Notice, Paul does not say, "by what every part or member supplies," but "every joint." For example, a rickety table, feeble in its loose-fitting joints, becomes too wobbly once more than two legs are loose. There may be nothing wrong with the table's legs and the table top. But a table's stability is provided, not by its individual parts, but by the quality of its joints. Unless the legs are affixed securely to the table top, the table is useless.
Staff
'By What Every Joint Supplies'
Sometimes, circumstances conspire to scatter Christians into small groups or even from all contact with other believers and from the ministry Jesus Christ gives to the church to equip them and encourage their growth—in the biblical metaphor, leaving the sheep without a shepherd. However, if sheep should choose to become "without a shepherd," they are rejecting one of the Chief Shepherd's major gifts to His flock, willfully taking themselves outside of His established order.
Sheep may choose to do this, reasoning that Christ is their Shepherd, which is certainly true. It is likewise true that our relationship with God is individual, without a man in the middle. Nevertheless, none of this nullifies the fact that Christ has gifted human shepherds to aid in bringing all the sheep "to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13). By implication, the only time a sheep of His pasture does not need an under-shepherd is when he has grown completely into the image of the Lamb of God.
Our Savior oversees the under-shepherds, holding them accountable for failures in their responsibilities, which there will be simply because they are human. However, to purposefully become a "sheep without a shepherd" is to put oneself in serious danger, for the Christian is then likely to turn to his own way, develop bad spiritual habits, become stuck in a rut, make himself a prey for Satan, and ultimately become malnourished and spiritually diseased. He may not even realize his life is in danger—until it is too late.
Christ clearly establishes that, rather than wandering away from God's shepherds, the sheep have the responsibility to submit to the godly shepherds, not considering them infallible, by any means, but comparing their instruction with what God has already established in His Word. As I Corinthians 11:1 teaches, sheep are to follow a shepherd's faith only as it complements and corresponds with the teachings of Jesus. As Acts 5:29 points out, "[W]e ought to obey God rather than men," whenever the two are not in alignment.
David C. Grabbe
The Shepherd's Guidance (Part Three)
