(upbeat music) - What role do young Christians play in leading and guiding a local church, a local congregation? It's a good question, especially in light of young Christians honoring older Christians. Here's the email, Pastor John, hello. I am a young pastor in Missouri. Lately, I've noticed older Christians in the church appealing to 1 Peter 5:5.

It has been used to silence younger believers in the church. What should be the role of younger members of the church related to older members in, say, church business meetings, for example, when older members seek to shut down conversations and to avoid discussing uncomfortable topics? I would love your input on how to navigate through this sticky and confusing topic.

- It seems to me that most human cultures from around the world give evidence that something is written on the human heart to tell us that younger people should respect older people. Now, by respect, I mean accord them a certain deference, a certain honor, a readiness to serve them and give serious attention to what they say.

And I think that's what the scriptures say. For example, Leviticus 19.32 says, "You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God, I am the Lord." And Paul cautions Timothy in the exercise of his pastoral authority toward older members.

He says, this is 1 Timothy 5.1, "Do not rebuke an older man, but encourage him as you would a father. Younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters in all purity." And I think that's Paul's way of saying, yes, young man, Timothy, yes, you have pastoral authority to guide and correct older people, but there's a way to do it.

That shows a special respect for them as older. Now, I start my answer to this question that way for this young pastor in Missouri. I start my answer that way because I think this tone ought to color all our dealings in the church. I think older people in the church should be treated with a peculiar kind of respect that is different from the young people.

Now, Peter says, "Honor all men, respect all men," in 1 Peter 2.17. And then he says, with the same word, "Honor the emperor." Now, all people should be honored or respected as human beings, but that does not mean that all human beings should be respected in the same way.

Similarly, all ages should be respected, but an 80-year-old is not to be respected only in the same way you respect a teenager. But having laid that foundation that I think is really crucial for the culture or the ethos of a church, there is a clear and powerful stream in the Bible that warns us against assuming old equals wise.

It doesn't. It may, an older person may be wiser because of his age, and it often does. I mean, it should. The old men gave good counsel to Rehoboam. I just read this in my devotions this morning. The old men gave good counsel to Rehoboam in 1 Kings 12, and the young men gave stupid counsel.

Oh my goodness, the centuries-long horrors that came from that stupid counsel. That's the way it is ordinarily, in fact, I would say. Young don't have wisdom yet, and older people do, but that's not always the case. A long life should be a good teacher, should produce wisdom, and long study of God's word should yield a ripe mind and heart so that our older men ought to be the great repositories, and our older women ought to be the great sages of the church.

It should, and we ought to hope for it. We ought to expect it, look for it. But it is the case that often there are arrogant, stubborn, foolish, lazy, ignorant old men, and there are humble, patient, wise, diligent, knowledgeable young men. We simply dare not equate age and wisdom or youth and folly.

The Bible is very clear that that is a wrong way to think. For example, Psalm 119, 100, "I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts." There's the reason why we dare not equate wisdom with age. The word of God makes the key difference, not the years lived.

And there are some young men who have been shaped more and more deeply by the word than some old men who have been very neglectful of the word all their lives and are still in the church, and not as wise and as mature as people 30 years younger than they are.

For example, Jeremiah, who is so hesitant to speak God's word because of his youth, and God gets a little bit upset with him, I think, in Jeremiah, he says, Jeremiah 1, 5, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. And before you were born, I consecrated you.

I appointed you a prophet to the nations." And then I said, "Oh, Lord God, but I'm only a youth. I don't know how to speak." And the Lord said to me, "Do not say I am only a youth, for to all I send you, you shall go." And whatever I command you, you shall speak.

Do not be afraid of them. I'm with you to deliver you." That's a pretty strong word from God for a man who's saying, "I'm too young." Paul was just as concerned that Timothy would be cowed by his own youth as he was concerned that Timothy would be disrespectful of older people.

So not only did he say, "Encourage rather than rebuke older men," he also said, "Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity." In other words, do not let your youth keep you from ministering the word with power and courage to older people.

Two years into my ministry at Bethlehem, this is 1982 now, I came in 1980, I came back from vacation in August of that year. You can go find this message online. I preached a message titled, "Let the Young Speak." And I remembered it after all these years because I felt it was a risky message.

Let the young speak. The church was overwhelmingly older people, wonderful older people, in fact. I was 36 years old, but newer, younger people were streaming to the church. And it would only be a matter of time till this, at that time, 113-year-old church, I think, would see young names on the ballots and young people at the business meetings standing up perhaps with something to say.

So I thought I should head off at the pass any notion that only older people have biblical maturity and wisdom. So I chose as my text, I can remember it so clearly. I was in Georgia getting this sermon ready during vacation. I chose as my text Job 32, which is Elihu.

Elihu gets ready to speak and rebuke Job. He's gonna rebuke Job. He's gonna rebuke Eliphazad, Bildad, and Zophar because he thinks all of them have got it wrong. And I think Elihu's right. I argue in the sermon that Elihu's a good guy. He's not one of these bad teachers and there are all kinds of reasons for that.

But here's what that text says. Now, Elihu had waited to speak to Job because they were older than he. And when Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, he answered and said, "I am young in years and you are aged. Therefore I was timid and afraid to declare my opinion to you.

I said, let days speak, let many years teach wisdom. But it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty that makes him wise, that makes him understand. It is not the old who are wise, nor the aged who understand what is right. Therefore I say, listen to me.

Let me also declare my opinion." So I concluded that in that message that being old and being young is not decisive in who is qualified for office or who has the greater wisdom. The word of God decides, the spirit of God decides what is wisdom. On any issue we ask, what does the word of God say?

Not how old is the speaker? The elders in 1 Peter 5, 5 are the same. Now this is my answer to how to deal with those folks that are misusing this text. I think misusing this text that our questioner, the pastor in Missouri asked about. I think the elders in verse five, to which the young are said to be submissive, are not just older people.

They are the same elders four verses earlier and they are pastors, they are officers. Pastor and elder are interchangeable offices in the New Testament. So when the younger members are told to be subject to the elders, it means that they should show a special deference to the pastoral leaders of the church.

But the most important exhortation is probably the second half of verse five, which says, "Clothe yourselves, all of you." That means young and old, officers and laypeople, "Clothe yourselves, all of you, "with humility toward one another, "for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." So the older people and the younger people should clothe themselves with humility.

And I'm just, I mean, looking back on those days, those early days of my ministry as a 35, 36, 37 year old, surrounded by very old people, that's what they were like. It was just wonderful. I think we both labored to clothe ourselves with humility toward each other. And I think that means that in the church, both older and younger, will make every effort to submit their wills to the word of God.

It's not age and it's not youth that is decisive in settling what is true and what is wise. It is the word of God. - Yeah, thank you, Pastor John. And that old sermon, "Let the Young Speak," is online. It was preached 40 years ago now on August 29th, 1982.

And the whole thing is at desiringgod.org. Thank you for joining us today. Ask a question of your own, search our growing archive, or subscribe to the podcast, all at askpastorjohn.com. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We'll see you back here on Wednesday. Thanks for listening. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)