»Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has placed you to take the oversight for Him and act as shepherds to the Church of God, which He has bought with His own blood.«
Do not be careless about the gifts with which you are endowed, which were conferred on you through a divine revelation when the hands of the elders were placed upon you.
I have left you behind in Crete in order that you may set right the things which still require attention, and appoint Elders in every town, as I directed you to do;
Now may God who gives peace, and brought Jesus, our Lord, up again from among the dead –even Him who, by virtue of the blood of the eternal Covenant, is the great Shepherd of the sheep–
the secret meaning of the seven stars which you have seen in My right hand, and of the seven lampstands of gold. The seven stars are the ministers of the seven Churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven Churches.