Obey your leaders, and be submissive; for *they* watch over your souls as those that shall give account; that they may do this with joy, and not groaning, for this [would be] unprofitable for you.
Hebrews 13 ends with practical instructions for daily Christian life. One of them concerns the men who lead. Two questions sit at the heart of the verse: who exactly are these leaders, and what is the account they must give?
Who the leaders are
The verse never describes a title or a post. One writer points out that verse 7, a few lines earlier, already tells you how to recognise such a man:
These were guides. Does putting a man into an official place make him a guide? No! Verse 7 speaks for itself. A man who brings you the Word of God in a moment of difficulty, so that you know it is God's Word and it guides your soul, is a guide. You will own him as such, remember him in your prayers, and welcome him when he comes again.
Another writer traces the same Greek word to Acts 15, where it describes Judas and Silas. Older translations render that word here "them that have the rule over you."
The same word is used of Judas and Silas in Acts 15 as the word translated "them that have the rule over you" in Hebrews 13:17. In the Acts 15 passage, no one dreams of giving that word the meaning people try to draw from it in Hebrews 13.
Obedience that lands on God, not on a man
The leader's claim rests on the word he brings. So the obedience asked for is not obedience to a man.
"They are keeping watch over your souls." We are not only to remember true leaders; we are to obey them. They do not press their own claims, but the claims of God. So obeying them is obeying the word of God which they faithfully passed on. The submission commanded is not to the will of man, but to the will of God.
That cuts both ways. Recognise a real gift. Refuse one that is merely claimed.
Christ gives spiritual gifts: the gift of teaching, the gift of rule, the gift of pastorship. Wherever He does, Christians have both a duty and a privilege to recognise and value such gifts. Not to do so would be to throw away our own blessings. But we must remember that in every case the gift must be real — a plain, obvious, genuine gift given by God. It is not a man taking a place or position for himself, or being appointed by his fellow man to some so-called ministry.
Giving an account
The account in view is the leader's account of himself — not an account of your soul. Writers press this point hard, because the opposite reading props up a priestly class.
Of course this gives no support to the crude and outrageous error that pastors give an account of the souls of their flock. Superstition invented that idea, to lift up a clerical order on false grounds. The meaning is that spiritual guides will give an account of their own behaviour in watching over other souls. It is work that calls for much watchfulness over self, patience with others, hard labour, humility, and that warm love which can bear all, endure all, believe all.
The reason is moral. No one can carry another person's burden before God.
But this means an account of their own conduct toward those souls, not an account of other men's souls. Each person will bear his own burden, and whatever or whoever comes between the conscience and God is from the enemy.
What you gain by submitting
The command is not a restriction on the believer but a provision for him.
How often a real guide can point out something a puzzled believer had not seen! Once it is set before him, he sees at once that it is of God. For if the Spirit gives a word of wisdom to the one, the same Spirit living in the other recognises what is true and right. That comes through the grace of Christ, which sets aside independence as well as worldly desire and every other evil thing. So the Lord is honoured in the leaders just as much as in those who submit to them. Any claim to a priestly class is shut out, and lawlessness stands judged as hateful to God.
Where the loss falls
The verse turns back on the readers themselves.
"As those who will have to give an account" means, of course, that the leaders account for their own conduct in caring for the souls of others. But it also involves the people they watch over, who may hinder what would have profited them. How many of us recognise responsibility for the souls of others?
Even so, a faithful man does not tailor his work to the reception it gets.
Sometimes there is joy in seeing the saints walking in the path of God's will through communion with Christ; but sometimes there is grief when self-will in the saints refuses the will of God, and brings distress and sorrow among the people of God. Whether in joy or in grief, the true leader must act for God.
Summary
- Guide — a leader is not a man in a post. He is a man who brings you God's word in your difficulty, and it guides your soul.
- Obey — his authority is the word he carries. Obeying him is obeying God, never a man.
- Watch — his work is wakeful care over souls. It calls for patience, watchfulness over self, hard labour and love that bears all.
- Account — he answers to the Lord for his own conduct, not for your soul. Nothing and no one may stand between a conscience and God.
- Profit — help him work with joy and you gain. Hinder him, and the loss the verse names is your own.