Leviticus 21:8
Thou shalt sanctify him therefore; for he offereth the bread of thy God: he shall be holy unto thee: for I the LORD, which sanctify you, am holy.
God made it clear that Israel was to treat the priests with high honor and respect. Now, this did not come without the priest living up to the standard by which God commanded them to live. God expected the priest to live to a higher standard because they were His representative. They did not live to a higher standard because they were better, but they were to live to the higher standard to be an example of how the people should live. The priest carried a great responsibility to live according to all that God instructed them to live.
However, because the priest lived to such a high standard, God expected the people to hold him in high regard and honor. In verses 1-7, God showed how the priest was to live, but in the verse above, God says that the people should sanctify the priest, and that he shall be holy unto thee. The priest was not to be treated like every other person; he was to be treated with high regard and respect. Was this priest a perfect person? No. Was he God? No. He was as much man as everyone else, but it was the office he held that was the reason people were to hold him in such high regard.
The tabernacle and the priest in the Old Testament were a picture of the church in the New Testament. Acts 7:38 calls the congregation of Israel, the church in the wilderness. It was not the local church, but it pointed to the local church, which means that we should conduct ourselves in the manner that God told the priest and the people to conduct themselves.
Pastor, you are God’s representative to His people in the local church. It is your responsibility to live above the standard of what God demands from your people. You do not live to a higher standard because you are someone, but because of the office of the pastorate that you hold. Your office is a representative of God to man. You should dress differently than the people. You should live to a higher standard. Your home life should be held to a higher standard. You may not like living in a glass house, but when you chose to accept the pastorate, you chose to live in the glass house. If you don't want to live in the glass house, get out of the pastorate. You can't expect your people to hold you in high regard and treat you with great respect if you don't live to a higher standard because of Who you represent.
Church member, your Pastor is not one of the boys and should not be treated in such a manner. You should treat them with high regard and great respect because they are God’s representative. No, they are not God, and they are sinners, but it is Who they represent that should cause you to treat them with great respect and honor. When you lose respect for the man of God, you will lose your respect for God, for he is God's representative to man. We live in days where many feel they have a right to talk, mistreat, and disrespect God’s man, but God will not stand idly by as you go after His man. God will defend the man of God, and when He does, it never goes well with those who have gone after God’s man.
My friend, whether you are a Pastor or a church member, let us never forget the high position a Pastor holds. Let us treat that position according to which side we are on. Let us never be flippant about the position of God’s man, and let us treat him in such high respect as we would treat God.
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