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 was
about to write another post on character, which I don’t think would have been
difficult. But as I write an awful lot
about character, I thought a post on authority would be just as
meaningful. In truth, I think both posts
end up drawing the same conclusions just from a different perspective.
1 Timothy
3 is largely a chapter about Timothy establishing expectations for the early
church leaders. Leaders are supposed to
live up to the standards that God establishes for godly living. But this makes sense form an authority perspective. If we are going to have any meaningful
authority in this world, won’t we be receiving our authority from God? If we are living out the authority of God,
shouldn’t we be living up to His standards?
Who will believe our testimony or respect our authority if the witness
of our life doesn’t match what God expects of us?
1 Timothy
4 is largely the same information. In
this chapter, though, Paul is directing the teaching at Timothy rather than
leaders in the church in general. But
here Paul takes it a step further. He
specifically reminds Timothy to not allow anyone to discredit him because of
his youth. He reminds Timothy of the
prayer and prophecy that was declared over him at the time of his commissioning.
Timothy isn’t leading because of his innate giftedness or even because of his
training. Ultimately, Timothy is leading
because of the authority bestowed upon him by God.
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