Leaders must labour hard

Paul says that church leaders labour among you. Now that statement primarily notes the costly effort and even exhaustion involved in providing spiritual leadership to the church. The Greek word kopiaō often refers to hard manual labour. Paul uses that word when describing his own labour as a tentmaker to support himself. And it makes the point that ministers should be expected to work hard in service of the church—and people should not be surprised if ministers come into exhaustion because of the intensity of their labours. Matthew Henry, I think, pointedly remarks, They are called labourers; therefore they should not be loiterers. That is certainly true. Hard work is needed among ministers because there is so much important work in the church for them to do. The same is true of the ruling elders. John Stott notes, Whether it is study and the preparation of sermons, visiting the sick or counseling the disturbed, instructing people for baptism and marriage, or being diligent in intercession—these things demand, as Colossians 1:29 says, that we toil, striving with all the energy which Christ mightily inspires in us. Now, while few things that a pastor does are physically difficult, the spiritual demands and the emotional anxieties often involved in the work, one writer says, sap the strength of people, even with a robust constitution. I think thjat it is especially noteworthy that elsewhere Paul speaks of the labour—using the same term—the hard, demanding, exhausting labour of preaching and teaching God’s Word. 1 Timothy 5:17 tells us that churches should expect their pastors to work especially hard in preparing their sermons, which, week in and week out, demand the greatest exertions of those who are called to this holy work.

Now Paul not only specifies how hard pastors and elders should work, but also in what sphere. Notice, he says they labour among you in 1 Thessalonians 5:12. And so, as shepherds in Christ’s fold, the minister’s occupation is to be with the sheep. Hebrews 13:17 says that they are keeping watch over your souls. That expression keeping watch literally means to stay up at night with anxiety. Now, this emphasis is especially telling—and very needed in our time—when ministers tend to be evaluated according to their personal dynamism and especially according to the numerical size of their churches. A more biblical approach would focus pastors on the spiritual maturity of the people and the spiritual health and vitality of the church, rather than the mere size of the congregation. There are a lot of things that can be done to attract large crowds that will not produce healthy Christians or a healthy church. Now, this focus of labour among you does not prohibit evangelism to the world—that is for sure. It should not keep those who are called to it from interacting more broadly in church affairs, as that is warranted. But it should preclude ministers from regular involvement in the political sphere or in business matters and those kinds of things. The rule is that they are to work hard, labouring among you, for and in the church.¹

Richard D. Phillips