Understanding of Authority

1 Corinthians 11:1-3

As one who follows Christ, what is your understanding of authority?  And with that question comes another, how is that working in your life, in your relationship with Christ, His church, your family, and the people who are over you at work?  As one who is a very slow learner, many times I read past or miss totally the message being given, such as Paul telling us to “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”  I can remember my thoughts as a younger follower of Christ, this Paul guy is full of himself, but those thoughts were not from the Spirit of Christ, but the one who masquerades as the Spirit of Truth.  The old evil one trying to deceive me and lead me away from the truth, but God began to teach me that Paul was saying follow me only as I follow Christ.

As one who is seeking the truth, I’ve come to understand that two great enemies of one who desires to follow Christ is the lack of discipline and being willing to submit to authority.  Listen to this teaching, “Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you. But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.” 

The prophet Isaiah has great insight into the one who has total authority: Isaiah 14:27, "For the LORD of hosts has planned, and who can frustrate it? And as for His stretched-out hand, who can turn it back?"   In Isaiah 43:13, "Even from eternity I am He, and there is none who can deliver out of My hand; I act and who can reverse it?"  Look at Isaiah 45:9, "Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker-- An earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, 'What are you doing?' Or the thing you are making say, 'He has no hands'?  And also in Isaiah 46:10, “Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, 'My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure”

We also have insights from many of our days on authority, these are two I learned from; “The very word authority has within it the word author. An author is someone who creates and possesses a particular work. Insofar as God is the foundation of all authority, He exercises that foundation because He is the author and the owner of His creation. He is the foundation upon which all other authority stands or falls.”  (R.C. Sproul)   “Until the will and the affections are brought under the authority of Christ, we have not begun to understand, let alone to accept, His lordship.” (Elisabeth Elliot)

I’m closing this paper with the hope that you will ask the Holy Spirit, the one Jesus refers to as the Helper to guide you into an understanding of a disciplined life and being willing to submit to authority. 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice