Hebrews 13:17 - Exposition

Obey them that have the rule over you ( τοῖς ἡγουμένοις ὑμῶν , as in Hebrews 13:7 ), and submit yourselves (to them ): for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it With joy, and not With grief (literally, groaning ); for that is (rather, were ) unprofitable for you ( i.e. their ministry is for your profit; if its result be their giving in their account with groans, its whole purpose will be frustrated). In this allusion to the ἡγουμένοι as in Hebrews 13:7 and Hebrews 13:24 , there is evidence of the existence of a regular order of ministry in the Hebrew Churches, such as many allusions in St. Paul's Epistles show to have formed part of the constitution of the Churches to whom those Epistles were addressed (cf. also Acts 14:23 and Acts 20:17 , Acts 20:28 , etc). The word itself ( ἡγουμένοι ) which is here used might, indeed, denote any persons who took the lead in the congregations; but the urging of the duty of submission to them, in virtue of their office of watching for souls for which they would have to give account, shows plainly that a special order is here, as elsewhere, referred to. Observe also below, Hebrews 13:24 , where " all the saints," i.e. what we should call the laity, are mentioned in distinction from the ἡγουμένοι . (For similar injunctions, cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:12 and 1 Timothy 5:17 , τοὺς προεσταμένους ὑμῶν and οἱ προεστῶτες πρεσβύτεροι being the words there used) The special injunction here to obey and submit may have been called for by some deficiency in this respect among the Hebrew Christians. Possibly it was among the people rather than the pastors that there were any signs of wavering between the Church and the synagogue, and that one purpose of the admonition is to strengthen the hands of the former, in whom confidence is placed.