IS AUTHORITY IMPORTANT?

In past articles we have demonstrated New Testament authority for the various acts of worship and work of the church. This article reviews the necessity for establishing such authority.

Our society is organized by a large number of institutions: governments, businesses (production and service), labor and political organizations, schools, charitable institutions, social organizations, religious organizations and families. The proper function and interaction of these institutions produces the order within our society that enables us to enjoy the highest standard of living of any people who have ever lived.

We have a large variety of alternative social structures to study, both now and historically. Germany of the 1930-40’s showed us the result of a government, which attempted to take over the role of the family. Contemporary Russia gives us an example of the result of a government, which attempted to take over the role of business. The tragedy of the dark ages demonstrates the debacle of governments getting into the business of religion (and vice versa).

Innumerable examples could be given. All of this serves to illustrate that God has authorized institutions to establish order: governments (Rom.13), businesses relationships (Col. 3:22-4:1), and the family (Eph. 5:21-6:4). All of this is merely to provide a stable environment for Christians to serve God facilitated by the only institution which He chartered to support this work: the church (Matt. 16:18, 28:18-20, Eph. 3:10,21, Col. 1:17-18, 1 Tim. 3:14).

It should be reasonable that when the church engages in activities for which it has not been authorized it dilutes and ultimately destroys its effectiveness, making it counterproductive to the mission for which it was instituted (Matt.16:18). For this reason, a large number of admonitions have been given to limit its activities to what God authorized (1 Cor. 6:4, 14:37, 2 Jn. 9, 1 Thes. 5:21, Col. 3:21).

When the church gets preoccupied with the world and fails to do what it has been authorized to do we see the deterioration of the family, disregard for law, and all of the ills that we are experiencing in our society today. More tragically, we see countless souls being deceived into activities, which have no value in the salvation of the soul (Col. 2:20-23).

It is time for each of us to resolve to get back to God’s word so that we can know, and do, those things, which are authorized by the inspired scriptures.