COUNSEL FOR THE SPIRITUALLY YOUNGER

Can I pray for you in any way?

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders.

1 Peter 5:5a NIV

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As the fifth and final chapter of 1 Peter begins, we find specific guidance being given to the elders of the Christian churches which were “scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia” (1 Peter 1:1). Peter shares this appeal as a fellow elder of the church himself (1 Peter 5:1).

As we move beyond this in the chapter, we find an exhortation to those “who are younger”.

Now, the title itself helps clarify who Peter is addressing here for we shouldn’t read this as if he is talking about chronological age. In other words, the elders aren’t to be seen as being the old people with years and years of worldly experience under their belt as opposed to those who are just learning to spell life. Rather, Peter is addressing the matter of spiritual maturity with the elders of the church having reached an elevated level of growth as a Christian believer that leads to the Lord entrusting them with the highest levels of leadership in the church. All other members of the congregation then are subordinate to the elders from a spiritual leadership standpoint and indeed should aspire to one day become an elder themselves.

With this perspective in hand, let’s look at the first half of verse 5 of 1 Peter, chapter 5. There we find this:

In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders.

God’s Word makes it crystal clear that He expects the church to be united with His Son Jesus as its head. Any divisiveness within the body works against this expectation and so it should come as no surprise when we see the call for the church congregation to “submit” themselves to the elders as long as those elders haven’t fallen into blatant sinfulness, disobedient to the very Lord who placed them in their special position of leadership. For obvious reasons, the flock shouldn’t follow any false shepherd who guides them with no regard for their well being.

Every congregation should have an elder body of specially selected spiritual leaders to oversee and guide all functions of the church. Everyone led by them should submit to their guidance and direction. This is the counsel for the spiritually younger

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.