Teacher, Leader, Shepherd: The New Testament Pastor

By Robert Picirilli

Dr. Picirilli present an exegetical approach to the New Testament passages that include practical exposition of the implicaitons of the biblical text. Such a study is beneficial to any pastor, whether a veteran or a new candidate for pastoral ministry. The work is informing and challenging, helping to point the pastor's understanding in the right direction. The author presents a thematic approach, a succession of chapters on various aspects of the pastor's call, qualifications, and role. The discussion is entirely grounded in exegesis of several passages. This book does not attempt to tell the minister how to preach, how to go about his work, or how to treat the practical problems faced by pastors. On the contrary, this work focuses on an understanding of what the Bible has to say to the pastor and his ministry. This is an excellent resource for pastors, church leaders, and seminary students.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Randall House
• Release date: Jul 1, 2007
• ISBN: 9781614840404

Robert Picirilli

Dr. Robert E. Picirilli is former academic dean and professor of Greek and the New Testament studies at Free Will Baptist Bible College in Nashville, Tennessee. Since 1983, he as served as the General Editor of "The Randall House Bible Commentary" and contributed to several volumes within the series. His other published works include "Understanding Assurance and Salvation"; "Grace, Faith, Free Will"; "Paul, the Apostle"'; and numerous other books and articles in denominational publications and theological journals.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

BIBLICAL TERMS THAT APPLY

TO THE OFFICE OF PASTOR

Acts 14:23: [Paul and Barnabas] appointed elders in every church.

Acts 20:17, 28: From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church. [And Paul said to them,] Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.

Ephesians 4:11: And he himself gave some to be . . . pastors and teachers.

1 Timothy 3:1, 2: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. A bishop then must be blameless.

Titus 1:5, 7: [Paul to Titus: I left you in Crete] that you should . . . appoint elders in every city . . . . For a bishop must be blameless.

1 Peter 5:1, 2: The elders who are among you I exhort . . . Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers.

The three primary terms used in the New Testament that apply directly to the person we call pastor are elder, bishop, and pastor. As noted in the Foreword, I am proceeding on the assumption that everything in the New Testament addressed to bishops or elders also speaks to pastors.

My purpose in this work is to examine in detail what the New Testament says about the office of pastor, whether identified by one of these three terms or when neither term is used and the role is referred to indirectly. This chapter focuses on the meaning of the three terms, which give insight into the nature of the pastor’s work. As John Wesley asked, and answered: Is there any hope that a man should discharge his office well, if he knows not what it is? . . . Nay, if he knows not the work God has given him to do, he cannot finish it (10.482).

1. ELDER

There is a consensus view that the earliest New Testament churches were organized under the leadership of elders, following a pattern of organization the first (Jewish) Christians were already familiar with in their synagogues. Apparently the first use of this term within the fledgling church is in Acts 11:30 and refers to elders among the Jerusalem believers, likewise named several times in Acts 15 in the phrase, the apostles and elders (see verses 2, 4, 6, 22, 23).

The Pauline churches had elders. In Acts 14:21 we learn that Paul and Barnabas completed their first missionary journey by making a return visit to the churches they had planted in Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch. As they did so they appointed elders in every church³ (14:23). In Acts 20, Paul summoned the elders of the Ephesian church to meet him in Miletus.

Paul’s letters give attention to the place of elders. He instructed Titus, for example, to appoint elders in every city (1:5). In 1 Timothy 5:17 he urged that elders who rule well be given double honor.

Peter and James likewise refer to elders. James 5:14 urges ailing believers to call for the elders of the church to anoint and pray for them. First Peter 5:1 addresses the elders who are among you.⁴

Applying the term elder to the pastor has some important implications. The Greek word is presbuteros and it first has the natural meaning of an older person. In Acts 2:17, for example, it stands in contrast to young men; likewise in 1 Timothy 5:1. Then it apparently came to mean a person who has the defined status of elder, a term chosen to indicate persons with maturity and selected for official responsibilities. While no certain age for the office is stated, no doubt the basic concept involved persons who were truly older and experienced. Older people were highly regarded in that culture. Karen Jobes (302) thinks of the earliest elders as leaders . . . who were probably heads of households where house churches met, but the role became more formalized and official as the needs of the churches developed. She may be right in this, but we cannot be sure; nor does this matter for the purpose of this work.

The pastor is certainly an elder, and the title itself makes clear that the pastor has a position of respect and responsibility. He has status in the congregation. Furthermore, maturity and experience are part of the job description. The qualifications discussed in chapters three and four will make this even clearer.

2. BISHOP = OVERSEER

In 1 Timothy 3:1, five English words—the position of a bishop (the office of a bishop, KJV)—represent just one Greek word, episcop. It has the same root as the word translated bishop in verse 2 (episcopos) and so refers to the position or work of the person who wears that title. There is also a verb on the same root, episkope, which means (in this context) to exercise the office, to function as a bishop or overseer.

Technically, neither office nor position is explicitly part of the Greek word, which works the same way as when we adapt our English word president by referring to his office as the presidency, or when we speak of the place a pastor fills as the pastorate. There is no English word like bishopcy or bishopate, of course, but that is the idea. In Acts 1:20, when the eleven apostles were discussing the need to name a twelfth man to take Judas’s place, they quoted the words of Psalm 69:25, "Let another take his office" (KJV, bishoprick), the very word used in 1 Timothy.

Obviously, then, the position of a bishop means the place filled by a bishop, the role and responsibilities involved in the bishop’s ministry. The important question for us is what this means, and although etymology isn’t always a sure guide to the meaning of a word, we may start there. Episcope is a combination of the preposition epi, upon or over, and the verb skopeo, to watch, look, or see. This appears to picture a bishop as one who watches over, looks out for, or oversees; the lexicographers generally agree that this is indeed the meaning of the word.

Consequently, many versions translate the word by overseer. In 1 Timothy 3:1 the NIV reads, "If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer. The NASB reads, If any man aspires to the office of overseer. Even the KJV translates the plural noun as overseers" in Acts 20:28. This has the advantage of avoiding the special usage of bishop to refer not to an ordinary pastor, for example, but to an elite clergyman who has authority over pastors—as the word is used in denominations (like the Methodist and Episcopal churches) that are governed by a hierarchy of bishops.⁵ The word is never used that way in the New Testament.

But even overseer may have some disadvantages as a translation, since it seems to suggest that the primary function of the office is to exercise authority over, to supervise.⁶ The fundamental question about this word, then, is its primary focus. Even by its etymology, episkope can mean to watch over as much as to oversee.

Most scholars of the language will agree, I think, that the basic meaning of this word is to exercise watch-care over. This involves supervisory oversight, to be sure, and the overseer-ship (as we might render in 1 Timothy 3:1) is without doubt a position of authority. Indeed, the word was sometimes applied to governors (in colonies), to certain magistrates (in autonomous cities) or to other high-ranking functionaries (Spicq 2.51). The primary responsibility of the person who bears this title is to look out for the welfare of the church entrusted to his