For a long time, God has taught me many things about authority, and those lessons have continued over the years. As our church has been built and shaped, this subject has remained an important part of that journey. Authority is also what connects the two great pillars of the law: loving God and loving our neighbour.
In the Ten Commandments, commandments one through four concern our relationship with God, while commandments five through ten concern how we are to live in relationship with one another. The fifth commandment, “Honour your father and mother,” stands between these two. It is a command to establish a right attitude toward authority. Parents are the first and most enduring form of authority that a person experiences, from birth until the time they marry and become independent. For this reason, our relationship with our parents—especially with our father—can shape our attitude toward authority throughout our lives.
Our attitude toward authority is closely connected to our attitude toward God, who is the source of all authority. This is why people who have never learned to honour authority, those who carry deep wounds from their parents, or those who grew up in broken families can often find life in community difficult. Even within the church, when I see people struggling deeply in relationships, many of them carry significant wounds connected to their parents.
In my own case, because I grew up without my parents, there were many things in me concerning authority that needed to be corrected. Perhaps that is why God has taught me so much in this area. Much of what I came to understand rightly about authority, I learned through my relationship with God. Through Scripture, I was able to see in detail how God, the highest authority, uses His authority. God uses His great authority to give life to those under His authority.
More recently, I have come to understand authority in a new way: authority is a shield of protection. I began to see this even within my own family. When someone steps outside the covering of my authority, they seem to struggle greatly. For example, when my wife and I are not in a good place relationally—even when the situation began because of something I did wrong—she suffers deeply. It is more than the ordinary emotional discomfort that any married couple may experience. At times, it feels as though she is under spiritual attack, accompanied by emotional and even physical suffering.
I have seen something similar with my children. When their relationship with me is strained and they act outside the boundaries of authority, I sense that they are no longer being protected in the same way. They may struggle to do what they need to do and become emotionally distressed. This is why authority matters not only for those who are under it, but also for those to whom God has entrusted authority.
Those who have been given authority must exercise it carefully and responsibly. In other words, I have a responsibility to use the authority entrusted to me well, so that those under my care are not driven to reject what is meant to serve as a protective covering for them. Scripture tells parents not to provoke their children to anger. In the same way, the misuse of authority can tempt those entrusted to us to step out from under the very protection that authority was meant to provide.
Authority has been given to protect people from wounds, pain, and attack. Therefore, it must be used well. I must begin by becoming a good authority figure myself.
