Since the church is a family, the right view of elders is important within that context. If an elder is an employee then he can be hired and fired. If he is a father, he will always be honored as one, whether he has the ability to continue to work into his old age, or through illness, or not.
But beyond this, if it is really true that the elder is a father then all of the commands that are given to honor the father apply to the elder. So I want to go over these commands concerning fathers again but encourage you to read them within this mindset.
Let's first look at the fact that they are fathers though.
The very command to honor one's father, and Christ's interpretation of this in Matt 15 that it includes financial support is used by Paul in 1 Tim 5:17 when he uses the word "honor" instead of just referring to it as wages or compensation, which he brings up in another analogy in v, 18, letting us know that this is financial, not just some general honor.
In fact, the chapter starts out by saying, Do not rebuke an elder harshly, but exhort him as a father (5:1). Whereas some translations translate this "as if he was your father," the text actually states "as father." Likewise, what is translated as "old man" is just the word for "elder," and given the context it is likely talking primarily, even if not exclusively, about elders. If one is inclined to see the word as old men in general then it still does not detract from the point since what would be true of old men in the family in general would certainly be true of the official "old men" in the community who are in leadership.
Hebrews 13:17 states, “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they watch over your souls as those who must give an account."
If we remember that the church is a household, a family, then who are those who are placed over the family to watch over and guide it and to whom the rest of the family must submit themselves and obey? Fathers.
Elders take over for the apostles, and in John 21:15-17, Christ gives the instructions to Peter, who represents all of the apostles here and what they are to do over the church, to "feed My sheep/lambs." Although the analogy here is one of the shepherd and sheep, it is important to note that this act of feeding both spiritually through the Word and physically through deacons is given to the apostles/elders to oversee in general. If combined with the familial understanding of the church, who is it in the family given the responsibility to feed the household? Fathers (the paternal role of shepherds over sheep even captures this idea without the familial context).
Likewise, who guards the household? Fathers.
The analogy of honoring given to elders and older women in 1 Tim 5 is important because it shows that they are in distinction from regular brothers and sisters, and are instead viewed as the parents of the household. Hence, they have obligations to their children and their children have obligations to them.
With that in mind, let's look at the commands concerning the father again. I'll repeat much of what I said before concerning one's father.
A summary of what follows if applied to spiritual fathers would be the following: The obligations the adult child has to a father seems to be total obedience, respect, financial commitment, and emulation in wisdom and moral conduct when the father lives a wise and moral life. A member of a church who undermines the authority of an elder, disrespects him, does not fear him, does not support him financially, and does not seek to emulate his wisdom and moral conduct when it is actually Christ's wisdom and moral conduct he gives has broken the commandment and is worthy of eternal death, both now and in the age to come.
The Ten Commandments of course command the following.
Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee” (Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16).
The commandment indicates that the inheritance of the land of promise is contingent upon the child honoring the father and the mother. Paul reiterates this in Ephesians 6:1-3 when he says, Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life in the land," and in Colossians 3:20, "Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord."
The correct worship of God directly has to do with not worshiping other gods, making divine images, fearing God's name, honoring God's sovereignty through the Sabbath, and honoring/obeying one's father and mother. In fact, Leviticus 19:3-4 has the first table represented in a few of its commands (e.g., observe the Sabbath, no divine images), including the command that "Every man is to fear his mother and his father."
One worships God in whatever manner one treats his spiritual parents, particularly focusing in on the spiritual fathers here. He cannot claim to worship God better than he treats his spiritual fathers.
Jesus rebukes the Pharisees who think they can. They think they can treat their parents poorly but treat God well. They even contrast the two relationships by saying that they are giving to God by taking away their obligations to their parents. He confirms to them that they have set aside the commandment (and the reward with it I might add) by doing so. Notice the dialogue.
5 So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”
6 He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:
“‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.7 They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.’8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”
9 And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ 11 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God)— 12 then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. 13 Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”
Christ here says that they actually do this with many things, but note that this is what he decided to focus on because it contrasts true worship with false worship. They are concerned with externals like physical cleanliness rituals and tithing. Christ is concerned with actually worshiping God through the honor and treatment of parents. The Pharisees, being very devoted, religiously pious men, don't know God and it evidences itself through their treatment of their father and mother.
Now, let's look at some texts that talk about a grown child's commitments to their parents.
If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. They shall say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” Then all the men of his town are to stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.
Notice here that this is not a five-year-old kid. He is a drunkard and a glutton. He also lives somewhere else. Note that it says that they are to bring this son to the elders of "his," not "their" town. So he lives in another town. He is still obligated to take care of them and obey them and yet refuses to do so. God says that he is to be violently executed by all of the men of his own town. He is not to inherit the land any longer. He is cut off from it. This is to purge the evil from among them, a phrase quoted by Paul when speaking of excommunication, and to cause other covenant members to be afraid to do the same thing lest they also lose their inheritance. This same things can be applied to fathers in the church and the church as Christ's family. Hence, not obeying the elders, not contributing to their financial well-being as honor, not speaking well of them, etc. is worthy of death.
Christ reaffirms the command in Matthew 15:4, a parallel to the Markan passage above, by noting not only the original command but the subsequent understanding that if one speaks poorly of his father or mother he is to be put to death. The word kakologion means one who insults or speaks bad about one's father or mother. Christ is alluding to the LXX of Leviticus 20:9 here that expands the original command concerning cursing father and mother and makes it even a lesser speech of just speaking bad about them. Nothing is said of whether the things spoken are true or not. It is the fact that the adult child (the Pharisees being spoken to here are all adults, and mostly much older adults) who is commanded to honor his father and mother is dishonoring one or both of them by speaking about their parents in ways that would cause others to think less of them. In Proverbs 20:20, the one who does this has his lamp go out, metaphorically meaning that he will lose the ability to see what is true and be blinded to what is right and good.
Proverbs 23:22 commands, "Obey your father who begot you, and do not reject your mother when she is old."
Hence, in Proverbs 6:20 (also 1:8-10; 15:20), the command is given to the adult son to "keep your father's commandment, and do not abandon your mother's instruction." The two are in parallel because they are viewed as one and the same.
In Deuteronomy, the actual covenant promises that are made by the people who are stating they wish to be in God's covenant include the declaration, "Cursed is anyone who dishonors father or mother." All the people are to shout, Amen!
Proverbs agrees and says that "the eye that mocks a father and refuses to obey a mother will be pecked out by the ravens of the valley and eaten by vultures."
The eye represents one's thinking about his father and mother. Again, his eye, his ability to see, is cursed.
In fact, the entire Book of Proverbs demands that the adult son obey his father's instructions and listens to his advise or he is branded a fool and wicked (Prov 4:1; 13:1).
Notice that the wise son in Proverbs 13:1 obeys his father's instructions but the scoffer does not listen to rebuke. In other words, the wicked and foolish son rolls his eyes at his father in contrast to the wise son who harkens to his fathers instructions.
All fathers, spiritual or biological, are sinners, so one could easily excuse himself from obeying the command here by saying that his father doesn't deserve honor, but God doesn't position authority over us and then allow us to judge them as unworthy of that honor. God is the judge of those things, and in the church He judges them by other fathers so that the children never stand over the fathers in judgment. We are to honor and obey a father in the Lord who, like any authority, is exercising an authority on God's behalf and to the glory of God. Excuses are the roadways of the damned, or as Proverbs puts it, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is the pathway of death" (Prov 14:12).
This is a night and day difference between the way the rebellious modern church views church authority. It sees it as optional. It can disagree with it as it pleases. It can disobey, disregard, and disrespect it because we are an egalitarian bunch even when claiming to be otherwise. There are not fathers in egalitarianism. There are only members of equal status that belong to the same mutual club. Deacons are not household servants, even though that's what the word means. They are all the same as elders. Members are all equal in authority and have individual autonomy they can choose to exercise in any given matter. Fathers don't exist in the church except over their literal families, but God's church is directly fathered by God alone without mediation (very religiously Enlightenment-oriented rather than biblical). But biblically, God places fathers over His people and always has. Elisha calls Elijah his father in 2 Kings 2:12. King Jehoash in return calls Elisha his father in 2 Kings 13:14. Spiritual leaders are fathers because they mediate the fatherhood of God over His people. Hence, from biological families to governments to the spiritual family of God, He places fathers as representatives so that no one can claim to honor, obey, and speak well of God without doing the same to His patriarchal ambassadors.
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