Church leaders have a different authority

For this reason, according to the Bible, elders and pastors are authority figures in the church. They should be treated that way, and they should act that way.

Unlike secular authorities who rule over the affairs of the world, the elders of Christ’s church wield a spiritual authority that is ministerial and declarative. Sometimes I am amused when something is going on in the church and people say, What are you doing about it?—as if we had the power to arrest people and lock them up and take their money away. That is not the kind of power—thankfully—that is given to the church. Both I and you should be thankful for that. What power do the elders have? It is ministerial and declarative. That means that it stands to the elders to wield what the Bible calls the keys to the kingdom. What is that? That is the right, and the duty, on Jesus’ behalf, to admit or bar persons from church membership and from the sacraments, and then to declare as stewards on Christ’s behalf the truths of God’s Word. They exercise authority over the ministry of the means of grace, and they apply that ministry—especially the ministry of the Word—to those who are within the realm of the church.

Well, it makes all the difference in 1 Thessalonians 5:12 that Paul specifies the elders’ rule as being in the Lord. Earlier, he specified that they labour among you. Now he says they rule in the Lord. The authority of church leaders comes from Christ and must be wielded on his behalf and in his name. That is why Peter referred to elders as shepherds under the Chief Shepherd, and to him they will give an account when Jesus returns (1 Peter 5:2–4). G. K. Beale specifies this in more detail: Church leaders are not autonomous sovereigns, but rather they represent Jesus’ authority. They are commissioned by Christ to carry out their oversight of the flock according to his will and not their own. Now, where is Christ’s will found? It is found in the Bible. And so it is to be a leadership that is itself under the authority of the Word of God. Now this being the case—that elders are to rule in the Lord—they must seek from Jesus that same love that caused him to die for their sins; the same zeal for truth and holiness that characterized Jesus’ ministry on earth; the power that only Jesus can give to save the lost and sanctify the saints; along with that overarching zeal for the glory of God in the life and worship of the church that comes from Jesus alone.¹

Richard D. Phillips