The Christian and Authority

We see in today's world a significant decline in respect for authority. Those who hold authority are often derided and disrespected, and this attitude has also become prevalent in the religious world. Many denominations today do not consider from where they receive the authority for things they do, and many are being led away from the truth into sin due to this lack of authority.

Christ never intended for His church to do whatever it wanted to, but to do His will. Why should we trust in Christ? As He says in Matthew 28:18:

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth." We see here that Jesus has been given all authority in heaven and on earth. This means that someone gave Him this authority (the Father, John 8:18), and that we should look upon Him as our authority for the things which we are to do as Christians.

We should be thankful to have this figure of authority. The wisdom and of men is found lacking in God's Word, as Paul so eloquently speaks in 1 Corinthians 1:18-21:

For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside." Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. And as Solomon speaks in Proverbs 14:12:

There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.

We must not trust the wisdom of men, but the wisdom of God, which, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:25, that the foolishness of God is still wiser than the wisdom of man.

One might ask, "okay, Christ is the authority, but how are we to know what we need to do to follow Him?" This is a valid question, and its answer is simple. We learn how to follow Him through His Word, as He spoke through His Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 3:16-17: