Rethinking Hebrews 13:17 - part 1

Note: This is the first of a two-part series.  You can read part two here. 

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.
Hebrews 13:17

There are at least two related ideas that are taught in many modern churches today primarily on the basis of this single verse:

1. Within the church, elders/pastors have a unique authority that other believers don't have and believers are commanded to obey the elders/pastors in their church.
2. God intends for a believer to enter into covenant membership in a specific church and it is those believers who are members of the church that elders/pastors in a church are accountable for.

I would like to challenge both of these ideas and make the case that these ideas are more the product of ideas we read into the text than what the text itself says and means.

First, Hebrews 13:17 does not teach that God expects believers to obey pastors/elders.

In the New Testament, the word ὑπακούω (hupakuo) is used to communicate obedience to an established authority.  Here are some examples:

Children to parents: Children, obey (ὑπακούω) your parents in the Lord, for this is right. (Ephesians 6:1)

Slaves to masters: Bondservants, obey (ὑπακούω) your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ (Ephesians 6:5)

Wives to husbands: For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting (ὑποτάσσω) to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed (ὑπακούω) Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening. (1 Peter 3:5–6, cf. Ephesians 5:22)

And twice in Hebrews this word ὑπακούω (hupakuo) is used to communicate obedience to God:

And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey (ὑπακούω) him (Hebrews 5:9)

By faith Abraham obeyed (ὑπακούω) when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. (Hebrews 11:8)

In the New Testament, this word ὑπακούω (hupakuo) conveys the idea that one is obligated to obey and subject themselves to an authority (of course, unless the one who is commanding something is commanding something that would require disobedience to God, in which case one should not obey).  This word is used of children in relation to parents, slaves in relation to masters, wives in relation to husbands, humans in relation to God, and I would even assert of citizens in relation to government officials given the close relationship of the Greek word ὑποτάσσω (be subject to) and ὑποτάσσω (obey) as seen in 1 Peter 3:5-6.  If we are to be subject to a party, then we are to obey that party.  Both Romans 13:1 and 1 Peter 2:13 teach that citizens are to be subject to (ὑποτάσσω) governing authorities; therefore, citizens are to obey (ὑπακούω) governing authorities.

But the New Testament never teaches that one is to relate to church leaders this way.  In other words, God does not obligate believers to obey and subject themselves to pastors.  God has simply nowhere given pastors that authority.

When we read Hebrews 13:17 in English, the word "obey" looks no different from the word "obey" in Hebrews 5:9 and Hebrews 11:8.  But the Greek word that gets translated into English as "obey" in Hebrews 13:17 is not the word ὑπακούω (hupakuo) that gets translated into English as "obey" in Hebrews 5:9 and Hebrews 11:8.  The Greek word translated into English as "obey" in Hebrews 13:17 is πείθω (peitho).

The word πείθω appears 52 times in the New Testament.  By far the most common way that word is translated into English is the word "persuade" (13x).  It's only translated as "obey" 4 times in the New Testament (one of them being Hebrews 13:17 above):

but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey (πείθω) unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. (Romans 2:8)

You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying (πείθω) the truth?  This persuasion (πεισμονή) is not from him who calls you. (Galatians 5:7–8)

If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey (πείθω) us, we guide their whole bodies as well. (James 3:3)

A couple of things are remarkable to note.

When, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the author of Hebrews penned Hebrews 13:17, we know he had the word ὑπακούω in his vocabulary if he intended to convey the idea of obligatory subjection to church leaders as an authority because he used the word ὑπακούω in Hebrews 5:9 and Hebrews 11:8.  But he intentionally chose not to use that word, which means he wanted to convey a different idea in this verse by using the word πείθω instead.

Furthermore, in each of the 4 times that πείθω is translated as "obey" in the New Testament, in two of those instances (Hebrews 13:17 and Romans 2:8) the verb is in the middle voice.  And in the other two instances (Galatians 5:7 and James 3:3), the verb is in the passive voice.  This is in contrast to the two instances of ὑπακούω translated as "obey" in Hebrews 5:9 and Hebrews 11:8 being in the active voice.  The grammar here is important!  Why?

To understand this, here is a brief lesson on the different voices a verb can be rendered in:

active — The grammatical voice that signifies that the subject is performing the verbal action or is in the state described by the verb.

middle — The grammatical voice that signifies that the subject of the verb is being affected by its own action or is acting upon itself.

passive — The grammatical voice that signifies that the subject is being acted upon; i.e., the subject is the receiver of the verbal action.

So "obey" makes sense in the active voice for Hebrews 5:9 and Hebrews 11:8 because the subject is performing the action of obedience.

But "obey" simply does not make sense in any of the four places where πείθω is translated in this way in the New Testament because the subject isn't performing the action.  They are having the action performed on them (passive voice) or they are performing the action on themselves (middle voice).

Given the two instances where πείθω is in the middle voice, it makes more sense to render them as follows:

Let yourselves be persuaded by your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

Hebrews 13:17

but for those who are self-seeking and reject the truth, but let themselves be persuaded by unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.
Romans 2:8

And the two instances where πείθω is in the passive voice, it makes more sense to render them as follows:

You were running well. Who hindered you from being persuaded by the truth?  This persuasion is not from him who calls you.
Galatians 5:7–8

If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they are persuaded by us, we guide their whole bodies as well.
James 3:3

Notice that in Galatians 5:7 where we translate πείθω as "being persuaded by" it makes more sense to see the connection to the very next verse (Galatians 5:8) where πεισμονή — the noun form of πείθω — is used.

When one is persuaded by or lets himself be persuaded by something or someone, the result is that he will follow that something or someone, which is synonymous with obedience.  But that following is the fruit of the persuasion and the words of the text speak of the persuasion itself rather than the fruit of it.

This is so important.

Hebrews 13:17 is not telling us that God obligates believers to obey and subject themselves to church leaders as authority figures.  Hebrews 13:17 is telling us that God expects believers to listen to, pay attention to, and let themselves be persuaded by church leaders insofar as what those leaders speak is consistent with the Word of God (Hebrews 13:7).  This process of persuasion very well may and probably should involve asking questions.  By the end of that process, the believer might be persuaded by the leader.  Or he may not be.  But if the believer has given the leader the opportunity to persuade him but still remains unpersuaded based on what he sees in God's Word, he has not violated the instruction in this verse.  A good example of this is in Acts 17:11, where the Bereans are commended as more noble than the Thessalonians, who themselves were persuaded (πείθω) by Paul (Acts 17:4)!  Presumably the Bereans weren't as easily persuaded as the Thessalonians but searched the Scriptures to make sure that what Paul taught was consistent with God's Word and they are commended for this!  The Bereans appear to be commended precisely for how they actively engage this persuasion process!

Such a process is fundamentally different from obligatory obedience and subjection to an authority.  Unless it's clearly contrary to God's Word, a command by such an authority figure is meant to be binding.  But nowhere in the New Testament, including here in Hebrews 13:17, does God give church leaders this kind of authority.

And it's so, so important to remember the context in which Hebrews 13:17 is written.  It's first and foremost directed at believers within a particular context before principles should be extracted to apply universally.  The context of Hebrews is Hebrew Christians who are being tempted to turn away from the gospel they had confessed in order to go back to Judaism (Hebrews 2:1-4, Hebrews 10:35-39).  This is why in Hebrews 13:7 the author speaks of the leaders as those who spoke the word of God to the Hebrews.  And the point when we get to Hebrews 13:17 is primarily to let themselves be persuaded not to turn from or abandon the gospel message they received (and continue to receive) from their leaders, not so much to not turn from or abandon the leaders themselves.  It's actually very similar to Galatians 5:7-8 where Paul is pleading with the Galatians to not let themselves be persuaded to turn from the gospel he first delivered to them even though the Judaizers in Galatia were trying to persuade them to (Galatians 1:6-9, Galatians 5:7-8).

Hebrews 13:17 is not so much about our ecclesiology (something else worth pointing out is that it doesn't even mention "elders" or "pastors" but just the generic term "leaders", which could be an apostle, for example).

Hebrews 13:17 is primarily about our soteriology.  Which leads to the second point.

You can read part two here. 

Here is another resource that re-examines Hebrews 13:17 in contrast to its traditional interpretation and draws similar conclusions as this post: Giving Account for Our Use of Hebrews 13:17

Also on this topic, the following diagram and excerpt from Leslie McFall's excellent book Good Order in the Church best summarize how to think about this from the aggregated New Testament data:

The male members need not accept any ruling of the Elders that is contrary to the relation that each man has toward his immediate Head—the Lord Jesus Christ. No Elder can override any man’s headship with Christ. So while there may be a diagonal exercise of discipline between a man and his Elder, the vertical relation of headship with Christ is direct and not through Elders. 

 ... 

Each male member is responsible to his own Head—Christ—directly and he should not accept any other headship from among men, this includes his own Teaching Elder/Leader or Minister, Pastors, Bishops, Archbishops, Popes, or Kings. Rather, every man is to look upon Christ’s under-shepherds as gifted leaders to help them to order themselves under Christ and bring maximum glory to their Head.

The relation of the Elders to the men is comparable to the relation between a father and his son. The father’s experience, advice, and instruction should never be lightly turned aside by the son. The son’s head is not his earthly father, but Christ—and that from birth. Every man in the Church has only one Head. Every married woman in the Church has Man as her head in the Lord.