By The Bible lists the qualifications for overseers in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and elders in Titus 1:5-9, both of which refer to the same biblical office in a local church, what we today often refer to as “pastors.”
If you read carefully through those two lists you may notice that there is nothing extraordinary in them. The qualities and behaviors expected of overseers/elders are expected of every Christian, as the rest of the New Testament makes clear.
The exception is that overseers/elders must be able to teach, as 1 Timothy 3:2 specifies, and what they are expected to teach is “sound doctrine” found in “the trustworthy word,” Titus 1:9, referring to Scripture, God’s Word, the Bible.
So elders/overseers are simply men who have been Christians long enough to be recognized as mature followers of Jesus who are able to teach God’s Word to their fellow Christians in a way that is understandable and helpful.
God’s people are sheep, his sheep
The Bible often refers to God’s people as sheep, and a flock of sheep.
Psalm 100:3 is one example out of many: “Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” Isaiah 53:6 is another example: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
The New Testament continues this understanding of God’s people being his flock of sheep. Consider the following two examples.
In Acts 20:17-38 we read a heartfelt and sobering farewell message given by the Apostle Paul to the elders/overseers of the church in Ephesus, in which, among other things, he reminds them of their duties and responsibilities as elders of a local church. In verse 28 he tells them to “pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he [God] obtained with his own blood.”
In 1 Peter 5:1-4 the Apostle Peter gives instructions to fellow elders, instructions which include “shepherd the flock of God that is among you…”
Elders/overseers are still sheep
What neither Paul nor Peter say is that elders/overseers are no longer sheep, having been promoted to a new position and role as shepherds/elders/overseers over the flock. Yes, they are to watch over, pay attention to, care for, and shepherd the flock, but that does not mean they are no longer part of the flock.
The way Paul spoke in Acts 20:28 makes this fairly clear by saying that the Holy Spirit had made them overseers in, not over and above, all the flock. First Peter 2:25 says that everyone, including elders/overseers, “were straying like sheep,” but they “have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer” of their souls.
Even Jesus, who in John 10:11 refers to himself as the good shepherd who “lays down his life for the sheep,” and who Peter in 1 Peter 5:4 refers to as “the chief Shepherd,” is also pictured as “a lamb that is led to the slaughter” in Isaiah 53:7, in 1 Peter 1:19 as “a [sacrificial] lamb without blemish or spot,” and in Revelation 5:6 as “a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain…”
Where things go sideways
Even with all these biblical reminders about being sheep, elders/overseers can slip into the thinking that they, being appointed “shepherds,” have graduated to a level somewhere above the sheep. This error can manifest itself in many ways. Here’s one: When elders forget that they and their fellow elders are still sheep, they can expect more from fellow elders than even God does, such as perfection, and immediate response and agreement to critique (and unfortunately, criticism) with no emotions or feelings involved or even permitted.
How easy it is to forget that we are all still in process, we are all undergoing sanctification, we are all sinners, sinners saved by grace, but sinners nonetheless. None of us have arrived yet, as Paul made clear in Philippians 3:12. And this applies to every sheep in God’s flock, even the sheep who have been given the weighty responsibility to serve as shepherds under Jesus, who is the one and only chief Shepherd.
Shepherds, elders, overseers are still sheep.