For God is my
witness, how greatly I long for
you all with the
affection of Jesus Christ.
And this I pray, let
your love may abound
still more and more
in knowledge and all discernment,
that you may approve
the things that are excellent,
that you may be sincere
and without offense
till the day of
Christ, being filled with the
fruits of
righteousness which are by Jesus Christ,
to the glory and
praise of God.
Philippians 1:8 -- 11
From the
beginning of the second century, that is, from Ignatius onward, but your terms
Presbyter and Bishop denote and distinguish two offices. The bishop was regarded as head of the
congregation and surrounded by a council of Presbyters, and then became the
head of a diocese and successor of the apostles. The episcopate grew out of the presidency of the presbytery, in
other words, the episcopate was formed, not out of some apostolic order by
localization, but out of the presbytery by elevation; and the title, which was
originally common to all, came to be appropriate to be the one who is chief
among them. This was to be a safeguard
against any schism that might attempt to influence anyone or any
congregation. And this is the
responsibility of the one who is either considered Pastor, Bishop, Elder, and
even Deacon and other church positions to protect and serve the
congregation. The bishop, that is the
one in charge of the congregation from the inscriptions that we have discovered
shows that that bishop had charge of all the funds of the churches, which were
largely charitable institutions for the support of Windows and orphans,
strangers and travelers, aged and infirm people in an age of extreme riches and
extreme poverty. This was especially
true in the world of the early church but it is also true of our age where
there are aged and infirm people that need charitable gifts to support them and
this must come from those who have riches especially those extreme riches to
aid those in extreme poverty. John told
us in his letters that this was so important to be done this love between the
brothers and sisters: "And this
commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother
also" (1 John 4: 21). Just prior to that verse John spoke:
"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who
loves is born of God and knows God. He
who does not love does not know God, for God is love.... Beloved, if God so loved us, we got to love
one another" (1 John 4: 7 -- 8; 11).
Do not become confused that this is the work of the pastor, or some
appointed person to handle the funds in this manner, and then become apathetic
in your responsibility to give aid to others for those words are for you.
The office
of the presbyter -- bishops was to teach and to rule the particular
congregation committed to their charge.
This is a very important that those who are the leader of a congregation
is himself a student of the Bible and especially a student of the original
languages and form their sermons from their study of the verses in their
original language. Anything else other
than this is merely speculation, putting forth their pre-suppositions and may
sound good but it's not really taking the word of God and this is the
responsibility of a pastor and any other one who is teaching in the church. The pastors or presbyter -- Bishop had
responsibility for the direction of public worship, the administration of
discipline, the care of souls, and the management of church property. Both appointed by the apostles or their
delegates, had the approval of the congregation, or by the congregation itself,
which supported them by voluntary contributions. They receive this responsibility of this office through prayers
of the laying on of hands. Pastors,
Presbyter -- Bishops, are not in their office to become rich and wealthy, in fact
that may be assigned that they're in that office for things other than to
preach the gospel. They may be using
that preaching of some part of the gospel to give some sort of sweetness to
their speech so that it's acceptable, but in the end it is only bringing forth
false teaching. There is no claim to
apostolic sanction by the Presbyter -- Bishops, unlike some churches who hold
to a different doctrine, and while there was a distribution and rotation of
office duties the one remaining thing that was most important was their ability
to teach.
Churches
grow in size with people coming from all walks of life and are in need to be
aided in their spiritual growth and this requires that there be others take up
some responsibility to do that teaching.
The Pastor must allow himself time to study and to prepare for
exegetical preaching. At the same time
as he studies he must also be in charge to overseas the administration of the
church, that is, to inspect what he expects.
Now for those who hold to a doctrine were the men who are the leaders
speak of having some sort of apostolic ascendancy does not have the authority
of history for the institution of the episcopacy proper cannot be traced to the
apostolic age and did not appear until somewhere around the middle of the
second century. But before we move
forward in this we must speak about the deacons and deaconesses and then we
want to finalize it at least in this time frame church discipline. So there's much to learn so that we must
take time to read and study so that the church is operating for its single
function, that is its greatest single function, and that is to teach the gospel
of Jesus Christ. Until the next blog
tomorrow remember that those who are in charge have an excellent position and
must be a sincere person without offense and being filled with the fruits of
righteousness and they are to abound in knowledge and all discernment. What we
must do is hold our leaders up in prayer for God answers prayer, and this is a
prayer that admits of the will of God.
Come, you children, listen to me;
I will
teach you the fear of the LORD
Psalm 34: 11
God's children are provided for
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