Few passages are more commonly misread, or simply avoided, than Hebrew 13:17:
Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account.
It shouldn’t surprise us that this passage often goes avoided. This
is bound to happen in a culture where postmodernism rejects all claims
of authority and where examples of abuses of authority are not hard to
find in the news.
To make matters worse, a surface reading of this passage seems to
sanction some form of authoritarianism, an unqualified obedience and
submission to pastors in all matters. But that’s not the message of this
passage, as we will see.
What follows are a few important thoughts on this passage, beginning with a closer look at the idea of “obeying.”
Here is how W. E. Vine defines the Greek word “obey” (πείθο):
In Hebrews 13:17, believers are commanded to obey their leaders. The word used is peithō
which has the usual meaning of “convince” or “persuade.” The
“obedience” suggested is not by submission to authority, but resulting
from persuasion. Peithō and pisteuō, “to trust,” are
closely related etymologically; the difference in meaning is that the
former implies the obedience that is produced by the latter.
Peithō, “to persuade, to win
over,” in the passive and middle voices, “to be persuaded, to listen to,
to obey,” is so used with this meaning, in the middle voice, e.g., in
Acts 5:36-37 (in v. 40, passive voice, “they agreed”); Rom. 2:8; Gal.
5:7; Heb. 13:17; Jas. 3:3. Continue at Obey Your Pastors
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