketplace may come and go, but generation after generation we produce our sons and daughters. A child needs his mother to be all there; to be focused on him, to recognize his problems and needs; to support, guide, see, listen to him, love and want him. A young woman wrote to “Dear Abby” describing her mother as “a professional woman who collected a husband, a daughter, and a dog to enrich her life.” According to the daughter, the only one not damaged by this enrichment was the dog!¹¹ Susanna Wesley, the incomparably brilliant and well-educated mother of sons who shook two continents for Christ, wrote, “I am content to fill a little space if God be glorified.” She described her now famous childrearing commitment in these words:

No one can, without renouncing the world, in the most literal sense, observe my method; and there are few, if any, that would entirely devote above twenty years of the prime of life in hopes to save the souls of their children, which they think may be saved without so much ado; for that was my principal intention, however unskillfully and unsuccessfully managed.¹²

The emergence of inexpensive, effective birth-control measures, not to mention widespread abortion, has cut the size of average families. Women are giving less and less of their time to childbearing and rearing; marriage is being delayed to allow career preparation and pursuit. Motherhood has become as mechanical and insignificant as any other household task and is just as quickly farmed out to others-even the carrying of the child in the womb, i.e., surrogate childbearing through in vitro fertilization.

Marriage has become such a partnership that the household tasks are carefully divided and assigned as nonchalantly as clients to be serviced. Both husband and wife choose careers according to the best earning power and opportunity for advancement of both, which usually means the family loses the best opportunity for both. Despite all this egalitarian emphasis, Mary Jo Bane of the Wellesley Women’s Research Center expressed a prevailing sentiment: “Everybody is in favor of equal pay, but nobody is in favor of doing the dishes.”¹³

Feminism is a “social movement” that demands it all. Actress Katharine Hepburn said in an interview, “I’m not sure any woman can successfully pursue a career and be a mother at the same time. The trouble with women today is that they want everything. But no one can have it all. I haven’t been handicapped by children. Nor have I handicapped children by bringing them into the world and going ahead with my career.”¹⁴ Actress Joanne Woodward says, “My career has suffered because of the children, and my children have suffered because of my career. I’ve been torn and haven’t been able to function fully in either arena. I don’t know one person who does both successfully, and I know a lot of working mothers.”¹⁵ Golda Meir of Israel confessed that she suffered nagging doubts about the price her two children paid for her career, adding, “You can get used to anything if you have to, even to feeling perpetually guilty.”¹⁶

Each of these women chose to work, not because she had to do so to provide necessities for her family or because her husband demanded it, but because of personal gain and fame or because of what she perceived to be a contribution more valuable to the nation or world than full-time motherhood. In each case, attention to the child was less important than the career.

Even the politicians are convinced that children are a valuable resource to be protected. A new report released by the National Governors’ Association Task Force on Children states, “The economic and social well-being of the United States rests on our ability to assure that our children develop into healthy, well-educated, and productive citizens… . To invest in their future is to invest in ours.”¹⁷

A study of primarily middle-class children was conducted by University of Texas at Dallas researchers Deborah Lowe Vandell and Mary Anne Corasaniti. This study indicated that full-time child care was associated with poorer study skills, lower grades, diminished self-esteem, and inadequate social interaction. Those who went into full-time care after the first year did not develop as well socially, emotionally, and intellectually as those in part-time care or those whose mothers stayed home with them. Surely another concern must be in the development of the child’s values and worldview, which are determined very early in life. Will forty hours a week in a day care center be a more formidable factor in forming those values than a worn-out mother? Because Vandell is a full-time professor and mother of three- and eight-year-old children, she had expected different results from the study. She clearly stated that she did not accept her findings as a call for mothers to stay at home.¹⁸

Napoleon was asked what could be done to restore the prestige of France. He replied, “Give us better mothers!”¹⁹ The art of mothering surely demands as much training as a skilled waitress or craft worker, and thus we should not expect to be an expert as we begin this vocation but rather that slowly we would learn the needs of each child and how to meet those needs. Often those who are reluctant to begin the job of full-time mothering are just as reluctant to give it up when the results are both seen and enjoyed. Timothy Dwight, former president of Yale, said, “All that I am and all that I shall be I owe to my mother.”²⁰ Good lives don’t just grow like Topsy; they are built by people who care.

Isn’t it amazing that legislators are looking for ways to enable families to send their children to day care rather than looking for ways to enable mothers to stay at home with their children? Megan Rosenfeld comments, “For the first time it is possible to envision a generation that will have spent the bulk of their childhood in an institution.”²¹ Sad but true is the fact that institutions are now set up to provide a substitute for the mother, who was the moral backbone and spiritual nurturer as well as the physical caretaker-the woman who is now no longer there!

Tatyana Zaslavskaya, president of the Soviet Sociologist Association, is quoted in a TASS interview as expressing deep concern for the ill effects on children of “the high rate of employment among working-age women.” She pleaded for mothers to make children their prime mission, calling on the Communist Party to discuss ways to reduce the employment rate among mothers. She added that the problem that is often glamorized in the United States as the “Superwoman phenomenon (the woman who is faster than a speeding two-year-old, able to leap tall laundry piles in a single bound, and possessed of more power than three teenaged boys and still able to go out and save the world in the midst of all) has been known in the Soviet Union for years as “the problem of two jobs.”²² Even Mikhail Gorbachev addresses this issue:

We have discovered that many of our problems-in children’s and young people’s behavior, in our morals, culture and in production-are partially caused by the weakening of family ties and slack attitude to family responsibilities. This is a paradoxical result of our sincere desire to make women equal with men in everything.

He adds that Russia is now looking for ways to make it possible for women to return “to their purely womanly mission.”²³

Some women even claim to have a higher focus on serving God-putting the gospel ahead of “familyism.”²⁴ While no one and nothing must come between a woman and her personal relationship to Christ (“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well,” Matthew 6:33), neither does the Bible contain any admonition to place the work of the church ahead of home responsibilities. When a woman has chosen the high calling of being a wife, her submission to her husband is “as to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:22). When she chooses the high calling of motherhood, “Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him” (Psalm 127:3); this, too, is itself an offering to the Lord.

In another era the beautiful and godly mother of John Chrysostom was widowed at a young age. She refused her many suitors and committed herself totally to the responsibility of rearing her gifted son, who became the Patristic church’s greatest orator.²⁵ Mothers, too, win most by losing all (“Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it,” Matthew 10:39). By developing the Christ-like quality of abandoning personal demands and rights and seeking to serve and minister to those whom God has provided for their own personal ministry, these unselfish heroines gain worth and wonder and splendor beyond imagination.

There is no greater need for the coming years than a revival of interest in the responsibilities of motherhood. We need mothers who are not only family-oriented but also family-obsessed. We have seen much about the virtue of determined childlessness and the right to make one’s own place in the sun; yet it is hard to locate an aging mother who believes she made a mistake in pouring her life into her children, and it would certainly be more difficult to find a child to testify that his mother loved him and poured herself into his life to his detriment and demise. Surely countless mothers would join me in saying, “Try it-you’ll like it!” The Lord Himself says, “Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them” (Psalm 127:4-5).

Homemaking-An Opportunity for Service

The wife was created by God to be her husband’s “helper” (ezer kenegdo, Hebrew, literally “a help like or corresponding to himself,” Genesis 2:18). There is nothing demeaning about being a helper. It is a challenging and rewarding responsibility. God Himself assumed that role on many occasions (Psalm 40:17, “You are my help and my deliverer; O my God, do not delay”; Hebrews 13:6, “So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper’”). This did not mean that the Lord was an inferior but spoke rather of His desire to meet the needs of those whom He loves with an everlasting and unconditional love. Through the ages some have held that women are inferior to men, but the attempt to attribute such an idea to Scripture is unthinkable.

We must give attention to what Luther called “the plain sense of Scripture” as concerns the husband-wife relationship. It is really not terribly complicated. What the New Testament writers wrote and how they meant their words to be understood in their own time is far more important than the secular meanings assigned these Biblical terms in this generation, especially when those meanings depart from the clear teaching of Scripture. The fact is that there is no suggestion in Scripture that women are inferior or incapable in any sense-neither in personhood, which is the same as man’s, nor in function, which is different from man’s.

Any attitude or action suggesting a woman’s insignificance, inferiority, or lack of personhood originated in the fall. The stigma of inferiority is no more appropriate for the wife than it would be for Christ. One can be subject to a superior as Israel was subject to the Lord (Deuteronomy 6:1-5) and as believers are subject to Christ (Philippians 2:9-11), or as Abraham submitted to the priesthood of Melchizedek (Hebrews 7:7). But subordination is also possible among equals: Christ is equal to God the Father and yet subject to Him (Philippians 2:6-8); believers are equal to one another and yet are admonished to “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Ephesians 5:21). In fact, one can be called to subordinate himself to someone who is inferior, as Christ submitted to Pontius Pilate, making “no reply, not even to a single charge” (Matthew 27:11-14). The mere fact that wives are told to be subject to their husbands tells us nothing about their status. It is the comparison of the relationship between husband and wife to the relationship of God the Father with God the Son that settles the matter of status forever.²⁶

Submission and authority, which to the feminists are the offensive elements in Biblical womanhood, are not terms that in themselves connote sinful or evil characteristics. Neither are the terms limited to describe role relationships between the sexes. Both terms are used to describe relationships within the family, including, but not exclusive to, the relationship between husband and wife. In fact, these terms even reach far beyond the family. In every facet of organized society (see Romans 13:1-5 for application to government and Hebrews 13:17 as concerns the church), there must be both authority and submission to authority; otherwise, there is anarchy. There simply is no justification for labeling these words and the concepts they embody as innately objectionable and oppressive. Finally, and more importantly, these terms point to our common ground with the Lord Himself, who gave to us the highest example of servanthood, obedience, and selflessness, as “he humbled himself and became obedient to death” (Philippians 2:5-8; see also John 5:30).

Ideally, the care of one’s partner is inherent in marriage. Each makes an active and unique (not passive and same) contribution to the marriage, and each depends upon the other for that contribution. Both husband and wife achieve their respective individuality by assuming different roles, for which each is needed and on which neither intrudes. In choosing to allow one’s husband to support the family, a wife can turn her ingenuity toward producing a lifestyle even better than an additional salary would buy.

Subordination has been distorted before in the history of the church. Arius assigned inferiority of being to Jesus the Son, refusing to accept the Scripture’s statement that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are equal in being and personhood (John 1:1; 5:23; 10:30; 14:6-7, 9, 11) and yet different in office and function, as the Son voluntarily becomes subject and even subordinate²⁷ to the Father (John 5:19-20; 6:38; 8:28-29, 54; 1 Corinthians 15:28; Philippians 2:5-11), and the Holy Spirit is sent by, and thus under the direction of, the Father to glorify the Son (John 14:26; 15:26; 16:13-14). Arian subordinationism was condemned as heretical-a denial of Trinitarianism-because it ignored, distorted, or misread certain Scriptures and because of Gnostic tendencies that simply dismissed or abandoned passages that the human mind could not explain.²⁸ Can “Arian” feminism, which denies that women can have equal personhood along with a subordinate role, i.e., a different role with equal worth, be any more circumspect? I certainly think not. The Council of Nicea in a.d. 325 not only condemned this heresy but also ascribed to both Son and Spirit an equality of being, while clearly declaring subordination of order and function.²⁹ Likewise, I have no problem in accepting within my womanhood the equality of creation and personhood, while recognizing that my divinely bestowed womanhood is uniquely suited to the divinely assigned task.

Too many women rush headlong into a career outside the home, determined to waste no time or effort on housework or baby-sitting but rather seeking to achieve position and means by directing all talents and energies toward non-home professional pursuits. It is true that many “perfect jobs” may come and go during the childrearing years, but only one will absolutely never come along again-the job of rearing your own children and allowing them the increasingly rare opportunity to grow up at home.

Golda Meir, by her own testimony, devoted her adult life to the birth and rearing of Israel at the cost of her marriage. She separated from her reticent husband in pursuit of public life. To quote Mrs. Meir, “what I was made it impossible for him to have the sort of wife he wanted and needed… . I had to decide which came first: my duty to my husband, my home and my child or the kind of life I myself really wanted. Not for the first time-and certainly not for the last-I realized that in a conflict between my duty and my innermost desires, it was my duty that had the prior claim.”³⁰

How sad it is for a woman to try to build her life on the notion that she is going to pursue whatever momentarily happens to gratify her needs socially, emotionally, physically, or professionally. Though the duty of wifehood and motherhood may lay claim, the desires of personal ambition and success in public service can take hold, of which the Lord warned,

but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire [epithumia, Greek], he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin [hamartia, Greek, literally “missing the mark”]; and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death. (James 1:14-15)

When a wife goes to work outside the home, often her husband and children go through culture shock. Suddenly the husband has added to his vocational work increased family assignments. He is frustrated over the increase in his own assignments and guilty over his wife’s increased fatigue and extended hours to keep up at home. God did give the husband the responsibility of providing for the family (Genesis 2:15). To sabotage his meeting that responsibility is often a debilitating blow to the man personally and to the marriage. A woman’s career can easily serve as a surrogate husband, as during employment hours she is ruled by her employer’s preferences. Because the wife loses much of her flexibility with the receipt of a paycheck, a husband must bend and adapt his schedule for emergencies with the children, visits to the home by repairmen, etc. This leaves two employers without totally committed employees and children without a primary caretaker utterly devoted to their personal needs and nurturing. Note the prophet’s warning, “Youths oppress my people, women rule over them. O my people, your guides lead you astray; they turn you from the path” (Isaiah 3:12).

Many women still see the paycheck as an inadequate trade for the sights and sounds and tastes of home. Though some see their paychecks as representing independence and achievement, to be bound to paychecks requires in exchange the time formerly allotted to work for the family in private, personal ways. This is not to say that there are never times when a woman should seek employment outside her home. Nevertheless, are we coming to a day when a woman’s employment outside the home is the rule rather than the exception, leaving no one to give primary attention to the home and to producing the next generation.

The most outstanding ministering couple in the New Testament is the dynamic duo Aquila and Priscilla, who traveled the apostolic world together, sharing the gospel of Christ and expounding the Word more fully (Acts 18:2-3, 18, 26). Priscilla must have been a diligent and discerning student of the Word of God, or she could never have impressed the learned Apollos. On the other hand, she must have been a gracious hostess to have endeared her home and hospitality to Paul. Obviously, she was encouraged to take an active part in ministry by her husband. When a godly wife is all she ought to be, she completes, complements, and extends her husband. Their joint ministry reaches beyond what either of them could do alone (Psalm 34:3; Ecclesiastes 4:9-12).

When Paige Patterson invited me to link my life to his, irrevocably and inseparably, he asked me to join him in study and preparation. How grateful I have been for the formal studies of seminary, but how much more grateful I am for the hours Paige has spent as my teacher and mentor. Paige has encouraged me in multifarious ministry, but never has he given me the impression that these ministries were to be more important than keeping our home and rearing our children.

Conclusion

Despite the clear positive principles and the precise warnings of consequences for those who ignore or distort God’s plan for the home and family, we find ourselves living in the very “upside-down” world the prophet Isaiah described:

You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, “He did not make me”? Can the pot say of the potter, “He knows nothing”? (Isaiah 29:16).

The efforts of contemporary society to eradicate the differences between the sexes have spawned an increase in strident lesbianism and open homosexuality, a quantum upward leap in divorces, an increase in rapes and sexual crimes of all sorts-and families smaller in size than ever before. We are part of a generation of women who have prostituted the creative purposes of God by prophesying “out of their own imagination” (Ezekiel 13:17), who have erected for themselves “male idols” to supplant the Creator’s design (Ezekiel 16:17), and who have cast aside the greatest blessing of the Creator, i.e., the fruit of the womb (Ezekiel 16:20, 44-45). We have allowed Scripture itself to be distorted so that we are conforming ourselves to this age and letting the world squeeze us “into its own mold” (Romans 12:2, Phillips). The church today sounds like the world twenty-five years ago; it has lost its great power to stand against culture. Scripture has been shanghaied to suit the purposes of the age and to conform to the current cultural scene. The virtues and vices of Christianity have been inverted so that self-gratifying personal rights, selfishness, and self-interests are exalted, whereas self-effacing submission, humility, and service to others are degraded. While I am not implying that every career woman is selfish, I am saying that the social atmosphere that causes women to crave professional pursuits over the family is perverted by unbiblical assumptions and an ungodly spirit of assertion and self-gratification.

Evangelical or Biblical feminism is in large measure a product of the secular women’s liberation movement of the late sixties and seventies. Few of these evangelical feminists have much in common with the radical wing of feminism. Nevertheless, the movement of self-assertion in the home, church, and community cannot but extend into the spiritual realm with a determination to act independently of God and go one’s own way (Proverbs 14:12; Isaiah 53:6). Human rights and reason have been exalted over responsibility and divine revelation. The reality in Scripture has been subordinated to the reason of man (and woman); the absolutes of the Creator have been replaced with the whims of the creation. Rejecting Scripture as authoritative, many male and female feminists put the focus of authority in human hands, usually through some hermeneutical casuistry. Whatever texts do not seem to affirm women are labeled as not authoritative, while texts judged as affirming are authoritative.

There is great resistance in the world of feminism to letting Scripture speak for itself. Instead of coming reverently to the Biblical text to see what it says and then declaring themselves to be feminists, many seem to have found something in secular feminism and in its claims for improving the lot of womanhood that seemed good and true to them. Thus, the feminists took a “leap of faith” to attach themselves to this movement, determining to legitimize their position Biblically and theologically and to change two millennia of church history and tradition to reflect this new church doctrine that more nearly fits the reality of their active professional lives-another tragic example of the world’s setting the agenda for the church rather than vice versa.

Homemaking, if pursued with energy, imagination, and skills, has as much challenge and opportunity, success and failure, growth and expansion, perks and incentives as any corporation, plus something no other position offers-working for people you love most and want to please the most!

In the words of Scripture, I have found a worthy challenge:

Teach them [God’s words] to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up… so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the Lord swore to give your forefathers, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth. (Deuteronomy 11:19, 21)

Homemaking-being a full-time wife and mother-is not a destructive drought of usefulness but an overflowing oasis of opportunity; it is not a dreary cell to contain one’s talents and skills but a brilliant catalyst to channel creativity and energies into meaningful work; it is not a rope for binding one’s productivity in the marketplace, but reins for guiding one’s posterity in the home; it is not oppressive restraint of intellectual prowess for the community, but a release of wise instruction to your own household; it is not the bitter assignment of inferiority to your person, but the bright assurance of the ingenuity of God’s plan for complementarity of the sexes, especially as worked out in God’s plan for marriage; it is neither limitation of gifts available nor stinginess in distributing the benefits of those gifts, but rather the multiplication of a mother’s legacy to the generations to come and the generous bestowal of all God meant a mother to give to those He entrusted to her care.

Copyright 1997 Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. All rights reserved.

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¹ All Scripture quoted will be from the New International Version unless otherwise specified.

² Frank Zepezauer, “The Masks of Feminism,” The Human Life Review, Fall 1988, p. 31.

³ My Turn, Newsweek, October 17, 1988, p. 14.

⁴ Paul Fussell, “What Happened to Mother?” The Wilson Quarterly, vol. xii, no. 5 (Winter 1988), p. 154.

⁵ George Gallup, “Intangibles Rated Highest by Americans,” The Dallas Morning News, January 28, 1982, p. 24D.

⁶ Hymen E. Goldin, The Jewish Woman and Her Home (New York: Hebrew Publishing Co., n.d.), pp. 130-131.

⁷ Francis Brown, S.R. Driver, and Charles Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962), pp. 298-299.

⁸ Elizabeth Dodds, Marriage to a Difficult Man (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1976), p. 84.

⁹ The Dallas Morning News, September 22, 1981.

¹⁰ The Dallas Morning News, March 11, 1989.

¹¹ Abigail Van Buren, “Dear Abby,” The Northwest Arkansas Times, September 28, 1974.

¹² Rebecca Lamar Harmon, Susanna, Mother of the Wesleys (London: Hodder Stoughton, 1968), p. 57.

¹³ San Francisco Examiner, December 28, 1977.

¹⁴ “An Interview with Kate Hepburn,” Ladies Home Journal, March, 1977, p. 54.

¹⁵ “Joanne and Paul,” Ladies Home Journal, July, 1975, p. 62.

¹⁶ “Books,” Newsweek, November 3, 1975, p. 88.

¹⁷ Kim A. Lawton, “Politicians Discover Children,” Christianity Today, March 17, 1989, p. 34.

¹⁸ Sandra Evans, “Study Shows Negative Effects of Full-Time Child Care,” Washington Post, April 23, 1988, p. A10.

¹⁹ Victor Wilson, “Book Garners Facts, Fancies about Mom,” Dallas Morning News, May 13, 1984, p. 10F.

²⁰ Dodds, Marriage to a Difficult Man, p. 209.

²¹ Megan Rosenfeld, Washington Post (November 9, 1986).

²² Associated Press, June 11, 1988.

²³ Mikhail Gorbachev, “In His Words,” U.S. News and World Report, November 9, 1987, pp. 70-79.

²⁴ Kristin M. Foster, “Ministry and Motherhood: A Collision of Callings?” Currents in Theology and Mission, vol. 16, no. 2 (April 1989), p. 102.

²⁵ W. R. Stephens, Saint John Chrysostom (London: John Murray, 1880), pp. 9-12.

²⁶ “What Is Christian Marriage: a Debate between Larry and Nordis Christenson and Berkeley and Alvera Mickelsen,” Transformation, vol. 5, no. 3 (July/September 1988), p. 3; see also Chapter 12 in this volume.

²⁷ Defined as “one who stands in order or rank below another.” Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (Springfield: G C Merriam, 1971), p. 2277.

²⁸ “Subordinationism,” Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, ed. F. L. Cross (London: Oxford University Press, 1958), p. 1301.

²⁹ Augustus Hopkins Strong, Systematic Theology (Philadelphia: Judson Press, 1960), p. 342.

³⁰ “Books,” Newsweek, November 3, 1975, p. 88.

The Servant Model Of Christian Leadership

In part 1 of this two-part series on Biblical models of Christian leadership, I outlined the principle and paradigm of “the shepherd model” for leadership. In this article, I want to discuss the second biblical model for Christian leadership - “the servant”.

A. The Principle Of Servant Leadership

In addition to the term “shepherd,” the Bible clearly indicates that leaders of God’s people are to be “servants”. The common term used today Christian circles is “servant leader”, which I think is an attempt to reflect a biblical approach and attitude to leadership – namely, the leader as servant; or, a leader who serves. The term “servant leadership” sounds like an oxymoron, but it really isn’t when we understand what the term means and implies. The term becomes less confusing when we understand it as follows: the position is “leader”; the attitude is “serving”.

In any event, the whole notion of “servant leadership” is included in “shepherding” that we have already discussed because the two terms are vitally integrated – both are leadership positions and both demand the attitude of serving. So, perhaps the term we should use is “shepherds who serve”, or “servant shepherds.”

Servant leadership means that the leaders serve those they lead in order to make their followers happier in their work environment, more appreciated, more productive in their work, more rewarding, more fruitful, more challenging. The job of servant leaders is “to work hard to provide others with the resources and working conditions they need to accomplish their ministry goals. They make others feel more important than themselves. They have others’ best interests at heart” (Aubrey Malphurs, Dynamics, 46-47).

Solomon was certainly a leader. He got things done. He was a great planner and  visionary. But he was not a shepherd – in fact, quite the opposite. So much so that, after his death, the people of Israel, whom Solomon had abused with his authoritarian rule, said to Rehoboam, his son:  “Your father made our yoke heavy; now therefore,  lighten the burdensome service of your father and his heavy yoke which he put on us, and we will serve you.”  (1 Kgs. 12:4). Now, how did Rehoboam respond to this request. He turned to two groups of people for advice – his fathers’ elders and Rehoboam’s young peers. It is very informative to note the contrast between the advice that Solomon’s elders gave to his son, Rehoboam, and the advice that Rehoboam’s new, young counsellors gave him. 

Solomon’s elders said (and note this verse well): “If you will be A Servant to these people today, and Serve Them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever” (1 Kgs. 12:6-7). That was good advice borne out of experience! But Rehoboam’s new, young advisors said the opposite: “Thus shall you say to them: My little finger shall be thicker than my father’s waist.  And now, whereas my father put a heavy yoke on you, I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scourges” (12:10-11).

Unfortunately, Rehoboam rejected the advice of the elders and followed the advice of his young men, his peers and actually increased the burdensome demands on the people instead of lightening them. The result was disastrous.

The Lord Jesus most thoroughly exemplifies this principle of servant leadership. This is clearly taught by Paul in Philippians, where he instructs them to pursue this principle themselves (2:3-4) and then gives the ultimate example of Jesus (2:5-16).

So, what does this paradigm of servant leadership look like?

B. The Paradigm Of Servant Leadership

To examine this paradigm, we are going to study to two biblical texts – 1 Cor. 3-4 and Phil. 2:5-16.

Textual Study #1: 1 Corinthians 3-4

The subject in this text is: “What is the role of pastors / ministers? Over the history of the church, two extremes have been apparent:

1. Clericalism in which the clergy are raised up on a pedestal above everyone else.

2. Anticlericalism in which clergy are opposed or considered unnecessary or even unbiblical.

Largely, in evangelical circles, our view of church structure and leadership is balanced between the priesthood of all believers and the leadership of those who labour in the word.

The Corinthian church was divided into parties / factions, each one claiming a certain leader as their head. These were “personality cults”. This, Paul says, is pure “carnality” (3:1-4). This division into personality cults is the activity of people who are driven by the flesh, not people who are led by the Spirit. That’s why Paul had to speak to them “as” to carnal and not “as to spiritual people” (1). He isn't here creating two classes of Christians (spiritual Christians vs. carnal Christians). Rather, he is saying that their divisive behaviour (party politics) was the activity of fleshly people not that of spiritual people. The division of the church into leadership (personality) sects / cults was a wrong view of ministry, church structure, and spirituality.

One faction was saying, “I am of Paul” (1 Cor. 1:12). But Paul replies, “Was Paul crucified for you?” (13). Answer: No!  Conclusion: Then he is not the head of the church. Another faction was saying, “I am of Christ” (1 Cor. 1:12). You might think that this group was the right one, the most spiritual. But Christ has nothing to do with a spirit of division and party-making. Paul responds, “Is Christ divided?” (13). Answer: No!  Conclusion: Then he is not identified with one group vs. another. He is the one head of the whole church, not of a faction within the church.

This state of affairs gives rise to Paul’s question in 1 Cor. 3:5, “What then is Paul and what is Apollos...? He is essentially asking, “Who do you think we are? Who do you think apostles / church leaders are? The answer is, they are “... ministers through whom you believed as the Lord gave to each one” (3:5). That’s what we are, Paul says,  servants of Christ and the church through whom you believed. We had distinct roles according to the gifting God gave us. Thus, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase” (6). We exercised our God-given gifts in our service for God for the benefit of the church. So, don’t give the glory to Paul or Apollos for “neither he who plants is anything nor he who waters, but God who gives increase” (7). We couldn’t make the seed of the Word grow to save our lives. We merely planted and watered like good servant farmers in God’s field. All the glory goes to God – he alone can make the seed spring up into abundant life.

Furthermore, the one who plants (Paul) and the one who waters (Apollos) are one. We aren’t divided, even though our gifts and functions in the church are different (8a). We have a common, single task, focus, and goal. We are “God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building” (9b).

That’s the structure of ministry: God calls us into his service as his “fellow-workers”; He gives to each of us our own “reward” according to our own labour (8b); and “you are God’s field / building (9b), the sphere in which God is working to produce a crop and a home for his people.

In 1 Cor. 4, the apostle Paul begins to answer the question he asked in 1 Cor. 3:5. “Let a man so consider us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God (4:1). So this is who and what pastors and church leaders are:

I. Church Leaders Are Servants Of Christ (4:1a)

This is where it all begins. We cannot be ministers of the Word (preachers / teachers) or leaders of the church (elders, pastors, deacons) unless we are first “ministers / servants (lit. “underlings”) of Christ.” So, Paul is painting a picture here of how church leaders must view themselves, not as men with high rank and honour, but lowly, humble servants of Christ and of his church – “underlings.”

Now, to keep the picture balanced, lest the members of the church despise their leaders or consider them unnecessary, Paul clearly teaches in other places that church leadership is a noble calling (1 Tim. 3:1) and church leaders are to be honoured, even doubly honoured (1 Thess. 5:12-13; 1 Tim. 5:17) for who they are and what they do. This is how church members must view their leaders. But the view of church leaders of themselves and the attitude with which they are to serve is that of servants (“underlings”) – not underlings of the church, but underlings of Christ.

So, church leadership (Christian ministry) begins with one’s relationship to Christ. He is our head; we are his servants. This denotes obedience, submission, devotion, accountability. When we are confident in and committed to this relationship to Christ, this liberates us from the tyranny of criticism and judgementalism by church members.

That’s why Paul says, “With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court. In fact I do not even judge myself. For I know of nothing against myself (i.e. my conscience is clear) yet I am not justified by this (just because I have a clear conscience does not mean I am right or clear of offense), but He who judges me is the Lord” (4:3-4). The Corinthians (under the influence of false apostles) were being very critical of Paul accusing him of misusing his authority and not keeping his word. This type of false accusation and unsubstantiated criticism is not what church leaders bow to. The Lord is our judge. “Therefore, judge nothing before the time” – don't get drawn into premature judgements. Wait, “until the Lord comes, who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God” (5). That’s when the truth will be manifested. That’s when true justice will be administered. That’s when each one will have appropriate praise from God, for that’s who we are accountable to.

Application. Paul says he has “figuratively transferred these things (i.e. the principles he has just outlined) to myself and Apollos” (6a), so that “you may learn in us not to think beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up on behalf of one against another” (6). So, the principle of servanthood is just as applicable to Paul and Apollos as anyone else and they demonstrated it in their leadership. Thus, the Corinthians should learn from them (Paul and Apollos) not to be “puffed up” about one leader over and against another. Their sectarian view of leadership (breaking up the church into parties under the acclaimed leadership of various prominent personalities) was not what they saw demonstrated in the lives of Paul and Apollos.

Challenge. Paul sets out direct challenges to us:

1. “Who makes you differ from another?” (7a). What makes you different from anyone else? What right do you have to make such distinctions among yourselves such that you divide yourselves up into various factions?

2. “What do you have that you did not receive?” (7b).

3. “If you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as though you had not?” (7c)

Conclusion. Verses 3-7 emphasize that pastors / ministers are accountable to Christ for their ministry. Of course, the question is always raised, “Well, aren’t they accountable to the body of Christ, the congregation?” Of course they are. But Paul isn’t dealing with that here. He is dealing with the elevation of certain “names” by certain factions, which ministers of Christ must always oppose. We do not serve the self-interests of self-appointed factions in the church. We serve the interests of Christ alone in ministering to his people.

Further, Paul is pointing out our highest accountability. Accountability to the church is not the highest accountability. Accountability to Christ is our highest, most serious, most holy and most frightening accountability, because ultimately we will stand before Him and all that we have done will be judged because he sees and hears everything (wood, hay, stubble, which are useless and will be burned up, or gold, silver, precious stones, which are valuable and will remain).

II. Church Leaders Are Stewards Of God’s Word (4:1b-2)

“Stewards of the mysteries of God” (1b). “Mysteries of God” refers to those truths which were formerly concealed but now revealed. They are mysteries because we could never have solved them on our own and we could never have conceived how God would solve them. What “mysteries” is Paul referring to? Mysteries like: who would be the Messiah, when would he come, how would he redeem his people? How would God bring together both Jew and Gentile equally into one body?

These truths were revealed by the N. T. apostles, the stewards / trustees of God’s revealed truth, and preachers today continue to bear this stewardship responsibility.

Application. We are responsible for teaching the truths once for all delivered to the saints. Teaching is our primary responsibility (1 Tim. 3:2) - not teaching our own ideas but teaching revealed truth. And we are required to “be faithful” (2) – i.e. trustworthy. Trustees must handle in a trustworthy manner the deposit (of truth) that is entrusted to them. Unfortunately, there are many unfaithful ministers, untrustworthy stewards, like pastors who deny the trustworthiness of the Bible, the authority of the Bible, the deity of Christ - pastors who don't study or teach the Bible; pastors who reduce the Bible to little more than a myth. They change it to mean what they want. They delete the parts they don't like.

Challenge. We need to resolve to be faithful stewards of the Word as it is written and teach it clearly and accurately with application to contemporary audiences, not twisting it to suit ourselves.

III. Church Leaders Are The Lowest Of The Low (4:8-13)

We are “a spectacle to the world” (9). The imagery is of a condemned man / criminal, who, before a packed arena is thrown to the lions, to the delight and entertainment of the audience. Paul is saying: We ministers are not fat cats, sitting in middle class suburbs enjoying the privileges of position, power, and wealth. We aren’t like you rich Corinthians who seem to already be reigning like kings, who seem to be enjoying the benefits of a realized eschatology, for whom everything is “now”; nothing is “not yet”. They were living as though the kingdom of God had already come in fullness. But such is not the case in reality as you can see in Paul’s own life. Suffering precedes glory, the cross [e.g. hunger, thirst, poor clothes, beaten, homelessness etc. (11-12)] comes before the crown.

We are the scum of the earth, “the off-scouring of all things” (13). The imagery is of the scum from dirty pots and pans in the kitchen that is washed down the sink or thrown into the garbage. They were considered the dregs of society. This is the picture Paul paints to show the contrast between the Corinthians (their lifestyle, their self-importance)  and the apostles. He reverses his description of what they were like when God called them – weak, foolish (1:26f.). Instead, now they are “kings, rich”, whereas he is a “fool for Christ” (10).

Nonetheless, in his situation he is a model for all ministers of the gospel who are to demonstrate the life and example of Jesus. When we are cursed / reviled, we bless. When we are persecuted, we endure. When we are slandered and defamed, we exhort and encourage.

Challenge. How far removed is this picture of ministry from ourselves? Most of us cannot apply Paul’s imagery to ourselves. But the point is, don’t try or expect to be a popular pastor. The gospel, properly and fully preached, is an unpopular message because it reveals the truth about us, because it is an exclusive message (one way, one Saviour), and because it demands a holy life.

IV. Church Leaders Are The Spiritual Fathers Of Christ’s Church (4:14-21)

Paul is not writing to shame or humiliate the Corinthians, but to warn them “as my dear children” (14). True spiritual fathers are few and far between. There are lots of guardians (the slave who supervised a boy / a son re: discipline, dress, food etc.), but “not many fathers” (15a). Guardians are not motivated by love for the child, but duty to the slave master. But Paul had “begotten them through the gospel” (15b). They were his spiritual children. “Therefore, imitate me” (16) and in case they had forgotten how he behaved, he was sending Timothy to “remind” them (17). Some were “puffed up” (18), thinking that he would not come and check them out, but he was coming to find out if they truly were spiritually powerful people or just all talk.

Challenge. True pastoral leadership is marked by gentleness, care and concern, and discipline (when needed). Paul didn’t want to come to them “with a rod but in love and in the spirit of gentleness” (21).

Textual Study #2: Philippians 2:5-16

As we go through this passage, please remember that the apostle Paul is drawing a vivid picture here of the ultimate example of servant leadership. What we want to find out here is what is it about Christ’s leadership that we (like the Philippians) need to learn from and begin to practice. That’s why Paul has this passage here – to instruct the church in what it means to be a true servant leader.

The church at Philippi was divided (2:1-3a) by disputes, arguments, complaints; by people pushing their own agendas and promoting themselves. Paul exhorts them: “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit“ (3a). Instead, he wants them to “fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind (2).

What they needed was to imitate Christ in his humility (3b-4) so that they would be united, by regarding each other better than themselves. Hence, Paul says, “but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself” (3b), by acting in each other’s best interest, “not by each of you looking out for his own interests, but rather for the interests of others” (4).

They needed to change their attitude!  Attitude is the key to acting in other people’s best interests. Remember, “The position is leader; the attitude is serving.” Thus, the apostle Paul says that... 

I. Servant Leaders Need To Express The Right Attitude (5-11)

Attitude is so important for how we live and particularly for how we lead. You’ve probably heard your mother or school teacher at one time or another say: “You need to change your attitude, young man.” And that’s what Paul says to the Christians at Philippi. He says: “You’ve got an attitude problem. You need to start working together. You need to show mutual concern, not self-ambition. You need lowliness of mind, not self-conceit. You need to look out for one another’s interests, not your own. You need to change your attitude! You need the attitude of Christ! “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (5). He is the supreme example of self-sacrifice for the benefit of others (the true servant leader); of humility out of love and respect for others.

This is the way to lead the church in unity, by lowering self and elevating others, just as Christ lowered himself so that others could be exalted. To shepherd God’s people properly, we need to express Christ’s attitude to one another. First…

1. The Attitude Christ Expressed In Emptying Himself… “who being in the form of God did not consider equality with God something to be held onto” (6). Before coming into the world and taking on human form, he was “in very nature God” (NIV). Paul is Not saying that Jesus was God in “form” (i.e. appearance) but not in reality. No, to be in the “form” of God means that he possessed all the characteristics of God that are essential to the reality of being God. That’s who he was. He was nothing less than God (Jn. 1:1). But despite being God, He did not consider his “equal-to-God” position with all its rights and privileges something to be held onto at all cost. Quite the contrary.  He let it go. Unlike human monarchs and presidents who desperately hold onto power and position, He let it go! “He emptied himself” (7a).

Christ emptied himself by the position that he took. He gave up heaven to stoop to earth (6-7). Rather than fighting for his own rights and position as the Philippians did, Christ “emptied” himself. He made himself of no reputation,  divesting himself of his privileges but without in any way ceasing to be fully God.

He gave up his glorious position to become despised (cf. Jn. 17:4). The One who was adored by the angels of heaven became despised by the human race.

He gave up his infinite riches to become poor. He became voluntarily poor (no place to be born; no home to live in; no bed to sleep in; no tomb to be buried in). He took on our burden / debt of sin (cf. Jn. 1:29). The sinless One became sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21).

He gave up the independent exercise of his divine rights to become obedient. He became the perfect servant whose mission was to do the Father’s will. As someone else has said: The only One who had “the right to assert his rights, waived them” (Wuest, cited in Hendriksen, 109). Majesty was given up for meekness. Self-existence was replaced by self-renunciation. Superiority was set aside for submission.

This is the mystery and wonder of the incarnation, that God became a man without ever ceasing to be God. This is the attitude, the mindset that Paul is urging on us as leaders – complete selflessness that looks out for the concerns of others. Not grasping onto our own rights and privileges, but letting them go for the benefit of others.

What did this “emptying” look like? How did He do this? “... (by) taking the form of a bondservant” (7b). This was an act of self-abasement, self-impoverishment. Christ emptied himself by the position that he took. He took the form of a servant / slave – i.e. He took it in addition to, not in place of, his deity. The One who was in the form of God also took the “form of a servant.” That’s how he could be our Saviour - because he is the God-man, fully God and fully human, and thus the perfect sacrifice for our sins, our perfect substitute.

The “form” of a slave does not mean that he “appeared” as a slave but really was not. 

He actually took the lowest position on the economic and social scale – someone without rights or privileges, the servant of all. Christ entered world history not as the “Lord” but as a “slave”. He came not to be served but to serve and give his life a ransom for many.

Christ emptied himself by the position that he took. And, Christ emptied himself by the nature that he took. “The likeness of human beings” (7c). Now Paul uses a different word – not “form” but “likeness”. Paul is saying that Christ was “similar to our humanity in some respects and dissimilar in others” (Fee, 213). He was Similar in that he was genuinely and fully human, like us. But He was Dissimilar in that he was at the same time fully God. Thus, the “likeness” has to do with his full humanity but sinless nature (cf. Rom. 8:3) – like us but not exactly, because he was not solely human: he was God manifest in flesh (cf. Heb. 1:3).

Servant leaders need to express the right attitude.  First, the attitude of Christ expressed in emptying himself.  Second...

2. The Attitude Christ Expressed In Humbling Himself: “...being found in appearance / fashion as a man, he Humbled himself” (8a). As God, he chose “to empty himself” and as man he chose to “humble himself”. This is the attitude that Paul wants us to adopt - self-renunciation for the benefit of others!

Christ gave up his divine superiority to take on human inferiority. He was born in a stable to a no-name, disrespected virgin. He grew up in obscurity and lived in poverty. He did miraculous acts of kindness for which he was persecuted. He came to his own people who did not receive him. He was ridiculed, mocked, tortured, and crucified.

He took the lowest position on earth. Just as He gave up heaven to stoop to earth, so He gave up life to submit to death (8). That’s how he humbled himself by “becoming obedient to death” (8b). He gave up everything to become nothing, even giving up his life to submit to death – The Ultimate Act Of Self-Sacrifice. And this was no ordinary death - “even the death of the cross” (8c). This was the most painful of deaths. This was the most shameful of deaths – a condemned man carrying his own cross to a desolate place outside the city; crucified between two thieves; mocked by the religious leaders and the crowd. Death on a cross was an accursed death (Gal. 3:10, 13). He bore the curse of God on account of our sin.

This is the mystery of redemption: God on a cross! No wonder the rulers of this age could not grasp it for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2:8). The One who did not consider equality with God something to be held onto at all costs, in fact let it go by voluntarily setting aside his divine rights and privileges, by humbling himself and appearing in world history as a man, so that we could see God in flesh and know the love of God expressed in its fullness through his death on the cross – The Ultimate Act Of Self-Humiliation.

As Gordon Fee puts it: “The Divine Weakness (death at the hands of his creatures, his enemies) is the Divine Scandal” (Fee, 217). God on a cross was and is a scandal. It went against everything the 1st century disciples knew and expected of the Messiah. It contradicted human wisdom that the Gentiles sought and it contradicted the divine sign of power that the Jews looked for.

Christ emptied himself and humbled himself, taking the lowest position on earth. But God gave him the most exalted position in heaven: “Therefore, God has highly exalted him” (9a). Lest you doubt that the One who took the lowest place and suffered such ignominy could possibly be God the story of redemption continues. Obedience to death on a cross was not the end. God has exalted him like no one else (Eph. 4:10). He raised Christ from the depths of death to the heights of heaven. He exalted Him from the lowest place on earth to the most exalted position in heaven where he is now seated at the right hand of God, crowned with glory and honour (Heb. 1:3; 12:2; Eph. 1:20-22).

His exaltation reverses his emptying. The One who took the lowest place is honoured with the highest place (cf. Matt. 23:12). The One who was condemned by man is exalted by God. The One who was crucified is the one who is crowned. The One who became poor  is gloriously rich. The One who was rejected by man is fully accepted by God. The One who became a servant now rules as King. The One who wore a crown of thorns now wears a crown of glory. The One who was weak is now all powerful. The One who was our sacrifice is now our High priest.

Christ’s self-emptying and self-humiliation are now displayed as proof that he is equal with God. This is God’s vindication of Him – that he is truly God. The mystery and paradox of God on a cross is resolved. His humiliation and crucifixion are but the prelude to his exaltation by God so that what appeared to be defeat was in fact victory.

God gave him the most exalted position in heaven. And God gave him the most extolled name in the universe (9b-11): “…the name above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow” (9b-10a). It is the purpose of God that the name of Jesus (the Saviour of his people) will take on special significance – not that of an earthly name but of an exalted Saviour.

God Gave Him A Name That Will Be Revered By Every Creature: “…those in heaven and those on earth and those under the earth” (10b). The homage that alone is due to God by his creation (Isa. 45:18-24a) is assigned here by God to Christ. This is the ultimate vindication of his deity. This is not just the homage of those who have been redeemed by him, but the bowing of every creature to his universal lordship and sovereignty. Every knee means heavenly beings, living humans, the dead, and the underworld of demons. When this name is known, just the mention of it will cause everyone to bow the knee in homage. The redeemed will bow in rejoicing and the damned will bow in remorse.

His most extolled name reverses his humiliation. The One who was mocked with a purple robe, scourged with cruel whips, humiliated with a crown of thorns, spit upon by wicked men, and condemned with despicable injustice will be acknowledged by every creature.

God gave him a name that will be revered by every creature. And He Gave Him A Name That Will Be Confessed By Every Tongue: “…that at the name of Jesus every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father” (11). The “bowing of the knee” is the reverence of the lesser to the greater and the “confession of the tongue” is the acknowledgement of the creature to the Creator. His name that was once so despised will cause every knee in creation to bow and every tongue to confess that the Lord is Jesus Christ. He is God, the universal sovereign (cf. Acts 2:36). Jesus, the suffering Saviour, is the exalted Lord. 

This is the grand finale to his humiliation and exaltation – the highest position and the divine title of Lord; the One with all power and authority. This is the ultimate goal for which we expectantly wait - the homage of every knee; and the confession of every tongue so that Jesus Christ has his rightful place as King of kings and Lord of lords. And all this “to the glory of God the Father”. For when the Son is honoured, so is the Father. The unity of the Godhead is perfect.

That’s the model for us. If we are to shepherd the church of Christ in unity we need to imitate the chief Shepherd. The key is having the attitude / mind of Christ - lowering ourselves for the benefit of others.

So, first, servant leaders need to express the right attitude.  And, second…

II. Servant Leaders Need To Engage In The Right Activity (2:12-16)

“So, then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed (not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence), work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (12). When your mind is transformed by the attitude of humility, your activity will be transformed by the attitude of obedience. Changing our mindset isn’t enough. Rather, a true change of mind toward one another must transform our behaviour with one another. Obedience is the underlying characteristic of Christ-likeness without which we cannot worship and serve in unity.

This is Paul’s challenge now. He’s told us How To Think; now he challenges us How To Act as servant leaders. It’s one thing how you behave when someone is watching, but the true test is how you behave when no one is looking. That’s what shows whether you are truly obedient and loyal, isn’t it?

So, how do we express our obedience to Christ?  By…

1. Working In Ways That Show Our Salvation In Christ (12-13): “...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (12b). This has nothing to do with the doctrine of the eternal security of the believer - although that is biblical and I believe it. This has nothing to do with working For our salvation. This has to do with what one commentator says is “working out what God in his grace has worked in.”

We need to put into practice the “attitude” of Christ so that our salvation is evident in how we live and act together as a church, not in disunity, striving for our individual rights, but in humility serving one another.

We serve the One who will one day be universally acclaimed. That should cause us some fear and trembling, shouldn’t it? How can we be so individualistic, so self-centred,  so preoccupied with self interest when we see how Christ acted?  We need to “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.”

But, you say, how can we do that? We can do it because “…God is the One working in you both to desire and to work for His good pleasure” (13). God is the One who gives us the indwelling power to do it. He works in us in such a way that we desire His good pleasure and that’s what we work for – not for our own pleasure or our own interests but God's!

We maintain our obedience to Christ by working in ways that show our salvation in Christ – working together in God’s power and for God’s pleasure.  And by...

2. Living In Ways That Show Our Transformation In Christ (14-16): “...do all things without complaining and disputing” (14). Complaining and disputing have no place among those who are being obedient to Christ, who have the attitude of Christ. To live in ways that show our transformation in Christ means ...

Showing Our Morality In Christ: “...being blameless and harmless” before the world, “children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation” (15a).

We are to be people who stand out in the world - people of integrity, uprightness, forthrightness, transparency, with nothing to hide and nothing to be accused of. People who beam the light of the gospel into a morally and spiritually dark, corrupt, and perverted world. People who stand out in a crooked and perverted world by working in ways that show our salvation in Christ; and by living in ways that show our transformed morality in Christ.

Our transformation in Christ means showing our morality in Christ and Showing Our Testimony For Christ: “...among whom you shine as light-bearers in the world” (15b). We shine as lights for God in the world by “holding forth the word of life” (16a). This is the mark of people who are the presence of Christ on earth. They show their morality in Christ – “blameless and harmless, children of God without fault”. And they show their testimony in Christ – “holding forth the word of life” (the gospel), both in their words and in their works.

Summation: Do you see what Paul is saying to us as church leaders? To be true servant leaders of God’s people, we need to express the right attitude to one another and we need to engage in the right activity with one another. And the example that underlies all this is Christ himself - “Let this mind be in You which was also in Christ Jesus.” If He was willing to give up everything and become nothing so that we who were nothing might have everything, how much more should we do the same for those whom God has entrusted to our care and leadership! If Jesus was willing to empty himself of his divine rights and humble himself to the lowest possible place, should not we be willing to humble ourselves in order to effectively serve God’s people - respecting one another and serving one another as Christ did. This is what Paul is calling us to in this text.

If we have the attitude of Christ, we will be united with those we lead, by expressing the right attitude to one another (the attitude of servants not masters; givers not takers; respect not contempt) and by engaging in the right activity with one another (working in ways that show our salvation in Christ; and living in ways that show our transformation in Christ). As Gordon Fee puts it: “The principle is love (selflessness), the pattern is Christ (humility), the power is the Spirit, and the ultimate purpose is the glory of God” (Fee, 227).

Will you commit to being like Christ in attitude and activity as a leader? If so, what are you going to do about it? Perhaps you’re saying: “I need to Change The Way I Think. My attitude of loftiness needs to change to one of lowliness. My attitude of arrogance needs to change to one of humility. My attitude of self-ambition needs to change to one of sacrifice.”

Or, perhaps you’re saying: “I need to Change The Way I Act. I’m not really working out my salvation with fear and trembling that one day I’ll have to give account to God for how I act. I’m not really showing Christian morality in the way I behave. I need to be upright, transparent, honest, righteous in my dealings with others. I need to “shine as a light” for God in this dark world by sharing the gospel to those who need Christ as the opportunities arise.”

If so, would you make that commitment today? Perhaps you need to change your thought life by thinking about the things that are Christ-honouring - things that are good and pure. Perhaps you need to change your family life by putting Christ first in your priorities and conversations. Perhaps you need to change your work life by displaying Christ to those you work with. Perhaps you need to change your church life by ministering to others in meaningful ways for their benefit. Perhaps you need to change your evangelistic life by being ready to speak for Christ whatever the situation.

The Servant Model Of Christian Leadership (Continued, part 3)

So far in this series on “Biblical Models of Christian Leadership”, we have considered the following:

Part 1: “The Shepherd Model of Leadership”

Section A. The Principle of Shepherd Leadership

Section B. The Paradigm of Shepherd Leadership

Part 2: “The Servant Model of Leadership”

Section A. The Principle of Servant Leadership

Section B. The Paradigm of Servant Leadership

Part 3: “The Servant Model of Leadership” (continued)

Section C: The Paradox of Servant Leadership

Now, we continue with Part 4, “The Servant Model of Leadership”, Section D…

D. The Practice Of Servant Leadership

The apostle Paul taught and practised servant leadership: “But we have been thoroughly manifested among you in all things. Did I commit sin in humbling myself that you might be exalted, because I preached the gospel of God to you free of charge? (2 Cor. 11:6-7). The apostle Peter also taught and practiced the same paradigm of leadership: “Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock; and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away. Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Pet. 5:2-6).

Note that gentleness and humility are characteristics of true servant leaders. Similarly, this was the paradigm that Jesus practised. We see this clearly in John 13:1-17…

Textual Study: John 13:1-17

“The Practice Of Servant Leadership Demonstrated”

The Upper Room ministry of John chapters 13 - 17 is directed to the inner circle of disciples, in contrast to the earlier chapters which were directed to the world at large. The occasion was the eating of the Passover and the institution of the Lord’s Supper. Not only did Jesus give them the pattern for remembering him after his ascension, but now he sets before them the pattern for living together as a body of believers.

It’s as though the apostle John comes to the window of the Upper Room and invites us to climb up a ladder and eavesdrop on what is going on inside, to witness the greatest illustration of servanthood that we will ever experience and to teach us that because Jesus is the perfect servant, our service to one another must find its character in His servanthood.

There are three components to this lesson on servanthood:

I. We must understand the basis of true servanthood

II. We must demonstrate the character of true servanthood

III. We must imitate the nature of true servanthood

I. We Must Understand The Basis Of True Servanthood (1-3)

In order for us to demonstrate and imitate true servanthood we must firstly understand the basis of all true servanthood. Verses 1-3 are fundamental to our understanding of what follows. Here, John depicts a striking contrast between Jesus’ consciousness of who He is and the position of servanthood that He takes. The consciousness of who He is makes His subsequent action so remarkable. Jesus, the sovereign Lord, becomes their servant. First, we must understand, then, that …

1. The Basis Of True Servanthood Is The Confidence That Comes From Knowledge

It’s the knowledge of who we are, where we came from, and where we are going that generates the confidence to practise servanthood. That is evidently the basis of Jesus’ act of servanthood here in our passage.

First, the knowledge of where we are going and how we’re getting there. “Jesus knew that his hour had come” (1a). This was His predestined moment. This isn’t a fact that suddenly dawned upon Jesus. He had known it long before this Feast of Passover. It was in the full knowledge of this fact that he approached the Passover week. And it was in this full knowledge of where that “hour” would lead him that he demonstrates to us his perfect servanthood. Earlier Jesus had said: “My hour has not yet come” (2:4). No external power could coerce Him into any act until the appointed time. “They sought to take Him; but no one laid a hand on Him because His hour had not yet come” (Jn. 7:30; see also 8:20). And no external power could hinder Him from the act when the time came: “Now is my soul troubled and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour? But for this purpose I came to this hour” (Jn. 12:27). When the bell tolled, he was ready and willing to go forward.

Now He knew that His hour had come (13:1; 12:23; 17:1), the hour to which He was destined and for which He had come to earth. Though the hour held such horror, yet it also spoke of a strange triumph. On the one hand, this was the hour for Him to go to the cross – that was the issue at hand - but on the other hand, this was the hour to leave the world behind. He knew that the issue of the hour was the cross and the destiny of the hour was “to depart from this world to the Father” (1b). The Father had sent him into the world (1 Jn. 4:9). Now he would complete his mission in fulfillment of his destiny and “depart from this world to the Father” by way of the cross. He knew that the Father had laid on Him the task of effecting salvation’s plan with all the suffering that that involved.

But it was the inner conviction of what lay beyond the cross, of where he was going, from which He derived peace and stability of mind and from which He derived a perfect perspective on what he had to do while in the world. That’s what formed the basis of this infinite expression of love and humility. He had the conviction that beyond death lay the resurrection; beyond the cross lay the crown; beyond Golgotha lay glory; beyond condescension was the ascension. We are gripped here by the consciousness of the task before Him blended with the thrill of going back to the Father. There is a shrinking back yet an air of eagerness; the terror of death but the boldness of life; the sorrow of separation but the joy of reunion; the fear of death but the anticipation of resurrection; a sense of humiliation but hope of glory.

If we have this same confidence based on the knowledge of where we’re going and how we’re getting there, then that for us would also form the basis of our attitude and acts of servanthood. When we look beyond the here-and-now to what will be, then we gain a totally different perspective on life – of where we’re going and how we’re getting there. As Christians we need to remember that we’re going to heaven and we get there by way of the cross. Before we wear a crown we’re called to suffer with Christ. Before we reign with the King we’re called to serve Him.

Often people don’t want to be servants in attitude and action. Perhaps it’s because they have a worldly perspective. The world looks down on servants but honours those who rule – that’s a worldly perspective. The world expects you to strive for a higher social standing than a servant, to be ambitious, to make something of yourself – that’s a worldly perspective.

Or, perhaps people don’t want to be servants because of pride. They see themselves as good as or better than other people. They consider lowly positions and lowly actions as demeaning and embarrassing – it’s beneath them. If you remember where you’re going and how you’re getting there, then that knowledge gives you the confidence to be a servant in attitude and action.

Not only do we need the confidence that comes from the knowledge of where we are going and how we’re getting there, but we need …

Secondly, the knowledge of who we are and how we fit in. “(Jesus knew) that the Father had given all things into His hands” (3a). This was His predestined position – the position of universal sovereignty; a position conferred on Him by His Father. He was fully aware of his heavenly destiny and His appointed position of sovereignty. And all of this only serves to highlight the greatness of the act of servanthood that He is about to do - something that will imprint on the disciples’ hearts an indelible impression of that sovereignty and destiny.

“All things” means universal and absolute dominion. Jesus knew that He was God’s one and only, eternal Son; that His Father had appointed Him “heir of all things” (Heb. 1:2); that universal sovereignty had been conferred on him by his Father; that His Father had now given “all things into His hands.”

This sovereignty means that He is Lord of all – Lord of lords; King of kings. There is no one higher than He in power and authority. He has the right and power to demand compliance and submission to His authority. As such, all judgement has been committed to Him (Jn. 5:22) so that, ultimately, all honour will be ascribed to Him (Jn. 5:23). And in the final day, “every knee will bow…” (Phil. 2:11-12). Even those who die in unbelief will then confess His lordship and sovereignty.

Jesus knew who he was and how he fit into the eternal plans and purposes of God and he acted accordingly. And we need that same knowledge to act accordingly – the knowledge of who we are and how we fit into God’s plans and purposes. If you see who you are in God’s eyes, then that changes your perspective on what you do for God and how you do it. If you can see that you are God’s beloved child; that you are his redeemed possession; that you are loved by God unconditionally in Christ; that Jesus is even now preparing a place for us in heaven; that one day the world will acknowledge the lordship of our Saviour and bow at his feet; that you will reign with Christ, then that changes how you act now. That gives you the confidence to take the low place now in view of the high place to come. That replaces your view of the short term with a view of the long term. That means that it doesn’t matter what people think of you. It’s what God thinks of you that counts. If you know that you’re a child of the King, it doesn’t matter if people despise you for being a servant. It’s the perspective and confidence in who we are that empowers us to live for God in the attitude of servanthood.

In addition to the knowledge of where we are going (and how we’re getting there), of who we are in Christ (and how we fit into God’s plans), we also need …

Thirdly, the knowledge of where we have come from and why we’re here. “(Jesus knew) that he had come from God and was going to God” (3b). Jesus knew fully his heavenly origin to which he was returning. As to where He had come from, He said: “I proceeded forth and came from God” (8:42). This refers to his eternal existence prior to his incarnation. This is He who “in the beginning…was with God and (who) was God” (Jn. 1:1). This is the One who enjoyed a glory with the Father “before the world was” (Jn. 17:5).

As to where he was returning, He said: “I go to Him who sent me” (7:33). “I am going away…Where I go you cannot come…You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world” (Jn. 8:21-23). He knew where He had come from, why he was here, and where he was going. “I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. And again, I leave the world and go to the Father” (16:28).

Jesus was fully conscious of His divine nature and mission and what that mission entailed – namely, that the way back to God was by way of the cross. Jesus’ knowledge of who He was, where He came from, and where He was going formed the basis for the certainty and confidence of his actions. Knowing that He had come from God and was going to God – what did He do? Did He flash His power? Show his majesty? Demand subservience? No! In the full consciousness of who He was, He took the position of a servant! Taking a servant’s place was of no concern to Him because washing his disciples’ feet didn’t impact his dignity; because servanthood didn’t demean his self esteem.

We, too, derive our confidence for service from knowledge - the knowledge of who we are in Christ, where we are going, what we mean to God. Lack of knowledge and confidence in God can paralyze us. Pride rears its ugly head and service becomes too lowly for us, below our dignity. Fear causes us to draw back: “I can’t do that; I’m not good enough.” Confidence in the knowledge of where we have come from, where we are going, and who we are in Christ is vital for the practice of servanthood.

A. W. Tozer once said: “The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. Rather, he may be in his moral life as bold as a lion and as strong as Samson; but he has stopped being fooled about himself. He has accepted God’s estimate of his own life. He knows he is as weak and helpless as God declared him to be, but paradoxically, he knows at the same time that he is in the sight of God of more importance than angels. In himself nothing; in God everything.”

Not only is the basis of true servanthood the confidence that comes from knowledge, but also …

2. The Basis Of True Servanthood Is The Motivation That Comes From Love

The motivation that comes from love is shown in the object of that love: “… having loved his own” (1c). True servanthood expresses itself in a love that flows out to others. Previously, “His own” were the Jewish people who did “not receive him” (Jn.1:11). But in his remaining hours, he came to those who did recognise and receive him. It is they who are now called “his own” (13:1).

“His own” here are His disciples, the believers in the new community of faith; those on whom He had set His love in a special way; those who left all and followed Him; and, in a certain sense, all those who would in the ages to come believe in Him and to whom his love flows out in abundance.

“His own” here are these poor men, who cleave to His strength in all their weakness; who seek His glory in all their shame; who thirst for His holiness in all their sin. The universal love of Christ falls with special sweetness on those who are His own. He has a special nearness to those who love Him. He has special delight in those who resemble Him. He has special tenderness toward those who serve Him. His love flows out to every creature. But to those who dwell in His love, He discloses the secrets of His heart.

The motivation that comes from love is shown in the object of that love. And …

The motivation that comes from love is shown in the extent of that love: “… having loved his own that were in the world, he loved them to the end” (1d). True servanthood expresses itself in a love that sacrifices all for others. Having loved, He loves. What He had begun, He continues. This is the perfect consistency of His divine nature – He does not change. His is not a fickle love but an enduring love. Those on whom He set His love, He continues to love. There is no exhaustion in that great stream of love that pours from His heart; no lessening or abating or diminution in its flow. Nothing can extinguish the fire that is in His heart. He pours His love out and yet its source is inexhaustible.

This was the appropriate time to manifest his love and He did so “to the end.” All that follows (the foot washing, the farewell address, the high-priestly prayer, the crucifixion) is the expression of this “love motive” in operation.

To love “to the end” has a double meaning here. Literally, it means that He loved His own to His death – i.e. to the end of His life. But it also means that He loved them completely, to the uttermost. It means that his love is absolutely without reserve, nothing held back. His love does not stop even in the shadow of the cross. He loves his own unconditionally and equally, without distinction or respect of persons; without regard for race, colour, creed, position, power, or possessions. He loves us regardless of the response from those who are loved.

Earlier, Jesus had said: “Now is my soul troubled…save me from this hour?” (Jn. 12:27). A little later he had said: “Father if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me” (Matt. 26:39). Now, writing after the event, John says: “He loved them to the end.” Despite His pleas for deliverance He saw it through. Despite these men being ambitious, proud men (Lk. 22:24), who were more interested in ruling the kingdom than in serving in the world, who did not grasp that greatness is measured in terms of serving, not ruling, Jesus loved them to perfection. Despite Judas being a traitor, “The devil having already put it into the heart of Judas…to betray him” (2), Jesus loved them to the end.

Everything about Judas was the antithesis of Jesus. John here sets the two in stark juxtaposition: Jesus’ love and Judas’ hatred. Everything about this man was the exact opposite of servanthood and humility. He was driven by greed and notoriety (see 12:4-6 re his greed). He was bent on profiting from his association with Jesus, even if it meant betraying Him. And Jesus even washed his feet too! Why does John include this remark about Judas here? Because this reference to Judas makes Jesus’ deed stand in its true greatness. No wonder John could say “He loved them to the end / to perfection.”

For Jesus, loving “to the end” meant laying down His life for people who didn’t know him and didn’t care about him. “Greater love has no man than this, that a man should lay down his life for his friends” (Jn. 15:13). But Christ gave His life for us when we were His enemies: “Perhaps for a good man some would even dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:7-8). Christ’s love was a sacrificial love: “By this we know love, because he laid down his life for us” (1 Jn. 3:16).

The greatest of all love is to give one’s life for another. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9). In His grace He left the riches of heaven to come to the poverty of earth. In His grace He became flesh and dwelled among us and took the “form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:7). In His grace He manifested the love of God to us by dying on the cross so that we might be “rich” through the gift of eternal life.

Conclusions (Point I):

True servanthood finds its roots in (1) the confidence that comes from knowledge; and (2) the motivation that comes from love. In this, the servanthood of Jesus was both revealed and magnified because the great events before him did not totally occupy his attention. He knew what lay before Him and He could have been totally preoccupied with that prospect. He “knew his hour had come”. He could have focused only on what was ahead but He set all that aside for this moment of devoted and humble service, because He didn’t have to demonstrate such humility, for He knew that He was God’s only begotten Son; He knew that He was going back to the Father; He knew that the men to whom He displayed his love were the most undeserving. They were more concerned about their own welfare than His. They were more interested in power than in service.

Jesus’ servanthood is the pattern, the model, for our practice - a pattern of love for those He served and confidence in God for the future.

Remember that confidence for service comes from God, not ourselves. Ulrich Zwingli, the great Reformer, once said: “Our confidence in Christ does not make us lazy, negligent or careless, but on the contrary it awakens us, urges us on, and makes us active in living righteous lives and doing good. There is no self-confidence to compare with this.”

And remember that motivation for service comes from love, not ambition - love for God and others. Jesus loved His own to the “uttermost”. “So” John says, “we ought also to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 Jn. 4:16). How is your love level for the people of God? Perhaps you don’t want to serve others because you’re too busy, or because you don’t feel it’s your responsibility, or because someone in the church hasn’t been very nice to you. Remember that Jesus served in spite of being busy, and in spite of knowing that one of his disciples was a traitor.

Or, perhaps you don’t want to serve others because you think you’re not good enough or you think that you’re inadequate or unqualified. Some people think they have nothing to offer in service to the Lord. But many Christians who consider themselves unfit and feel that they have nothing to offer have, in fact, great potential for ministering to others.

Final challenge: May the example of the Lord Jesus Christ spur us on to greater acts of sacrificial service for him and for others. And may we act in the full knowledge of who we are in Christ and where we’re going and in the power of love that serves regardless of the cost. That’s true servanthood.

So, we’ve seen in vv. 1-3 that “We must understand the basis of true servanthood.” Now we see that …

II. We Must Demonstrate The Character Of True Servanthood (4-11)

“Don’t just stand there, do something!” That’s a saying we’ve all heard. Perhaps we’ve even been the object of the injunction. That’s what Jesus is saying here. It isn’t enough just to know and agree with the notion of servanthood or to recognize the need for servants. Jesus is teaching that we must do it! Don’t just talk about it. Don’t just try to recruit others. Just do it!

So many things get done and nobody knows who did it - no recognition; no publicity; no fanfare. They just do it. That’s how servanthood should be demonstrated. Teaching about it is good. Training people to do it is good. But actually doing it is best. That’s what Jesus is teaching here.

John’s account of this Upper Room scene is so informative. He describes fully the basis of Jesus’ servanthood (1-3) as:

1. Jesus’ confidence for servanthood. Confidence in the knowledge of who He was, where He had come from, and where He was going.

2. Jesus’ motivation for servanthood. Motivation for His sacrificial love - love that was directed towards “His own”.

Now, Jesus acts out this wonderful parable for his disciples - a parable of his humiliation and suffering for their cleansing and redemption. This enacted parable has two parts to it:

1. Jesus demonstrates his servant character by washing their feet

2. Jesus teaches the ramifications of servanthood for them to follow

This passage teaches us that our service to one another must be modelled after Jesus’ perfect servanthood. Jesus has shown us the basis for true servanthood. Now he demonstrates the character of true servanthood.

1. The Character Of True Servanthood Is Demonstrated In The Way We Present Ourselves To Others (4).

The washing of feet would naturally and normally take place at the beginning of supper. After walking from Bethany, their feet would have been dirty. The host would normally see that the feet were washed by a servant. It was a menial task. But here there is no servant and none of the disciples was willing to do it. They were all too proud and one was too greedy. All the supplies were ready (the basin, water, towel), but no one was willing to administer it. Each evidently hoped that one of the others would move first. But such was not to be. So, “Jesus rose from supper and laid aside His garments and took a towel and girded himself” (4). Jesus lays aside his outer, flowing garment (tunic and belt) so that he is wearing nothing but a loin-cloth and a long towel tied around his waist. The picture John paints here is the dress of a slave!

Jesus took more than just the dress of a slave. For he “emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant…and... humbled himself” (Phil. 2:6-8). Jesus voluntarily gave up His personal and official glory and He became a bondservant of God, taking on the likeness of men. And He paid the ultimate price for his servanthood, even death on a cross. Jesus presented himself in such a way as to be wholly a servant to men and to God. He even removed any clothing that would get in the way of serving others.

In this way, we must present ourselves so as to better serve others, whether that means stripping off the outer “garments” of pride, ego, selfishness that focus on self not others. Or, whether that means judging favouritism that serves one person but not another. Or, whether that means getting rid of character flaws such as envy, jealousy, covetousness, resentment, bitterness, discontent, vanity. We need to get rid of those garments that hold us in bondage - those chains that bind us and stop us from serving Christ. “Let us lay aside every weight” (Heb. 12:1). Let us cast aside anything that weighs us down and prevents us from serving God and others. Let us demonstrate our servanthood in how we present ourselves to others. Not as someone who is superior to others; not taking the top spot in the pecking order, but at the lowest place. Not seeking to be served but to serve. Not participating in only the things that bring reward and recognition but in the things that are unseen, unrecognized, unrewarded.

The character of true servanthood is demonstrated in how we present ourselves to others. And …

2. The Character Of True Servanthood Is Demonstrated In The Things We Do For Others (5).

“He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded” (5). Not only is he dressed as a slave but he now performs the duty of a slave.

That Jesus would perform the task himself must have been most astonishing. But the lesson is obvious: in the kingdom of God the roles are reversed. “For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the One who serves” (Lk. 22:27).

Someone has said: “We must realize that the symbol of Christianity is not a beautiful polished cross, but a lopsided, crude, splintery cross over which is draped a towel – not the plush kind of towel we buy for our guest bathroom, but a dirty old rag, wet with the sweat and dirt of men’s feet.”

If we are going to be the kind of servants that Jesus was, we must mould our behaviour accordingly. This means that we will have to behave like a servant by doing what a servant does - washing people’s feet; doing things for others that we find repulsive.

True servanthood is demonstrated in the things we do for other              . One whose actions reflect the love of Christ to those they serve. One whose service for others reveals the power of God in their life. One whose pride and attitude doesn’t get in the way.

So, here was the sovereign Lord of the universe washing His disciples’ feet, doing for them what they would not do for each other. He who had His own feet bathed by Mary’s perfume now assumes the lowest position among them and washes the disciples’ feet.

This is one of the marks of Jesus’ greatness. His greatness was in His person, not just His power. His greatness was in His passion, not just His performance. His greatness was in His manner, not just His miracles. His greatness was in His testimony, not just His title.

If you want to be great for God, it doesn’t come from power, position, or possessions. It comes from your person, your passion to serve Christ.

First, then, the character of true servanthood is demonstrated in the way we present ourselves to others. Second, the character of true servanthood is demonstrated in the things we do for others. And…

3. The Character Of True Servanthood Is Demonstrated In The Manner We Relate To Others (6-11)

How should we relate to others? What does Jesus teach us here?

First, we should relate to others by being courteous to those who oppose us (6-8). Only Simon Peter’s reaction is recorded here. Perhaps the others were perplexed or, at least, ashamed that Jesus was doing for them what they should have been doing for each other. Peter, as usual, could not keep quiet. “Lord, are you washing my feet?” (6). He sees the abnormality of what is happening and he is shocked. The Lord of glory on the one hand and Peter’s dirty feet on the other. It was bad enough for him seeing his Master wash the feet of the others, but the idea of Jesus washing his feet was intolerable. Such an act of humiliation for Peter’s physical comfort was too much. Perhaps he is also embarrassed to admit his need and so he resists, unwilling to submit to Jesus’ better judgement. In any event, by objecting to what Jesus is doing, Peter displays his ignorance. He fails to understand that what Jesus is doing has a deeper significance. He doesn’t see that Jesus is teaching them that the servanthood He is displaying is exactly what they must practice in order to live together as believers. That foot washing is symbolic of the daily sanctification that they need. That daily sanctification comes only through His blood shed on the cross.

“What I am doing you do not know now, but you will understand after this” (7), Jesus says. Jesus saw the whole picture; Peter didn’t. “You do not know now” means “you can’t figure it out mentally at the present time. “But you will understand after this” means after Jesus’ death and resurrection; after his ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit. “Then, you will understand the significance of this foot washing and, indeed, of my entire work of humiliation,” Jesus is saying.

Peter bluntly responds to Jesus: “You shall never wash my feet” (8a). Peter sees the incongruity of the Master washing the disciples’ feet but he does not see the incongruity of a disciple telling his Lord what to do. Jesus had contrasted between their not understanding “now” vs. their understanding “after this”. To this Peter replies: “I don’t care when that time of understanding arrives, you will never wash my feet. No, not in all eternity! Never in a million years, Jesus!” Peter doesn’t stop to think about what he is saying or who he is speaking to. He is absolutely sure he is right and yet so absolutely ignorant. He is so totally unaware of his pride and self-righteousness. If only he had known what he was objecting to – i.e. the whole notion of true and proper servanthood; his innate need for daily, spiritual cleansing through the work of Christ.

Notice Jesus’ courteous rebuke: “If I do not wash you, you have no part with me” (8b). Peter’s feet needed to be washed not only to be socially acceptable for dinner but also for his personality to be symbolically washed and fit for the kingdom. It was intended to make the disciples fit for Jesus’ presence, to wash them from the defilement of the world and to draw them parabolically into His humiliation and suffering.

Our attitude towards others reveals our heart. Negative attitudes hold us back from serving Christ – be it cynicism (the contempt of others); scepticism (distrusting everyone and everything, suspicious, thinking that only our opinion has value); pessimism (never seeing any hope, future, or anything positive in life); criticism (putting others down in order to puff ourselves up); harshness, bluntness, insensitivity to the feelings of others.

Positive attitudes motivate us to be like Christ; to walk as Jesus walked in unselfishness and humility; in contentment with your lot in life; in courtesy towards those who argue and oppose us; in patience with those who rub us the wrong way. The only way we can effectively relate to others as Christ did is to be a consummate servant.

The church needs those with the attitude of second violin players. Those who work behind the scenes, in lowly positions. Those who are willing and happy to serve unseen and unpaid. Those who act in obedience to God expecting nothing from man in return. Those who relate courteously to others even when they oppose us.

How, then, should we relate to others? We should relate to others by being courteous to those who oppose us. And…

Secondly, we should relate to others by being patient with those who don’t understand us (9-11).               “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head” (9), Peter responds. Peter had completely misunderstood the symbolic meaning of foot-washing. In typical fashion, he goes from one extreme to the other, just as he did when he went from walking on water to sinking beneath the waves; from a glorious confession of Christ to rebuking Christ; from vowing to lay down his life for Jesus to denying him ; from embracing the Gentiles at Antioch to separating from them.

The amount of physical washing isn’t the point. The external washing symbolises something inward. And so, Jesus patiently explains: “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet” (10a). Notice the distinction between “bathed” and “washed”. The literal meaning is this: When a person leaves home having already had a bath, upon arrival at their destination he or she does not need to have another bath. All that is needed then is to wash their feet after the journey.

The symbolic and spiritual meaning is this: The one who has been cleansed by Jesus’ blood (i.e. “bathed”) is fully forgiven, washed whiter than snow, regenerate, born again, renewed by the Spirit. This only occurs once at the moment of new birth, the beginning of the Christian life. There is nothing more to be done. They are clean all over except for the need of daily sanctification (i.e. foot washing), except for the daily cleansing from the defilement of this world.

Just as in the custom of actual foot washing, so also in the symbolic sense, only the feet need to be repeatedly washed. We don’t need a new birth over and over but we do need washing from daily sin. Thus, John says: “If we confess our sins…faithful…to forgive us…cleanse us” (1 Jn. 1:9). And Jesus declares: “You are clean…” (i.e. “you are redeemed”) “but not all of you. For he knew who would betray him. Therefore he said, You are not all clean” (10b-11). Judas was not spiritually clean.

Look what Jesus’ patient explanation has taught us:

1. That we never have to repeat the process of being born again. Once we are truly saved we are always saved. We never have to worry about losing our salvation if we are truly born again.

2. That the washing of feet symbolizes the need for daily cleansing. The washing away of sins in the blood of Christ is a once forever experience (1 Jn.1:7). Then believers need only to be cleansed from the daily defilement of the world. This is His continued sanctifying work on our behalf. This is the “washing of water by the word” (Eph. 5:26).

How much dirt have you picked up recently? Just as the first century roads were dusty and dirty, so our world is a dirty place; it is spiritually corrupt and defiling. We live in a dirty, corrupt world where, every day, we see and hear things that defile us and affect our walk with God. Perhaps you’ve been to places on the internet you shouldn’t have been. Perhaps you’ve watched a movie you shouldn’t have watched. Perhaps you’ve seen something on TV you didn’t turn off when knew you should. Satan wants to rob us of our enjoyment of Christ by defiling our thoughts, trapping us in sin, attracting us to “the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 Jn. 2:16).

We need to acknowledge our sins to God as soon as we’re aware of them. We need to keep short accounts with God. We need to be aware of what sin is before God and deal with it immediately, whether it be short patience, a wrong attitude, unkind words, disobedience etc. We need to take time to let the Holy Spirit cleanse our minds, hearts, consciences and lives. We need to allow Him to sanctify our “spiritual feet” so that we are cleansed anew each day; so that our communion with God continues unbroken; so that we have the promise and the sense of Jesus’ presence daily with us.

Conclusions (Point II)

1. True Servants Present Themselves So That They Demonstrate Jesus’ Servanthood

The true servant takes the low place to serve others in their highest interest. The true servant isn’t ashamed to present himself as a servant. Taking the low place isn’t objectionable to him. Humility doesn’t challenge his or her self esteem. Pride doesn’t get in the way. The true servant is prepared to present himself in whatever way it takes. Anything that would hinder acting in Christ-like service is set aside. Paul says: “To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win the Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; to those who are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under law toward Christ,) that I might win those who are without law; to the weak became I as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. Now this I do for the gospel's sake” (1 Cor 9:20-23).

2. True Servants Behave Themselves So That They “Walk As Jesus Walked” (1 Jn. 2:6).

Sometimes acting as servants of Christ means going out of our comfort zone, finding ourselves in situations that are embarrassing or instil fear. But the true servant considers serving others as service for the Lord. Donald Whitney, in his book “Spiritual Disciplines of the Christian Life,” writes, “Beyond the church walls, serving is babysitting for neighbours, taking meals to families in flux, running errands for the homebound, providing transportation for the one whose car breaks down, feeding pets and watering plants for vacationers, and – hardest of all – having a servant’s heart” (110-111).

3. How We Relate To Others Indicates Whether We Have Jesus’ Servant Heart

It’s hard to be courteous to those who are argumentative. It’s hard to be patient with those who just don’t get what we’re saying and who outright oppose us. But when we demonstrate the attitude that Jesus had, we can win their hearts and in so doing we serve Christ.

Final challenge: Do you have a servant’s heart? Are you willing to serve? More particularly, are you actually serving others without recognition? Don’t just give lip service to it. Don’t say you’re willing if you won’t do it. “Be doers of the word and not hearers only” (James 1:22-25). A true servant is one who not only has a heart for service but one who is actively engaged in service.

In this textual study so far, Jesus has shown us that…

I. We must understand the basis of true servanthood (1-3). The basis of true servanthood is (1) the confidence that comes from knowledge; and (2) the motivation that comes from love.

II. We must demonstrate the character of true servanthood (4-11). We demonstrate the character of true servanthood in (1) the way we present ourselves to others; (2) the things we do for others; and (3) the manner we relate to others.

Now the third lesson in this passage…

III. We Must Imitate The Nature Of True Servanthood (12-17)

Now, Jesus resumes His former position among the disciples and begins to teach them the implications of what he has just enacted. This enacted parable teaches us that our service to one another must be modelled after Jesus’ perfect servanthood.

To most people the connotation of “servant” is negative. It connotes lowliness, downtrodden, menial tasks, no future, low pay. Our culture looks up to those who make lots of money, have prominent positions. In our society those in leadership are regarded as powerful, prestigious. But the Bible paints a different picture of what effective Christian leadership really is. It indicates that the most effective leaders have the attitude of a servant.

The words “servant” and “leader” don’t go together in the contemporary mindset. It rubs us the wrong way. In one way, it doesn’t make sense. And yet in another way we fully understand it. For example, when someone does an heroic act (e.g. saves a person from drowning) the world honours that person. Why? Because they risked their life for someone else. They put the other person’s interests above their own and they took leadership, initiative. That, in fact, is the definition of a servant even though in that context we don’t think of it that way.

Taking the initiative to serve others in their highest interest is true “servant leadership”. We may understand what servanthood is and we may try to demonstrate it, but how do we know if what we are doing is right? How do we know if we are demonstrating the proper attitudes and behaviour?

So much of our behaviour and attitudes are learned. Have you ever stopped to think how much of what you do and think is based on imitating someone or something else - such as parents, teachers, pastors, friends, TV, newspapers, books?

The only way we can be sure that our servant attitude and behaviour is correct is by imitating Jesus Christ. How, then, do we imitate the nature of true servanthood?

1. We Imitate The Nature Of True Servanthood By Remembering That The Lord Is Our Master (12-13,16).

“Do you know what I have done to you?” Jesus asks (12). “Do you know that this isn’t about washing actual dirt from your feet? Do you grasp the practical teaching of what I have just done?”

Jesus has become a slave, taken the lowest place, a picture of what he is about to do at the cross. They too are to take the low place in identification with Him and in serving one another. “You call me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for that is what I am” (13). They were right in addressing him as “teacher” and “Lord” (7:15, 46; Matt. 7:29). That was who He was and that was who they served – the Lord God.

They recognized in Him a paradox. On the one hand, they had seen Him perform miracles and heard Him speak words of warning, words of hope, life, comfort, and love, all of which was poured out in a life of service. On the other hand, they had seen his life of service that, paradoxically, confirmed His lordship and authority.

In serving we must remember: The Lord is our Master. That is what He is, “Lord”. Whether we acknowledge it or not, He is Lord! Seated at the right hand of God in the majesty on high. He is the sovereign Ruler of the universe. C. H. Spurgeon said: “If any man would be saved, he must believe that Jesus Christ is both Lord and God. You must confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, that is Ruler and Master. You must cheerfully become His disciple, follower and servant.”

The Lordship of Christ is not an option. Jesus told his disciples that Lordship was His rightful title and position and that they were His “servants”. You don’t decide to make Jesus Lord of your life. When He becomes your Saviour, He also becomes your Lord. John MacArthur says: “Scripture never speaks of anyone making Christ Lord… The biblical mandate for both sinners and saints is not to make Christ Lord, but rather to bow to His lordship” (Gospel According To Jesus).

Jesus is Lord because He is supreme. He is “God manifest in the flesh” – deity incarnate. He is the “firstborn”, the pre-eminent one, the first in rank and priority. There is none greater, no greater Saviour. No one else compares with Him. He is unique – no one else like Him.

Jesus is Lord because He rose from the dead. He is supreme in resurrection. He is the first to rise from the dead who will never die: “Behold I am alive forevermore” (Rev. 1:18).

Jesus is Lord of all the universe. All things were made by Him, for Him, and through Him (Jn. 1:3; Col. 1:16). By Him all things hold together and He existed before all things. That’s why He could heal the sick, give sight to the blind etc. He has power over creation because He created it. He is the Lord of all the universe.

Jesus is Lord of the church. He died to redeem the church of which He is the head (Eph. 5:25; Col.1:18).

The question is: “Is Jesus Lord and Master of your life?” Does He own you? Are you His disciple? Do you serve him? The Bible makes no distinction between receiving Him as Saviour or Lord. He is both and He can only be received as both. Don’t think that you can have Him as your Saviour and not submit to him as Lord. To receive Him is to receive Him for who He is and what He has done. When you receive Christ as Saviour you want to obey Him because He has saved you from your sins, because He has given you eternal life, because He is Lord of your life by virtue of redemption.

“A servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him” (16). As servants we are expected to obey and follow our Master.

We imitate true servanthood by remembering that the Lord is our Master. Therefore, we must not place ourselves above Him for we are His servants. If it wasn’t below Jesus’ dignity to wash the disciples’ feet, it shouldn’t be below the servant’s dignity. Don’t think that it is below you to do menial tasks for others. It doesn’t matter what your position is in the church or in the world. We are here to serve our Master and servanthood is the required attitude.

So, how do we imitate the nature of true of true servanthood? We imitate the nature of true servanthood by remembering that the Lord is our Master. And…

2. We Imitate The Nature Of True Servanthood By Doing For Each Other What Jesus Has Done For Us (14-15)

“If I, then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet” (14). Jesus is saying, “If I, the Sovereign of the universe, take the lowest place of a servant (and I certainly have), then you ought also to take the low place.” “For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you” (15).

This is not a command to obey but an example to follow. Jesus is not prescribing an outward rite but an inner attitude - an attitude of humility and service; an attitude that He has acted out symbolically.

Jesus implies here that we have two obligations. Firstly, to serve one another in love (Gal. 5:13). Secondly, to minister to one another by cleaning one another’s spiritual feet. Matt. 18:15 says, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him.” Gal. 6:1, “If a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a person in the spirit of meekness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.” James 5:16, “Confess your sins one to another and pray for one another.”

If the Sovereign Lord became a Servant and washed and dried their feet, how much more ought we to render such service to one another by stripping ourselves of everything that hinders service; by taking the lowest place in order to serve others in their highest interest. Remember: “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve” (Matt. 20:28). Anyone who wants to be first, “must be servant of all” (Mk. 9:35).

We live in a self-serving world. Everyone does what is right in their own eyes. They do their own thing. Everyone looks on his own things, not on the things of others (see Phil. 2:4). It’s a “dog-eat-dog” world. Nobody cares about anyone else. It’s a narcissistic, hedonistic world. Men are egocentric not theocentric. They are “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Tim. 3:4).

If you want to be great in the kingdoms of this world, then reach for the top, tread on people on the way up, be ambitious, just like the disciples who argued about who would be the greatest. But if you want to be great in the kingdom of God, do for others what Jesus has done for you - take the lowest place in serving others in their highest interest.

God does not deal in hierarchies. The corporate ladder of success means nothing to God. Jesus defined greatness in terms of sacrificial service: “He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (Jn. 12:25). The one who “loves his life” is the person who is self-centred, selfish, greedy. He is the one who desires to be served and in the end he will lose everything – everything he has ever attempted to gain for himself in this world. The person who “hates his life” is the one who puts others first. He is the one who desires to serve others at the basis of their need. He is the one who abandons self-advancement in this world to gain advancement in the kingdom of God and, in the end, this person gains everything – eternal life!

Martin Luther King Jr. said: “Anyone can be great. Because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve… You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”

Richard Foster puts it into perspective: “In some ways we would prefer to hear Jesus’ call to deny father and mother, houses and land for the sake of the gospel, than His word to wash feet. Radical self-denial gives the feel of adventure. If we forsake all, we even have the chance of glorious martyrdom. But in service we are banished to the mundane, the ordinary, the trivial” (Spiritual Disciplines, 110).

So, how do we imitate the nature of true of true servanthood? We imitate the nature of true servanthood (1) by remembering that the Lord is our Master; (2) by doing for each other what Jesus has done for us. And …

3. We Must Imitate The Nature Of True Servanthood By Practising What We Preach (17)

“If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them” (17). It isn’t enough to teach these things or just to give mental assent to them. We must go out and “just do it!” Happiness is found in being “doers of the Word” not just “hearers”. Happiness results from doing what Jesus did, not just learning about it. It isn’t enough to hear and agree; you must do it. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 7:21). “The man who hears these words of mine and does them is like the wise man who built his house on the rock” (Matt. 7:24). “Faith without works is dead” (James 1:22-27; 2:14-26).

Modelling truth far outweighs preaching it. God hasn’t called all of us to be preachers, but He has called all of us to be servants. We can preach all we want about the Word of God and the Christian life but if we don’t practise it why would anyone believe what we say? When we practise what we preach, we receive God’s blessing. Not necessarily in this world but certainly in the next where it really counts. Not necessarily in material blessings but certainly in spiritual blessings.

Conclusions (Point IIII)

1. The Underlying Lesson Here Is This: “Jesus Is The Example Of True Servanthood, So Our Service To One Another Must Be Modelled After Him.”

Through servanthood we assist others in their Christian life. Through servanthood we demonstrate to unbelievers what the love of God is like.

2. When We Imitate Jesus’ Servanthood, Like Him We Will Be “Servant Leaders”

Jesus did not merely wash the disciples’ feet, but by doing so He also taught them, mentored them, led them by example. In providing for their needs and attending to their highest interest they could do nothing else but follow Him.

3. When We Imitate The Nature Of Jesus’ Servanthood, Others Will Want To Follow Us Too

By serving others in their highest interest we so model the love of Christ that others will want to follow. Jesus’ model of servanthood is the most effective form of leadership there is, whether it be in secular employment, in the home, or in the church.

Are you a servant leader in your office, home, church? The only way to be truly a servant leader is to imitate Christ’s example. He alone was the perfect servant and He not only performed great miracles and demonstrated great power, He also washed His disciples feet. That’s what true Christian leadership is all about – leading by serving. And we only properly serve when we remember that we serve our Lord and Master; when we do for each other what Jesus has done for us; when we practise what we preach.

Final challenge: Don’t think you can be a true servant by doing it your own way!

Christian servanthood isn’t modelled on Frank Sinatra’s premise: “I did it my way”. The only way to be a true Christian servant is to imitate the servanthood of Jesus in what we do and what we think. And if we do, we’ll be happy in the service of Christ without reward and without recognition.

So we have looked at: A. The principle; B. The paradigm; C. The paradox, and D. The Practice of Servant Leadership. Finally, let’s look at…

E. The Purpose Of Servant Leadership

“The purpose of servant leadership is to serve those you lead”

Servant leadership runs contrary to the world’s paradigm for leadership. And yet, in recent years the corporate world has recognized that the old management method of “the boss” telling people what to do (i.e. “lording it over them”; top down management) doesn’t work because it de-motivates, strips people of respect and self worth, destroys initiative etc. That’s why, a few years ago, self-managed work teams became the buzz word and ideology adopted by many corporate management teams. Through a sort of “bottom up management” they found that people were happier with their jobs (because they had a sense of self-control and control over their destiny), and that better decisions were made (because the people actually doing the work had a better job knowledge of what needs to be done, how to fix it etc.).

The purpose of servant leadership is that the leaders serve those they lead. The servant leader does everything he or she can to make the work of their followers more productive, more rewarding, more fruitful. The servant leader’s job “is to work hard to provide others with the resources and working conditions they need to accomplish their ministry goals. They make others feel more important than themselves. They have others’ best interests at heart.” (Malphurs, Dynamics, 46-47).

How do you do this? You do this by...

(1) Making their jobs easier, more efficient, and more fulfilling.

(2) Treating them with dignity and respect (i.e. “esteeming others better than yourself”).

(3) Giving them a sense of importance and self-worth.

(4) Motivating them to take self-responsibility for their work and to do their work with excellence.

(5) Treating them as co-equals before God and members of a team.

(6) Generating in them a desire to also serve others.

(7) Sharing the burden with them (cf. Gal.6:2).

(8) Including them in decision-making.

(9) Providing opportunities for professional development of their skills.

(10) Setting the example in the leader’s own work and work ethic.

The servant leader paradigm sees the leader as “the coach, not the general manager, and certainly not the team owner (Gangel, Feeding & Leading, 57). Gangel quotes the Chinese philosopher Dao Teh Ching, who, five hundred years before the birth of Christ said: “A leader is best when people barely know that he exists, not so good when people obey him and acclaim him, worse when they despise him. Fail to honour people, they fail to honour you; but of a good leader, who talks little when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will all say, ‘We did this ourselves.’” (Cited in Gangel, 56).

Now, let me bring a little balance to what we have been talking about. “Servant leadership” does not imply an absence of authority. Church leaders are, after all, “overseers” who “manage” the flock, just as a husband and father “manages” his family, his household (1 Tim. 3:4-5). Scripture enjoins us to:

“Remember those who rule over you...” (Heb. 13:7)

“Obey those who rule over you and be submissive...” (Heb. 13:17)

“Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honour” (1 Tim. 5:17)

“We urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labour over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake” (1 Thess. 5:12-13)

“The elders who are among you I exhort...to shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers ...” (1 Pet. 5:1-2)

“Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood” (Acts 20:28)

Servant leadership refers to the attitude of the leader – i.e. “not as being lords over those entrusted” to them (1 Pet. 5:3), not dictators, but rather they are “to be clothed with humility” (1 Pet. 5:5b; Acts 20:19). Remember: The position is leader; the attitude is servant.

Summary Of This Four Part Series On “Biblical Models Of Christian Leadership.”

1. Transformational leaders in God’s kingdom are “shepherd leaders”, shepherding the flock of God through ...

• Caring spiritually and practically by…

... treating others with tenderness, warmth, and compassion

... treating other with dignity and respect

... giving others a sense of self-worth

... treating them as co-equals before God

... encouraging them

• Feeding

... with nutritious and life-giving spiritual food

... with opportunities to serve the Lord in the church

... with teaching and training so that others can exercise their God-given gifts for the benefit of all

... providing them with resources for the development of their gifts

... helping them to be more fulfilled in their ministry

• Protecting

... from spiritual harm and danger

• Leading

... with vision and courage

... sharing the leadership burden with others

... including them in decision-making

... generating in them a desire to serve others by setting an example yourself

2. Transformational leaders in God’s kingdom are “servant leaders”, serving the people of God sacrificially

… by taking the low place so that others can have a higher place

… by giving up personal ambition so that others may receive a promotion