Theological Commentary: Click Here
Discipleship Focus: Authority
- Authority: Our calling. This comes from God as king. Because He calls us as His representatives, He gives us authority to go and do His will.
I often feel like Christianity takes on a synonymous meaning as
conformity. That is, it is easy to feel
as if in order to follow Jesus I have to do what everyone else is doing. Or, perhaps more correctly, that if I’m not
doing what every other Christian is doing and if I’m not feeling what every
other Christian is feeling then I must be wrong.
This is horrible thinking.
After all, would we call Jesus a conformist? Was Paul a conformist to either Judaism or early
Christianity? I don’t think so. Jesus and Paul were mavericks, willing to do
what the Father asked of them even if it was out-of-the-box new and
extraordinary.
You see, this is ultimately a question of authority. If God asks me to do something that serves
Christ, then what right does any human have to tell me to not obey God? What right does any human have to tell me
that being obedient to God in different mannerisms than they have is
wrong? Do I get my authority from the
people around me or do I get my authority from the King of the universe?
Now, don’t get me wrong. We
need to remember that Paul isn’t giving us authority to do anything we
want. We should not cause a brother or
sister in Christ to sin. We should not
go that far. But neither should we let
the authority of other human beings damper the authority that comes to us from
God.
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