Pastors, with the parent's heart, model themselves living according to God’s Word before God and teache the congregation to do the same. They teach their members to pray to God and rely on Him only just because they know that nothing can be done by human's strength. They also share every failure and success story so that the members can make same success and avoid failures that pastors experienced before.
Pastors do this just because they want congregations to have the same experiences that they had, in relationship with God. They truthfully desire the congregations to win victories overcoming every mistake and failure. Pastors want their people to be loved by God even more than themselves. They never grow jealous even if the members receive more of God’s love than themselves.
Luke Chapter 15 showed a parable of a prodigal son. The prodigal son didn’t understand his father’s love for him at all, so he rejected his father’s discipline, took his portion of inheritance, and went away to a distant country. He ended up lost everything and nearly starved, and then returned home. The older son did not understnd the father's heart as well. Even though he stayed and helped his father and lived obediently, when the younger son returned, being nealy die and his father rejoiced and held a feast, he the older son did not share the father's joy. He even showed anger to him.
But godly people never get jealous or blame others. They get pleased by anything that pleases the father. Have you ever seen a parent jealous because their children are smarter? If someone says, “The son is better than the father,” even as flattery, it will make them feels good. Jesus also said, “whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these,” (John 14:12) .He desires us to do greater things than He did.
Pastor also want their congregation to live godly lives, better than themselves. Believers should become people who understand the hearts of the pastor and of God so that they lead others to live godly lives.
Pastor Seok-Jeon Yoon
Extracted from Yonsei Newspaper #933
