Shepherding as a Fellow Elder
I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and who will also share in the glory that will be revealed.
Peter does not write to pastors as one standing above them, but as one standing among them. He calls himself a fellow elder, a witness of Christ's sufferings, and a partaker in the glory to come. This posture matters. Before Peter tells elders what to do, he reminds them who he is—someone who shares their calling, their weight, and their hope. Ministry is never meant to be a lonely exercise of authority; it is a shared task among those who have watched Christ suffer and who wait together for glory.
This kind of humble, others-focused shepherding is exactly what Richard Baxter pressed on pastors centuries later. Too sick to deliver his message in person, Baxter wrote it down instead, and it became The Reformed Pastor—a book urging ministers to care for their people beyond the Sunday sermon, through patient, personal discipleship. His concern echoes Peter's: pastoral work is not about status or performance, but about the eternal good of souls entrusted to your care.
Baxter's exhortations, as distilled by Jonathan Threlfall, keep returning to this same center—God's glory, not personal ambition; spiritual care, not mere routine; humility and love, not self-promotion. This is the same spirit Peter models when he calls himself a fellow elder rather than asserting his apostolic rank. The elder's task is heavy, but it is not carried alone, and it is not carried for one's own name.
Whether you are a pastor, an elder, or simply someone who prays for and supports those who shepherd you, this verse invites a shared perspective: sufferings now, glory later, and faithfulness in between. That long view—the eternal weight of the task—is what steadied Baxter, and what steadied Peter before him.
If you want to sit with fifteen searching exhortations drawn from Baxter's classic, take a few minutes with 9Marks's piece, "Richard Baxter's Advice to Pastors"—it's a rich companion to this verse and a good nudge toward faithful, humble shepherding.
Read the source: 9Marks →