Godly Leaders

Tell the godly that all will be well for them. They will enjoy the rich reward they have earned! But the wicked are doomed, for they will get exactly what they deserve. Childish leaders oppress my people, and women rule over them. O my people, your leaders mislead you; they send you down the wrong road.”
Isaiah 3:10-12 NLT

A gleam of light emerges in Isaiah’s vision, as he sees reassurance for all those who are Godly. There were Godly people living in Judah at that time, but their righteousness was hidden behind the brazen and disgusting sins of the majority of the people. And Isaiah passed on what he received from the Lord, that their Godliness would see them all right in the end. They would one day receive the reward that they deserved. But Isaiah quickly returned to the wicked because they will one day reap what they have deserved as well, and will be doomed to destruction. Notice that everyone in those days, and as is still the case today, will receive “exactly what they deserve”. God is righteous and fair, and no one will ever be able to complain about their treatment on that terrible day when they stand before Him.

Isaiah continued in his vision with two contentious statements. The first condemned the leaders who, God claimed, were childish, and they oppressed God’s people. Childish leaders are often characterised by their reactive, ego-driven and lack of emotional regulation. They may show signs of whining, blaming others, avoiding responsibility, and needing to be the centre of attention. They deflect blame and never take responsibility for their actions. Such were the leaders in Isaiah’s day, but do these characteristics sound familiar when we consider some of our politicians and other leaders today?

But the next observation from Isaiah’s vision concerned women, and in the context of our verses today, it would seem that women ruling in the Judaean society was not a good thing. This must seem to be a contentious verse in today’s society of equal rights for all, male and female, but in the misogynistic Jewish society, this was a terrible state of affairs. Bible commentators suggest that women had to step up into a leadership role because of the weakness of their male counterparts, and this, of course, might indeed have been the case in Judah nearly three thousand years ago. In a verse from Paul we read, “So a church leader must be a man whose life is above reproach. He must be faithful to his wife. He must exercise self-control, live wisely, and have a good reputation. He must enjoy having guests in his home, and he must be able to teach”. Should leadership in society and in the church just be a male sanctuary today? Perhaps, but this is not an area which is easily decided, regardless of the Scriptures. Today, there are successful women in leadership positions just as there are successful men. But in both cases, there are bad ones as well.

But returning to the Godly receiving their “rich reward”, do we pilgrims have that assurance, that one day we will indeed hear the Lord say, “Well done …”? Paul wrote, “But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward” (1 Corinthians 3:13-14). He also wrote, “I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us” (Philippians 3:14). Our ultimate reward for a life of belief and trust in Jesus is eternal life, as He promised in John 3:16, “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life”.

In our verses today from Isaiah 3, we read that there is a “But” separating the Godly from the wicked. We pilgrims know which side of the “But” we fall on, and at every opportunity, we try to persuade those around us to make the transition as well.

Father God. Thank You for our salvation and the reward we will one day receive. And we give You all the glory for this wonderful life that You have given us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

“For when one says, ‘I follow Paul,’ and another, ‘I follow Apollos,’ are you not mere human beings? What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe – as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.”
1 Corinthians 3:4-6 NIVUK

The Corinthian church was established by Paul, and then a man called Apollos emerged as a leader, building up the church and continuing his work, but the problem seemed to be one where a particular leader was being followed instead of the message that he was delivering, the Message of the Cross. The central fact that it was all about Christ seemed to have become lost in the “jealousy and quarrelling” that Paul was so upset about. We see from 1 Corinthians 1:12, Peter was added to the leadership list: “Some of you are saying, “I am a follower of Paul.” Others are saying, “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Peter,” or “I follow only Christ””. What were the differences between these men, and why were some Corinthian believers saying they only followed Christ? After all, they all preached the same message as far as we know, but there would have been different personalities involved as well, and different nuances in their delivery. We know about Paul and Peter from their letters and, additionally, with Peter from his mentions in the Gospels, but little is known about Apollos. All we have is a brief cameo in Acts 18:24-25, “Meanwhile, a Jew named Apollos, an eloquent speaker who knew the Scriptures well, had arrived in Ephesus from Alexandria in Egypt. He had been taught the way of the Lord, and he taught others about Jesus with an enthusiastic spirit and with accuracy. However, he knew only about John’s baptism”. Although Priscilla and Aquila helped him understand the “way of God” more accurately, there is no mention of the Holy Spirit’s presence in his life. However, I think we can take it as read, because of his endorsement by Paul.

There is always a tendency for some believers to blindly follow a charismatic figure who presents a plausible message that resonates with his or her listeners, and that allegiance can develop into a following, even a separate church. Some people need a relationship with a leader to help them with their own needs, it seems. Such a leader presents them with messages well presented and mostly accurate representations of Scripture, but there is always the danger that some aspects of the Bible can be promoted over others, leading to a lop-sided rather than well-rounded Biblical message. For example, I once knew a pastor who had a particular ministry in evangelism, and messages from the pulpit were often flavoured by his passion for reaching the lost. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but messages are also needed for building up the body of Christ. Paul wrote about the ministry graces in his Ephesian letter, “Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers” (Ephesians 4:11). We used to call these the “Five-Fold Ministries”. Why did the church need these five graces? The next two verses read, “Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ”. Did Paul, or Apollos, or Peter, even have all these five gifts? Doubtful, although God will often bestow an additional gift, or gifts, on someone to meet a particular need. But to build up a church congregation, so that they “measure up to the full and complete standard of Christ”, requires a leadership team representing as many of these ministries as possible. A person sitting in the pew will find that his or her own particular gifting will resonate with one of these grace ministries, perhaps helping them grow in their own ministry. Apollos, we are told, was an eloquent preacher well versed in Scripture, so, understandably, some people would enjoy sitting under his ministry. However, what upset Paul was that the different followings present in the Corinthian church were leading to divisions fuelled by “jealousy and quarrelling”. Here is a quote from Bibleref.com: “For Paul, the subtle nuances behind these divisions didn’t matter. The problem is that they exist at all. These squabbles are evidence that the Corinthian Christians are behaving like unbelievers, or immature Christians, demanding their own way, rather than as Holy Spirit-empowered believers learning to express God’s sacrificial love to each other“.

We pilgrims, however, know that Jesus Himself is the One we must follow. And as we develop His teachings in our lives, we will start to, more and more, demonstrate the grace and love that He taught, in the way we go about our daily lives. It’s called sanctification, and we sometimes will fail to enjoy the process. We all know, I’m sure, fellow Christians who have left a church because the message being preached makes them feel uncomfortable. They don’t want to hear things that mean their approach to living must change. So what do they do? On some pretext, they will leave that church and find another, one that preaches messages that don’t expose or challenge their weaknesses. But the Holy Spirit within will never give up on us. Jesus said, “But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you”(John 14:26). God wants us to be holy and blameless in His sight (Colossians 1:22) so he will never give up on us, teaching us just what we need when we need it. Believers who migrate from church to church will never find a perfect home, and sooner or later, they will find themselves facing the same old challenges. Quote from David Pawson, “God is willing to let things happen to us which may be painful, but which will make us more holy as a result. Our character tends to make more progress in the tough times than the good”.

In following a person rather than God Himself, there is always a danger of arriving in a place Paul warned Timothy about. “For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths” (2 Timothy 4:3-4). But we pilgrims desire to be well-rounded children of God, growing in grace day by day. We ask the Holy Spirit to lead us to a church where the leaders are Godly men and women, themselves wholly grounded in God’s truth as contained in His Word. Not for us a path that leads to “myths”. We pray that the church we find ourselves in will also be accountable to other Godly leaders, themselves fully grounded in the ways of God. And in such an environment, we know that we can grow secure in the knowledge that God is truly with us.

Dear Father God. We pray that You lead us into all truth through the power and presence of Your Spirit. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Fate of the Godly vs the Wicked: Insights from Isaiah 3

Leaders and Followers