Of Shepherds & Sheep

There is a passage in 1 Peter 5 that does something unusual. Rather than addressing the broader congregation, it zeroes in on the leaders of the church, the elders, and gives them a direct and unflinching charge. But here is what makes it remarkable: the instructions given to those leaders ultimately benefit everyone. The shepherd and the sheep are inseparable. You cannot talk about one without implicating the other.

Peter opens the passage by identifying himself not as an apostle standing above the crowd, but as a fellow elder. He is not writing from a throne. He is writing from the trenches. He has witnessed Christ's suffering firsthand. He has lived a life marked by both failure and restoration. He knows what it costs to lead, and he knows what it costs to follow. And from that place of hard-won experience, he writes to encourage those who bear the weight of spiritual leadership.

His message provides three essential qualities that should define how elders lead: willingly, eagerly, and by example.

Serving Willingly
Peter instructs elders to shepherd the flock of God not under compulsion, but willingly. The distinction matters more than it might first appear. Service rendered out of obligation tends to be joyless, mechanical, and ultimately hollow. It gets the job done, but it communicates nothing of the love that should animate it.

The image of the shepherd is not accidental here. Jesus himself used it when he restored Peter after the resurrection. Three times he asked, "Do you love me?" and three times the command that followed was to feed and tend the sheep. The connection is direct and intentional: love for Christ expresses itself in love for the people Christ has entrusted to our care. The degree to which a leader loves Jesus is the degree to which that leader will genuinely care for those he serves.

Willingness does not mean every morning feels like a triumph. It does not mean the work is always easy or that the calling never feels heavy. It means that beneath the difficulty, there is a recognition of privilege. To speak truth into someone's grief, to stand beside someone in illness, to welcome a new believer into the family of God, to offer counsel in a moment of uncertainty -- these are not burdens to be endured. They are honors to be received. When the work stops feeling like a privilege, that is a signal worth taking seriously.

Serving Eagerly
The second quality Peter calls for is eagerness, and he frames it against a stark contrast. The elder is not to serve for shameful gain. False teachers throughout the New Testament were frequently motivated by financial benefit or personal popularity. The ministry became a vehicle for self-advancement rather than a way to point people to Christ.

Jesus does not need celebrities. He wants servants.

Eagerness, as Peter uses it, speaks to motivation. Where willingness reflects humility and surrender, eagerness reflects energy and enthusiasm. It is the quality that keeps a leader leaning forward rather than coasting. It is the recognition that God is still unfolding his purpose and that there is something genuinely worth showing up for.

When willingness and eagerness are held together, they paint a full picture of the attitude that should characterize spiritual leadership. Gratitude for the calling, humility in the execution, and genuine excitement about what God is doing. None of that can be manufactured through sheer personal effort. It flows from a life that is drawing from Christ rather than from its own reserves.

Leading by Example
The third quality Peter names is perhaps the most convicting. He tells the elders not to domineer over those in their charge, but to set an example for the flock. In Matthew 20, Jesus made the same point with striking clarity, noting that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over those beneath them, and then saying plainly that it shall not be so among his followers. Whoever would be great must become a servant.

Leadership in the kingdom of God is not about accumulating power. It is not about control. It is not about positioning oneself above the requirements that apply to everyone else. Dominance has no place in the elder's calling. What does have a place is a life that is worth following, not because it is perfect, but because it is genuinely oriented toward Christ.

Words without evidence are empty. An elder cannot lead people where he is unwilling to go himself. The servant's heart and the domineering spirit cannot coexist. One will always crowd out the other.

The Promise That Holds It Together
Peter does not leave the elders without hope. He closes this section with a promise: when the chief shepherd appears, faithful leaders will receive an unfading crown of glory. The language is deliberate. Earthly crowns fade. Earthly power corrodes. Earthly recognition evaporates. But what Christ gives cannot be lost.

This promise is not meant to create a hierarchy of rewards or to suggest that elders occupy a higher tier of heaven than everyone else. It is meant to anchor the entire calling in something that outlasts the difficulty. Whatever suffering comes, whatever the cost of faithful service, it will not compare to the glory that is to be revealed.

Jesus is the chief shepherd. Every elder, every leader, every person who takes on the responsibility of caring for others in Christ's name is an under-shepherd, pointing people not to themselves but to Christ. The church exists for the glory of his name. And when he returns, the investment of faithful, willing, eager, exemplary service will have been worth every difficult morning, every hard conversation, every moment of doubt overcome.

The shepherd and the sheep are in it together. That is the point. And when both take their calling seriously, the church becomes what it was always meant to be: a community that shows a lost world what Jesus looks like.

This article was adapted from the sermon, "Of Shepherds & Sheep," by Pastor Scott Perry, preached at Temple Baptist Church on September 20, 2026.