Exposing a Misused Proof Text: Hebrews 13:17

RLM / May 2025

Below is a quick summary of the different aspects mentioned in this piece.  It is my desire that we as Christians move beyond the worldly focus on authority as power and control and move on toward thinking of authority as mutual service, submission, and respect.

Not just intellectual assent but the actual practice of these things. And not accepting bad behavior.

I will be breaking this longer article into three posts

• Part One: Exposing a Misused Proof Text / Hebrews 13:17
• Part Two: Jesus’ Views on Leadership
• Part Three: Peter and Paul’s View on Leadership
• Part Four: Other Related Doctrines to Consider

First Things / Introduction

When you hear of an organization or an individual who claims that God himself wants you to obey them because they possess a “leadership” status and that that status gives them special authority beyond others in their sphere, and that disobedience to that leadership constitutes “dissension” or “sin,” beware.  

I am serious.  This is a red flag.  This is not a biblical idea, but a worldly idea.  It is not of Christ, it is not of the Spirit, it is “of the flesh.”  It is not love.  It is a twisting of the word, and it is very self serving.

What do we think of authority?  Is it “biblically” about “telling others what to do” or rather showing people what a believer is to be like?  Are we bosses, or models to each other?  Scripture tells us one thing, unmistakably, but we think another even though the scriptures are plain.  Authority is a big problem, because it is thought of all wrong. All the worst of the wrong things I have experienced have at its heart people who believe they have the right to do this or that, and think they have the power to do things because God has given them special authority to do them.  In a recent book that seeks to answer the question of “why” when it comes to spiritual abuse, Mike Cosper says this.

As I’ve considered these questions, I keep tracing the problem back to one issue in particular: authority. If we misunderstand the nature of authority, how it operates, how it collapses, and the healthy limits with which it exists in human relationships (and the church in particular), we’re bound to stumble into disaster.

I’ve personally have seen correspondence with pushy and manipulative warnings, stating that obedience is expected, but not only expected by them, but that God himself expects such compliance, disobedience to their word is a sin (as if I was disobeying God’s word), and the wrath of God was going to descend on those who do not submit. This is an abuse of authority.  It is arrogant.  This is in another word just plain abusive.  

You would think that such people were Moses himself in the wilderness, that asking questions or seeking accountability were as the blasphemous words of Janis and Jambres in the desert.  Maybe a hole in the desert will swallow people up.  Where Paul mentions these names above as a metaphor of those who oppose the “truth” God and other obvious arrogant behaviors, these paint the picture now of the fate of those who ask questions or disagree with a person who has a position at a local church.

This overreach of authority is often based upon proof texts such as Hebrews 13:17, and the right to “rule” in the church.  This is not a good thing, nor should it ever be a good thing, but rather it is a manipulative tactic.  Often this is done to hide some status or act that has been done that someone desire to keep quiet, or to just simply get their own way.  What better way to do this than to say that God himself wants what they want, for people to look the other way or just trust blindly trust authorities.

This is manipulative at best, and dangerous at worst.  It constitutes, by very definition, an abuse of power.  This will be considered later.

We will examine herein Hebrews 13:17 and the passage around it below, and also other significant NT passages that deal with authority to make this quite plain.  Hebrews 13:17 is but one passage of many that discuss authority and the church, and it mentions one ecclesiastical bit of advice (carefully consider what your leaders tell you), and this bit of advice needs to be nuanced and balanced by other theological concepts and ideas as well.There is a good message in Hebrews 13:17, but it is not the one described above where there is authoritarianism dripping from it.

Before we get there, I can confidently describe that authority that seeks to lord over others is not God’s will, nor is it his example, nor is it his heart, nor is it his very instruction.

We have twisted sense of authority (which ought constitute responsibility and accountability), into authority that seeks to avoid both of these things to gain — through manipulative means — their will and their way by whatever means necessary, and to justify such.

Let us understand authority as Jesus lived it and Jesus taught it.  Let us expect more of those who claim authority.

Hebrews 13:17 /  Beware Improper Interpretations 

Hebrews 13:17 / Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

This is the main proof text of those who would have people in the church become particularly or uniquely obedient to the pastor or the leadership.  But what does this passage really say?

Let’s look at each significant piece of this in turn —

To Obey

The first word here is obey.  It is not the typical word used here for obedience, hypakouō, that is used, it is rather the word peithō.  Here is the difference of the two words from the Baker Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words — 

hypakouō = to obey, be obedient; submit; answer (the door)

peithō = to persuade, to convince, to have confidence in, trust in

The word here in Hebrews 13:17 gives much more the idea of “let yourselves be persuaded by, let yourselves be convinced by” and thus is not so much about “do what they say” but “listen carefully to their words and see if they are right.”  It is a very soft word for obedience.  It is saying “see if their words are plausible” not “do what they say.”  Please read that again.

To say that this verse teaches unassailable obedience to another is a misuse of scripture. This is very dangerous.  This is also the only time in scripture any of the words for “obey” are connected with leaders in a church setting.

In abuse of power situations, this verse is a favorite of those who are trying to cover up or keep control of a situation.  People who want to hold on to their power or control of others, camp here.

I recently overheard a messianic-type leader preaching to his congregation from Hebrews 13:17: “Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account.” The essence of his message was that the church had to obey him and submit to him; otherwise he would have to give an account. If they did not obey and submit, he explained, God would judge him and send him to hell I was not only amazed at his terrible exegesis and exaggerated sense of self-importance, but stunned that his congregation bought it! They left muttering to one another that now they really must try to become more obedient and submissive.

Blue, Ken. Healing Spiritual Abuse: How to Break Free from Bad Church Experiences. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 1993. Print.

Once the leader’s claims to specialness and importance are established, it becomes very difficult for mere followers to challenge him. In time, this leader breaks free of all accountability. This enables him to act as he pleases while exercising control over followers.

If you are more inclined to trust another name, consider John Piper.  Piper recognizes that this verse means not “unassailable obedience” but “yield and listen.”  

So with all this background, what I would try to distill as the meaning would be something like this: Hebrews 13:17 means that a church should have a bent toward trusting its leaders; you should have a disposition to be supportive in your attitudes and actions toward their goals and directions; you should want to imitate their faith; and you should have a happy inclination to comply with their instructions.

Now you can hear that these are all soft expressions: “a bent toward trusting,” “a disposition to support,” “a wanting to imitate,” “an inclination to comply.” What those phrases are meant to do is capture both sides of the Biblical truth, namely, 1) that elders are fallible and should not lord it over the flock, and 2) the flock should follow good leadership.

Where these two truths are working, it is a beautiful thing. We have tasted it and we should pray with all our hearts that God preserve it and deepen it among us for the good of the people and the glory of his name in this city and around the world.

John Piper, Sermons from John Piper (1990–1999) (Minneapolis, MN: Desiring God, 2007).

Notice the “fallible” side of leadership above.  We are very close to coming to the point where we are doubting the scripture that tells us “all have sinned” or “if anyone says he has no sin” and not holding people accountable for wrongdoings from the side of infallibility.  Leaders are fallible; they have issues too.  Recognizing that will only make the church stronger — denying it will erode the church from within.

I am not denying that leaders in the church should have some sway, but rather that they should not use that word “obey” as a cudgel to bring people in line with their commands or dictates.  This is not an accurate way to go about it.  It is against Jesus’ very simple, basic instructions on power and control found in the gospels (see below).

My friend had great difficulty understanding why, in light of Heb. 13:17 (“Obey your leaders, submit to them”), Timothy had so much trouble “obeying” his spiritual leader. It’s true that obedience is grammatically commanded in the passage, but that is only part of the truth. The word obey is used in the sense of the person being persuaded or convinced; obedience is a result of his or her own decision. The response to the command to obey is clearly volitional. The word submit is used in the sense of the person voluntarily complying. Leaders are guides and examples, not spiritual drill sergeants. Earlier in Hebrews 13 we are told to “Consider the outcome of [our leaders’] way of life, and imitate their faith” (v. 7). That can only come about when leaders inspire that kind of submission rather than demand it.

 Discipleship Journal, Issue 60 (November/December 1990) (NavPress, 1990).

What should be obeyed is the word of God, not the words of leaders. This is the point of J. Vernon McGee.  “…you are to obey the Word of God as [the leader] has given it to you.” (McGee, Thru the Bible Commentary, vo. 5, 615)

It must be said here that the Berean Christians were praised for not simply swallowing what was taught them but examining it (Acts 17:10-11).  The apostle Paul told us to “test everything” (1 Thessalonians 5:21). The idea of this is that we not simply swallow things people say but to put it through some rigorous examination; to examine, to prove for oneself, to study, to be critical.  Is this now out the window?  Or should we continue to test what comes down from leaders to the people?  I believe so.

To Submit

As with the word “obey” above, the word “submit” is not the typical word for submit in the New Testament as well.  While it can be argued that the typical word for “submit” is also dependent upon the context and the mutuality of that submission, this word use in Hebrews 13:17 is the word hupeiko.  Here is the idea of that word.

The actual meaning of Hebrews 13:17 is far less daunting and much more practical. The word used here for “submit” is hupeiko. W. E. Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words defines “hupeiko” as “to retire, or withdraw.” The sense is one of “yielding” or “keeping out of the way” rather than “following an order.”

The author of Hebrews is actually saying, “Don’t hinder or obstruct the leaders in doing their jobs, because they have to give an account to the Lord.” When we understand “submit” in this way, the rest of the verse makes sense: “Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.”

Similar to the word obey above (that means not obey, but consider), this word does not mean submit so much as it means have a yielding attitude.  Be prepared to listen to them.  Let them do their job.

Mary Alice Chrnalogar, Twisted Scriptures: Breaking Free from Churches That Abuse (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2023), 43–44.

However, this does not mean there is no accountability, and it does not mean “God wants everyone else to sit down and shut up.”  Here the writer of Hebrews is telling us to let leaders get about their job.

And what is that job?

To Keeping Watch Over Your Souls

The context of the ministry of elders is “the careful watch of the souls of the people.”  When they are doing this, it is beautiful.  However, we can all see, and it has been well documented, that people sometimes do horrible things in the name of “eldering” a church.  

Infamously, Bill Hybels, the former pastor of Willow Creek Community Church, stepped down in 2018 after allegations of inappropriate sexual relationships with women in his church that he was pastoring.  When this first came to light, 20+ elders covered for him and protected him from the charges and told people to “leave it to the elders.”  After the allegations were proved, most of those elders recanted their support for Hybels and told others that some in the church were told “do the right thing,” “not be a dissenter,” and “lie” to protect him (See Cosper, The Church in Dark Times, 42). Good people can do bad things, and other good people can cover up those bad things — and thus hurt people.

This does not constitute “keeping watch over your souls” but rather the opposite, the abuse over other people’s souls to keep protection in place for a “servant of God.”

To keep watch over others’ souls means to guard doctrine, protect the weak, pray for others, and serve — not overlord.  The exposure of sin is not a reason to “guard” a congregation from damage; rather, the exposure of sin is the thing that protects a church and its people so as to provide even the offender an opportunity to repent and repair their relationship with God (Eph 5:11-13, Luke 8:17, 1 Corinthians 4:5).

What Advantage to You?

Notice at the end of this passage, that whatever the leaders are doing should be things that would be a blessing and a benefit for those who do them.  When abuse is involved, that is not an advantage to you, or anyone.  The leaders are not doing destructive things, but building others up and acting like Christ.

The actions and attitudes of leaders should be at first, and foremost to the advantage of those for whom they are watching out for, not for self gain or self advantage, or self achievement.

Conclusions

We will not take a walk through Jesus’ views on leadership, Peter’s views on leadership and Paul’s views on leadership. These will be in summary form, a more proper and fuller study of these things is in order, but a summary will have to suffice.