Truths That Set Free 7 of 7

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Edmund Spieker is finishing his series Truths That Set Free, speaking today about leadership.  The question before us:  Is leadership a biblical concept and how did Jesus do it?  Welcome, Edmund.

My pleasure to be here, Scott. Leadership is something that has fascinated me for a great deal of my life and seems to run in my veins, so to speak. Actually as a boy in school my teacher already told my mother that she had never had a student who was such a competitor.  I had to be first in everything or I wasn’t satisfied. I was also quite good in defending my opinion. Saying this so openly might sound arrogant, and definitely not spiritual, but I do it on purpose with the intent to make a point.  Leadership is generally conceived as a natural gift and has to do with capacity, personality, determination, and the exercise of power. A leader is one who can envision what has to be done, is convinced about it, and has the personality to inspire others to join him in doing it.

Having said all this and having been in leadership for most of my adult life, I want to add that in very few areas do we see such a fine, nevertheless definite line between the secular values of leadership and the values of the Kingdom of God when it comes to leadership.  There is one passage that illustrates so clearly how God’s choice of leaders is quite different.  It is in the first chapter of his letter to the Corinthians that the apostle Paul compares the wisdom of this world with the wisdom of God and how they are so opposite.  Actually he affirms how God intentionally destroys the wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the clever. In other words, when you think you have it, you better watch because you might just be in the category of people who do not meet God’s approval. Let’s read 1 Cor. 1:26-31.

“For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are, that no man should boast before God.”

Thanks, Scott. I think that it will be helpful to go back to the biblical understanding about man. There is some basic truth to be considered. As human beings we are a trichotomy, or divided into three distinctive parts, the body, the soul and the spirit. The body relates to the environment, the soul, or the personality relates to others, and the spirit relates to God. It can also be said that the body is the physiological, the soul the psychological and the spirit the spiritual part, the God-consciousness.  Someone said we are a Spirit who has a Soul and lives in a Body.

Because of the fall, sin came into the world and separated man from God.  As God had predicted, Adam and Eve died the moment they disobeyed. While the physical death started as a process, the spiritual death was imminent. They were cut off from God and were expelled from paradise into a world that was now under the curse of sin.

As descendants of Adam and Eve we are born into their family, that is by nature we are people whose spirit is dead to God but alive to sin. This is why the Bible says that the natural man cannot understand the things of God.  They are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised (1 Cor. 2:14). The leadership of someone who is acting from his fallen nature will therefore reflect exactly that, the fallen nature.

Now, when a person accepts Jesus Christ as his/her personal Saviour, something radical happens. The Bible speaks about a new birth, or the fact that one becomes a new creature. The person that before was dead in sin becomes alive in Jesus Christ. The conditions for that to happen were already given on the cross when the Lord Jesus died for the sin of the world, redeeming mankind and reconciling them back to God.  The Bible says, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God.” (Jn. 1:12)

Edmund this is a very helpful description of what redemption means and I wonder what difference this makes when it comes to leadership? You are saying that the natural man, who is just a descendent of Adam, acts independently from God and is selfish.  But couldn’t his leadership still be dynamic and successful in spite of him not being born again, nor a redeemed believer in Christ?

Definitely, Scott!  A natural leader can accomplish great things just by using his talents and effort to accomplish his goals.  But as we are trying to understand what leadership means in the eyes of Jesus and as we base leadership on His model, we will discover that there is a foundational difference in the motivation and also the objectives for such leadership. While the secular model of leadership is driven by a success model and is cause-oriented, the model of Christ for leadership is driven by the desire to serve and focuses on the restoration of people and their relationship with God. There are opposing values and different results in both models.  Jesus Himself spoke about that in Matt. 20:25-28, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them.  It is not so among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and give His life a ransom for many.”  

In a society where the focus is on position and material possession rather than on responsible stewardship and character development, the aim is power and control.  The focus is on the now and here. Such leadership becomes self-serving and independent from God.  The Lord Jesus says ‘no!’ to such kind of leadership and warns His disciples by saying, “It is not so among you!” Rather, He invites them to emulate his model. He was a servant among them and His final mission was to lay down His own life for the world. He said, “I am the Good Shepherd who gives His life for the sheep.”  He was willing to pick up the towel to wash the dirty feet of His disciples while they were still concerned with who would be the first in the Kingdom.

These are definitely different values from what we normally consider leadership. No wonder that in the eyes of men Jesus was not a successful leader, rather more like a loser.

Right. He lost His life and was killed by His enemies on the cross, but was Jesus a really a loser?  One needs to have spiritual eyes to understand what really happened on the cross at Golgotha. We are before the greatest love story ever when we consider that the creator of the universe stooped down from heaven to become the living sacrifice for the redemption of this world. When He exclaimed with his last ounce of strength His “Tetelestai”( it is finished), God’s justice was satisfied and the price for the penalty of sin paid, He had accomplished the redemption of mankind. He definitely was and always will be the greatest of all leaders.  But his leadership takes us back to God, to building His Kingdom and not our own little kingdoms and domains which will vanish in no time.

Scott, I know our time is up so therefore let me conclude by saying this. As followers of Jesus we are called to a Kingdom that will not vanish. The Bible invites us to take Christ as our model of leadership when it says, “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ suffered for you leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.” (1 Pet. 2:21) That is what gets me excited today. A long time ago I had to recognize the sinfulness of the natural drive to be on top and to be in control. Unless I am submitted to the authority and leadership of Jesus it serves more as a hindrance than a blessing.  But being a disciple of Jesus I must not be driven by my natural instincts, rather be lead by His Spirit. My desire is that we all might allow more and more the Lord Jesus to reign in our lives in order for Him to express through us the real values of Kingdom leadership.