What is a pastor according to the Bible?

The word for "pastors" here is literally "shepherds," which gives us the thought of one who feeds and cares for God's sheep. This word designates those whom the Lord has fitted and gifted to "feed the flock of God," and whom He has called to this work. The Good Shepherd desires that His sheep not only be delivered from the enemy, but that they be guarded, led, and fed as well. Th pastor looks after the Lord's people; he sees that they do not go astray and seeks to recover them if they do. One who is a shepherd will have a sympathetic heart, administering comfort to the sheep of God in time of affliction. He will enter into their trials and problems and will seek to cheer and strengthen them, giving counsel, encouragement or correction by the application of the Scripture as needed in each case. He watches over souls and warns them if they grow careless or worldly.

But to return. The evangelist introduces the convert into the Church. Here ministry of a new kind awaits him. After evangelists, in the passage we are considering, come "pastors." The word is literally "shepherds," and fittingly designates those whom the Lord has qualified to "feed the flock of God." The sheep of Christ need care. The Good Shepherd, who laid down His life for them, will see that they are not only delivered from the enemy, but guarded, led, and fed as well. It is here that the importance of the gift of pastor is seen. His it is to look after the Lord's people; to see that they do not go astray,and seek to recover them if they do; to comfort them under affliction; to cheer and sympathize with them under trial; to warn them if they grow worldly or careless, watching over their souls as one who must give account. The pastor's work is necessarily largely of a private character. He need not be a public speaker nor take a prominent place. The true pastor's sphere of service is not a limited one. And how such an one is needed by the Lord's people! One who can rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep; ready to give counsel, encouragement, or correction. Are we sufficiently thankful for pastors? What would the Church of God be without them? — open to the attacks of the enemy, the weak neglected, the wanderers unsought, the unruly unwarned. And is it not well for us to pray that this precious gift of Christ may be more recognized and made use of? Let those who have the care of Christ's flock awaken afresh to their responsibilities. They have a work which no man can do for them. That such a gift exists at the present time who can doubt, with this scripture before them? But externality and superficiality characterize these days. Showy talents are most appreciated, and the useful ones which minister to the true health of the Body of Christ are too often despised and neglected. As a consequence the saints grow lean; where a true pastoral care might develop them into usefulness they shrivel and remain weaklings all their lives.

The qualifications for pastoral care are given in general in those passages which speak of oversight and eldership. Of office we shall speak shortly, and will ask the reader to dismiss from his mind, for the time being, all thought of official character in considering the following passage: "This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop (literally, if a man desire oversight) he desireth a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous: one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity (for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God?); not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must have a good report of them which are without, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil" (1 Tim. 3:1-14; see also Titus 1:6-9; 1 Peter 5:1-4).

In general, we may say that the pastoral gift is one of rule and oversight. The word translated to rule (Matt. 2:6; Rev. 2:27; etc.) means literally to shepherd, and is rendered "feed" in John 21:16; Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 5:2, where pastoral care is spoken of. Rule, in Scripture, is service; and he rules best who serves best.

The church is indeed plunged in corruption and weakness; but this is the very thing that would make one cling to the saints, and the more anxiously maintain the individual responsibility of those who have any gift for pastoral care. There is nothing I pray for more, than the dispensation of pastors. What I mean by a pastor is a person who can bear the whole sorrow, care, misery, and sin of another on his own soul, and go to God about it, and bring from God what will meet it, before he goes to the other.

The man whom Scripture speaks of in Ephesians 4:11 as a pastor, is one who possesses from Christ the particular gift and qualification of shepherding and caring for God's sheep, wherever he finds them. He is a pastor in gift and service, though he may do secular work for his living, while looking after God's people in his locality. Or he may give all his time to shepherding God's children, traveling from place to place serving "the Church of the living God." Again he may labor much in one place. All is as his Master and Head in heaven may direct. There may be several such gifted pastors in a local Lathering of the Church of God, each caring for souls, but none taking the title or place of "the pastor" or "the minister" of the congregation, for this would usurp the place of the Holy Spirit, nullifying His sovereign right to use whomsoever He will as His mouthpiece in the Church (see I Cor. 12:11) .

p444 [H Talbot], The pastor as such fed and taught: it is directly connected with teaching (under one article in Greek, Eph. 4:11), but goes further than teaching, as not merely expounding and putting forth the word, but suiting it to souls, and caring for them in a shepherding way. An elder is an overseer, looks after them in moral oversight. It was desirable that he should be διδακτικός not a proper gift of teacher, but able to use the word in his oversight, as it of course added weight and intelligence to his inspection of their ways; but some had, some had not, this desirable qualification, for it is said "especially they who labour in the word and doctrine." What was proper to them was mature habits of family care which qualified them for the exercise of oversight in general, and subduedness of self, and order. None of these things were looked for in the pastor; it was a positive gift from Christ on high, and exercised in the whole body wherever a person was, whereas an elder was a local overseer of people. The word "elder" which seems to imply generally age enough to give weight to the position, seen also in his having a well-regulated family, but it is not the word used for an old man: married men with a well-ordered subject family they had to be.

Pastorship, to come still closer, is a gift (Eph. 4:11), eldership is a charge; but the gift of feeding the flock of God, so far from being incompatible with the office of an elder or bishop, was evidently one of the most important qualifications sought in those who desired that good work. Thus Paul (Acts 20:28) exhorts the Ephesian elders to take heed to themselves, and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost had made them overseers (bishops, ἐπισκόπους), to feed the church of God which He had purchased with His own blood. "Feed the flock of God," said another apostle, "which is among you, taking the oversight thereof (ἐπισκοποῦντες) not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over their allotments,* but being ensamples to the flock" (1 Peter 5:2-3).

Unlike the evangelist whose sphere of labour is outside the assembly, the pastor’s and teacher’s sphere is inside the assembly. The idea of the word, pastor, is that of shepherd. Just as a shepherd chooses the pasture for his flock, so the pastor feeds the saints of God. Peter’s exhortation to the elders is, “Feed the flock of God which is among you” (1 Peter 5:2).

PASTORS, shepherds, feeders of sheep. A shepherd brings before one’s mind the thought of one, who knows each sheep individually, one who loves and cares for the flock of God. Psalm 23 is a fine example of this. There we have the example of Jehovah, keeping the sheep from straying, guarding them from their enemies, caring for them by leading them to green pastures and beside still waters. How good it is that the Lord in glory, the chief Shepherd, puts it into the hearts of one and another of His own to care for the sheep. When He appears He will give to such “a crown of glory that fades not away” (1 Peter 5:4). What is done for Christ abides for ever.

Pastors and teachers are also necessary to the growth of the church, and in the list given here the pastor comes before the teacher. Probably the pastor and teacher was often a double gift united in a single person, though not always so. A pastor is one who feeds the sheep of Christ, not one who stands up and talks a great deal of airy stuff about the higher criticism of scripture, and usually leads his hearers away into a mist of darkness, where they cannot follow him. Such are persons who "understand neither what they say nor whereof they affirm." A man who is a teacher of that sort is certainly no pastor. The pastor that Christ gives is one who feeds the hearts of His saints with the bread and water of life.

We who love the Lord Jesus Christ hunger to know something more about Him. There is nothing that we value more than some new thought or some new glimpse of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is sweet to us because it is about Him. And the pastor knows how and shows us how to bring Christ into the things of daily life, into the workshop, into the busy street, into the home, into the various circumstances in which we find ourselves. We need instruction and advice about these practical matters because sometimes young Christians are not as wise as they might be, though they mean well. For instance, they sometimes talk about Christ in the office, perhaps, when they ought to be doing their duty to their masters, and that is not a wise nor a righteous thing. Again, we sometimes talk to people with a view to help them, and instead of that we drive them further away from the truth by our foolish remarks, and we never have another opportunity of saying what we should to them. We are so unwise, and need to be taught how to present Christ worthily and winningly.

In the O.T. the word is raah, 'to feed,' and refers to those who should have succoured God's people. They, as all others, had failed; they had destroyed and scattered the sheep. Jer. 2:8; Jer. 3:15; Jer. 12:10; Jer. 17:16; Jer. 22:22; Jer. 23:1-2. In the N.T. it is ποιμήν, which is applied to Christ Himself as the good Shepherd, etc. The pastor is one of the gifts in the church, Eph. 4:11; he is one who is gifted to help on the saints individually, enter into their trials and difficulties, and bring the word to instruct and comfort them, or to remonstrate with and counsel them if needed.