{"id":2628,"date":"2007-12-12T12:14:58","date_gmt":"2007-12-12T17:14:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/2007\/12\/12\/what-a-christian-bishop-should-be-like\/"},"modified":"2025-01-21T15:39:41","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T23:39:41","slug":"what-a-christian-bishop-should-be-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/2007\/12\/what-a-christian-bishop-should-be-like\/","title":{"rendered":"What a Christian Bishop Should Be Like"},"content":{"rendered":"

OCANews.org<\/a> | Fr. Thomas Hopko | Dec. 11, 2007<\/p>\n

A St. Nicholas Day Reflection<\/strong>
\nThe Orthodox Church\u2019s main hymn (troparion\/apolytikion) for the feast of St. Nicholas of Myra is the general hymn for all of the Church\u2019s holy bishops. As such, for example, it is sung the day after the feast of St. Nicholas for the celebration of St. Ambrose of Milan. This hymn tells us what a Christian bishop (and, by extension, also a presbyter) ought to be for his people. And so it also tells us how all Christians should be. <\/p>\n

The song begins by telling us that \u201cthe truth of things\u201d reveals a real Christian pastor \u201cto his flock\u201d as three things.<\/p>\n

First, \u201cthe truth of things\u201d reveals the bishop (or presbyter) as a \u201ccanon of faith.\u201d This means that the holy pastor incarnates God\u2019s Gospel in Jesus Christ in a living and vital way in absolutely everything he is, says and does. He not only \u201crightly divides (or distributes) the word of truth\u201d (2 Timothy 2:15), but he himself is a living \u201crule\u201d and \u201cnorm\u201d for everyone about what they should know and believe, and how they should be and behave as Christians.<\/p>\n

Second, \u201cthe truth of things\u201d manifests the bishop (or presbyter) as an \u201cicon of meekness.\u201d This means that the pastor learns from Christ, the Good Shepherd, who said \u201clearn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.\u201d (Matthew 11:29) And having so learned, the pastor becomes a living pattern and image to his people about Christ-like meekness which, according the saints, is a divine quality that no creature can adequately comprehend or explain. This meekness is the ability to express, exemplify and incarnate God\u2019s Gospel in Jesus Christ in a clear, sound, true, sober and gentle manner, without anger, annoyance, irritation or aggression in any way. It is to be and to act like Christ himself: to affirm people\u2019s freedom, to safeguard their dignity and to instruct them by example.<\/p>\n

Third, \u201cthe truth of things\u201d reveals the bishop (or presbyter) as a \u201cteacher of self-control.\u201d Self-control is how the Greek word enkrateia (in Slavonic vozderzhaniye) is translated into English in the RSV Bible, as, for example, as the final virtue in St. Paul\u2019s listing of \u201cthe fruit of the Holy Spirit.\u201d (Galatians 5:22) In the KJV Bible this word is translated as temperance. Sometimes in English translations of ascetical writings the word is rendered as self-discipline or self-limitation, or as abstinence or continence. Sometimes it is rendered as spiritual freedom.<\/p>\n

So the Christian pastor is a canon, icon and teacher for his flock. He is a canon of faith, an icon of meekness, and a teacher of self-control.<\/p>\n

Two other things are then proclaimed in the hymn about the holy pastor.<\/p>\n

The first is that \u201cthrough humility\u201d the good pastor acquires \u201chigh things\u201d. The word humility (in Greek tapeinosis) means lowliness, emptiness, powerlessness according to the flesh. It means that a person has nothing his own: no knowledge, wisdom, power or authority of any kind. Humble people understand that everything is a gift and a grace, and as such, they live by God, and not themselves. They realize that none of their words, actions, powers or properties are their own, to do with as they please. Humble people have the ability to see themselves not merely as the same as everyone else, especially the lowest and weakest, but they view themselves before God as beneath every creature. Thus they are completely devoid of conceit, arrogance, lust of power, vanity, vainglory and pride. The Lord Jesus Christ joined humility (tapeinosis) with meekness, when he said \u201cLearn from me for I am meek and lowly in heart (tapeinos en kardia).\u201d<\/p>\n

The second proclamation about the saintly pastor is that \u201cthrough poverty\u201d he acquires \u201crich things.\u201d He becomes wealthy in the things of God by emptying himself, without exception, of all things earthly. In this sense the bishop (or presbyter) possesses nothing at all of his own. He is not an owner in any way. He is rather, as Holy Scripture says, a \u201cslave\u201d (doulos), a \u201cservant\u201d (diakonos) and a \u201csteward\u201d (oikonomos). <\/p>\n

The word bishop (in Greek episkopos), which literally means overseer or supervisor, was the title in an ancient household (oikos) for the chief slave. The \u201cepi-skopos\u201d was the head servant and first steward who \u201cover-saw\u201d and \u201csuper-vised\u201d the work of all the other slaves, servants and stewards. The \u201cepiskopos\u201d spoke in the Master\u2019s name, held the Master\u2019s authority, wielded the Master\u2019s power, cared for the Master\u2019s properties, guarded the Master\u2019s possessions, directed the Master\u2019s services and distributed the Master\u2019s goods. But he was not the Master himself! <\/p>\n

Thus, in the memorable saying of St. Gregory the Great, the Christian bishop (or presbyter) is the chief \u201cservus servorum Dei,\u201d the preeminent \u201cservant of the servants of God\u201d in the household of God.
\nIn reflecting on the main hymn for St Nicholas and all Christian bishops, we cannot help but recall the words of Holy Scripture about the Church\u2019s bishops and presbyters.<\/p>\n

For a bishop (episkopos), as God\u2019s steward (oikonomos), must be blameless, must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or an active alcoholic or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of goodness, master of himself, upright, holy, and self-controlled; he must hold firm to the sure word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and to confute those who contradict it. (Titus 1.7-9; See Also 1 Timothy 3:1-13, 4:11-16)<\/p>\n

So I exhort the elders (presvyterous) among you, as a fellow elder (sympresvyteros) and a witness (martys) of the sufferings of Christ as well as a partaker in the glory that is to be revealed. Pastor the flock of God that is in your charge, exercising the oversight (episkope) not by constraint but willingly, not for shameful gain but eagerly, not as domineering over those in your charge but being examples (typoi) to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd (archpastor\/archipoimenos) is manifested you will obtain the unfading crown of glory. (1 Peter 5:1-4)<\/p>\n

The hymn to St. Nicholas, and to all holy bishops, concludes with the plea: \u201cO Father Hierarch Nicholas, pray to Christ our God that our souls may be saved.\u201d \u201cThe truth of things\u201d on this holy day clearly reveals what God wills for us, and for our Orthodox Church in America, for our souls to be saved. <\/p>\n

Fr. Thomas Hopko
\nSt. Nicholas Day, 2007<\/p>\n

. . . more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OCANews.org | Fr. Thomas Hopko | Dec. 11, 2007 A St. Nicholas Day Reflection The Orthodox Church\u2019s main hymn (troparion\/apolytikion) for the feast of St. Nicholas of Myra is the general hymn for all of the Church\u2019s holy bishops. As such, for example, it is sung the day after the feast of St. Nicholas for … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":497,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[194,5,130],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fr-hopko","category-orthodox-christianity","category-orthodox-church"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/497"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2628\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}