Honor and Respect for our Leaders.

Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.  Hebrews 13:7

We have learned that God has appointed leaders over his church body to help us learn how he wants us to live and behave.  Like all Christians, God expects leaders to live lives that are holy and acceptable to him.  In fact, he holds them to an even higher standard, because those who lead are supposed to understand what exactly it is they are leading others to.  James 3:1 confirms that God judges the leaders of his church more strictly. 

Here in Hebrews God calls us to remember and consider the outcome of the lifestyle of the leaders of our church.  He charges us to imitate their faith; which implies that God does not only desires the leader of a church to have faith and a lifestyle worth imitating, but he expects it!  The Bible clearly states that we are to live a life that is holy and pleasing to him.  And how could anyone expect to teach others how to live a lifestyle that they themselves do not live?  People who know how those leaders live could disregard the Word of God, thinking that if a leader of the church can live in sin, it must be ok for them to live in sin, too.  This is a false, dangerous thing.  This is why God judges those in leadership positions so strictly.

No one is perfect, not even the leaders of the church.  We should pray for those in leadership positions, that God would give them the strength and the power to both live and teach the truth.