Christian Leadership; Principles for
Kings and Priests
James David Malm
All
leadership—whether it is in a family, the church, or the government—is based on certain principles; and all true
godly leadership, which leads to peace, harmony, and balance, is based upon the principles of God’s Law. Therefore,
David the great king said to us, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all they
which do His commandments. His praise endures forever.” This is in Psalm 111:10.
David starts the Psalms with Psalm 1: “Blessed is the man who walketh
not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight
is in the law of the Lord and in His law does he meditate day and night. And because he does so, he shall be a tree planted
by rivers of water which brings his fruit in season, his leaf shall not wither and whatsoever he does shall prosper, the ungodly
are not so.”
In Psalm 119 beginning in verse 97, David says, “O how love I Thy law! It is my meditation all the day. Thou through
Thy commandments hast made me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers;
for Thy testimonies are my meditations. I understand more than the ancients because I keep Thy precepts. I refrain my feet
from every evil way that I might keep Thy word. I have not departed from Thy judgments for you have taught me. How sweet are
Thy words unto my taste! It is sweeter than honey to my mouth. Through Thy precepts I get understanding; therefore, I hate
every false way.”
Jesus Christ speaking in Matthew 19:13, “Then were there brought unto Him little children that He should put His hands
on them and pray: and the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, “Suffer little children and forbid them not to come
unto me: for of such as the kingdom of heaven. And He laid his hands on them, and departed thence.”
As David said, “The beginning of wisdom
is the fear of the Lord.” The word “fear” here according to Strong’s Concordance, means “reverence.”
And reverence means a deep in a body respect—our love and awe, our willingness to believe and like little children we
should be willing to believe our parents in the Lord and to believe our Heavenly Father. We should be willing to believe God,
to believe Him, and to believe His commandments, to seek out His wisdom which is exemplified by His commandments. The list
of commandments is a list of the pearls of wisdom which He has for mankind. We need to believe Him, seek out His will, seek
out His commandments, and dwell on Him not just read them and forget them but meditate on them. Think about them, try and
understand them, try to and apply them to various situations. And in so doing we develop wisdom, we develop wisdom not just
by thinking but by doing.
A leader—whether in the family, or the church, or the government—who bases his decisions and his
leadership on the commandments of God and progresses day by day doing those commandments, keeping those commandments, learning
by doing, learning by thinking, learning by studying will progress, and will develop, and where people may not always follow
him, he will be sure of one thing, he will be right in the things that he is doing.
The key to quality leadership, to godly leadership, to leading the people
in the right way, in the right direction; for the right purpose; and toward right goals: is to put God first. It is to learn
of God, to learn the things of God to lead people toward God. The second key is to do what is right. It’s not enough
just to know; it is important to do what is right and to do what regardless of what other people think. Sometimes a person
has to stand alone, sometimes other people just aren’t quite giving it and they need time—time to consider and
time to realize that God’s way is the right way.
The third key to godly leadership to any leadership is to communicate. To teach a good leader
should be best of all, most of all a good teacher.
It has been said in the past President Ronald Reagan was called the great communicator. He was considered a
good president not necessarily because of all the things he did but, because he could communicate he could be understood by
the people. He had a rapport with the people. Even so, a father should have a rapport with his children and a husband with
his wife, a wife with her husband, a minister with his congregants and a leader in the government with his citizens. Being
able to teach them having an open channel to communicate with them so that he can pass on to them not only what he is doing
but why he is doing it. It is much easier to follow someone who explains and reasons why he is making a decision than he is
to bluntly obey a command.
The best leadership style is to communicate, to explain, to reason, and to convince people to follow whether it is
a wife or children or congregation or a population of a nation. To communicate to them, to give them a good reason, to follow
you, that good reason being that they understand what the problem is. They understand what you are doing and they’re
in agreement because you discussed your reason to doubt. And they can see the reasons behind the decision and the need for
the decision.
Communication is a key and in the process of communicating and teaching everyone learns. You have a chance to further reason
out your decision. The others who are listening have a chance to learn from your decision by understanding the reasoning you
went through to arrive at that decision, and everyone benefits from the process. Everyone learns; everyone comes through the
process other than more educated, other than wiser, that’s what leadership is about. It is about learning what is right,
so that a leader may do what is right, and set an example by doing the right thing, and it is about explaining and teaching
those under his care.
How do we lead them? Well, how does God lead? Is He patient? Long suffering, full of love, is He full of forgiveness
or is He judgmental, unfair, unreasoning, how does God lead us? Let us look to his example as our leader, our ultimate leader.
Turn to Matthew 7 and read the words
of Jesus Christ: “Judge not that you be not judged, for what judgment you judge you shall be judged. And what measure
he meant it shall be measured to you again.” A wise man does not jump to conclusions; he does not base his judgment
on assumptions. He is patient, he takes the time to get the facts, and he makes the effort to get the facts before making
judgments. Never judge unjustly or unwisely by leaping to conclusions. Any parent or a husband who leaps to conclusions and
judges unwisely will provoke his wife, provoke his children, he will irritate them, he will frustrate them and he will not
be building his family, building his relationship with them. He will be damaging that relationship.
A parent or a husband, or a father must
show himself to be wise, to be patient, to be loving, to be quick to understand, and quick to forgive. Always be forgiving
whenever anyone comes up and says, “I’m sorry, I’m genuinely sorry. I made a mistake I was wrong,”
forgive them. Be quick to put your arms around them, tell them you love them and forgive them for in so doing you were teaching
them what your Father in heaven is like. He is quick to forgive. If we don’t forgive others we ourselves will not be
forgiven for we shall be forgiven in the same measure as we forgive others. And we are demonstrating to our children and to
our wives or to our congregations the fact that God is loving and forgiving. And that little child who grows up never having
known forgiveness and love will not have a fair, unreasonable, untrue idea of what our Heavenly Father, God in heaven is like.
Because he‘s never felt forgiven, he will not understand that God does forgive.
We need to understand as parents that our relationship to our children is
very much similar to God’s relationship to us that to our child we them give everything that they need. We are the source
of knowledge, we are the source of all things to them, and we are like a god to that child who he is totally dependent upon
us and until that child matures. So, that child’s concept of God is being formed by the example which you are setting.
If you are quick to discipline, he will think of God as being quick to discipline. If the child thinks of us as mean or cruel,
he will then think of God as mean and cruel. Yet, if we are loving and affectionate and forgiving and patient and kind, the
child will grow up believing that God is affectionate, forgiving, loving, and patient and kind. And the child will have a
proper relationship with God, born out of a proper understanding of God.
God is zealous for his commandments. Why? Because He loves us and His commandments basically keep us from harming
each other. “You shall not kill,” isn’t that more protecting the weak than it is being against anyone? “You
should not steal,” doesn’t that protect the weak? And doesn’t that give people a reason to work? Why should
one work hard all day everyday towards a goal if one wants to achieve the goal and gets the thing they want it will only be
stolen by somebody else. Rampant theft discourages industrious production. So, “Do not steal” protects not only
individuals but it protects the whole of society by helping everyone to be ambitious and productive. “Do not commit
adultery,” doesn’t that protect the family unit? God’s laws are there to protect individuals and to protect
society as a whole. They are not harmful or contrary to anyone.
For Paul writes in Romans 7:12, “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.”
God is zealous for his commandments his law and we should also be zealous for gods commandment and laws. In our child
rearing we should diligently teach our children to keep God’s commandment for they are holy and just and good. And if
we do that when the children are adults, they will never have problems with the law of the land. No problems with stealing,
or killing, or any such thing. And in the kingdom of heaven when it comes, they will have no problems getting along there
either for again the law is holy and just and good. It is the duty of parents to teach their children to diligently keep all
the commandments of God. That is true godly leadership.
It is the duty of a husband to diligently teach all the commandments of God to his children and reason with
them day by day with his wife, meditate on them, discuss them, think about them with his wife. And read the commandments,
read the law, read the Word of God, the Holy Bible with his wife and children. And diligently teach them, out of God’s
Word day by day. And the same is true of a minister in a church. Their responsibility, their function, their duty is to teach
all men to keep all the commandments of God and if all men did keep those commandments, there will be harmony and peace in
this world, as there will be when God’s kingdom comes and God enforces those commandments and enables all men to keep
those commandments by putting His spirit in all flesh. As it says in Joel, “For the law of God is the new covenant.”
Read it in Hebrews 8:8, “For finding fault with them, he saith, behold the day comes eternal when I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers
in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt because they continued not in my covenant, and
I regarded them not saith the Eternal.
Why did he regard them not? Because they did not keep the commandments; they did not fulfill their part of the covenant
which was to obey, it was as they themselves said whatever the Eternal say’s we will do, and they failed to do it. In
verse 10, “…This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Eternal.
I will put laws into their minds and write them in their hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people.”
The new covenant is to have God putting His spirit on all flesh, and through that spirit writing His laws His commandments
in the hearts of all men.
Now, Paul repeats himself in Hebrews 10 where he writes in verse 16, “This is the covenant that I will make with him
after those days, saith the Eternal. I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds I will write them, and their
sins, and iniquities will I remember no more.” How is it that the law can be written in our hearts and in our minds?
It is through the pouring out of the Holy Spirit as prophesied by the prophet Joel. And as Paul writes in Galatians 2:20,
“I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless, I lived, yet not I but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in
the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.”
Jesus Christ is
the same yesterday, today and forever. He does not change. The things that He is doing today will be the same things that
He has done in the past. What did he do? He said, “I have kept my Father’s commandments.” This means He
will be keeping the Father’s commandments today, and if He is dwelling in you, He will be keeping the fathers commandments
in you; and as He overcame the world, you shall through Him be able to overcome the world.
The law of God is the constitution of the kingdom
of God; we need to get in the habit of keeping that law now, so that we will be well trained to keep it in God’s kingdom.
Those people, little children who do not have Gods spirit yet do not have the law written in their hearts yet. They can still
have the law talked to them diligently by their parents so that when God’s spirits is given them, they will not only
know the law having been taught but they will be empowered to do the law. God’s spirit will give them the power to do
the law when it is bestowed upon them and they will be a step ahead having already been trained.
It is the responsibility of God (as a loving Father)
to teach all man to keep His commandments, to teach all men His wisdom. And it is the responsibility of the ministry (priesthood)
to teach all men to keep all God’s commandments, to teach all man God’s wisdom. And it is the responsibility of
husbands to reason with their wives, to discuss, to read the Scriptures, to think about them, to communicate with their wives
daily, regularly. So that faith and their wives both progress in their learning together and the wife’s responsibility
is to be a responder to her husband when he tries to reason or understand something she can put in from her perspective and
they can learn together. Marriage is not one dominating the other, it is the two working together with one having authority
to make a final decision.
It’s like a board meeting of a corporation when the board gets together they thresh out the problem, they come to
a conclusion. The member in charge of this, in charge of that gives their particular opinions and their wisdom. Everything
is put together and then a decision is made by consensus and the chairman of the board says, “Well, it’s [decided
now!]” That’s all leadership is about. It’s about being the decider but it is the decider based on the input
and the consensus of all the affected parties.
The wife should definitely have input, she should have her say and she definitely has her opinion. If the husband wants
his wife’s admiration and respect, he must always give her his admiration and respect, and respect her opinions Maybe
not 100% of the time agreeing, but always listening to, thinking, and considering and when she says something that’s
good he should say, “Yes that’s good, that makes sense, that’s great.” And when she says something
that’s not quite right he should say, “Well have you considered this or have you looked at that,” and he
should be reasonable, be diplomatic, be loving in the way he deals with the situation instead of saying, “Oh,
you’re stupid.” That is a wrong approach. You should not dominate, do not bully, do not brutalize; and that’s
true whether it is to your wife, your children, or a minister dealing with a church.
One must use compassion, communication, respect, and work together with people.
Just because someone else has an input doesn’t mean that you’re not a leader; it just means that you are leading
wisely. You should not be so insecure and so thin skinned that you cannot take advice even if it is critical advice. You must
be willing to listen to others for Solomon said, “In many counselors there is safety.” If you want to make some
big mistakes go ahead and bull-headedly do whatever you please without thinking and without getting any advice.
The wise leader will always get as much advice as possible before reaching a decision and he will always make sure
that all of the people affected understand what’s happening, understand the problem, understand the solution, understand
the decision, and understand why you’re making the decision.
Now a true, godly leader teaches all men to keep all the commandments of God. And in particular, the minister
teaches the church, parents teach their children, the husband with his wife learn and develop together. Now, how is this done?
If Jesus Christ dwells in you, when the Holy Spirit dwells in you, then you should be producing the fruit of the Spirit:
“But the fruit of the Holy Spirit of God is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness,
temperance against these things there is no law.” That’s in Galatians 5:22. Are you as a parent loving, peaceful,
long suffering and patient, gentle, good, kind, meek with your children, and as husbands with your wives, is that how you
as ministers treat your congregants in your church, think about it. God’s spirit is not a spirit which is quick to violence,
quick to brutalize, quick to judgment, impatient, dominating, self-involved, egocentric, and controlling. God’s spirit
is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance—against such, there is no law.
That is the way of God and you should be living the way of God in your life, in how you treat your church, how you treat your
wife, how you treat your children. You should be treating them exactly the way that God treats you.
Does that mean that you cannot be strict
and stern, and zealous for the law? No, you can be very strict for the commandments of God but, you should not be quick to
judge. You should be quick to forgive when people repent—even as God is quick to forgive us. It is one thing to say,
“I’m zealous for the law and I’m going to get you guys.” That’s not the godly way. The godly
way is: I am zealous for the law because it protects all everyone; and when some children go and start
hurting other children then God is going to correct the situation.. Not because He doesn’t like you and not because
He’s mean but because He loves all his children and He has to keep order amongst all of them. And He wants those who
are doing wrong, to learn to do right; so, wrong doers are going to face a judgment or a certain amount of punishment.
A father chastises
a son he loves, not out of meanness or personal frustration or anger, but out of love because the child is adamantly insistently
doing wrong, breaking the commandments of God. Punishing the child is intended as a corrective tool to teach the child to
do right. It is not a means of vending your personal frustrations, it is not a means of bullying, nor it is not a means of
making yourself feel good, feel powerful. No. Correction should be done rarely, only after much patience, much teaching, and
much communicating and only when it is absolutely necessary. And then it should be done in love, and when repentance occurs—quick
forgiveness, it is absolutely imperative to forgive immediately in the same way that God forgives you.
In dealing with the church, of course you don’t
brutalize or punish anyone quickly or for minor irritations., When the person is adamantly continuing in sin they need to
be told that they are better off somewhere else until they get over their particular difficulty. That’s
all there is to it. And in marriage, hopefully both parties are mature enough to communicate, and both parties love each other
enough to try their very best to accommodate one another and work together; if that is true then things will work out on the
long term.
In
conclusion, true godly leadership, the kind of leadership that God exercises and we should emulate, we should copy, and we
should look to his example. True godly leadership is based upon love, it’s based upon family, it is based upon God’s
Word. We should follow the Father’s example and follow the Fathers instructions as contained in His commandments and
words of wisdom.
Our responsibility
is first of all to get informed and learn the ways of God, to learn wisdom; and wisdom is the sum of knowledge plus experience.
It is the knowledge we develop from our studies and from the gifts of God’s Spirit, who is leading us into knowledge
combined with the practical experience of acting on that knowledge and doing what we have learned. When we develop wisdom,
then we can lead.
Leadership is based
upon the wisdom and love of God, based upon the commandments and words of wisdom of God. Once we have that wisdom we can exercise
true leadership by doing things the way that God does things: by exercising patience, long suffering, gentleness, meekness
and kindness, well-doing, and being zealous for the commandment of God, being zealous for all the things
of God. If we have several children, and one is hurting the others, are you not distressed by that? Well, God has many billions
of children and He is distressed to see them all going about hurting one another. So, He is going to do something about it,
He’s going to put a stop to it very soon. And it’s up to us when we see one child hurting the others to put a
stop to it.
When the second child responds and reacts to the hurt and a fight develops we have to say, “No.
Don’t react come to me and you let me deal with it as your parent.” God does the same thing, he says, “Vengeance
is mine, saith the Eternal.” He’s not talking about getting the guy; He’s talking about correcting the bad
behavior because He loves all of us, even those who are bad. For He gave His only begotten Son that none should perish. He
did this while we were all yet His enemies; we were all wicked. God gave His Son for us. Christ gave Himself for us because
He loved us so much, while we were yet enemies.
You ministers, should love your congregants, should love your sheep that much so as to be willing to give yourself totally
for their good; not using them to aggrandize yourself, not taking advantage of them, not lording over them, but serving them,
and through that service also serving God. You husbands should serve your wives and your families in the same manner giving
yourself totally for their good. And a large part of that means sharing your time with them, reasoning with them, talking
with them, studying God’s Word with them, teaching them and helping them to learn to do good. This is your responsibility
because in so doing you are learning to oversee the house of God.
Do you honestly think that you will become a king or a priest in the kingdom of God when you can’t even
discuss the Scriptures with your own family? How is it that you would think that you could lord it over some nation or some
city or fulfill some responsibility in the kingdom of God when you can’t even rule your family well, when you can’t
even teach your children the ways of the kingdom, the laws of the kingdom, the things of God? You must be able to lead in
order to become a king or a priest, you must! There is no way around it. You must use wisdom and teach your children and reason
with your wife and study these things together and learn together and grow together and in that way you are developing your
teaching ability. You’re developing your talents and skills at communication and training to become a king or a priest.
There is no way that you can become a king or a priest in God’s kingdom without paying the price, without paying your
dues, without learning how to fulfill the responsibility. And we are learning to fulfill the responsibility of being a ruler
in Gods kingdom by; at this time, being the rulers in our own households and doing so wisely and justly, and fairly, and patiently,
and lovingly, and forgiving.
Yes, this family is all about preparing for, training for, and learning to be in a position of authority in God’s
kingdom. The family was given to us as a classroom to prepare us, to fulfill greater responsibilities by allowing us to fulfill
somewhat lesser responsibilities. We must be leaders in our family, be leaders in our church, and for ministers we must do
this thing in a godly fashion. If we’re bullying now, we’ll be bullies in God’s kingdom and God just doesn’t
have time for those kinds of people. He loves all of His children and, believe me; He’s not going to put a dominating,
self-centered, egocentric bully in charge of the ones He loves. It’s not going to happen.
We must all be humble before God; we must all
follow His example. He is strong for His law because His law protects His children and He loves those children, He loves all
His children and He will protect all of them. And if that means using some discipline with some of them in order to protect
them all; and cause those who have gone astray to straighten up then He will do it. But He is not by nature a disciplinarian.
He is love. He is patience. When we sin, does the sky fall in on us, or does thunder crash and lightning
strike us every time we do something wrong? If that were true, none of us, not one of us, me included would be around, for
more than a few minutes I dare say. God is patient with us. He hopes we will learn and only when we don’t learn after
a prolonged period, after much guidance, much instruction, much help only then does He discipline. And when we repent, He
quickly forgives.
The coming tribulation
called the great tribulation is God’s merciful correction upon His people who are obstinate, self-willed, rebellious,
disobedient, egocentric, bullying, self-righteous, and who are not humble and not submitting to Him. When that happens they
will repent quickly and He will forgive quickly. And yes, I am talking about His Church here.
Remember anyone of
you who might find yourselves in the great tribulation the great God forgives quickly those who seek Him with a true and contrite
spirit, those who truly seek Him with all their hearts, who repent quickly He will forgive quickly and welcome you into His
kingdom. We, as fathers and mothers need to teach our children by forgiving quickly so that our children will learn what God
is really like. As they’re growing up they will become accustomed to understanding; that if they’re really sorry
and really repent and really change they will be forgiven; and understanding that they are loved no matter what they do, as
long as they’re trying to do what’s right and when they do wrong.
They will learn that if they change for the better, they are loved and they will be forgiven. Those people
will know these things having grown up being loved, being forgiven, being cared for, and they will understand that God loves
them. God cares for them. God will quickly forgive them as long as they’re trying to do right and are quickly repentant
when they realize they’re wrong. God is love, the ministry and the church should be love, the father should be love,
and the husband should be love, and the mother and wife should be love, and children should complete the cycle by loving their
parents and by loving God.
This is all about family, it’s all about love, it’s all about training to be a part of God’s family, training
to be changed in the spirit and become the children of God, never equal with God, always the children of a loving Father.
