FALSE SHEPHERDS

Ezekiel 33:1-34:31; Hebrews 13:1-25; Psalm 115:1-18; Proverbs 27:21-22

“Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds, the leaders of Israel. Give them this message from the Sovereign Lord: What sorrow awaits you shepherds who feed yourselves instead of your flocks. Shouldn’t shepherds feed their sheep? You drink the milk, wear the wool, and butcher the best animals, but you let your flocks starve. You have not taken care of the weak. You have not tended the sick or bound up the injured. You have not gone looking for those who have wandered away and are lost. Instead, you have ruled them with harshness and cruelty. So my sheep have been scattered without a shepherd, and they are easy prey for any wild animal. They have wandered through all the mountains and all the hills, across the face of the earth, yet no one has gone to search for them.”

“Obey your spiritual leaders, and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow. That would certainly not be for your benefit.”

“Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name goes all the glory for your unfailing love and faithfulness.”

“Fire tests the purity of silver and gold, but a person is tested by being praised.”

We must resist the temptation to read today’s Scripture from Ezekiel as if it only applies to ordained ministers or televangelists. We are all responsible for each other. As the Lord told Ezekiel, he would be held accountable for the deaths of those to whom he did not minister if he denied the call of God to share the Word with them. By the same token though, not all those who claim the mantle of spiritual leadership are worthy of the title. We must be exceedingly careful not to obey those who would lead us astray, or whose only motive is money or personal notoriety. The key, of course, is determining who’s who. Charlatans do not typically identify themselves, and some can be pretty convincing. The lingo is not all that difficult. With the right look of piety and a flock more interested in hearing what they want to hear without any real regard for the Truth, false shepherds can go far. Believers have the imposing task of separating the wheat from the chaff.

The litmus test of godly spiritual leadership comes down to: 1) who gets the glory; and 2) how they handle praise. These two tests of spiritual leadership are mirror images of each other, but sometimes, mirror images are needed to get the full picture.

First, spiritual leaders are – must be - signposts guiding others to the Spirit by His Word. Too many pastors and other spiritual leaders, over time, get too used to speaking for the Spirit and drawing attention to themselves, instead of listening to His voice and sharing His Word. Presumably, this gets the attention they think their messages deserve. Contrariwise, no one really stops to reflect on the beauty or form of a signpost. They are just one means to a much greater end; they tell direction and location, little else, and they say only what others have painted on them. Effective spiritual leaders do much the same for Christ. If they are doing the job right, folks look right through or past them at the revealed Jesus to which they point. Signposts play a role in the overall outcome, but they never oversell their individual importance or forget they are not the journey’s end or specific goal.

There’s also the question of diverting praise. Try as they might, effective spiritual leaders cannot help but be identified with the ministries they serve. The problem comes when they themselves become the ministry. They can get so closely identified with their subject it can be hard to tell where substantive content ends and personal chrisma begins. Even well-intentioned spiritual leaders fall into this trap. More than one worship leader, for example, has left their ministry feeling that, somehow, the congregation’s adulation has become too directed toward the one in front of the microphone. It is a natural human tendency to see a man (or woman) as the message. Only One, Jesus Christ, ever effectively lived as well as He preached. Thus, human spiritual leaders need to always keep their limitations and fallibility in mind, walk humbly, and continuously reflect all praise back to God.

It’s actually amazing how easy these two tests are to apply, and how accurately they predict long-term viability of a leader’s so-called ministry. Let’s do be absolutely clear about one thing: fervor counts for very little, if anything. It takes no religion to show us that passion is often just the Devil’s tool of misdirection and ruin. Many people have run into the abyss enthusiastically. Fervor may be a characteristic of ministry, but when emotion becomes the ministry, it’s time to believe in something else.

Years ago, I had a boss who clearly wanted to run the law firm. His problem was he was too transparent, and no one trusted his ambition. So, he set out to establish himself as the most important person in the Firm instead. One partner got caught up in this with him, and the two embarked in a series of not-so-friendly one-upmanship. They both had their own secretary (back in the days where this was the norm), so the first hired another. In response, the other hired a second paralegal. The first then insisted on the largest corner office, and got it, and the other had a conference room transformed into his office. So it went for years, until the hunger of the first man for signs of respect and prestige simply could not be satisfied. He then left for another firm.

The bottom line of all false shepherds is that they have no true loyalty to the flock. When the money gets tight or the wolves come, they abandon ship and leave those who trusted them to fend for themselves. As Ezekiel was told, their reservations for eternity are already in place, and they are not going to like the location or menu. Our focus should be on making sure we do not get pulled down with them. The Spirit will guide. We just have to put the sound of His voice above all others that would tell us how to live.