pastors authority in the church
What does the Bible say about pastors authority in the church? These are the passages readers found most helpful — tap any citation to read it in context.
13 passages · most helpful first
17Obey your leaders and be subject to them. For they watch over you, as if to render an account of your souls. So then, may they do this with joy, and not with grief. Otherwise, it would not be as helpful to you.
1It is a faithful saying: if a man desires the episcopate, he desires a good work. 2Therefore, it is necessary for a bishop to be beyond reproach, the husband of one wife, sober, prudent, gracious, chaste, hospitable, a teacher, 3not a drunkard, not combative but restrained, not quarrelsome, not covetous; 4but a man who leads his own house well, having children who are subordinate with all chastity. 5For if a man does not know how to lead his own house, how will he take care of the Church of God? 6He must not be a new convert, lest, being elated by pride, he may fall under the sentence of the devil.
28Take care of yourselves and of the entire flock, over which the Holy Spirit has stationed you as Bishops to rule the Church of God, which he has purchased by his own blood.
12And we ask you, brothers, to recognize those who labor among you, and who preside over you in the Lord, and who admonish you,
6if such a man is without offense, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of self-indulgence, nor of insubordination. 7And a bishop, as a steward of God, must be without offense: not arrogant, not short-tempered, not a drunkard, not violent, not desiring tainted profit, 8but instead: hospitable, kind, sober, just, holy, chaste, 9embracing faithful speech which is in agreement with doctrine, so that he may be able to exhort in sound doctrine and to argue against those who contradict.
7Remember your leaders, who have spoken the Word of God to you, whose faith you imitate, by observing the goal of their way of life:
23And traveling by way of Pisidia, they arrived in Pamphylia.
3not so as to dominate by means of the clerical state, but so as to be formed into a flock from the heart. 4And when the Leader of pastors will have appeared, you shall secure an unfading crown of glory. 5Similarly, young persons, be subject to the elders. And infuse all humility among one another, for God resists the arrogant, but to the humble he gives grace. 6And so, be humbled under the powerful hand of God, so that he may exalt you in the time of visitation.
11And the same one granted that some would be Apostles, and some Prophets, yet truly others evangelists, and others pastors and teachers,
16All Scripture, having been divinely inspired, is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in justice,
16And I have other sheep that are not of this fold, and I must lead them. They shall hear my voice, and there shall be one sheepfold and one shepherd.
16For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that all who believe in him may not perish, but may have eternal life.
18And Jesus, drawing near, spoke to them, saying: “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. 19Therefore, go forth and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all that I have ever commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even to the consummation of the age.”