The Pattern of Sanctification: Submission to Authority

We turn now in the Scriptures to 2 Corinthians chapter 13 verses 1 through 4, and then we’ll focus on verses 3 and 4. Paul says to the Corinthians, This is the third time I’m coming to you. Every fact is to be confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses. I have previously said, when present the second time, and though now absent I say in advance to those who have sinned in the past, and to all the rest as well, that if I come again I will not spare anyone, since you are seeking for proof of the Christ who speaks in me, and who is not weak towards you but mighty in you.

For indeed he was crucified because of weakness, yet he lives because of the power of God. For we also are weak in him, yet we shall live with him because of the power of God directed towards you. There are many books written in today’s climate that call for the church to reinvent itself or die. I’m convinced these are very harmful books for many reasons, most notably because they ignore what Scripture says about the church. It completely bypasses God’s clearly revealed plan for the church, and makes suggestions about what the church should be based upon surveying people.

Among many suggestions made in these books, one that is greatly disturbing, is these books call for a rebellion against the current style of the church, where pastors exercise authority. Among the mandates the author calls for in the reinvention of the church is radical change in church life in the realm of authority. Specifically, control is to be taken out of the hands of pastors and given to the people. That is to say, authority centralised in the pastors who preach the word of God must be decentralised, and spread out among the people, so that there is less vertical authority and more horizontal, interactive authority.

Rather than power coming from above, down to the people, it is to be spread among the people. These books suggest the church must have less authority from the top down. Nothing could be more contrary to what the Bible teaches – the only true authority in the church is vertical. And by that, I simply mean that the only authority in the church is the word of the Lord of the church, isn’t it? It all comes down from above, and the preacher and the teacher, the elder in the church, is simply one through whom the word of God is disseminated.

Christ is the head of his church. The church is not its own authority, it’s not its own leader. Leadership is not diffused throughout the church. The Lord of the church rules in his church. The book also suggests that pastors, because they’re culturally irrelevant and preach sermons which tend to be ineffective, one-sided communication, need to be replaced by leaders. You decentralise, you diffuse authority and spread it around the congregation, giving it to leaders rather than teachers who can make the church more culturally relevant. I see this as a tragic mutiny against scripture and against the Lord of the church.

All faithful pastors understand – in fact, all students of the New Testament understand – that the Lord Jesus Christ is the head of the church, and everything comes down from the head. I mean, the analogy is pretty clear. All the orders that come down to your body come from your head, they come from your brain. Christ is the head of the church, everything comes down vertically from him. There are no independent operators, there is no diffused authority, there is no decentralised authority in the church, and all faithful pastors understand that they are servants of the Lord of the church, who brings his sovereign divine authority to the church through the word, and therefore we are to tell the people what the word of God says.

Jesus, when he preached, preached with great authority. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7.29, the people were amazed because he spoke with such authority. There was nothing horizontal about it. He didn’t quote peers, he didn’t quote various rabbis, he didn’t ask for various opinions, he didn’t share consensus, he didn’t share the results of surveys. It was all vertical. He’d in fact, in Mark 11.28, they went to him and said, where did you get this authority? And he answered them in John 7 and in John 8 and in John 12, when he said, this authority isn’t mine, I speak only what God tells me to speak.

That’s what he said. Listen to his words. John 7, Jesus said in verse 16, my teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. John 8, verse 28, I speak these things as the Father taught me. Verse 38, I speak the things which I’ve seen with my Father. Verse 40, I told you the truth, which I heard from God. And then, in John 12.49, I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father himself who sent me has given me commandment, what to say and what to speak. I speak just as the Father has told me.

Verse 50, it was all vertical. If the church is to survive and have power and influence and impact, it must not decentralise its authority. It must centralise its authority singularly and wholly and only into the word of God. Jesus said to the apostles, you go out, you go to every person in the world, and you teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. In Titus 2.15, the apostle Paul said to Titus, these things teach and exhort and reprove with all authority and let no one disregard you. The Lord of the church demands authority in the church and that authority is his authority passed down through those who proclaim his word.

Ours is not a personal authority. It’s not something that belongs to us because of oratorical ability or communication skill. It’s not something that belongs to us because of personal charm or the ability to manipulate you or intimidate you or overpower you. It’s not personal authority. It doesn’t belong to us because of education. It doesn’t belong to us because of intellectual ability. It doesn’t belong to us because of erudition. It doesn’t belong to us because we’re well-read. It doesn’t belong to us because we’re in the position we’re in. There is no such thing as personal authority in the church.

Nor is there ecclesiastical authority. It’s not ours by virtue of ordination. It’s not that we’re authoritative because we passed an ordination test and somebody put a stamp on us and gave us a plaque to put on the wall. There’s no such thing as experiential authority. Our authority is not based upon the fact that we have experienced something of God, something from God, and in some mystical ways therefore have transcended the hoi polloi. That’s the common folk and we are the ones in the know because we have had the experiences. The only authority that we ever have, the only authority that we can ever exercise in the church, is biblical authority.

And I never say anything authoritative unless it’s the word of God. If I say anything other than the word of God, it has no authority. What the church needs today is not less authority. It’s not decentralized authority. It’s not spreading some imaginary authority across the congregation so everybody feels like they can throw their two cents into the dialogue. Thank you for joining us in this exploration of the pattern of sanctification, submission to authority. Until next time, remember to keep the faith, stay strong, and continue to shine your light in the world.

To hear these daily devotions of your daily bread, please log on to goddessgovernment.com. Goodbye, and may your faith always lead the way. [tr:trw].