All
authority ultimately belongs to God. He alone is the great King over all He has
made. The legitimate authority we encounter in others here during on our time
on earth comes from God and has been delegated by Him. In reference to this,
Jesus once said: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to
me" (Matthew 28:18). The
words "given to me" point to Jesus' authority as having been
delegated to Him.
Matthew
the tax collector would have been very impressed by Jesus' use of exousia, the original Bible word for
authority. Exousia refers to the freedom
to choose and to act, especially in regard to political, legal, or moral
mandates. Matthew knew by experience this kind of freedom by virtue of the
authority delegated to him. To the people of his day, he was the face of the
Roman empire, having the exousia to
collect taxes from them.
Jesus
indicated that the exousia delegated
to Him extended beyond the Roman Empire. He said: "All authority in heaven and
on earth has been given to me." In other words, Jesus claimed the
freedom to choose and to act not just in Rome, but everywhere in the universe. The exousia delegated to Him was and is
without limit.
There
are others to whom God has delegated authority, though Jesus is the only one with
unlimited delegated authority. The
delegated exousia of all others is
limited. Examples of limited delegated authority include husbands, parents,
government officials, employers, pastors, teachers, etc. When this list is
expanded to its fullest, it becomes obvious that everyone lives under some kind
of delegated authority. It's part of God's design.
God's
possession of all authority, coupled with His design that everyone live under
some kind of delegated authority, is what makes living in rebellion such a
serious matter. To this end, the OT Prophet Samuel told Saul, when Saul
disobeyed the Lord's command to utterly destroy all of the Amalekites:
"Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in
obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold to obey is better than sacrifice, and to
listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and
presumption is as iniquity and idolatry" (1 Samuel 15:22-23). As it turns
out, rebellion against authority delegated by God is counted as rebellion
against God Himself. And rebellion against God Himself lies at the heart of
Lucifer's self-transformation into Satan, the enemy of God (see Isaiah 14 and
Ezekiel 28).
Living
in sweet submission to God's delegated authority is much easier when we agree
with the authority figure and are being well-treated by him or her. The
challenge comes when the delegated authority begins somehow to disappoint us or
even to fail outright. The exact nature of the disappointments or failures need
not be subject to over analysis. They include everything from abuse to lesser matters
involving the delegated authority's expectation that we follow courses of
action with which we do not agree, not necessarily because they are wrong
before God, but because we happen to think there is a better way. Experiences
such as these pose serious and dangerous challenges to our resolve to live
under God's delegated authority.
The
lives and interactions of Saul, David, and Absalom (1 and 2 Samuel) suggest
numerous practical guidelines for living under disappointing and failing
delegated authority. In the years between God's anointing of David to replace
Saul as king and the end of Saul's reign, David had numerous encounters with,
euphemistically speaking, the disappointments and failures of Saul's
leadership. Years later, well into David's own time on the throne, his son
Absalom similarly ran up against certain disappointments and failures under the
rule of his father. The experiences of these three men reveal six realities
that facilitate the danger of crossing the line from oppressed victim of
failing delegated authority to rebel. Here are the six:
When you encounter failing or disappointing delegated
authority,
1.
You will have ample opportunity to personalize
offenses and cultivate bitterness (2 Samuel 13-14)
2.
You will attract others who have an axe to grind
against delegated authority (1 Samuel 22:1-3; 2 Samuel 15:1-6)
3.
You will have ample opportunity to steal the hearts
of others (2 Samuel 15:1-6)
4.
You will feel energized by your efforts to
undermine (2 Samuel 15:2)
5.
You will have opportunities to make
God-forbidden moves against delegated authority (1 Samuel 24:1-7; 26:1-25; 2
Samuel 15:7-12)
6.
You will be urged by others to make them (1
Samuel 24:4; 26:8)
What makes these realities so dangerous is how they can
almost push us over the line and we don't even know it. For example, in the
matter of attracting others who have an axe to grind, it isn't unusual for
other people with complaints about leadership to begin rallying to someone whom
they think might help them to rebel either directly or by proxy. In other
words, there is no particular honor associated with others joining or coming to
a person who is considering taking the matter into his own hands. The people
joining or coming alongside may simply be seeking or sensing the possibility of
support for their own rebellion against delegated authority.
So
what can be done about failing or disappointing delegated authority? Here are
five additional guidelines to ponder and implement:
1.
Never compromise your obedience in doing the
revealed will of God (Acts 5:2)
2.
Short of disobeying God's revealed will,
maintain a submissive spirit and live in subjection for the Lord's sake (1
Peter 2:13-17; Romans 13:1-2)
3.
Commit your concerns about the failures and
disappointments of delegated authority to God with prayer, forbearance, and
forgiveness (Luke 23:34)
4.
Rejoice in opportunities to be like Christ and
to respond as He did to unjust suffering (1 Peter 4:12-19)
5.
Be slow to take matters into your own hands,
being careful not to adopt the tactics of Satan, but to endure and to learn
obedience or whatever else the Lord may have for you (1 Peter 2:18-25; Hebrews
5:8)
In my next post: What to do about failing and
disappointing responses to delegated authority
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