'You have charged us to keep your commandments carefully.'

Growing up through the 1960s, I saw the change from unquestioning acceptance of authority to a willingness to question authority, then towards a rejection of all authority.

The emergence of the charismatic movement in the Church announcing our freedom in the spirit provided an echo of this overturning of authority. Surely martyrs had laid down their lives to ensure the Bible was accessible to everyone, and each one of us might discover God’s truth with the personal help of the spirit.

Authority should be questioned, especially when it’s used to shore up corruption and injustice. Yet, authority is not to be completely rejected. If it is, each of us becomes priest, prophet and king in our own personalised world. Yet, Jesus will return for a bride and the community of the Church is an essential expression of God’s redemptive love at work, as well as a means of grace for each one of us.

God brought Israel from the injustice of Egypt into the maturity of decision-making. However, while Moses collected the tablets on Mount Sinai, Israel built a golden calf. Well-intentioned but wrong. God does not invite us to step beyond his authority. He has clear instructions on how we must live, and invites us to find the means of keeping in close contact. His instruction withstands the sands of time, yet its application can find cultural expression throughout society and around the globe.

We are to take time alone with God and in community with each other to learn the eternal instruction of God. Then we are invited by his spirit to exercise mature judgement in how best we can express this. Our responsibility is regularly to check the nature of our motives.

QUESTION: How do you react to authority?

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, help me to pray as your Son prayed, ‘not my will, but yours be done’ (Luke 22:42, NIV).