"Remember those who have the
rule over you [or your leaders or your guides], who have spoken unto you the
Word of God; whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation [or
the outcome of their well-spent lives]" (Heb. 13:7).

In the Epistle to the Hebrews we
find a whole chapter devoted to human examples of faith. A great cloud of
witnesses looks down upon us in the eleventh chapter, and in the closing
chapter of the book, the writer speaks of their "guides" or
"leaders." They were to remember those who had passed away and
imitate their faith; they were to obey those who remained, realizing that they
were charged with weighty responsibilities, and were to salute them in all
honor and affection.

Scripture not only warrants but
commands the remembrance of those whom God has given as leaders of His people.
To forget them means, too often, to forget the truth they brought, and paves
the way for that "building the sepulchres of the prophets" by a
godless posterity who are indifferent to every warning spoken by those prophets
(Luke 11:47). There is a sober, discriminating way of dwelling upon the
ministry of faithful servants which encourages our own faith, quickens
conscience, and stirs afresh to follow them as they followed Christ.

Most biographies are written from
a human standpoint; the man is before us rather than his message. Such
biographies are not helpful; but who has not been stimulated by the narratives
of devotion, self-denial, unresting toil of faithful men at home or abroad? We
realize on either hand that they were men "of like passions with
ourselves" (Jas. 5:17), and that a Power wrought in and with them which is
for us too.

The passage we have quoted at the
beginning shows us how we can properly "remember our guides." First
of all, what makes their remembrance profitable is that they spoke to us the
Word of God. It was not for special personal excellence of character, either
natural or gracious; nor for great activities and results in the Lord’s work,
considered in themselves. What gives value to the remembrance of the leader is
the Word of God with which he was identified, the message he brought. 

We read of one of David’s mighty
men, Eleazar the son of Dodo, that he stood alone against a great host of
Philistines when "the men of Israel had gone away." He smote them
"till his hand was weary and his hand clave unto the sword; the LORD
wrought a great victory" (2 Sam. 23:9,10). His very name, "God is
help," turns from the man to God. What could he do single-handed against
the host of the enemy? His arm grew weary, but the weary hand cleaved to the
good sword, and we see no longer the feeble arm of man, but the power of God
behind that weary arm, hewing out victory with that sword. The man has become
identified with the sword, and God can use such a one.

 

So are all God’s mighty men;
feeble, and with weary arms, they cling to that "sword of the Spirit which
is the word of God" (Eph. 6:17). Their very weariness and feebleness makes
them cling like Jacob who, his thigh out of joint, could no more wrestle but
cling (Gen. 32:24-26). Such men God can use, for they are identified with their
sword, with the Word of God. To remember such is to remember the sword, the
Word which they brought. There can be no higher honor to a servant of Christ
than to identify him with the truth he ministered and to think of the sword he
held in his feebleness. The world may honor its soldiers, its men of wealth,
its benefactors, its entertainers, its athletes, and build them monuments. They
are its departed great men. Believers recall the memory of those who have left
their greatness in our hands, the Word of God. To do this is simply to have
mind refreshed and heart stirred by that which abides forever.

We are also to consider the issue,
or outcome of their walk. What has their life ended in? It has now ceased. A
rich man’s life ends, so far as what he leaves behind is concerned, in wealth;
a statesman’s in power and influence. In what shall we say the life of Christ’s
servant has ended? What has he left as the sum of that life? It is significant
that the very next clause gives what is really the answer:"Jesus Christ
the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Heb. 13:8). The issue of their
life is the abiding Christ. They have passed off the scene, but Christ, the
object of their ministry, abides. With Paul they could say, "To me to live
is Christ" (Phil. 1:21). Christ is the end, the goal of their life. To
depart and be with Him is far better. Happy indeed are those who are called to
lay down their burden and enter into His rest. They loved and served Him here;
they enjoy unclouded peace and rest as they wait with Him there. The outcome,
the end of all their life’s work, toil, testimony is Christ. They enjoy
Him to the full now; they have, as it were, left Him as a priceless legacy to
us here.

Their life was a life of faith—the
refusal at once both of creature righteousness and creature strength. They had
learned to "rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the
flesh" (Phil. 3:3). We are not called to do, in detail, their work. God
calls and fits each of His servants for some special work, peculiarly suited to
the special gift with which he is endowed. We are not to be imitators of one
another, but ever to be imitators of the faith that casts the feeble
upon the Mighty.

Lastly, we note the warning not to
be "carried about with divers and strange doctrines" (Heb. 13:9). The
servant of Christ ever stands for His truth against all opposition of error.
His ministry, in so far as it was under the guidance and in the power of the
Holy Spirit, brought home to heart and conscience the truth of God and the
Person of the Lord.

 

Do we not need to be especially on
our guard in these days against the subtle inroads of error? The Person of the
Son of God, His atoning work, His Church, the destiny of man—are all objects of
the enemy’s attacks. Let us hold fast the truth, and Him who is the truth, and
His Word of truth.

We have, then four characteristics
of a proper memorial of departed leaders:(1) The Word of God ministered by
them; (2) the outcome or issue of their life, Christ for them and for us ever
the same; (3) the faith which occupied them with this blessed Person; and (4)
the warning against error. If we ever have these features before us, there will
be only profit in remembering those who have gone on before us.