(24) And hearing this, the ten became indignant with the two brothers. (25) But Jesus called them to Himself and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. (26) "It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, (27) and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; (28) just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."
Servant leadership is not the norm in evangelical churches. Rather, it seems that the leaders lord over the people like the rulers of the Gentiles. There are a several reasons for this. All of it stems from erroneous reading of scripture and fallen humanities need to be adored and respected. In most cases, especially these days, it is impossible for people to demand the kind of respect and dare I say worship that so many church leaders demand. In fact, the only other place I can think of where it would be prevalent is in an authoritarian work environment. The fact is that the abusive leader needs power. In the authoritarian workplace the power comes from people needing to keep their jobs. In the church setting the power comes from what these leaders call the Word of God, the bible.
What more power could one ask for than the power of God? Having people believe that God is not pleased with disobeying leaders is the strongest motivation for compliance. It is exactly this phenomena that fuels spiritual abuse. So then, why is it that Jesus rebuked his disciples for wanting authority, and so many evangelical preachers feel that obedience and respect is their right? The main reason is that the erroneously insist on a legal constitutional reading of scripture. They incorrectly believe that the bible is the rule book for faith and practice for all time. They miss the most important aspects of interpretation, which is ignoring occasion, audience, and historical and cultural context. Yet, when one ignores occasion, audience and historical, cultural context, one does extreme violence to the interpretation of the text. The situation of the intended readers is of utmost importance in interpreting what the intended meaning and application was. However, evangelical pastors and other leaders completely ignore this. Therefore, it is the enabler of spiritual abuse. Let me further state that this spiritual abuse is rampant within the ranks of evangelical Christianity.
I cannot count the times that I have heard pastors quote Heb 13:17 CSB "Obey your leaders and submit to them, since they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account, so that they can do this with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you." This gives them carte' blanche' to demand anything, and become an overlord. It is important to understand the historical context of chapter's 12 & 13 of the letter to the Hebrews. Here are the circumstances: They were Jews still obliged to the Mosaic Covenant as long as the temple stood. It appeared to them that God had two programs; one unbelieving Jews under the Old Covenant, and believers who were in Christ. They also knew that the sign that would tell them who the real sons and daughters of God really were was the prophesied destruction of the temple, and it is safe to say by Hebrews 9:8 that the temple was still standing. Almost forty years had transpired since the resurrection and the temple had not yet been destroyed, and the unbelieving Jews were trying to get them to abandon Christ and go back to strictly the Old Covenant.
The obedience that they needed to give to their leaders was to stay firm in their faith that Christ was who they had come to believe he was. It was not a general statement that made them obey every last thing the leaders told them to do. I am not advocating disrespecting leaders. However, it is not disrespectful to differ with them. One can differ with leaders in a respectful manner. There are so many concepts that are born from a misunderstanding of Hebrews. For example, Hebrews 10:25 refers to not forsaking gathering to appease the unbelieving Jews. They were being persecuted by the unbelieving Jews and the Romans.
However, beyond all of this, you have Jesus and his first century followers placing a redemptive focus on the scripture. They were overthrowing the legal constitutional reading in favor of a solely redemptive reading. The legal constitutional reading of scripture had been proven to be ineffective by the failure of Israel to be able to obtain righteousness by the Law (Romans 10:1-4.) In fact, Paul pointed out that the law was a tutor to drive one to Christ for righteousness.
As long as evangelical leaders insist on making the bible a legal constitutional document these abuses will continue. That was the view of scripture in the Mosaic Covenant but not in the New Covenant. The focus of the scripture for the New Covenant should be a proclamation of the gospel. Properly proclaiming the gospel in a corporate setting should result in two basic things for the saints. First it should provide peace with God, and secondly, it should produce love for God. People should want to assemble and fellowship often to hear the gospel. Hearing the gospel over and over will assure hearts and promote transforming love within the saint. That will NEVER happen within the structure whereby leaders demand blind obedience, and the bible is first and foremost a book of rules and practices.
What more power could one ask for than the power of God? Having people believe that God is not pleased with disobeying leaders is the strongest motivation for compliance. It is exactly this phenomena that fuels spiritual abuse. So then, why is it that Jesus rebuked his disciples for wanting authority, and so many evangelical preachers feel that obedience and respect is their right? The main reason is that the erroneously insist on a legal constitutional reading of scripture. They incorrectly believe that the bible is the rule book for faith and practice for all time. They miss the most important aspects of interpretation, which is ignoring occasion, audience, and historical and cultural context. Yet, when one ignores occasion, audience and historical, cultural context, one does extreme violence to the interpretation of the text. The situation of the intended readers is of utmost importance in interpreting what the intended meaning and application was. However, evangelical pastors and other leaders completely ignore this. Therefore, it is the enabler of spiritual abuse. Let me further state that this spiritual abuse is rampant within the ranks of evangelical Christianity.
I cannot count the times that I have heard pastors quote Heb 13:17 CSB "Obey your leaders and submit to them, since they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account, so that they can do this with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you." This gives them carte' blanche' to demand anything, and become an overlord. It is important to understand the historical context of chapter's 12 & 13 of the letter to the Hebrews. Here are the circumstances: They were Jews still obliged to the Mosaic Covenant as long as the temple stood. It appeared to them that God had two programs; one unbelieving Jews under the Old Covenant, and believers who were in Christ. They also knew that the sign that would tell them who the real sons and daughters of God really were was the prophesied destruction of the temple, and it is safe to say by Hebrews 9:8 that the temple was still standing. Almost forty years had transpired since the resurrection and the temple had not yet been destroyed, and the unbelieving Jews were trying to get them to abandon Christ and go back to strictly the Old Covenant.
The obedience that they needed to give to their leaders was to stay firm in their faith that Christ was who they had come to believe he was. It was not a general statement that made them obey every last thing the leaders told them to do. I am not advocating disrespecting leaders. However, it is not disrespectful to differ with them. One can differ with leaders in a respectful manner. There are so many concepts that are born from a misunderstanding of Hebrews. For example, Hebrews 10:25 refers to not forsaking gathering to appease the unbelieving Jews. They were being persecuted by the unbelieving Jews and the Romans.
However, beyond all of this, you have Jesus and his first century followers placing a redemptive focus on the scripture. They were overthrowing the legal constitutional reading in favor of a solely redemptive reading. The legal constitutional reading of scripture had been proven to be ineffective by the failure of Israel to be able to obtain righteousness by the Law (Romans 10:1-4.) In fact, Paul pointed out that the law was a tutor to drive one to Christ for righteousness.
As long as evangelical leaders insist on making the bible a legal constitutional document these abuses will continue. That was the view of scripture in the Mosaic Covenant but not in the New Covenant. The focus of the scripture for the New Covenant should be a proclamation of the gospel. Properly proclaiming the gospel in a corporate setting should result in two basic things for the saints. First it should provide peace with God, and secondly, it should produce love for God. People should want to assemble and fellowship often to hear the gospel. Hearing the gospel over and over will assure hearts and promote transforming love within the saint. That will NEVER happen within the structure whereby leaders demand blind obedience, and the bible is first and foremost a book of rules and practices.
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