Together in Christ: 'Valuing Leaders' — Hebrews 13:7

Remember your leaders...

We should let that command from the Holy Spirit settle into our hearts. We live in a time when leaders are scrutinized, questioned, loathed, criticized, and hounded. Their motives are questioned, their integrity challenged, and their performance evaluated based on people's personal preferences, desires, and limited information. As followers, we have grown accustomed to the divisive and partisan negative portrayals of leaders on social media. Unfortunately, many of us have grown cynical of leadership in general. We must NOT treat our spiritual leaders disrespectfully and cynically while calling them to live by Jesus' standards and not the world's values!

Kingdom leadership was re-fashioned by Jesus' example ^[1] and teaching. ^[2] The over-emphasis on charisma, personality, attractiveness, and power in worldly leadership are forbidden by Jesus for His followers' leaders:

Then [Jesus' disciples] began to argue among themselves about who would be the greatest among them. Jesus told them, "In this world the kings and great men lord it over their people, yet they are called 'friends of the people.' But among you it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant. Who is more important, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves? The one who sits at the table, of course. But not here! For I am among you as one who serves." ^[3]

The Holy Spirit tells us to "remember" our leaders. This kind of remembering must include the proper respect for the unique call of Christian leaders seeking to lead in the way of Christ Jesus. Leaders are those who have shared the word of God with us. They have lives of goodness and faith. So we honor them for their service to Jesus and to us. We must also look at the good coming from their lives as we commit to following their examples. ^[4] We are to love them, respect them, and live peaceably with each other ^[5] to make their leadership a blessing to them and to us!