Matthew Poole and continuators on 1 Peter 5:2

2 Feed the flock of God which is among you , taking the oversight thereof not by constraint , but willingly ; not for filthy lucre , but of a ready mind .

Teach and Rule, Matth. 2.6. Ioh. 21.15, 16, 17. Act. 20.28.

The Church.

Which is with you, or committed to your Charge; intimating that the Flock not being their own, they were to give an account of it to him that had set them over it.

Or, being Bishops; or acting as Bishops over it, i. e. superintending, inspecting, and watching over it with all care, Act. 20.28, 29.

Not meerly because ye must: what Men do out of compulsion, they do more slightly and perfunctorily, as those that would not do it if they could help it; see the like expression, 2 Cor. 9.7.

Chearfully and freely, as Exod. 36.2. Psal. 54.6. compare 1 Cor. 9.17.

Not out of Covetousness, o[illegible: 1 letter] a design of making a gain of the Work; it being a shameful thing for a Shepherd to feed the Sheep out of love to the Fle[illegible: 1 letter]ce, see Tit. 1.7. and 1 Tim. 3.3, 8.

Out of a good affection to the welfare of the Flock, in opposition to the private gain before mentioned. He doth not do his work freely, and of a ready mind, who is either driven to it by Necessity, or drawn by Covetousness.

Marginal references: Or, as much as in you is.