In this episode, Arnie and Fred look at what the Bible says about those who are responsible to watch over the Lord's local flock. We begin by reading where Paul tells Timothy about these people. We discuss the terms used for these men and note that there are some translated words that are not as good in describing them. We talk about several passages that show that there is no hierarchy, clergy, laity or titles of honor used in the Lord's local assembly. We focus in on the term overseer and the other word we find that is a mistranslation of it. We look at the responsibilities of these overseers, noting that there is always a plurality of them in each local church. We close out this episode by noting another word that is used for the overseers. We run out of time before we can complete that discussion. Tune in the next episode to hear the rest of that discussion. Take about 30-minutes to listen to this episode. Have your Bible handy so you can verify what we are saying. There is a transcript of this Buzzsprout episode provided for your convenience.
In this episode, Arnie and Fred look at what the Bible says about those who are responsible to watch over the Lord's local flock. We begin by reading where Paul tells Timothy about these people. We discuss the terms used for these men and note that there are some translated words that are not as good in describing them. We talk about several passages that show that there is no hierarchy, clergy, laity or titles of honor used in the Lord's local assembly. We focus in on the term overseer and the other word we find that is a mistranslation of it. We look at the responsibilities of these overseers, noting that there is always a plurality of them in each local church. We close out this episode by noting another word that is used for the overseers. We run out of time before we can complete that discussion. Tune in the next episode to hear the rest of that discussion. Take about 30-minutes to listen to this episode. Have your Bible handy so you can verify what we are saying. There is a transcript of this Buzzsprout episode provided for your convenience.
This is a presentation of the Woodland church of Christ meeting at 3370 Broad Street in Sumter, South Carolina. We meet for worship on Sunday at ten thirty am and five thirty pm. We meet for bible study at nine thirty am on Sunday, and seven pm on Wednesday. If you have questions or comments on this lesson, you may email them to Fred Gosnell at fgosnell@ftc-i.net Or to Arnie Granke at agranke440718@twc.com.
Arnie:Good afternoon. This is what does the Bible say? I'm Arne Granke. Fred Gosnell is sitting across the table from me and we're both members of the church of Christ at Woodland, in Sumter, South Carolina. If you happen to be in Sumter, either touring the area or possibly in the military at Shaw Air Force Base, well, we would welcome you to come worship with us on the Lord's day, study with us also on the Lord's day and on Wednesday. evenings and certainly if you have questions about the Bible, we would we would invite you to, to ask those questions. We'll give you the best answers that we can from the Word of God, not just our own opinion on them, but from what does the Bible say and that's the name of our of our program there. Fred, been thinking about those who watch over the flock. Thinking, thinking, what kind of people are they? Who are they and what, what do they do? Why don't we talk about that. I'm looking at the at the moment at First Timothy chapter three, and beginning in verse one, using the New King James Version. This is a faithful saying, If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy of ill gain, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous. One who rules his own house well, having his children in submission, with all reverence for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how shall we take care of the church of God? Not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride, he fall into the same condemnation, as the devil. Moreover, he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and, and the snare of the of the devil. What does all that mean to you, Fred?
Fred Gosnell:Well Arnie, this passage, of course, Paul's writing it to Timothy. And Paul describes a mature disciple. One is who is literally one or of two or more overseers, who watch over the spiritual well being of other Christians. So unlike high ranking officials in various orthodox religions, who rule over one or more congregations of members, the overseers described in the New Testament are not officers or officials of the church, and they are not empowered to give orders. They do not hold an office. Rather each is one one of several who are responsible for spiritually guiding and protecting disciples, both individually and collectively. Robert Young in his analytical translation, he translated this passage as saying, Steadfast is the word. If anyone doth long for the oversight. he desireth a good work. In other words, the passage is telling us the word is faithful. If anyone aspires to an overseer, he desires a good work RCH Linski translated it this way, If one aspires to overseership, he desires an excellent work. And when they use these words, overseer, they're using the actual definition of the word. So in the Lord's church, there's no officialism. If that's a good word or no hierarchy. There's no clergy as opposed to the laity. There's, there's no titles of honor. There's no human positions of rule or preeminence. And, you know, Jesus talked about that. In Matthew 23, he said, there being in verse eight, he said, But you do not be called rabbi, for one is your teacher, the Christ, then you are all brethren. You're not to call anyone on earth your father, for one is your Father, he who is in heaven. And do not be called teachers, for one is your teacher, the Christ. But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant, and whosoever exalts himself shall be humbled. And he who humbles himself will be exalted. So, when we're going to talk about those who watch over the flock, we're going to be talking about older men who are servants,
Arnie:You know, just just thinking about that passage, you just just read there. At that particular point in the book of Matthew, Jesus had had a series of debates at the temple, with with various people that were high ranking in, in Judaism, and it in included, you know, some of the some of the elders of the faith and, and various ones, Pharisees and Sadducees, and, and, and all of all of them, and he just defeated, made hash out of out of every one of them, and then went into talk, finish that up by telling about the error of having men as being your your leaders, there's, there's some danger in, in that. There isn't any officialism in the church as as, as you said, So if if somebody is a member of a church, that's headquartered in Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, Dallas, Texas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, you're not a member of the Lord's church. It's headquartered in heaven. And it's not it's not headquartered in, in some earthly place. And and, by the way, we you mentioned, in we mentioned in the passage, about being the husband of one wife, if he's not the husband of one wife, what's he doing, being an elder, what's he doing, being a bishop, as, as the word is used. By the way, the word bishop is, is the wrong word there, actually, and, and we'll encounter that I guess, as we as we talk about a little bit a little bit more. The problem with with that is that the King James Version, while it's a good good translation, was actually the first English translation of the New Testament and had always been done in other languages. And so there were a number of scholars that, that worked on that together, met periodically to discuss what they had come up with, and so forth. And we got to understand that the head of the English church, the Anglican Church, was the king. It was it was James the fourth. And when you have the head of the church has the power of death, he can have you hung, he can have archers shoot you, whatever, you do pretty much what he says. And if he says there are bishops in the church, you go along with that. So So you find some terms, sometimes in the King James Version, and some of those have also filtered into more recent translations. You find some of those passages, some of those words that don't belong in those passages. And so we hope that you'll excuse us for calling that to your attention.
Fred Gosnell:Yes. And, of course, Paul, Paul talks about how we ought to be relation and have our relationships in the assembly at Romans 12, verse three, for instance, he says, For I say, through the grace given to me to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one, a measure of faith. So we're not, in the Lord's local assembly, there's nobody that's a higher rank than anybody else. We're all brethren. There's no ranking in the Lord's local, local assemblies. So when you start talking about bishops or a better word would be overseer, the overseers of the local church, and there's got to be at least two. They're not in a position higher of higher rank than the rest of the membership. They are certain, they are servants of the church, they are serving the congregation. And they are serving as those who would watch over the spiritual condition of those in the congregation to help help them develop spiritually to, to make suggestions, perhaps on their behavior or whatever, based upon their being older people and older men that have had more experience than a lot of the younger, younger people. So we're not to think of ourselves as more important than somebody else. We are all equal. We're all brethren as, as it is said in the New Testament.
Arnie:Well, the one of the passages that, a number of the passages that we use actually speak about overseers. And there are really three terms that we, I think probably we need to talk about. Overseers, and elders and pastor or shepherd, we, all three of those terms are, are applicable to this position that we're discussing. So we'll we'll look at all of those. This word overseer, you might find it familiar, it comes from a from a Greek word. episcopas and maybe maybe you would recognize the the name episcopal in in that perhaps, as the name of a, of a church. The word that that means is actually one who watches over, he's an over seer. And he and he watches over the the spiritual well being of the saints. First Timothy chapter three, and verse two, again, in the new Americans, rather, the New King James Version, says A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober minded, of good behavior, hospitable apt to teach. The only problem with that is the word doesn't mean bishop. The word has to do with an over seer. So why did they translat it Bishop? Well, that remember, the king had the power of death, and he's in charge. And so some translations reflect the things that he wanted to be said, So so here's an overseer watches watches over the spiritual well being of the of the disciples. Another passage that that does, that, mentions the bishop again, incorrectly, is Titus one and verse seven, where Paul is trying to set in or a number of things that are, that are wanting, that needed to be that needed to be corrected. And so he says to Titus, talking about appointing some individuals that meet the qualifications that he's giving, to be overseers of the church beginning in verse seven of Titus one, For a bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self willed, not quick tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money. And again, the word should be, the correct translation of the of episcopas is a overseer. So he's not an overseer in the sense of being in charge and demanding that you do this or do that or do it this way or that way. Rather, he's watching over, watching over your spiritual well being and, and when he sees things where if you see things in your life that that need to be corrected, talking about them, studying what the Bible says about them, trying to improve that situation and become more godly is is what he's supposed to be guiding individuals to do. And and as you pointed out, Fred, there's more than one, there's a minimum of two and and you If you have larger congregations, or if you have quite a number of, of individuals who qualify, why not take advantage of that, and, and try to put them all to work and in serving the Lord in the church?
Fred Gosnell:Yes, and of course, one of the things that we note that the plurality is, is the use of the word that the word was used in Acts, one verse, verse 20. And that's number 1984. It's translated bishopric in some translations, and in Acts 1, 20 he said, For is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate. And let no man dwell therein and his bishopric let another take. And of course, this was where they, they replaced, had to replace Judas as as one of the apostles, and the, that word is translated in First Timothy three, one, there, it says, This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desires a good work. And of course, the office there would be the responsibility. It's not a an office, like the lawyer's office. This is this is a word that communicates responsibility. So the overseer, the bishop, or the overseer, has had a position of responsibility to do the work that has been specified in the words that the Holy Spirit gave to our inspired writers. So that's the responsibility not a Office as as sometimes it is translated, that kind of gives us ..
Arnie:He's not an official,
Fred Gosnell:That gives us a different picture, you know. 0But he that's just a position, a position of authority, a place of authority, a thing that he has to do not have authority, but as a responsibility for his service.
Arnie:Well, it's interesting that you point that out, Fred, because as a matter of fact, there are some sometimes that think that they're officials and think that they're in charge and think that it's their role to give orders. It's their role to give instruction and guidance in in godliness and obeying God's word. And, and they're not officials who, who order can order you around and that kind of that kind of thing. Go ahead. Well, you
Fred Gosnell:Well you know, we, earlier we had a passage that we skipped earlier in Colossians 1, 18. Paul wrote there, and this is a New King James Version, he says, And he, that's Christ is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may have the preeminence. So there's no one in the church that has any preeminence other than the Lord. So not an elder, not a preacher, not a pastor, not a not a deacon, not a prominent member of the of the local city, that's also a Christian. There's no one has any preeminence in the congregation, the Lord has all preeminence. Notice that that he may in all things he may have the preeminence.
Arnie:Don't you think that that means some preeminence?
Fred Gosnell:Oh, I see the word all there, Arnie
Arnie:Ah, and and do you also see the word the ?
Fred Gosnell:Yes,
Arnie:It's not some or a it's the ..
Fred Gosnell:And it;s not except for the elders.
Arnie:Fred. I like to have conversations like like this. If you want to study the Bible, the the way to study it is to take every word meaning exactly what it means when you say when it says The, it doesn't mean so Some does it Fred?
Fred Gosnell:No.
Arnie:Or it means that's it. He's got the pre the preeminence there. And so you know it's, the word that I said that's used there, the Greek word is episcopas is derived from from two words actually in in Greek. It's derived from a word that means upon or over, epi. That's the first part of that. And the scopeo part of that has to do with vision,0 to to look at, to see so you're looking over, you're seeing over the church and watching watching over it is the point of, of that. of that word. Did you read it? Yeah. You read Acts chapter 20. You mentioned you mentioned that there. So, so the the overseers, responsibility is also suggested in Acts chapter one, and, and in verse, verse 20. Where where Luke tells us, For it is written in the Book of Psalms, and he's quoting from Peter, by the way, was speaking at this particular point. It's written in the book of Psalms, let his habitation be desolate. Let no man dwell there in and the King James Version says, and his bishopric let another take. Two things to note there. One is, since we're not using the word Bishop, it doesn't belong there, his bishopric doesn't belong there either. It's his overseership, somebody else should take his position of being an overseer, and continue that particular work so that there's not an interruption of the work because of the death of of Judas, Judas Iscariot. And the second thing has to do with with the word, has to do with you know, I forgot what I was gonna say, Fred, so I'm just gonna stop there.
Fred Gosnell:Were are you going to talk about the office?
Arnie:Yeah, there it's not he's not an officer, there's not an office there. He doesn't have a desk, he doesn't have. He doesn't have a, you know, hammer to beat the desk with and, and call for order or any of that any of that kind of thing. He's, he's just to be an overseer. And that's his, that's his responsibility. And he and he doesn't, he doesn't have the power of demanding that people do this or that.
Fred Gosnell:Yes. And of course, we mentioned that there always has to be at least two. There has to be a plurality of overseers, or bishops, as they say. And Paul, Paul writes to the Philippians, in the very first verse, In the letter in verse one, Paul writes, he says, Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus, which are at Philippi. Notice, With the bishops, the overseers and the deacons, or the servants. So there has to be a plurality of, of men serving in those positions. That's that's the best word I can get. Of course, the they are positions of service, they serve the congregation in doing the the responsibilities that they have been given by the Holy Spirit in the words that he gave to the writers, in this case, to Paul. So so you can't have a head elder you can't have a an overseeing elder that oversees the the actions of the eldership. They are, there's two of them, and at least and depending on how big the congregation is. That you know, you can have any number you can have a very large congregation, you can have any number of older men serving in that capacity.
Arnie:As long as they meet the qualifications.
Fred Gosnell:Right. As long as they meet the qualifications that Paul has provided in the writings to in this case and Timothy and also in Titus.
Arnie:Well, and and Philippians chapter one and verse one, is, indicates the plurality of that, that there's not just a single individual. Philippians one one tells us about Paul and Timotheus are the ones who's writing to the Philippians. Paul and Timotheus the servants of Jesus Christ to all the saints in Christ Jesus, which are in at Philippi with the bishops and that should be overseers and deacons. Deacons is okay because, but but what might be better is servants, a deacon is a servant. And it's that's all that it means. Again, no officialism there. He's not an authority that has to be obeyed or anything of that sort. He's a servant. So the the overseers and the the servants of the church and Paul and Timothy were were writing to them as well as to the other disciples that were members of the of the congregation there. And of course that indicates that that the church at at Philippi had elders, not just one, but as many as were qualified and deacons, not just one. But as many as were qualified. By the way deacons came into existence in Acts chapter six. And there were qualifications that the apostles laid down for the for the deacons there that were going to be appointed. And then also Paul has included that in the epistles that he wrote.
Fred Gosnell:Yes, and sometimes we'll find that the responsibilities as as overseers, translated bishops in other places, they're also called elders. And these are the same individuals, the overseers watch over the flock, the elders, they are just older men. First Peter 5, 1 through three, Peter writes, he says, The elders which are among you, I exhort, who am also in elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Feed the flock of God, which is among you taking the oversight thereof not of by constraint, but willingly not of, for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. And and notice, in this passage, you you have all of the all of the responsibilities that the elders have, or the overseers have, or the pastors have. Those are words, describing the same person. So So Peter says, the elders which are among you, whom I exhort, who am also an elder. Peter was, was an elder, he served as an elder in whatever local congregation, he was at. So he's a witness, he's a protector of the glory. Then he says, Feed the flock of God, oh, that's they pastored the flock. They,
Arnie:Ah!
Fred Gosnell:They feed the flock of God which is among you taking the, notice, The oversight thereof, they are overseers. So, so all three words describing the same individual are in this passage, but it's not just one individual, it's the elders, they are always a plurality, there's always at least two in each local congregation. And he says neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock, they serve the congregation, they are in examples for people to follow, and they serve as overseers and to watch over the spiritual well being of the flock.
Arnie:I was going to ask you when you were talking about feeding the flock, does that mean that they that they put a tablecloth down and, and have a have a common meal? But you've already answered that really, that? No, we're not talking about feeding them with, with physical food, we're talking spiritual food. And of course, that would be the word of God and the application of, of the Word of God there. So there's, there's another passage and you know, I'm not sure that we're going to have time to read it. I'll give it a shot. Beginning in in verse 16, of Acts, chapter 20, speaking about the maturity of the of these elders, the fact that the these are not necessarily young man, that that are in these positions starting in Acts 20, beginning in verse, verse 16, For Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus because he would not spend time in Asia, for he hasted if it were possible for him to be in Jerusalem, the day of Pentecost, and from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church. And when they were come to him, he said to them, You know, that from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears and temptations which befell me by the lying of wait, lying in wait of the Jews; And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but if showed you and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And you know what, Fred, we're about to run out of time there. We'll just have to stop at that particular point and, and we'll bring that passage back up, Lord willing next week and and continue our discussion about the word for for elders, the the overseers rather, here in the congre, congregation. We hope that you'll be with us when we discuss that. And in the meantime, have a good week.