"Elders" and "Youngers"

I Peter 5:1-3

TO WHOM PETER SPEAKS SPECIFICALLY,VS.1, "the elders". He calls himself and elder, saying : "I exhort who am also an elder,",vs.1. Peter was one of the12 apostles,6:13- 14. Peter did not follow an old rule which says: "look before you leap"---he sometimes leaped, then looked. He was impet- uous:(acting hastily):He learned some lessons the hard way.I do not see this early trait in his latter actions.

Vs.1 is mostly taken with his goal and his qualifications to"ex- hort. John exhorts saying: "my little children...", in I John 2:1. The both are addressing the same "born again" ones. I feel it is safe to say that the groups of believers were in churches. I hasten to say that there were not church buildings like today. They mostly met in homes or public places. But they were in church capacity. Teachers, were to instruct them in the walk as believers. This is the side we see in our text.

Vs.2 addresses the subject of at least one role of the "eld- ers". They were variously called preachers, I Tim.2:7;2 Tim. 1:11; elders, pastors, teachers, apostles, and ministers, etc. See Ephesians 4:11-12. The goal is to have disciples in the churches so they could "grow",Ephesians 4:15; I Peter 3:18; 2 Peter 2:2. There is no place for "lords" in the ministry, vs. 3. They are "taboo" as far as the Lord is concerned.

It has always been a joy to revisit some who I once ser- ved among,and to see their maturity in the work of the Lord. DDH.