How our Manner of Life plays a Great Role in Shepherding Others According to God

In learning to cooperate with Christ in His heavenly ministry of shepherding others, we need to realize that our entrance toward the believers, our manner of life, and our being plays a great role in infusing the gospel into others and caring for them.

The best way to cherish and nourish others according to God is not only to speak the biblical truth to them but even more to present a proper pattern of living Christ in our living.

The Lord Jesus didn’t just speak the words of God – He also lived God, expressed God, manifested God, and in His living, He expressed the bountiful God in His rich attributes through His aromatic virtues.

The apostle Paul, as the top sinner who became the top apostle by the Lord’s mercy and grace, followed in the Lord’s steps to shepherd others not only by speaking the gospel to them but by his manner of life, reminding them of his entrance toward the believers (1 Thes. 1:5, 9).

We need to learn to cooperate with Christ in His heavenly ministry by shepherding others according to God; our shepherding involves not only preaching the gospel but also living it, so that we may minister Christ not only by word but also by our daily living.

Our daily living in shepherding others should display the power of God, should be a life in the Holy Spirit and in the assurance of faith (1 Thes. 1:5), and should be cherishing and nourishing to others.

We need to read the Bible, especially the New Testament, and be infused with the pattern of the first God-man, Jesus Christ, and His best imitator and reproduction, the apostle Paul; as we are infused with the Lord and His humanity, we can imitate Him by letting Him live in us.

When we hear about the Lord being the Good Shepherd and Paul telling us to shepherd the saints, we may wonder how can this be and what this shepherding is. Our shepherding needs to be by being a proper pattern to others, a pattern of living Christ to magnify Him.

We cannot speak one thing yet express another, neither can we properly care for others if we speak the right words but our being, attitude, living, and demeanor are not right.

May the Lord gain a model of the God-man living among us, a model of a corporate God-man living in the church life so that we may learn from Christ and from Paul how to shepherd one another according to God.

How our Manner of Life plays a Great Role in Shepherding Others According to God

If you read 1 Thes. 1-2 you will realize that the apostle Paul stressed repeatedly the apostles’ entry toward the believers; this show that their manner of life, their being and living, played a great role in infusing the gospel into the new converts.

In order for Paul to shepherd this newly raised church with new believers, he wrote to them not only concerning the truth but also concerning himself, his manner of life toward them and his own living of Christ.

Our own manner of life and our daily living when we are around other people plays a great role in infusing the gospel into them and in shepherding them.

We may know a lot of things, our heart may be full of zeal, and we may be ready to go preach the gospel or visit others, but we need to have a proper being, a proper manner of life, so that others may not only hear the word but also see our demeanor, attitude, and living, and be touched by the Lord.

We want to see some snapshots of the apostles’ being, their manner of life, and their entrance toward the believers, and pray over these matters that we would live in such a way. As we see these snapshots of the apostles, we will get a panoramic view, a 360 degree view of who the apostles were and how we should be.

Struggling and speaking the gospel in the boldness of God. The apostles were struggling and speaking the gospel to the Thessalonians in the boldness of God (1 Thes. 2:2). They were just outrageously treated by the Philippians (beaten and put in jail), but suffering and persecution could not defeat them because they were in the organic union with God.

Even though things and events and people may be against us, we need to be one with the Triune God in an organic way, struggle for the gospel, fight for the truth, and speak the gospel in the boldness of God.

We may not be bold but rather timid and shy; we need to be one with God to speak the gospel in His boldness, as He is one with us.

Free from deception, uncleanness, and guile (1 Thes. 2:3). Deception refers to the goal uncleanness to the motive, and guile to the means.

Our goal should be God Himself and His glory, our motive should be our love for Him in purity, and our means should be through the cross and by the Spirit, doing nothing for ourselves but for the building up of the Body.

We should not be greedy, desiring to make a gain of anyone, or intending to deceive others; rather, we need to exhort in speaking, preaching, teaching, and instructing others with no uncleanness, no guile, and no deception.

Tested and approved by God, pleasing God and not man as we preach the gospel.

The apostles were first tested and approved by God, and then they were entrusted by Him with the gospel; therefore, their speaking – the preaching of the gospel – was not of themselves to please men but of God to please Him (1 Thes. 2:4; 2 Cor. 1:12; 6:6; 7:3).

We need to open our heart to the Lord to be proved by Him, examined by Him, and tested by Him continually, so that we may be brought in His way, be approved by Him, and be entrusted with the gospel.

God’s entrusting depends on His approval by His testing; He examines our heart, tests our hearts, and proves our heart all the time (Psa. 26:2; 139:23-24); the result is that we are approved by Him and in our speaking we want to please God and not man.

Lord Jesus, search our heart, try us, test us, and grant us that we may be approved by You and entrusted by You with the gospel. You know our heart, our inward motives, our desires, and our thoughts; may we be approved men whom You trust with the gospel, men who preach the gospel and seek to please God and not men. We give ourselves to You, Lord, to be in Your presence, under Your shining and proving, so that we may be one with You in preaching the gospel and shepherding others according to God.

Not being found with flattering speech or with a pretext for covetousness. The apostles were never found with flattering speech or with a pretext for covetousness (1 Thes. 2:5). To have any pretext for covetousness is to peddle or adulterate the word of God (see 2 Cor. 2:17; 4:12).

If you look in Christianity, many well-known preachers have the adulterating of the word of God for their gain as their modus operandi; they speak to enrich themselves, seeking the hidden things of shame.

To have any pretext for covetousness is to pretend to be godly for gain (see 1 Tim. 6:5; Titus 1:11; 2 Pet. 2:3).

In the times of degradation, as we were warned by Paul and Peter, many lead people to untruth and want to enrich themselves; they are covetous, getting rich because of others, merchandising the word of God. May we be saved from such a degradation!

Not seeking glory from men. The apostles didn’t seek glory from men, neither did they stand on their authority as apostles of Christ (1 Thes. 2:6).

Seeking glory from men is a real temptation to every Christian worker; once you start speaking the word of God, others will appreciate you and want to give you honor and glory.

The fall of Lucifer the archangel was due to the seeking of glory; he already had a very high position, but he sought more glory, even to dethrone God (Ezek. 28:13-17; Isa. 14:12-15; Matt. 4:8-10). Therefore, everyone who seeks glory for himself from men is a follower of Satan.

Seeking glory from others in our work for God is a trap spread by Satan to snare Christian workers, and many have fallen into this trap. It is very important for us to avoid the snare of glory-seeking; the world seeks glory and wants you to seek glory, but we need to seek the Lord’s glory and be one with Him to shepherd others with no glory for ourselves.

How much we can be used by the Lord and how long our usefulness will last depends on whether we seek glory from men; when we seek glory from others, our usefulness is finished.

Lord Jesus, save us from seeking glory from man. May we not fall into the trap of seeking glory from others for ourselves in the Lord’s work. Purify our heart, our intention, our motives, and our seeking. May we seek You in purity. May we learn to shepherd others according to God in a pure manner of life, seeking to give all the glory to God and no glory to ourselves. Lord Jesus, may we be useful in Your hand and may our usefulness to You last for the rest of our life. We love You, Lord!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru C. for this week, and portions from, Life-study of 1 Thessalonians, msg. 12 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Cooperating with the Heavenly Ministry of the Ascended Christ (2017 Spring ITERO), msg. 3 (week 3), The Pattern of the Apostle Paul in Cooperating with Christ’s Heavenly Ministry to Shepherd People for the Building Up of the Body of Christ.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # I hardly know myself; / Deceived so much by pride, / I often think I’m right / And am self-satisfied…. / I long to be unveiled, / In everything made clear, / No more to be deceived / Or to my pride adhere. (Hymns #426)
  # Search me, O God, my actions try, / And let my life appear / As seen by Thine all-searching eye— / To mine my ways make clear… / Search all my thoughts, the secret springs, / The motives that control; / The chambers where polluted things / Hold empire o’er the soul. (Hymns #407)
  # O teach me, Lord, that I may teach / The precious things Thou dost impart; / And wing my words, that they may reach / The hidden depths of many a heart. / O use me, Lord, use even me, / Just as Thou wilt, and when, and where, / Until Thy blessed face I see, / Thy rest, Thy joy, Thy glory share! (Hymns #903)