Hebrews 13:17 Watch Over Your Souls

Hebrews 13:17  Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you. (NASB)

Membership in the Church universal is accomplished in one way and one way only.  Upon salvation by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ by grace out-poured we are brought into a right relationship with God, sins are forgiven and we are issued eternal membership cards as it were.  This frankly is the only path.  “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.’” John 14:6 (NASB) 

But there are a lot of Christians out there bumping into one another with these “Membership” cards who don’t even know each other.  There is a master directory, “The book of life” Philippians 4:3 (NASB) but it is locked away in heaven, not something we can access on the Internet.  So how do we identify with and have fellowship with our fellow believers as called for in Scripture? 

There is another membership that is much more tangible where the other various commands of Scripture a lived out.  This is membership in the local church.  Much of the New Testament was addressed to the “Local church” and how it was to live out the Gospel with which it had been entrusted.  Some these days balk at whether local church membership is even a valid concept.  Is it?  Let Scripture be the guide.

Take this passage from Hebrews 13 as an example.  How is this possible without the local church and membership in it?  Let’s take a closer look.

It starts with, “Obey your leaders.”  Straight forward enough for you?  Okay, who do you point to for your church leaders?  The Pope?  The head of some denomination?  What about all you non-denominational folks?  Does this mean you are all disobedient to the Scripture because you have no church leadership?  Not at all!  This is a reference to your local church leaders, your elders from your local body.  You are to submit to them. 

Why?  Because, “They keep watch over your souls.”  Now do universal Church leaders watch over the souls of every Christian?  Not the way local elders are able to watch over the souls of individuals in their local church.  Are you able to submit to universal Church leaders?  Not in an accountable way as you can local church leaders.  Why accountable?  “For they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account”.  You see those God has appointed to lead the local church have an accountability to watch over you.  That simply isn’t possible in the universal Church setting.

So membership in the local church helps both member and leader in this regard.  How you ask?  Membership identifies you as one to be cared for and looked after by these church leaders.  They know you and you in-turn know them.  The bonus that we won’t cover today is that you begin to know “One another” in the local assembly and you care for each other.  That is also a screaming argument for membership in the local church; mutual care.

The writer continues with a comment on how your behavior in submitting to leaders in membership affects them.  It says, “Let them do this with joy and not grief.”  In other words, do not behave in such a way as members that you cause your leaders to grieve.  Hmmmm!   

Now why would my leaders grieve over their leadership of me?  There could be a number of specific reasons but they all settle on SIN!  When we let sin win in our lives, it brings grief to our leaders because they are the ones that are to be looking out for us and teaching us and helping us to grow in righteousness.  When sin wins our leaders grieve.  And, “This would be unprofitable for you.”  So, why is that – because my church leaders are going to take their pound of flesh?  Not at all.  It is not profitable to you because no sin is profitable and anything your church leaders face grief over cannot be profitable for you because it is rooted in sin.  Your church leaders are called to a mission of restoration and healing but it begins with confession and repentance.  Those first steps are often the stumbling block, the hindrance to recovery.

So, the Biblical model is one of local churches exhibiting mutual care.  Follow this model and get plugged in to a local assembly and heed the Scripture, “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.” AMEN!