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Undershepherds, July 28
Feed the flock of God, ... taking the oversight thereof.
1 Peter 5:2
.
The Great Shepherd has undershepherds, to whom He delegates the care of His
sheep and lambs. The first work that Christ entrusted to Peter, on restoring him
to the ministry, was to feed the lambs. This was a work in which Peter had had
little experience. It would require great care and tenderness, much patience and
perseverance. It called him to minister to the children and youth, and to those young
in the faith, to teach the ignorant, to open the Scriptures to them, and to educate
them for usefulness in Christ’s service. Heretofore Peter had not been fitted to do
this, or even to understand its importance.
The question that Christ put to Peter was significant. He mentioned only one
condition of discipleship and service. “Lovest thou me?” He said. This is the
essential qualification. Though Peter might possess every other, without the love
of Christ he could not be a faithful shepherd over the Lord’s flock. Knowledge,
benevolence, eloquence, gratitude, and zeal are all aids in the good work; but without
the love of Jesus in the heart, the work of the Christian minister will prove a failure.
The lesson which Christ taught him by the Sea of Galilee, Peter carried with
him through his life. Writing by the Holy Spirit to the churches, he said:
“The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness
of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed:
Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by
constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being
lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. And when the Chief
Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away” (
1
Peter 5:1-4
).
The sheep that has strayed from the fold is the most helpless of all creatures.
It must be sought for; for it cannot find its way back. So with the soul that has
wandered away from God; he is as helpless as the lost sheep; and unless divine love
comes to his rescue, he can never find his way to God. Then with what compassion,
what sorrow, what persistence, should the undershepherd seek for lost souls! ...
This means the bearing of physical discomfort and the sacrifice of ease. It means a
tender solicitude for the erring, a divine compassion and forbearance. It means an
ear that can listen with sympathy to heartbreaking recitals of wrong, of degradation,
of despair and misery.
The spirit of the true shepherd is one of self-forgetfulness. He loses sight of self
(
Gospel Workers, 182-184
).
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