The Shepherds Who Destroy

“’Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!’ declares the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: ‘You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord. Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord.

“’Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.”’” (Jeremiah 23:1-6 ESV)

Now, I am not going to go into all the history of all of this, but I will be looking at this in a practical sense with regard to how this can be applied to our world, to the church, and to our individual lives today, in 2024. And I am trusting the Lord Jesus to guide me in the understanding he wants me to have from this passage today, and that he will also guide me in the words that I am to write for the encouragement and strengthening of the body of Christ, his church, today. I live in America, so I will focus mainly here.

So, who are the shepherds today? In the gatherings of the church they are called pastors or elders or overseers. They are the ones who have spiritual oversight of the church body under their care, and it is their responsibility to give that oversight in such a way which upholds the truth of the gospel, and the teachings of Christ and of his New Testament (NT) apostles, and the commands of our Lord under the New Covenant. And they are to make certain that the gatherings of the church operate as they should according to the teachings of Christ and of his NT apostles, in all areas of ministry.

Now the Scriptures detail for us the biblical qualifications for these overseers which include elders and deacons. And so before these men are placed in these positions within the local gatherings of the church, these men are first of all to meet the biblical qualifications prior to taking such positions. 

“Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.” (1 Timothy 3:2-7 ESV; cf. Titus 1:5-9; 1 Peter 5:1-4)

“Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.” (1 Peter 5:2-3 ESV)

Now, let me add here that being well thought of by outsiders must include all these other qualifications, too. For there are a lot of men and women in prominent positions within the body of what is at least being called “the church” who are well thought of by outsiders but who do not qualify under the spiritual qualifications for being a pastor or elder (overseer) because they are not living moral lives in submission to the Lord in holy living, and they are not teaching the truth of God’s word, but they are diluting it.

Sadly, the situation here in America, and possibly across the world, too, is that so many of these “shepherds” are now businessmen who are marketing their “churches” to the people of the world just like any other businesses. For they are not being led of the Holy Spirit, and they are not operating under the headship of Christ, but they are following after business models and marketing schemes and books written by mere mortals telling them what they need to do in order to grow their “churches.”

So, they are destroying the lives and the possible ministries of those who would desire to follow Jesus Christ with their lives while they are catering to the ungodly in order to draw in large crowds of people from the world into their gatherings. And they are destroying the teaching of the gospel of Christ and his character and the character of the body of Christ to make them all more attractive and appealing and desirable to the ungodly. And so they are teaching many Scriptures out of context while they ignore many others.

So they really scatter the flock in two different ways. One of the ways is by teaching what is false and twisted and contrary to the gospel that Jesus Christ taught, if taught in context, so that many are now wandering from their pure devotion to the Lord and are following the ways of the world, instead. And another way is by getting rid of those of us who are still holding on to the truth of the gospel so that we don’t interfere with what they are doing that is evil and that is of the flesh and that is not of God.

And so they drive away or push away many who are serious students of the Scriptures and who are serious about their walks of faith and obedience to the Lord, and who are still teaching the gospel as taught by Jesus and by his NT apostles, as taught in their full context, and not out of context. And the rest, who remain, they work to deceive and to manipulate and to con them into believing lies, and thus a false gospel which is of the flesh and which does not teach biblical repentance and walks of obedience to Christ.

The Lord is Our Righteousness

So, what many are teaching is that a mere verbal profession of faith in Jesus Christ is enough to secure for us salvation from sin and eternal life with God, regardless of how we live our lives from that moment forward. But Jesus said that if anyone would come after him he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin) and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to sin, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, and follow Jesus in obedience, by his grace, in his power, we have eternal life.

For Jesus died that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By genuine faith in him we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. So we should not let sin reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its desires, for if sin is what we obey, it leads to death, but if obedience to God is what we obey, it leads to righteousness, to sanctification, and its end is eternal life with God.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Peter 1:15; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

For Our Nation  

An Original Work / September 11, 2012

Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.

Jesus Christ is gently calling

You to follow Him in all ways.

Trust Him with your life today.

Make Him your Lord and your Savior.

Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.

He will forgive you of your sin;

Cleanse your heart, made new within.

Men betraying: Our trust fraying.

On our knees to God we’re praying,

Seeking God to give us answers

That are only found in Him.

God is sovereign over all things.

Nothing from His mind escaping.

He has all things under His command,

And will work all for good.

Jesus Christ is gently calling

You to follow Him in all ways.

Men deceiving: We’re believing

In our Lord, and interceding

For our nation and its people

To obey their God today.

He is our hope for our future.

For our wounds He offers suture.

He is all we need for this life.

Trust Him with your life today.

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