The apostle Paul was a pattern to the elders in Ephesus – a pattern of what the elders should be to the church to shepherd them, serving the Lord as a slave.
When we hear or read about the need to shepherd others according to God, we may think that this is something so high and abstract, but when we see the pattern of the apostle Paul, we are encouraged and discipled, for he was one who served the Lord as a slave and shepherded the saints.
Paul may have never been an elder in the church, but he surely functioned as an elder wherever he was, taking care of the saints and shepherding them according to God.
He lived by the all-inclusive Spirit of Jesus for his preaching ministry, and his ministry was one of suffering, being carried out among human beings and for human beings in the human life for the building up of the Body of Christ.
Paul lived in the mingled spirit, always exercising to live in spirit and by the spirit. We need to learn to live in the mingled spirit, the divine Spirit mingled with our human spirit, and we need to treasure our mingled spirit.
Hallelujah, we are joined to the Lord as one spirit, and we can live in spirit today! When we live in spirit and exercise our spirit, we will be inwardly filled with the Spirit of joy, and we will be outwardly clothed with the Spirit of power.
For our daily living and existence we need the inward filling of the Spirit, and for our work for the Lord in the church we need the Spirit of power economically upon us. Amen, may we exercise ourselves to always have a good conscience and a pure conscience before God and before man!
No matter what happens, we need to come to the Lord and deal with anything that is in our conscience, and the blood of Jesus will cleanse us and wash us. Then, we will live a life of rejoicing in the Lord, a life of praying unceasingly and a life of thanking the Lord in everything. Thank You Lord for everything!
And when we work for God to shepherd the saints, we need to do this one spirit with the Lord, by always praying and thanking the Lord, and by being allied with God.
Wow, we can be allied with God, assisted by God, to speak the gospel boldly in the name of Jesus to spread His testimony and to the uttermost part of the earth. Our help comes from the Lord, and He is allied with us when we go out in His name.
Seeing Paul as a Pattern of what the Elders should be to the Church
The apostle Paul was a pattern to the elders in Ephesus and the elders everywhere, a pattern of what the elders should be to the church (see Acts 20:27-28).
First, he cherished the saints in the humanity of Jesus and then he nourished them in the divinity of Christ with all the truths of God’s eternal economy, displaying in his living the word of the Lord Jesus that it is more blessed to give than to receive (see Acts 20:18-38; 1 Thes. 2:1-12).
We need to learn to cherish the saints in the humanity of Jesus and nourish them in the divinity of Christ with all the truths of God’s economy. The truths of God’s economy need to become our constitution, and we need to nourish the saints with these truths.
Serving the Lord as a Slave with all Humility and Tears and Trials
Paul served the Lord as a slave with all humility and tears and trials (Acts 20:19).
When he gave himself as a pattern to the elders, Paul didn’t remind them of the great work he did or the big meetings they had, but of his serving the church with all humility and tears and trials.
To be an elder is not to be put in a position of dignity or high rank but to be a slave of the Lord and of the saints.
The Lord didn’t call us to be served but to serve, and for us to serve the saints we need to abandon any desire to have a position or rank and learn to gird ourselves with humility to serve the saints.
When we serve as slaves we lose our rights and liberties. All believers in Christ are slaves serving the Lord as a slave, and they serve the Lord not directly but indirectly by serving the saints the members of the Body of Christ.
We need to brand ourselves with humility, being humble and allowing the Lord to humble us, and we need to learn to even shed tears as we care for the saints. Our job is not to tell others off or give them commands to do this or that, neither is it to take our the whip and whip them for moving too slow….
The church is the flock of God, not a human organisation or business enterprise. We need to learn to listen to the saints and serve them with humility, trials, and even tears. The apostle Paul shed tears, and so did the Lord Jesus.
One drop of tear works better than many messages we may give others. Was shouldn’t tell others off or demand things for them to do for the Lord, but we should be compassionate, full of humility, and even drop tears when the Lord in us is moving to do so.
We shouldn’t think that shedding tears is a sign of weakness, but we should shepherd the saints according to God.
Lord Jesus, we love You and we love the church. We want to gird ourselves with humility and learn to serve the saints according to God. Teach us how to serve the Lord as a slave with all humility and tears and trials. Lord, You are the Shepherd in our spirit and the Slave of God in us. We want to cooperate with You and even live You out as we learn to shepherd the saints according to God. Amen, Lord, we gird ourselves with humility and we want to be those serving the Lord as a slave by serving the saints, the flock of God.
Shepherding the Saints Publicly and from House to House and Seeing their Preciousness in God’s Eyes
The pattern of the apostle Paul in shepherding the saints included his teaching them both publicly and from house to house, declaring to them all the counsel of God, all of God’s eternal economy (Acts 20:20, 26-27).
Paul was with the saints not only in big meetings but also in their homes – wherever there was a home, he went to visit the saints.
We need to learn to shepherd the saints by serving the Lord as a slave and visiting the saints in their homes one by one. Just to visit the homes of the saints and tell them to love the Lord and trust in Him may not be adequate.
We need to read the Bible, consider the saints, visit them and know their situation and need, and pray to be one spirit with the Lord to speak the Word of God according to the need of the saints.
We need to have a house to house church life, being before the Lord concerning who to visit and what to say to shepherd them.
We should not withdraw from the organic responsibility we have in the Body of Christ to shepherd the saints according to God by girding ourselves with humility and visiting the saints in their homes.
We may even want to invite some saints to our home, cook a good meal for them, pray with our vital companions for them, and shepherd them in the humanity of Jesus and in the divinity of Christ.
Our being needs to be full of the healthy teaching of God’s New Testament economy, and when we go to visit others, we should simply impart to them the things of God’s economy.
When we all have a proper revelation and enjoyment of God’s eternal economy, we will all be full of joy to propagate Christ on earth.
Paul was burdened for the elders to see the precious love of God for the church and the preciousness, the exceeding worth, of the church in the eyes of God, so that they would treasure the church as God did.
So Paul admonished the elders to take heed to themselves and to all the flock, among whom the Holy Spirit has placed them as overseers to shepherd the church of God, which He obtained through His own blood (Acts 20:28).
God shed His own blood for the church; He became a man with human blood, and he shed His blood to gain the church – this is how much He loves and treasures the church.
We must therefore also love the church as the Lord does, and we need to take heed to ourselves and to all the saints, treasuring them and seeking to minister Christ to them for the building up of the church.
Lord Jesus, we want to learn to shepherd the saints not only in the big meetings but also from house to house, taking a personal interest in them and caring for them. Impart Your heart of care, shepherding, and love into us, Lord, and have a way to care for the saints in our care for them. Grant us to see the exceeding worth and utmost preciousness of the church so that we may treasure the saints and seek to minister Christ to them for their going on with the Lord to build up the church as the Body of Christ!
Being a Pattern to Function and Perfect the Saints unto the Building up of the Body
On one hand the apostle Paul edified the saints, and on the other, he warned them concerning the destroyers of the divine building; he both fed the saints and inoculated them.
He warned of the wolves coming from without and those who will rise from within to speak perverted things and draw away the saints after them (Acts 20:29-30).
He was a pattern in contacting each of the saints, telling the elders to remember that for three years, night and day, he didn’t cease admonishing each one with tears (v. 31).
Even more, because Paul saw that the unique goal of God’s calling is the building up of the Body of Christ, he was a pattern to the saints and the elders by functioning to perfect the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ.
The unique goal of God’s calling is the building up of the Body of Christ, and Christ builds up His Body not directly but indirectly through His members; the Body builds itself up in love (see Eph. 4:11-16).
Therefore, we need to function to perfect all the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ, so that all the saints would grow in life and would function in life according to their measure of life to be a supply of life, thus causing the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.
Practically speaking, Paul spoke of the stewardship of grace entrusted to him (Eph. 3:2), and that this stewardship was also entrusted to all of us. We all have received the stewardship of grace for the building up of the Body of Christ.
The building up of the Body is the responsibility of all the saints, who are the members of the Body; it is not the gifted members who build the Body directly, but all the perfected saints that build up the Body.
Therefore, there has to be a perfecting work going on, so that all the saints may be perfected and brought into their organic function, and as the perfected saints function, the Body builds itself up in love.
We may not be called to be an apostle, an evangelist, a teacher or a shepherd, or a prophet, but we can be perfected to do the work of an apostle, the work of a prophet, the work of an evangelist, and the work of a shepherd and a teacher.
We need to let the Lord perfect us through the gifted members, and we need to learn to perfect others to do what we do in our function, so that the perfected saints would function in their measure for the building up of the Body of Christ.
Paul functioned as an apostle, a prophet (he prophesied some things in 1 Cor. 15 and 1 and 2 Thessalonians), an evangelist (he preached the gospel wherever he went), and a shepherd and a teacher (he cared for all the saints and the churches, and he taught them).
We need to be perfected and become a pattern to others in our function, and we need to perfect others to function in their measure in the Body.
Thank You Lord for placing us in the Body of Christ, where we all can be perfected to do the work of an apostle, an evangelist, a prophet, and a shepherd and a teacher. We open to Your perfecting through the gifted members, Lord, so that we may function for the building up of the Body. Amen, Lord, we want to cooperate with You to also function to perfect others unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ. May the saints grow in life and function in life according to their measure of life to be a supply of life and cause the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by James Lee for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ephesians, msgs. 39, 41-42 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Propagating the Resurrected, Ascended, and All-inclusive Christ as the Development of the Kingdom of God (2018 fall ITERO), week 4, Shepherding the Flock of God according to God by Being Patterns of the Flock.
- Hymns on this topic:
# O to be like Thee! full of compassion, / Loving, forgiving, tender and kind, / Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting, / Seeking the wand’ring sinners to find. (Hymns #398)
# We must ever preach the gospel, / Thus our friends and neighbors gain; / House to house with vital partners, / That our new ones will remain. / We must ever preach the gospel, / Cherishing and nourishing; / Loving them as our dear children, / As our priestly offering. (Song on, We must ever preach the gospel)
# Perfected and nourished from house to house meeting, / We speak one by one that the church may be built. / As little by little ev’ry enemy’s fleeing, / More and more surpassingly with glory we’re filled. (Song on, Here a Little, There a Little)
