Extremely Helpful in Life: Thinking Right about Authority

Our church operates a traditional Christian school with several fine, godly teachers, who are members of our church.  They are all different, so much so that none of them are even similar, except that they believe and practice the Bible -- different personalities and different styles.  At the same time, different children do better with a certain style of person, leader, or boss.  A particular child gets along with a teacher, moves to a different class and that teacher is just. not. the. same.  Is it a problem with the teacher?  Some parents will complain.  Their child isn't doing as well because of the teacher.

What I've always told parents is that having different types of teachers and authority is good for your child, because that is the way it will be in the real world, when the child grows up and has varied bosses or people in charge of them.  It's not just that.  They'll have a wife, children, neighbors, so many different types of people to get along with.

Parents shouldn't "deliver" a child every time he's having the difficulty I'm describing.  It would be good to help a child learn to deal with the varied types of leader and learn this valuable life lesson.  I've seen adults, those former children, who wouldn't learn this, continue with difficulty with most of the bosses they have, and they almost never think it's them.  They just. can't. find. the. right. boss. and they blame it on everyone else.  It is pathetic.

I'm not writing about a leader who is sinning in his leadership, but even if he does, which he (or she) will (he or she is human), he's still in authority.  Enter what the Bible says about authority, and the classic passage, Romans 13:1-3:

1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. 2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same.

Authority in scripture, so authority period, since there is no power, authority, but of God, is hierarchical.  This point can be made from all over the Bible, but obedience to authority is obedience to God, and it does start with obedience to parents, to begin the second table of the law.  It is always right to obey authority, except in one instance, that is, if it means disobeying God, even as Acts 5:29 says, "We ought to obey God rather than men."

I'm going to address this to you.  Since authority is of God, you obey authority.  You don't have liberty to disobey authority, unless it means disobeying God.  There ought to be the fear of God (actually it says "terror" and "be afraid") as Romans 13:1-3 reveals.  "Be subject" means to place yourself under the authority.  God is at the top so that disobedience to anything under Him is also disobedient to Him.  If you are thinking otherwise, just because you don't like that person, get that out of your mind.

Ephesians 5 and 6 help with the understanding of the hierarchy with phrases such as "as unto the Lord," related to the submission of the wife to the husband, "in the Lord" with children to parents, "of the Lord" with the authority of the Father over the children, and "as unto Christ," "as servants of Christ," and "as unto the Lord" as it relates to the employee to the employer.  Work your way through that section, because it relates all obedience to authority in every area to obedience to God.  As long as it is permissible to do, obedience should take place.  When it doesn't, it is against God, because all lack of submission to and disobedience to authority is against God.

Someone might think, this leader has done wrong things, or I don't like his style, the way he talks, or how he looked at me, or he just wasn't nice, didn't spend quality or quantity time, or didn't accept what I like to do, my preferences -- ad infinitum.  Usually it's somebody, who wants his or her way, and it's not being accepted.

People who simply hate to be obliged to obey complain about legitimate and valid authority-bearers in the same terms as those complaining about genuinely abusive authority-bearers.

— Dan Phillips (Grown Zygote) (@BibChr) October 14, 2019

I’d like to say this politely, in the most conciliatory manner possible: if your first and primary concern regarding the exposure of error is the tone in which the error is exposed, you’re doing it wrong.

— David M. Doran (@Grace4Motown) October 22, 2019

You are not in the will of God when you disobey authority.  You are not justified disobeying authority.  You are not better off disobeying authority.  You are in trouble disobeying authority.

Someone disobedient to God isn't right with God.  That's not a success.  The Old Testament calls that not dealing prudently.  It's the opposite of how Jesus lived, Who was always obedient to authority.  It's not following Christ.

On the positive side, and this is how it has been for me.  First, I want to know what's right.  Doing what I'm told is right.  It's also a simple thing.  I just do it.  I can have a good attitude.  How can I?  I know it is "as unto the Lord," since the powers that be are ordained of God.  I don't have to be worried at that moment that I'm doing wrong.  It's what God wants me to do.

Here's another example.  Let's say that you don't think it's wrong as a woman to wear pants.  You don't like it when someone tells you to wear a dress or a skirt, because you don't believe it.  It's not wrong to wear a modest skirt or dress.  If authority says, wear a dress, you wear it.  You don't have liberty not to wear it, because wearing a modest dress or skirt is not disobedient to God.  It's not even out of left field for a woman to wear.  It's feminine.

If your teacher gives you homework, do it.  Your dad gives you a chore, do it.  Your parents tell you that you can't go and you've got to stay, you do what they say.  The church says, "No."  That's a no.  Unless it is disobedience to scripture, the one exception.

If you get in trouble, you get a bad tone, even terror, you deserved it, if you didn't obey authority.