1 Peter 5:2

Tend the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not of constraint, but willingly, according to the will of God; nor yet for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;

Tend the flock of God ... The flock does not belong to the elders, but to God. The word here is exactly the same "that Jesus used when he admonished Peter to tend his sheep (John 21:16)."[9]

Exercising the oversight ... See under preceding verse. As Dummelow, and many others, stressed, "Elders were not then distinguished from bishops as they soon afterward were."[10] This is plain from the word [@episkopos] from which "oversight" is translated. This, of course, requires a date for the epistle prior to A.D. 70. Very soon, however, the elevation of so called "bishops" to a rank and dignity they did not have in the New Testament began to appear; and "The omission of this clause from the Vatican and Sinaitic manuscripts was prompted by ecclesiastical reason,"[11] for the fear that elders might be supposed to have equal authority with bishops, which was of course true. Incidentally, the close kinship of the Vatican and Sinaitic Manuscripts is evident in a thing like this, accounting for the fact of their correspondence in the treatment of Mark 16:12-20. For more on this, see the Introduction to my Commentary on Mark.

Not of constraint, but willingly ... "In times of persecution, lukewarm elders might regret their prominence,"[12] thus Peter admonishes elders not to quail under the pressure of the time. Such a fact is also possibly behind Paul's words, "If any man desire the office of a bishop" (1 Timothy 3:1).

According to the will of God ... Peter had just spoken of them as "partakers of Christ's sufferings" (1 Peter 4:13), and this clause shows that all Christians, elders included, are called to suffer for the cause of the Lord. As Paul put it, "If we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him" (2 Timothy 2:12). Many Christians fail because they do not properly discern the nature of the life to which they are committed. It is not one unending "high," comparable to a stroll along some flower-lined pathway to the accompaniment of sweet music. It is a fight (2 Timothy 4:7); it is like being a soldier (2 Timothy 2:4), subject to disagreeable and difficult assignments; it is like training for an athletic contest (2 Timothy 2:5), involving all kinds of austerity, self-discipline and hard work; it is called "taking up one's cross" (Matthew 16:24), etc.

Nor yet for filthy lucre ... This shows that, "Even in the earliest times, the elders received money in payment for such services as they rendered to the other brethren."[13]

Another thought based upon this verse was given by Zerr who wrote:

These principles disprove a popular notion that a person can be a member of a congregation even though he is too far away to be among the elders and the other members. The idea that a person can live in one community and "have his membership in another one" has no Scriptural authority.[14]

[9] Raymond C. Kelcy, The Letters of Peter and Jude (Austin, Texas: R. B. Sweet Company, 1972), p. 98.

[10] J. R. Dummelow, Commentary on the Holy Bible (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1937), p. 1047.

[11] B. C. Caffin, The Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 22,1Peter (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1950), p. 206.

[12] J. H. A. Hart, op. cit., p. 76.

[13] James William Russell, Compact Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1964), p. 587.

[14] E. M. Zerr, op. cit., p. 265.