Sunday Sermons
The Christian Mind and Authority
The Christian Mind
Toward Authority
“It follows equally from all that has been said about the doctrines of individualism and self-sufficiency permeating current secularism that our age is in revolt against the very notions of authority that are crucial to Christian thinking and acting. Indeed the current rejection of authority is so intimately bound up in people’s minds with the worthwhile and noble efforts of our generation that one is staggered at the magnitude of the task of trying to rehabilitate the concept of authority as something estimable. For the most part we move in a world in which thinking and feeling alike are colored with a distaste for authority unparalleled in history” (The Christian Mind, Harry Blamires, p. 133).
The authority of civil government
“Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves” (Romans 13:1-2).
“Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evil-doers and the praise of those who do right” (1 Peter 2:13-14).
In contrast to these clear verses, many in our society view civil government as being nothing more than a benevolent agency. Political parties seek to dig up scandal on each other to the point that trust in any party by the common man is seriously undermined. The police and other governmental agencies are routinely pictured as corrupt, inept, misinformed or dangerous. We live in a topsy-turvy world in which some people are always suspicious of the police, government, or military and all the while seem convinced that our prisons are filled innocent people who were wrongly convicted. In contrast, the Bible sees a clear difference between civil government that deserves our respect, submission and financial support (Romans 13:1ff); and criminals who do not even merit pity (1 Peter 2:20; 4:15).
Parental Authority
“Children, be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord” (Colossians 3:20); “Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise)” (Ephesians 6:1-2); “The eye that mocks a father and scorns a mother, the ravens of the valley will pick it out, and the young eagles will eat it” (Proverbs 30:17).
“In the modern world notions of supreme authority are not involved in the connotation of fatherhood. There is now something faintly ridiculous about the idea of a father trying to assert binding authority in the home. Yet God remains, in religious utterance, pre-eminently our Father, even though a father, as currently imaged, is no longer either authoritative or even dignified…. He is a friendly but rather awkward bear about the house. He fills up the armchair, he has to be kept in a good humor; but he must not be taken too seriously” (p. 137). There was a time when fathers on television were viewed with respect, but much of that has changed. Yet holding up fatherhood to ridicule does far more than impact the family. When fathers take seriously their divine mandate to lovingly and enthusiastically lead their families, everyone reaches their potential.
Employment
“Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service, as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord” (Colossians 3:22).
One’s employer is another example of authority that we encounter, but sadly the “boss is no longer dangerous” (p. 139). Yet God would remind us that even though companies no longer have the authority they once had to terminate employees, the Christian remembers that he is working for God, not man, and that God can at any time issue a termination. No matter your working conditions you can honor God by honoring authority.
The Fatherhood of God
“Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven’” (Matthew 6:9); “Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, and from whom are all things and we exist for Him” (1 Corinthians 8:6); “One God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:6).
Mr. Blamires makes an accurate observation when he notes that in our modern culture the very concept of authority has been removed from the notion of fatherhood. That the modern “father” at worst is viewed as a Homer Simpson and at best, a buddy or companion who is on the same authority level as the child. “Do we, when we worship God or when we reflect upon His nature, catch a clear echo of His resounding and indomitable majesty? Are we inwardly and vitally aware of that tremendousness before which all the greatest achievements of human civilization shrink to insignificance? (“To whom would you liken Me and make Me equal and compare Me” Isaiah 46:5; “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and marked off the heavens by the span, and calculated the dust of the earth by the measure, and weighed the mountains in a balance and the hills in a pair of scales” Isaiah 40:12). It cannot be denied that this is the God we are supposed to worship—not just a companionable God who is to be sidled up to and nestled against, but an awesome God before whom the worshippers prostrates himself” (p. 137). “Guard your steps as you go to the house of God and draw near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools; for they do not know they are doing evil. Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God. For God is in heaven and you are on the earth; therefore let your words be few” (Ecclesiastes 5:1-2).
Applications
· Our culture and many religious people no longer see God as someone to be worshipped. In many churches people do not come to bow and bend their wills to God, but rather to get something from Him. “Reason allows no place for a casual, one-man-to-another approach to God and His demands. It is either the bowed head or the turned back” (p. 132). “So that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth” (Philippians 2:10). Christians continually remind themselves that our relationship to God is one of servant and master and we come to learn from Him in humble submission; we come to bend our wills to His will (Matthew 6:10), and give Him the praise and the glory.
· “So far is modern man from thinking Christianity that he has the acutest difficulty in trying to combine together in his mind the two vital concepts which we have just united in our picture of God—the concept of love and the concept of power-laden authority, (“Behold then the kindness and severity of God” Romans 11:22). As a result of historical developments and changes of psychological habit the idea of authority has been totally severed from the idea of love. There is an iron curtain between them. They now belong to two different modes of thinking. Yet it was not always so. There was a time when these two key concepts were blended together in the embracing idea of Fatherhood, which has provided the richest summing-up of God’s significance to us. The father was the loving provider and defender whose hand was open in liberality and raised in protection: he was also, at the very same time, the awesome ruler to whom implicit obedience was due” (p. 137).
· As a result people will argue that God is too loving to banish anyone to eternal damnation, and yet Jesus says otherwise(Matthew 7:21-23).
· People likewise have sought to divorce love from obedience or submission to commands, and try to separate loving God from following sound doctrine. Yet Jesus will not allow us to make such a separation and remain true to Him at the same time, “If you love Me you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15); “Love…rejoices with the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:6); “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:2-3); “This is love, that we walk according to His commandments” (2 John 6).
· In like manner, the same mistake is being made by those who claim that the exercise of parental authority in spanking one’s children is not a loving action. Again, the Bible disagrees, “He who withholds his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently” (Proverbs 13:24). “A loving parent inflicts temporary discomfort on his child…to spare them the long-range disaster of an undisciplined life. Refusal to discipline one’s child when he needs it shows that a parent’s genuine love and concern are questionable (or misguided)” (Bible Knowledge Comm. p. 934). I know that many a modern parent would disagree and claim that they do not “hate” their children even though they refuse to exercise corporeal punishment. Yet God is not talking about a feeling here, He is talking about priorities and reality. God is saying that the parent in this case loves something far more than the soul of their child. They might love their own comfort more, or how they are perceived by the child or others. They are in reality loving the child less than the child deserves to be loved!
· “Thus authority looks in the modern world to modern man. That is its face and the reaction is provokes. Authority is something whose grip you grow out of, something you break away from. It is something you view with suspicion, something you combine against in order to limit its operations. How far does this kind of thinking color man’s conception of God?” (p. 139).
The Authority Vacuum
The Christian remembers that God has given us our reasoning powers (Genesis 1:26), and that the human mind was not created to serve self, but to learn the truth and serve Him (1 Timothy 2:4). The Christian understands that human authorities will always seek to step in and take the place of parents, an employer, elders in the local church, lawful civil government, or the place that God is to occupy in the hearts of men. So when someone tries to convince you to follow them and place your trust in their wisdom and submit to their conclusions, ask yourself, “Do they love me more than Christ?” (John 3:16) Christianity is the only faith, in which the one who demands your complete submission, is the same one who died for your sins and was raised for your justification (Romans 4:25).
Mark Dunagan/Beaverton Church of Christ/503-644-9017
www.beavertonchurchofchrist.net/mdunagan@easystreet.com
