©1998 Larry Huntsperger
Peninsula Bible Fellowship
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3/1/98
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Difficult Authorities
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We have taken the past month
to talk about communicating with
the difficult people in our lives.
Along the way we have seen
some of the things that make
certain relationships more difficult than others.
We have talked about the relationship styles
we inherit from our childhood.
We have talked about the necessity
of letting go of our agenda,
our goals in those tough relationships
and exchange them for the goals
of healing and restoration offered to us by our Lord.
Then last week
we looked at the 3 foundation principles
offered to us in Scripture for
bringing healing to troubled relationships:
1. Begin by choosing to forgive.
2. Rather than using our mental
and emotional energies
to find some way to get even,
focus our energies
on figuring out
how we can do good to the one who has hurt us.
3. And, when it is possible,
and necessary for our own mental freedom
and healing in the relationship,
go and talk with them
about the thing that troubles us.
Now, before we leave this series
I want to return to that list difficult people in our lives
and fill in a few of the holes.
If you were here a few weeks ago
you may remember I suggested 6 types of situations
that often qualify as "difficult people"
in our lives:
1. There are those people in our lives who have hurt us in some way.
2. There are those who hold positions of authority over us and who do not use that authority in ways we think are right.
3. There are those who have in some way infringed on what we believe to be our rights.
4. There are those whose ideas, values, or belief systems are radically different from our own.
5. There are those who are demanding from us something we cannot deliver.
6. There are those who have something we want or believe we need and refuse to give it to us.
The principles we looked at last week
are given to us by our Lord
to help us with a number of the situations in that list of difficult people.
But that second category of difficult people,
those who hold positions of authority over us
and are not using that authority
in ways we think are right,
has some unique elements to it
that we really should talk about
before we close off this series.
In the back of my mind
I had been thinking that
the Biblical teaching on our relationship to human authority
had been something we had looked at frequently during the past few years.
But I ran a search on my past sermon notes
and was amazed to discover that,
as far as I can tell,
the last time I taught on the Biblical principles governing
our relationship to human authority
was in November of 1992.
Of course, you have all read
and reread The Grace Exchange,
so these principles are firmly in place
in your thinking,
but so many of our difficult relationships
involve some aspect of authority
and submission
that a little review might be helpful.
What in the world do we do
with those who hold positions of authority over us
and do not use that authority
in ways we think is right?
I think perhaps the easiest way
for me to approach this
is to just go ahead and present
the Biblical principles governing
our relationship to human authority,
and then we’ll come back
and look at our options
with those authorities
who are abusing their position.
And the easiest way for me to do this
is in the form of 5 statements:
#1. Our need for human authority is rooted in man’s rebellion against God.
As a created being,
we have, of course, always been called
to submit to the authority of our Creator.
But in the original creation
revealed to us in the first few chapters
of the book of Genesis,
there were no human authority structures.
All the rest of creation
was in submission to Adam and Eve,
but neither Adam nor Eve
were in submission to one another
or to any other form of human authority.
They were called to live in submission
to God alone.
But then man sinned - rebelled against God,
and in so doing,
severed his union with God
and his submissive relationship to Him.
In effect,
man declared himself an independent agent.
It was at this point,
in order to preserve the human race
from self-destruction
long enough for God to carry out
His redemptive plan through Christ,
that God established into the human race human authority structures.
The first one was presented in Gen. 3:16
where, in response to her sin,
God said to Eve:
"...your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you."
Romans 13:1-6 presents
the heart of God’s perspective
on human authority structures:
" Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore he who resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil. Wherefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience’ sake. For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing.
It is important to realize
that those words were written by Paul
about a Roman governmental structure
that was at times intensely hostile to Christianity,
a Roman governmental structure
that imprisoned
and ultimately executed Paul.
Note: I also find it fascinating
that, even this far into our corporate rebellion against God,
man still continues to generate
human governmental structures
that greatly exceed
the individual, personal moralities of the lawmakers themselves.
Men and women who regularly
cheat, and lie,
and steal,
and commit all manner of personal immoral acts
still create laws that hold society
to a higher level of moral behavior.
I believe this happens
not because I buy into the stupidity
that man is basically good,
but rather because God is actively involved
in using human authority structures
for the continued preservation of the human race
until His purposes are completed.
And, when we return to our study
of the Book of Revelation,
we will see that,
when God finally turns human authority loose
to follow its own sinful nature
in the person of the Anti-Christ
the corruption that results is so profound
that it leads to total destruction of the world as we know it
in a matter of just a few years.
#2. It is God’s design and intention that every human being be under some form of human authority from the day he is born until the day he dies.
Five specific authority institutions mentioned:
1.Col 3:20 child to parents
2. Eph. 5:22 wife’s submission to her husband
3. Col. 3:22-25 slave’s submission to master
4. Rom. 13:1-8 citizen’s submission to gov. authorities
5. Eph. 4:11-12 sub. of local church to church leaders.
#3. God assumes that all human authority is corrupt.
Rom. 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Rom. 3:10 as it is written, "There is none righteous, not even one..."
All human authority
will at times use their positions of authority for their own selfish interests,
and even when they are doing what is right
no human being
ever does right things for totally right reasons.
Our motivations are always mingled at best.
#4. God is committed to the use of human authority as His tool for accomplishing His purposes in our lives.
Rom. 13:1... "...there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God",
13:4 human authority, "... is a minister of God to you for good."
I Peter 2:13-15
"Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men."
It is important to remember
that our flesh, our natural human responses, trained into us
when our inner spirit was in rebellion against our God,
will always resist human authority
whenever it intrudes into our lives.
Ex. Why will a two year old child
who has never received anything but
deep, daily, compassionate care and love from his mother,
suddenly plunge into massive, pitched battles of will
when mother dares to say, "NO!"?
Why doesn’t the child recognize
that this is the one person in all the world who truly cares about me
and loves me,
and see them as some who’s instruction they can trust absolutely?
Because as soon as mom becomes
a human authority figure
it ignites that inner heart of rebellion
with which every one of us enters this world.
Note: The most common error we make
in our relationships with human authorities
is to confuse the person who hold’s the position
with the position he holds.
Ex. teen: "My parents just don’t understand"!
employee: "My boss is going to blow the whole deal"!
Wife: "My husband’s leadership is going to mess everything up!"
Hunter: "The guys who made those hunting regulations are total air-heads!"
All those statements may be true from human point of view:
But, in our relationship with human authority,
the question is not who is right
and who is wrong,
the question is whether or not
we will choose to trust God
to accomplish His will in our life through the authority He has placed us under.
#5. The only point at which we as Christians have a scriptural basis for disobedience to human authority is when the authority we are under refuses to allow us to worship Christ or when it demands that we compromise our commitment to live within God’s moral framework.
Our calling to maintain lives of moral purity and devotion to God clearly supersede our obligation to submit to the human authority we are under.
ex. Employer who requires an employee to falsify records or misrepresent a product.
ex. A husband who requires a wife to be involved in physically abusive or immoral behavior.
Helpful examples:
Daniel 1:1-21,
Peter in Acts 4
Now, to bring this back to where we started,
what do we do with those difficult people
who are difficult because they hold authority positions in our lives
and we don’t like the way
they are using that authority?
Given the naturally hostile relationship
we always bring to authority relationships,
I’d like to suggest some filtering questions that may help.
#1. Is this authority offensive to me
because they are demanding that I violate Biblical moral commands,
or are they offensive
simply because I don’t happen to like
what he’s asking me to do.
#2. If what is being required of me
is not immoral,
the next question is, "Why do I react so strongly to this authority? What area of character growth is my Lord
seeking to bring about in me
through this authority?"
There are times
when God uses human authority in our lives
very much as a woodworker
uses sand paper
on a fine piece of oak.
I have occasionally purchased
a piece of oak trim
for some special place
in finishing our home.
I have discovered the hard way
that if I don’t sand that wood
absolutely smooth,
as soon as I put the stain on it
every saw mark and poorly sanded spot in the wood screams at me.
Human authority is one of God’s most effective tools in removing
the character flaws in our lives.
If we fight against it,
or refuse to submit,
when we hit the hard times in life,
all those character flaws
come screaming to the surface.
#3. If we find ourselves under
a human authority figure
who continually abuses that position,
there is nothing in any way unchristian
about asking ourselves
whether we can remove ourselves
from that authority figure
without violating our commitment to live within God’s moral framework.
If we can maintain our own moral purity
and still remove ourselves from that authority,
there is nothing Biblically
to prevent us from doing so,
assuming it is consistent
with the leadership of God’s Spirit in our lives.
And one final note...
human authority tends to be at its worst
when those under that authority
are refusing to submit.
Authority tends to become explosive
when it feels most powerless
to fulfill its authority role.
Our choosing a submissive role
often has a powerful ability
to diffuse the most destructive aspects
of the human authority figures in our lives.