Shepherding Through Suffering
1 Peter 5:1-4
There’s more to 1 Pet 5:1-4 than meets the eye. There’s more to being a pastor than meets the eye as well.
The Author – Peter the Apostle
At first glance, we can guess that the Apostle Peter wrote this letter. The title is a dead giveaway and so is the first verse, “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 1:1).
The Audience – Believers in Asia Minor
With a little more digging, we see his audience, too. He wrote to believers and churches who were spread throughout the part of the world we call Turkey today (1 Pet 1:1).
The Purpose – Suffering
But why did Peter write this letter to these Christian people? We don’t know many details, but these believers were going through some difficult trials (1 Pet 1:6-7; 2:18-20; 3:1, 13-17; 4:1-4, 12-19; 5:10). They were suffering because they were Christians. So, Peter wrote this letter to encourage them to persevere through their suffering (1 Pet 2:21).
To get this message across, Peter gave valuable truth about suffering from three angles:
- First he talked about suffering in light of our salvation (1 Pet 1:3-2:10).
- Then he talked about suffering in light of our public testimony (1 Pet 2:11-4:6).
- Finally he talked about suffering in light of Christ’s return (1 Pet 4:7-5:11).
But how does 1 Pet 5:1-4 fit into all this talk about suffering? That’s a great question!
In this small section, Peter narrows his audience from believers in general to their spiritual leaders. He speaks directly to pastors and brings out a crucial insight – God calls pastors to care for his people through suffering, just as shepherds care for their sheep. That’s the main thought in these verses, “Shepherd the flock of God.” I’ll phrase it this way –
Take good care of God’s people, especially when they’re suffering.
Those who are following Christ need Christlike pastors to care for their spiritual needs, don’t they? If you follow Christ, you need good spiritual care from your pastors.
Before we dive into these verses to learn what it means to be a shepherd who cares for God’s people, let’s answer another question. What motivated Peter to give this advice?
- First, the fact that believers were facing a serious trial probably gave him some urgency. The words “I exhort” suggest a tone of urgency and can be translated as, “I urge you.” So he wrote this letter to address an urgent need in the church.
- Peter also felt a sense of personal responsibility for these men not as an apostle but as a pastor himself. Notice how he calls himself a “fellow elder” (1 Pet 5:1). He could have easily pulled rank and said, “You better listen to me because I’m an apostle; I have a higher position than you.” Instead, he showed empathy with his audience as an equal. He was motivated by empathy.
- But there’s more! Peter also describes himself as “a witness of the sufferings of Christ” (1 Pet 5:1). To what does this refer? From what we can tell, he didn’t watch Christ die on the cross (only John did that), but he did watch Christ’s unjust trials before Annas and Caiaphas, when they falsely accused Christ and struck him in the face (John 18:12-27).
What this probably refers to is all the hardships Christ experienced in his three years of ministry, when he talked and traveled with Peter and the other disciples. He had no house of his own, was rejected by the residents of his hometown, and experienced all sorts of hatred and opposition from family members, political leaders, and religious leaders.
The sufferings of Christ motivated Peter to write these words.
Having seen the suffering of Christ firsthand and having his own personal experience of being a pastor, he wrote to encourage other pastors to be what God had called them to be and do what God had called them to do for his people.
By giving this advice, Peter was doing what Christ had told him to do years before. After Christ died and rose again, he appeared to the disciples on the shore of Galilee. After cooking and feeding them breakfast, he turned to Peter and gave him a commission. “If you love me,” Christ said to Peter, “then feed my sheep (3x)” (John 21:15-19).
Can you see what’s going on here? Christ told Peter to care for his sheep, now Peter is telling other pastors to do the same thing. As a wise, older man – no longer the young, opinionated man he had once been – he said to the pastors who looked up to him, “Take good care of God’s people, especially when they’re suffering.”
With this backstory in mind, let’s take a closer look at Peter’s God-given instructions to pastors about caring for people in the church. In these words, he teaches us a pastor’s responsibilities, a pastor’s position, a pastor’s motives, and a pastor’s reward.
The Pastor’s Responsibilities
In this passage, Peter describes a pastor’s responsibilities with three key terms: elder, overseer, and shepherd.
Elder
Elder refers to a man’s wisdom, maturity, and reputation. He should exhibit the character of Christ and the fruit of the Spirit. He should be a man whom people respect and who is an example for others to follow. According to Jewish tradition, an elder had to be an older man with many years of experience. While age is still a benefit so far as being an example is concerned, the NT teaches that even a young man may be an elder in the church, so long as he exemplifies the Spirit-filled character of Christ (1 Tim 4:12).
Overseer
Oversee (bishop) refers to a man’s administrative tasks. As a spiritual supervisor, he must look carefully at everything that goes on within a church. He must pay attention to the people, teaching, programs, and resources of the church. Then based upon what he observes, he must make wise decisions to strengthen the church in all these areas. The modern concept of a CEO helps us understand what this responsibility entails, but we should also understand that being a pastor is nowhere near as glamorous.
Shepherd
Shepherd (pastor) refers to a man’s personal responsibilities. He should meet the spiritual needs of the members in a church as a shepherd takes care of sheep. As followers of Christ and as sheep, we should embrace the role of pastors in our lives because we are unable to navigate the Christian life without the biblical, personal care of pastors. We all tend to go astray and need pastoral guidance along the way, especially when we’re experiencing suffering, persecution, and trials.
Regarding being a shepherd, we should know that unlike a modern CEO, this was a low-level job in the social spectrum, on par with being a trash collector today. A miserable, outdoor, unheralded job with little financial return, though it required a high level of skill. A shepherd needs to provide a proper diet and nutrition, provide medical care, be an expert navigator, know how to detect weather patterns, starts, and seasons, combat wild animals one-on-one, rescue endangered animals, and manage all sorts of personalities.
Pastors must know how to counsel and teach, be familiar with all 66 books (Hebrew and Greek), understand centuries of church history and theology, oversee finances, manage a nonprofit, recruit and train volunteers, innovate and run programs for all ages and stages of life, be a public speaker, live an exemplary life (even in his private, family life), have excellent people skills, understand legal matters (pertaining to churches), and even manage a pandemic!
This role is not for the uninformed or faint of heart.
Every pastor has a duty before God to take good care of God’s people, especially when they’re suffering. To do that, a pastor must be faithful as an elder (example), an overseer (administrator), and a shepherd (a pastor). As he carries out his responsibilities, he must also have the right attitude about his position.
The Pastor’s Position
A pastor must always remember that he is not the primary leader in the church, he is secondary.
He serves in submission to Christ.
The primary leader is Christ himself, whom Peter calls “the Chief Shepherd” (1 Pet 5:4). He is the Good Shepherd of Psa 23 and John 10 and we are the under-shepherds. Since he is the Chief Shepherd, every pastor must answer to Christ and is not free to do as he pleases. We must lead people with God’s Word, not our own opinions and ideas. We must remain submitted to him at all times and give glory to him always.
The people he shepherds belong to God.
A pastor must also remember that the people we shepherd belong to God. They are “the flock of God” (1 Pet 5:2). Though he should develop close, loving, and trusting relationships with the people in his care, he should not be possessive of those relationships. They are not his people, they are God’s. God created them, rescued them, and purchased them with the blood of his son. They belong to him.
God delegates some people to the care of specific pastors.
A pastor should also remember that God has assigned some of his people to each pastor’s care. Peter describes this as “those entrusted to you,” which means that God delegates the care of some of his people to various pastors (1 Pet 5:3). A church is not a random assortment of people but is a group that God has sovereignly and specifically assigned to be cared for by the pastors of that church.
Every pastor has a duty before God to take good care of God’s people, especially when they’re suffering. So, a pastor must be faithful as an example, an administrator, and a shepherd. He must also bear in mind that he is not the primary leader – he answers to Christ, cares for God’s people, and cares for the people God has assigned to his care.
The Pastor’s Motives
To take good care of God’s people requires more than a good understanding of the pastor’s responsibilities and position. The pastor must have the right motives, too.
“Not by compulsion but willingly” (1 Pet 5:2)
First, a pastor should carry out his responsibilities from a true heart. He should not serve the church as an unwanted burden, pressured by what others think about him, or doing things with a false sense of guilt and obligation. He should serve because he wants to. That’s why Paul taught that any man who becomes a pastor must first have a strong, internal desire for the work (1 Tim 3:1).
“Not for dishonest gain but eagerly” (1 Pet 5:2)
Second, a pastor should not carry out his responsibilities because he is greedy for money. If at all possible, a church should pay their pastors. Both Jesus and Paul taught that a working man is worth his wages (Matt 10:10; 1 Cor 9:7-12). The problem here is not being paid but being motivated by money rather than by love for God and his people.
“Neither as being lords over those entrusted to you” (1 Pet 5:3)
Third, a pastor should not lead like a dictator. This means that a pastor’s leadership style should not be overpowering. Christ taught against this leadership style which was prevalent in Gentile culture (Mark 10:42). It portrays an approach that views others as inferior, orders and bosses people around, and demands to be treated as royalty.
- Thomas Schreiner explains, “Elders are not to use their positions of authority as an opportunity to oppress those under them.”
- David Walls says, “A pastor should not delight in the use of authority (although at times he must exercise it), nor should he seek to increase, preserve, or flaunt his authority.”
Rather than lead in a domineering way, the pastor should lead by example, inspiring people to follow Christ through his words, attitude, and lifestyle.
As a missionary pastor in South Africa for ten years, my father encountered a fascinating phenomenon. Many men wanted to become a pastor, but not for godly reasons. These were men with no money, no skills, and no reputation. They wanted a missionary from America to teach them classes, free of cost of course, about how to be a pastor. Then, once they received a certificate or diploma from the missionary’s Bible institute or college, they would tell people they were a pastor so that people would follow them, listen to them, and give them money. This is exactly the kind of motives that Peter speaks against.
The Pastor’s Reward
Every pastor has a duty before God to take good care of God’s people, especially when they’re suffering, doing so requires the pastor to have the right motives. It also requires a proper view of his reward.
The pastor’s reward is future not present.
Notice how Peter says, “When the Chief Shepherd appears” (1 Pet 5:4). This indicates a future moment in time and looks ahead to the Second Coming of Christ when he will reign on earth for a thousand years and then reign over a new world forever after that. This is important to keep in mind because a pastor does many things that go unnoticed, takes many underappreciated risks, misses out on many worldly opportunities, and never seems to reap all that he sows – in this present life. His reward is in the future.
The pastor’s reward is eternal not temporary.
The word receive speaks of one person remunerating or giving back a person what he deserves. In this case, it is a “crown of glory that doesn’t fade away” (1 Pet 5:4). This crown of glory reminded the readers of the amaranth plant woven together to make a crown. This was a plant that, when dried, would last a long time, unlike other plant-based crowns that would wilt quite quickly. In the Roman world, high-ranking officials would award such wreaths to people who won athletic competitions, etc. Christ does better than this, though, because his rewards don’t just last a long time, they never end.
In elementary, junior high, and high-school I won various awards for piano playing achievements for performances at the annual Summer Music Festival of Indiana University (a Big Ten school). In college, I earned other awards for academic performance. Some of these awards were plastic, wooden trophies, others were ribbons of one kind or another, and others were certificates or plaques. Today I have almost none of those awards left. After moving from one home, dormitory, or city to the next, I’ve boxed up and packaged these things enough that I’ve either lost or discarded them along the way. All I have left is the memory.
Professional athletes are like this: they accumulate lots of awards and trophies along the way for personal and team accomplishments and they display them in a special room of their house devoted to their trophies. Someday even those will be auctioned off, destroyed, or discarded. Christ doesn’t give awards like this. He awards his servants at the end of this life and his awards last forever.
Do you recall how I said there’s more to 1 Pet 5:1-4 than meets the eye? Let me tell you more of the backstory to this passage to make it’s message even more meaningful.
Pastors should expect to suffer.
When Jesus told Peter to “feed his sheep,” he also told him something else. He told him that he would suffer, too. Peter had witnessed the sufferings of Christ, but now he was told that he would also suffer for Christ (John 21:18-19).
How did Peter suffer? Well, we know he was imprisoned for prison for preaching the gospel and beaten by the Jewish religious leaders. We also know that he died a painful, martyr’s death. According to credible traditions (not Roman Catholic myths), Peter was crucified upside down.
Pastors need a transformed heart.
That Peter suffered and died for his faith is remarkable because this was not the kind of man he originally appeared to be when Christ first called him. He was a self-willed man who cared a lot about what people thought of him. He even argued with the Lord on multiple occasions and liked to be in charge.
Satan seeks to destroy pastors.
In fact, we know that Satan had worked hard to influence’s Peter’s mindset and approach. On one occasion, Satan influenced his words so strongly that Christ had to rebuke him with, “Get behind me Satan” (Matt 16:23). On another occasion, Christ said that Satan was actively seeking to derail his ministry (Luke 22:31-34). Peter meant well but had a wrong perspective about what it meant to be a godly leader.
We face the same challenge today, those who are pastors and those who are simply followers of Christ (1 Pet 5:8-10). Satan is hoping to destroy God’s work in our lives, making us ineffective for his service. That’s why pastors must take good care of God’s people, especially when they’re suffering.
To do so, every good pastor must also expect to suffer as Christ himself suffered, perhaps even more than the average member in the pew. That’s what it takes to be a pastor. To be a pastor, administrator, and example for God’s sheep requires suffering, humility, and a total submission to Christ and is not for the faint of heart, but it’s a worthy work with eternal rewards if you’re willing to do it.
If you can be content doing anything else, then do it.
When speaking to a group of pastors in training, the famous preacher, Charles Spurgeon, said this in one of his lectures:
“If any student in this room could be content to be a newspaper editor, or a grocer, or a farmer, or a doctor, or a lawyer, or a senator, or a king, in the name of heaven and earth let him go his way; he is not the man in whom dwells the Spirit of God in its fullness, for a man so filled with God would utterly weary of any pursuit but that for which his inmost soul pants. If on the other hand, you can say that for all the wealth of both the Indies you could not and dare not espouse any other calling so as to be put aside from preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, then, depend upon it, if other things be equally satisfactory, you have the signs of this apostleship. We must feel that woe is unto us if we preach not the gospel; the word of God must be unto us as fire in our bones, otherwise, if we undertake the ministry, we shall be unhappy in it, shall be unable to bear the self-denials incident to it, and shall be of little service to those among whom we minister. I speak of self-denials, and well I may; for the true pastor’s work is full of them, and without a love to his calling he will soon succumb, and either leave the drudgery, or move on in discontent, burdened with a monotony as tiresome as that of a blind horse in a mill.”[1]
Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students
When I was a young man, perhaps about 14 yrs. old, I read these words for the first time. In the quietness of my bedroom on the second floor, I sat cross-legged on the tan carpet between my bunkbed and the window overlooking our front yard. I asked myself if I could do anything else. I would have liked to go into the financial industry as an accountant or money manager of some kind. I would also have really enjoyed being a park ranger, driving a brown truck around the great outdoors in some state or federal forest. Yet as I prayed about these things, I knew deep down in my heart that I could not do these things in good conscience. They might be fine for someone else, but I was meant to serve the church in a full-time way. The church would be my life whether in the jungles of Africa or in the church of America. What about you?
In conclusion, let me offer three applications.
Take good care of God’s people, especially when they’re suffering.
To the pastors hearing these words, I – like Peter and like Christ – urge you to shepherd the flock of God with the motives that Peter describes. Take good care of God’s people, especially when they’re suffering.
Consider whether God wants you to be a pastor.
To those whom God may be calling to be pastors, I encourage you think carefully about what this work requires. It requires submission to Christ, a willingness to suffer, and the kind of patience that is willing to wait until eternity to receive your reward.
Pray for and follow your pastors.
To all who follow Christ, I urge you to do two things for your pastors. Pray for them. It’s not an easy task and Satan works extra hard to destroy them and their work. Also, take them seriously. What I mean by this is don’t take their service for granted. Take their teachings and counsel to heart, participate in the gatherings and programs they organize, and get behind the decisions they make. If your pastors are good shepherds who are not disobeying the Word of God, then it is actually God who is caring for you through them. Satan loves nothing more than to separate the sheep from the shepherd, whether that’s the Chief Shepherd or your under-shepherds, and as sheep, you need shepherding care.
[1] Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students: Addresses Delivered to the Students of the Pastors' College, Metropolitan Tabernacle, Kindle ed. (Warrendale, PA: Ichthus Publications, 2014), loc. 676.
