Authority E-Book

Jonathan Leeman

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Accessible Guide from 9Marks Equips Believers to Steward Their God-Given Authority In every position of power—from executives and world leaders to church elders and parents— lies the potential for life-giving leadership or destructive corruption. Driven by sinful pride or opportunism, many people abuse their God-given influence, harming the ones they're called to lead and contributing to an intense angst against Authority. The answer to bad Authority, however, is not no Authority, but good Authority—the kind that, according to Scripture, causes those under it to flourish.   In this compelling guide from 9Marks, Jonathan Leeman shows that Authority, done biblically, is not only good, but is essential to human flourishing. Through Scripture and many first-hand stories, he presents 5 attributes of positive Authority and warns against sinfulness that corrupts leadership. Pointing to Jesus as the ultimate model of good Authority, Leeman equips readers to pursue godly influence in their personal and professional lives.  - Applicable: Challenges readers to identify weaknesses in their own leadership style and offers 5 attributes of godly Authority - Engaging: Filled with compelling stories that illustrate key points - A Great Resource for Pastors, Employers, Officers, and Parents: Helps readers understand how to practice godly Authority in church, at home, and in the workplace

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“Aversion to authority seems to increase with each succeeding generation in America, and the Christian community is not immune. Today’s young adults raised within the church seem even more allergic to hierarchy than those I taught ten years ago in Christian school, and the erosion of trust seems the undeniable motivator. If Satan used falsehoods to play upon the trust of God’s children in the garden, it only makes sense that rehearsing what is true about God’s good intentions will lead to a restoration of our trust in authority. Jonathan Leeman takes readers by the hand and walks patiently through God’s plan for authority and submission outlined in the Scriptures. He deftly clarifies when the role of authority calls for action or restraint, addressing many of the subtle lies that have eroded trust in the institutions of our day.”

Roy Griffith, Headmaster, Rockbridge Academy, Crownsville, Maryland

“In a world where authority is constantly being questioned, Jonathan Leeman reminds us to steward our authority for God’s glory. He helpfully examines both good and bad practices and guides us toward better examples of God-given authority.”

Gordon Reid, President, Stop and Shop LLC

“Thirty-two years of military leadership and six in industry, and still learning! This is a compelling, convicting, and compassionate discourse. Jonathan Leeman uses powerful anecdotes and stories to drive home the principles, truths, and precepts of authority and frames the context for practical application. A must-read for all in and under ‘author-ity’!”

Scott Vander Hamm, Major General, United States Air Force (retired)

“Authority is under attack today because it is deemed to be oppressive. This book is a refreshingly thoughtful study of this theme. It firmly rejects abuse while showing authority to be vital to the proper functioning of society, church, and family. When properly used, authority serves those who are led. This timely book is a sure guide to this contentious subject: biblically faithful, pastorally wise, comprehensive in scope, and full of practical examples.”

Sharon James, Social Policy Analyst, The Christian Institute

“With the heart of a pastor and mind of a theologian, Jonathan Leeman offers a timely perspective on a timeless challenge. Using clear prose and compelling examples, he urges all faithful Christians to consider anew the biblical warrant for authority in every domain of our lives.”

William Inboden, Professor and Director, Alexander Hamilton Center for Classical and Civic Education, University of Florida

Authority

Other 9Marks Titles

Overview Books

The Compelling Community, by Mark Dever and Jamie Dunlop

How to Build a Healthy Church, by Mark Dever and Paul Alexander

Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, by Mark Dever

No Shortcut to Success, by Matt Rhodes

The Rule of Love, by Jonathan Leeman

The Building Healthy Churches Series

Church Membership, by Jonathan Leeman

Conversion, by Michael Lawrence

Corporate Worship, by Matt Merker

Deacons, by Matt Smethurst

Discipling, by Mark Dever

Evangelism, by J. Mack Stiles

Expositional Preaching, by David Helm

Additional titles available

The Church Questions Series

How Can I Find Someone to Disciple Me?

How Can I Love Church Members with Different Politics?

How Can Our Church Find a Faithful Pastor?

How Can Women Thrive in the Local Church?

Additional titles available

Titles for New Christians

Am I Really a Christian?, by Mike McKinley

Rediscover Church, by Collin Hansen and Jonathan Leeman

What Is the Gospel?, by Greg Gilbert

Who Is Jesus?, by Greg Gilbert

Why Trust the Bible?, by Greg Gilbert

Healthy Church Study Guides are available on all nine marks.

To explore all 9Marks titles, visit 9Marks.org/bookstore

Authority

How Godly Rule Protects the Vulnerable, Strengthens Communities, and Promotes Human Flourishing

Jonathan Leeman

Authority: How Godly Rule Protects the Vulnerable, Strengthens Communities, and Promotes Human Flourishing

Copyright © 2023 by Jonathan Leeman

Published by Crossway1300 Crescent StreetWheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Cover design: Spencer Fuller, Faceout Studios

Cover image: Shutterstock

First printing 2023

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated into any other language.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

The Scripture quotation marked CSB has been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-8763-4

ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-8766-5

PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-8764-1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Leeman, Jonathan, 1973- author. 

Title: Authority : how godly rule protects the vulnerable, strengthens

  communities, and promotes human flourishing / Jonathan Leeman. 

Description: Wheaton, Illinois : Crossway, 2023. | Series: 9Marks |

  Includes bibliographical references and index. 

Identifiers: LCCN 2022060731 (print) | LCCN 2022060732 (ebook) | ISBN

  9781433587634 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781433587641 (pdf) | ISBN

  9781433587665 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Authority—Biblical teaching. | Authority. 

Classification: LCC BS680.A93 L44 2023 (print) | LCC BS680.A93 (ebook) |

  DDC 262/.8—dc23/eng/20230414

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022060731

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022060732

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

2023-08-01 01:40:02 PM

To my parents (David and Barbara Leeman), grandparents (Eric and Helga Newbold, Roy and Amanda Leeman), pastors (Mark Dever, Thomas Schreiner, John Joseph), professors (Steve Wellum, Bruce Ware, Shawn Wright, Greg Wills), bosses (Chip Collins, Matt Schmucker, Ryan Townsend), and too many fellow elders to name, each of whom let me experience the creative power of good authority in my life, and apart from whom this book would not exist

Contents

  Tables and Illustrations

  Series Preface

  Prelude: A Prayer of Confession

  Introduction: Our Angst about Authority

Part I: What Is Authority?

1  Authority Is God’s Good Creation Gift for Sharing His Rule and Glory

2  Authority Is Satan’s Sinister Scheme for Supplanting God

3  Authority Is Christ’s Claim to Rescue and Redeem

Part II: What Is Submission?

4  Submission Is the Path to Growth, Authority, and Likeness to the God-Man

5  Submission Is Never Absolute and Always Has Limits

Part III: How Does Good Authority Work? Five Principles

6  It Is Not Unaccountable, but Submits to a Higher Authority

7  It Doesn’t Steal Life, but Creates It

8  It Is Not Unteachable, but Seeks Wisdom

9  It Is neither Permissive nor Authoritarian, but Administers Discipline

10  It Is Not Self-Protective, but Bears the Costs

Part IV: What Does Good Authority Look Like in Action?

11  Two Kinds of Authority: Command and Counsel

12  The Husband (Counsel)

13  The Parent (Command)

14  The Government (Command)

15  The Manager (Command)

16  The Church (Command)

17  The Elder (Counsel)

  Conclusion: Equality, the Fear of God, and a Reward

  Postlude: A Prayer of Praise

  General Index

  Scripture Index

Tables and Illustrations

Tables

 1.1:  Four Purposes of Authority 29

 2.1: Two Kinds of Abuse 39

11.1: Authority: Command versus Counsel 156

14.1: Authority: Governments versus Churches 211

Illustrations

11.1: Spectrum of Authority: Immanence versus Transcendence 158

11.2: Spectrum of the Implementation of Authority 159

14.1: God versus Caesar: Option (1) 214

14.2: God versus Caesar: Option (2) 215

14.3: God versus Caesar: Option (3) 216

Series Preface

The 9Marks series of books is premised on two basic ideas. First, the local church is far more important to the Christian life than many Christians today perhaps realize.

Second, local churches grow in life and vitality as they organize their lives around God’s word. God speaks. Churches should listen and follow. It’s that simple. When a church listens and follows, it begins to look like the One it is following. It reflects his love and holiness. It displays his glory. A church will look like him as it listens to him.

So our basic message to churches is, don’t look to the best business practices or the latest styles; look to God. Start by listening to God’s word again.

Out of this overall project comes the 9Marks series of books. Some target pastors. Some target church members. Hopefully all will combine careful biblical examination, theological reflection, cultural consideration, corporate application, and even a bit of individual exhortation. The best Christian books are always both theological and practical.

It is our prayer that God will use this volume and the others to help prepare Christ’s bride, the church, with radiance and splendor for the day of his coming.

Prelude

A Prayer of Confession

This is a book about authority, both the good and the bad kind. Yet I don’t want to write an abstract book about an abstract topic. I want to personally engage you and how you use your authority, which requires being personally engaged myself.

To that end, I have written in a more conversational style. More important, I begin with a confession: for me to write about the good kind of authority is to write better than I am.

The good kind of authority is beautiful, like a perfectly symmetrical face is beautiful, or a life in perfect conformity to God’s law is beautiful. But spend time staring into that face or into that law and you’ll discover, by comparison, your face isn’t perfect. And you don’t keep all the law.

But I want to help you and me both to gaze into the face of the one who perfectly kept the law and who perfectly exercised his authority, so that you and I might be changed. And the only honest way to do that is with gospel transparency. I’m not a paragon of the good. Nor are you. To think otherwise is to be like the Pharisee who prayed, “I thank you, Lord, that I am not like that tax collector over there.”

Our profoundly Pharisaical post-Christian world, which has abandoned all ideas of original sin, teaches us to think that way. It classifies everyone as an abuser or a non-abuser, oppressor or non-oppressor. Those are the only moral categories it has left. If therefore you don’t count yourself as an abuser or oppressor, you get to point the finger at the bad people and thank God you’re not like them.

The Bible does not let us off the hook so easily. It indicts all of us for misusing our authority. It teaches that Adam’s bite of the fruit and Pharaoh’s spilling of blood are differences of quantity, not quality. Pharaoh simply swung a much bigger hammer.

To be clear, some sins are far worse than others: murder is much worse than hatred and adultery than lust. Yet Jesus also asks us to meditate on how all these sins are constructed of the same stuff (Matt. 5:22, 28). Here is an unassailable fact: To some degree, you and I have misused our authority by lording it over others. We’ve used our leadership to serve ourselves rather than others. We have used our God-given stewardships at the expense of others and for our own gain. For us to begin anywhere other than acknowledging and confessing these things would be misguided.

Further, it will cause us to miss the opportunity to stare into the face of the Only One Man who is truly beautiful. It would also cause us to miss the path toward becoming like this One Perfect Man.

And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:42–45)

The path to leading like he leads requires more than a moral lesson, as in, “Do these five things.” It requires recognition and confession at the deepest levels of who we are, not just “Lord God, I have once or twice misused my authority. Oops. Sorry for the slipup,” but, “Lord God, I am, by fallen nature, a misuser of authority, and I will misuse it repeatedly apart from your grace.”

It requires repentance and faith.

For my part, then, I began this project by asking those “above” me (like bosses), “beside” me (like friends), and “beneath” me (like children or employees) whether I use authority well, asking each to especially highlight the negatives. Gratefully, people have said nice things. Yet to share my shortcomings, one person observed, “Every once in a while, you can be really intense. At worst, this can feel a little controlling.” Another remarked, “You can be very straightforward, which I enjoy. But I can imagine someone who doesn’t know you finding the occasional remark abrasive.”

Did you notice the subtext? Ordinarily, I know how to “behave.” I know how I should appear in my leadership on the outside. But “every once in a while” or “occasionally” something else slips out, and those little slips reveal the fallen version of me—or the “natural me” apart from God’s grace. They reveal something in the deeper waters of my soul.

What would that be? Perhaps a deeper and more chronic overestimation of myself and my ability to control things. And deeper than that, an ongoing tendency to believe the serpent when he said to Eve, “You can be like God.” And deeper still than that, a profoundly diminished view of who God is. And together with all that, too little love for the ones I lead, sensitivity to them, and desire for their growth and strength.

Yet what about you? You have authority. Everyone does, even if you’re a thirteen-year-old and have rule only over your bedroom or the thoughts inside your head. You have dominion over something—some plot of dirt like Adam and Eve in the garden. Do you view that plot of dirt as a stewardship given by God? Are you using your authority to create life, prosperity, and vitality for others? Or do you look at your domain and say, “It’s mine!” and use it for your own purposes and glory? And if we could see into the deeper waters of your soul, what would we find there? Would we find the impulse to say together with John the Baptist about Jesus, “May he increase and I decrease,” or just the opposite?

Those are some of the things I encourage you to think about as you read this book. Don’t read the stories about people who have used authority well and quickly tell yourself that you’re like them. Rather, thank God for their example, but ask yourself how you have not been like them but have been more like the people in the darker stories. Part of what’s wrong on this planet is that each one of us assumes, “I’m the good guy in that story,” when the Bible tells us over and over, “No, there is only One Good Guy.” His name wasn’t Adam or Abraham, Moses or David, Miriam or Mary, Peter or Paul. It is Jesus.

If you think you can simply adopt the five moral lessons that I offer midway through the book on how to exercise authority well, you might as well stop now. You will remain proud. And if you remain proud, you will eventually use your authority in a way that hurts or belittles or undermines those whom you lead, even if God simultaneously uses your selfishness for good through his common grace. Insofar as you and I remain anxious or insecure or selfish or boastful or controlling or proud, no tools can finally help us. There is no “how to.” We will use our authority wrongly, even if we dress it up with lipstick and nice manners. As Jesus said, a good tree bears good fruit, and a bad tree bears bad. Good authority grows out of good natures, but if you’re a bad apple, you’re going to taste rotten. We need new natures, so that we can lead out of those new natures.

To gain new natures, we must begin by getting low, confessing our sins, and putting our hope in Christ. Perhaps the best way to begin this book, then, is with a prayer of confession. The goal of such confession isn’t just to feel bad about ourselves. It’s to name things accurately, so that we can then build a better life on a foundation that’s truly good and lasting, namely, on Christ:

Father God,

You have given us authority to give shape to the world around us. You have asked us to image you in how we use that authority, and to demonstrate for the world your own righteousness, love, generosity, and goodness.

Yet we have used our authority for our own gain, our own fame, our own power. We have failed to serve and love those under our care. We have taken advantage of them and their strength for our own purposes.

We’ve been like all those kings of Israel, who thought they could rule without being accountable to you; and the priests, who forgot your word.

We’ve been like Pharaoh, who used and even destroyed others for his own gain, instead of using his authority to give and encourage life.

We’ve been like David, when he refused to discipline his sons, taking the shortsighted and easy path, to the hurt of his family and kingdom.

We’ve been like the foolish child in Proverbs, despising the counsel and wisdom of others as they try to help us lead.

We’ve been like Abraham, when he put his wife in harm’s way instead of undertaking the risk and burden himself.

We’ve been like Adam and Eve in the garden, who thought they were equal with you.

We’ve not been like Christ, who proved himself king by laying down his life for the sake of love. We have not loved.

Forgive us, Lord, both for what we’ve done and what we’ve left undone with the authority you have given us. Thank you for your promise that, if we confess our sins, you are faithful and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We don’t stand before you saying, “Look at what a good job we’ve done,” or “We weren’t that bad,” or “Consider these excuses.” We plead not the smallness of our sin but its considerable size. And we plead the Son’s perfect and beautiful righteousness, asking that you would mercifully regard us as you regard him.

Thank you for Jesus, who ruled as Adam, Abraham, Moses, and David did not. What a glorious King and Savior, who came not to be served but to serve, and on whose shoulders the government of the world rightly rests. This Prince of Peace is worthy of all our praise and worship. Use this book to teach us to rule like him, for the good of others and the praise of your name.

Amen.

Introduction

Our Angst about Authority

On a Monday in November 2021, the parents of students at Reynolds Middle School in Fairview, Oregon, just outside Portland, received a three-sentence email from the school district. It told them the school would be shutting down in-person learning for three weeks. The faculty had been unable to stop the streak of fighting. They needed a chance to regroup.

Before the shutdown, students had staged a walkout due to their frustration with the administration’s lack of control. “We just decided it was time to do something about it,” observed one eighth-grader (age 13) about the grown-ups’ failure to address the widespread fist-fighting, name-calling, and inappropriate touching.

“Kids are trying to take action that adults should be taking,” said one parent.

“It was very unclear who was in charge,” said another.

As the clamor from students and parents over the unsafe environment grew, the school finally decided to take the three-week hiatus in order to develop “safety protocols” and “social-emotional supports” for handling the chaos.1

I was staying with friends in Portland several weeks after this happened. Talking about it, we assumed the teachers and administrators cared about education. We assumed the parents did too. Yet for various reasons, the adults lacked the ability to take charge in a building full of eleven-to-thirteen-year-olds. Until the whole thing collapsed. The system shut down.

What was missing? Along with anything else we might say, the school lacked a right understanding of authority. Folks in Portland are angsty about authority. As are most Americans. As are citizens of Western democracies generally.

In the Democratic West

Human beings generally have a problem with authority, not just those of us who live in a Western-style liberal democracy. Yet to speak to my primary audience for just a second, our Western problem is that we don’t know what to do with it. We hate it, but we cannot live without it.

So, leave Portland and join me in a trendy coffee shop in the neighborhood of Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, a few blocks from where I work. It’s Saturday morning. You’re watching a well-heeled DC power couple at another table in their overpriced athletic attire, probably in their late thirties, trying desperately to placate their three-year-old. He’s dropped a muffin and is now throwing a fit. The husband pleads softly. The wife desperately offers toys and more treats. They reason with him as if he were an adult. It’s as if no one has ever explained that they’re the parents. That they can draw lines and impose consequences. That they don’t need the child’s consent, if it comes to it. But now the kid is running around the coffee shop, and they look more desperate than ever. They’re neutered. This family might live several economic strata above the world of Reynolds Middle School, but it’s the same story. They lack the tools to lead their child and do him good. They don’t know how to exercise authority.

To give them the benefit of the doubt, they come by their ignorance honestly. Western culture has betrayed and blinded them. Like the parents and teachers at Reynolds, they are the beneficiaries of several centuries worth of attacks against every authority conceivable. Every human has resisted authority since the garden of Eden, but we in the Enlightenment West have given that resistance moral and philosophical respectability. My public school teachers taught me not to trust the church’s authority because the church persecuted Galileo; or the Bible’s authority because science teaches us to leave superstition behind; or science’s authority because one generation of scientists will disprove the former; or the king’s authority because there’s no such thing as the divine right of kings; or the democratic majority’s authority because majorities can be tyrannical, too; or the authority of the courts because they’re also playing politics; or the authority of the philosophers because they’re playing language games; or language’s authority because some French philosophers observed that people weaponize everyday terms like “straight” and “queer” to normalize our preferences and marginalize people who are different; or the market’s authority because capitalism is the conjoined twin of racism; or police authority because they’re racists too; or the media’s authority because it is biased; or the authority of our XX or XY chromosomes because they don’t tell us how we must define our gender; and, of course, Mom and Dad’s authority because, well, life is more fun if you can sneak out and party. Haven’t you seen Ferris Bueller’s Day Off?

When all is said and done, there aren’t any authorities left to topple. Except the authority of “Me.” This is what the writers mean when they describe our day as “individualistic.” Individualism doesn’t mean I like to be alone or I don’t have friends. It means, nobody can tell me what to do or who to be. No one has authority over me.

In Western Churches

Over the last few decades this angst about authority has grown inside churches, too. Christians have been impacted by the politics of the Donald Trump era, movements for opposing sexual assault (e.g., #MeToo and #ChurchToo), episodes of police brutality caught on smart phones, COVID quarantines and shutdowns, not to mention social media’s ability to draw geographically far-flung people with shared discontents together into factions. Increasingly, Christians seem more suspicious of authority than ever.

The pile of church abuse cases and the fall of prominent pastors have undermined confidence in pastoral and church authority. We cannot trust the elders or even the whole congregation to keep pastors accountable. Instead, we need academics to tell us what to think and “independent investigations” to solve our church problems.

This same pile of cases, together with the ever-present problem of abusive husbands, have undermined confidence in male authority. The label “complementarian,” which affirms the two-millennia-old Christian teaching of male headship in the church and home, may have experienced a surge of popularity in evangelical churches in the 1990s and early 2000s. But the tables have turned, aided in part by the leveling power of social media.

Meanwhile, government overreach during COVID provoked Christians on the political right to grow more and more suspicious of government authority. Of course, COVID restrictions only added to the suspicion that’s been growing steadily on the political right over the last two decades in response to sexual orientation and gender identity laws. A typical example: the governor of Oregon signed the Menstrual Dignity Act, requiring Oregon high schools to place tampon dispensers in men’s bathrooms! As a result, the rhetoric of an anti-elitist populism increasingly characterizes the political right. Christians on the political left, similarly, increasingly question police authority, due in part to the smart phone’s ability to film violent police encounters.

Who Are Our Heroes?

Perhaps the easiest place to spot our cultural angst over authority is to go to the movies and notice who the heroes are. As often as not, our movie heroes are the individuals who stand up to authority, because the authority figures are evil.

Luke Skywalker fights against the Empire in the Star Wars trilogy, Neo against the machines in the Matrix trilogy, Jason Bourne against the US Central Intelligence Agency in the Bourne trilogy, Katniss Everdeen against the capitol and President Snow in the Hunger Games trilogy, Tris and Four against the Erudites in the Divergent trilogy, and on and on we could go.

General Maximus stands up to a corrupt Caesar in Gladiator, William Wallace opposes a corrupt King Edward in Braveheart, and literature teacher John Keating teaches his class to “seize the day” by casting off anything that hinders their freedom in Dead Poet’s Society.

And I’m just naming blockbusters. We also love the anti-hero who does things his own way and doesn’t quite fit society’s conventions: Indiana Jones, Batman, Dirty Harry, and most cowboy Western movies you’ve ever seen.

Of course, the anti-authority catechizing begins in childhood with the Disney princess movies. As a man with four daughters, I’ve seen them all. The Little Mermaid sings, “Bet’cha on land they understand / they don’t reprimand their daughters.”2

So with Queen Elsa, somewhere in Scandinavia, belting proudly, “No right, no wrong, no rules for me, I’m free.”3

And Moana, on the opposite side of the planet in the South Pacific, harbors the same ambitions as her Scandinavian and underwater counterparts: “What’s beyond that line? / . . . One day I’ll know / How far I’ll go.”4

The repetition from movie to movie is striking, not to mention predictable and boring. It’s as if our moral imaginations cannot conceive of a different kind of hero, so saturated is the Western soul with anti-authority-ism. The hero we cheer on is the person who resists the leadership, the system, the powers-that-be.

When you open your Bible, by contrast, a very different kind of hero emerges. These heroes often resist tyrannical rulers—Moses against Pharaoh, Elijah against Ahab, Esther against Haman, and of course Jesus against the religious leaders. Yet another, more central theme is always present in the Bible’s picture of a hero. From start to finish, no matter what story is being told, the biblical hero is the person who is obedient to God.

Noah is obedient, making him a hero. Just ask the kids in Sunday school. So is Abraham, when he follows the Lord even to the point of being willing to sacrifice his son. So are Moses and Joshua and Ruth and David and the prophets, at least when they are obeying. And all this leads to Jesus, the perfectly obedient Son, who speaks only what the heavenly Father tells him to speak and does only what the heavenly Father tells him to do. Jesus is the blessed man of Psalm 1 who doesn’t walk in the way of the wicked but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, meditating on it night and day.

Meanwhile, the bad guys in the Bible are always the ones who disobey, from Cain to Pharaoh to King Saul to Queen Jezebel to Herod and Pontius Pilate.

Every once in a blue moon a blockbuster movie will encourage you to root for someone to obey—basically the exception that proves the rule. Viewers want young Anakin Skywalker to submit to his Jedi master Obi-Won Kenobi and not turn into Darth Vader, for instance. We also want Harry Potter to stop lying and tell the truth to Dumbledore. So the instinct to obey is not entirely absent in our culture, but it’s pretty unusual.

Interestingly, cheering for someone to obey or submit is more common in Christian movies. In the Christian movies, the plot always centers around the hero coming to the end of himself, submitting to God, and finding redemption, whether the movie is Ben Hur, The Mission, Fireproof, Facing the Giants, or I Can Only Imagine.

Yet notice, even in these Christian movies, the storylines picture the person wrestling only with himself and God. It’s not about submitting to other people. Submitting to God is one thing, but submitting to people? That makes us nervous.

Conflicted and Angsty

So here we are, in this moment in which we all feel both conflicted and angsty about the idea of authority. After all, we’ve seen authority’s abuses, from George III overtaxing the American colonists to parents abusing their children. There are good reasons why the Western modern and now postmodern tradition have cultivated in our hearts a “hermeneutic of suspicion” toward all authority. In one sense, we’re right to adopt a default setting of suspicion toward those who have authority over us. Power corrupts, as they say. And abuse, which I’d define simply as misusing authority in a way that harms another person, is common.

Still, strangely perhaps, something instinctive in us keeps reaching out to other authority figures to solve the problem of bad authority. During the Civil Rights era, African Americans reached out to the federal government to address the discrimination they were experiencing at the hands of state and city governments. In our own era, the public voices advocating for abuse victims inside churches not only condemn the pastors who handled their cases poorly, they commend the path of reaching out to the police and child-protective services.

We instinctively recognize that the solution to bad authority is seldom no authority, but almost always good authority.

Yet book after book and tweet after tweet in our present moment only highlight the badness of bad authority. Very few attempts have been offered to define, illustrate, and commend good authority. In a world characterized by so many bad authorities, defining the bad strikes me as a necessary job, but the easier job. The harder job is to define and present good authority.

Around the World

On the flip side, it’s worth mentioning how context-specific these introductory remarks have been so far. Spend time in other countries around the world, and you’ll discover that this contempt of authority is not typical.

In my day job, I work with pastors and have had the privilege of spending time with pastors internationally. Whether I’m speaking to pastors in Colombia, Zambia, India, or other places, often they struggle with teaching their congregations the opposite problem: that the senior pastor should not possess all power and authority. My friends in Hispanic and African contexts, for instance, explain that people like the strong leader. Therefore, pastors struggle with raising up other leaders who will do anything more than rubber-stamp the senior pastor’s own preferences. Meanwhile, pastors in southern or eastern Asian contexts, like their African counterparts, feel the challenges that arise within the context of an honor/shame culture. Leaders expect honor; people under them quickly give it.

Every location has its own challenges. A missionary friend in a formerly Soviet Central Asian country, knowing that I was working on this book, wrote me,

One of the biggest obstacles to seeing healthy churches in our context is the abuse of authority within the church. Our country was part of the Soviet Union until its dissolution in 1991. The Soviet idea of authority continues to this day in the country’s government, and that idea of authoritarian leadership has seeped into the church and is the prevailing way most pastors and church leaders view authority. There is a dire need for a biblical understanding of authority and how to use it properly in the post-Soviet, Central Asian context.

To make his point, my missionary friend offered two examples. First, a church member asked his pastor if there was church budget money for helping with evangelism and outreach. The pastor responded by saying that the church member had no authority to ask him about church funds. The money is given to the pastor, and he has sole authority over what happens with that money. Nor did he expect to be held accountable for his handling of the funds.

My friend’s second example: in a conversation with other pastors, an older pastor referred to himself as “king” in his church and the members as his “subjects.” He encouraged the younger pastors to anticipate the day when they, too, would be kings in their churches with subjects under their authority.

At best, the pastors in these two illustrations will have ineffective ministries, with few people growing in grace and wisdom. People will wander away until the churches shut down. That’s what will happen if these two pastors lack charisma or competence. If it turns out they are charismatic and competent, their ministries could do great damage in people’s lives and Christian discipleship.

This introduction has emphasized an American antipathy toward authority, since I assume that’s my primary audience. Still, I have tried to reflect on Scripture and write the rest of this book with both problems in mind—the problem of an authoritarian overemphasis and the problem of an individualistic rejection of all authority.

One Eye on the Good, One on the Bad

A right view of authority must always keep both eyes open. One eye must always be fixed on bad authority. This is Satan’s version. It’s authority as exercised in the fall. And one eye must be fixed on good authority. This is God’s version. It’s authority as intended in creation and as exercised in redemption. With both eyes open, we see that authority is a good but dangerous gift.

Good, godly authority “authors” life, like the root of the word itself: author-ity. As we’ll discover, it doesn’t just work from the top down, but also from the bottom up. Good authority says, “Let me be the platform on which you build your life. I’ll supply you, fund you, resource you, guide you. Just listen to me.”

Good authority binds in order to loose, corrects in order to teach, trims in order to grow, disciplines in order to train, legislates in order to build, judges in order to redeem, studies in order to innovate. It is the teacher teaching, the coach coaching, the mother mothering. It is the rules for a game, the lines on a road, a covenant for lovers.

It says, “Trust me, and I will give you a garden in which to create a world. Just keep my commandments. I love you.”

Good authority loves. Good authority gives. Good authority generally passes out power.

Yet our first parents, and we ourselves, chose not to use our authority according to God’s commandments. We stopped asking for God’s authorization but relied instead on the serpent’s, since he appealed to our desires for supremacy. He promised loosing without binding, growing without trimming, innovation without study.

What has resulted is a rebellious and cursed world. We use our authority selfishly and therefore ineffectually. And since ineffectually then violently, believing violence will achieve our ends. Cain is not worshiped for his “worship,” so he kills.

Sin, in other words, is nothing more or less than humanity’s misuse of authority. Adam’s bite and Pharaoh’s bloodshed belong to the same class, operate by the same principles, possess the same authorization. As I expressed it in the prelude, Pharaoh merely swung a much bigger hammer.

Bad authority discourages, cripples, wilts, sucks dry, dehumanizes, snuffs out, annihilates. It uses, but doesn’t give. It is political imperialism, economic exploitation, environmental degradation, business monopolization, social oppression, child abuse.

Of course, bad authority doesn’t always wear such monstrous faces. Often it charms and persuades. It borrows truth and offers empathy. It says, “I know how you’re feeling. I recognize your troubles. Here is the solution. Listen to me. Keep my commandments.”

Bad authority takes a good and glorious gift that God has given to humanity and employs it for evil. It is a liar and a charlatan. Yet it is so very real, at least for a time.

Ever since the fall, the world has offered a mix of good and bad. The good comes sometimes from God’s special grace, sometimes from his common grace. Even apart from Christ’s first coming, history offers comparatively good and bad kings. Think of Pharaoh at the time of Joseph versus Pharaoh at the time of Moses.

The first coming of Christ, the perfect king, represents the beginning of the end of the bad. Yet now, in between Jesus’s first and second comings, good and bad uses of authority remain mixed together, even among God’s people, even in a single person. One day I’m the father I want to be. The next day I’m not.

Wisdom today is knowing how to keep our eyes on both good and bad uses of authority. Just as the Bible tells us there’s a time to tear down and a time to build up, a time for war and a time for peace (Eccl. 3:1–8), so there’s a time for Luke Skywalker to rebel and for Anakin Skywalker to submit. We must talk about the goodness of authority as God intends, yet we must not have idealized expectations for how well people in this world will use it.

The Bible is acutely aware of both good and bad authority, and it intends for us to study both. Consider an Israelite king. The king is over his kingdom. Yet he’s a good king only insofar as he puts himself under God’s law and with his fellow Israelites. Look at God’s instructions for him, and notice what I have italicized for emphasis:

And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law. . . . And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel. (Deut. 17:18–20)

The kings of Israel were supposed to make themselves accountable to God’s law, and to acknowledge a basic equality between themselves and the people. “If you are overothers,” says God, “you had better be underme, because then you realize you’re no better than anyone else, and that you’re only a steward, a landlord, a guardian of what’s mine!”

The take-away lesson here: Good human authority is never absolute. Good authority is always accountable. Good authority drives inside the lines that God has painted on the road. In fact, good authority is always submissive!

You shouldn’t lead if you cannot submit or stay in your lane, because good leadership is always in submission to God and anyone else whom God places over us. Only God’s authority is absolute and comprehensive, being accountable only to the law of his own nature. The authority of creatures is always relative, as we’ll consider in the coming chapters.

Furthermore, good authority, as set down in Scripture and as I’ve witnessed it, is seldom an advantage to those who possess it. It involves leading and making decisions, to be sure. Jesus led. But what the godly leader feels day to day are not all the advantages, but the burdens of responsibility, of culpability, of even bearing another’s guilt. Good authority is profoundly costly, usually involving the sacrifice of everything. It requires the end of personal desires. Meanwhile, those “under” good authority often possess most of the advantages. They’re provided protection and opportunity, strength and freedom. For instance, I would much rather have my job than my boss Ryan’s job. Ryan has to deal with the tough stuff. He has to absorb blame when things don’t go well. He has to pick up the slack when others leave it. Meanwhile, he continually provides me with a track to run on, and I’m free not to worry about the tougher things.

Furthermore, isn’t this precisely what we see in Jesus’s use of authority, leading up to the cross? He took the hard stuff on himself so that we might have the freedom to grow and run.

When we stop believing authority can be good, we grow in cynicism. We grow incapable of trust. We insist the world operates on our terms, which is another way of describing “individualism.” When this becomes widespread, community breaks down, because authoritative relationships teach us how to defer to other people, even in relationships where no hierarchy exists.

When we stop worrying about authority becoming bad, we grow in pride and self-deceit, because we assume we’re right. We lack sympathy for the vulnerable, because we assume the decisions of the hierarchy are just. We condone sin in our leaders or sin performed on behalf of the group.

A Tale of Two Coaches

In short, the goal of this book is to understand both the good and the bad versions of authority.

What makes bad authority bad? My friend Anthony’s high school baseball coach, Coach Linus (not his real name), was a bad authority.5 Anthony attended a boarding school for disadvantaged children in Pennsylvania. Like most of the boys in the school, he grew up poor and without a dad. Coach Linus knew how important coaches are to fatherless boys, and he used that knowledge to play favorites and leverage the boys against each other. He would insult them, mock them, and always remind them that he was above them. Anthony recalled one friend named Mike, who was one of the best hitters he had ever seen. Yet Coach Linus continually criticized Mike’s weight and character, until Mike quit. “Playing for Coach Linus,” Anthony said, “felt like a burden you could never be relieved of.” Not surprisingly, Coach Linus got nothing out of his players and never won a game.

Meanwhile, what makes a good authority good? Anthony’s high school football coach, Coach Guyer, was a good authority. Guyer, too, knew most of these boys were fatherless. Yet, knowing that, he worked to provide what they lacked with strong accountability and care. He made them work hard. He required them to sprint from every exercise to the next and drilled them constantly. Sometimes he did the running and drills with them, and he could convince them he was confident in them. He offered hard words of correction, but he said them in a way that no boy doubted the coach had his best interest at heart. “Looking back,” Anthony reflected, “I realized Coach Guyer wasn’t the best coach in a technical sense. He had a simple and basic playbook. The other teams could call out our plays before they happened. But the coach got everything out of us. Every guy on the team gave it his all. And we won games!” Guyer now belongs to the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame. Anthony would eventually invite Coach Guyer to attend his wedding and remains in touch with him to this day.

What’s the difference between these two coaches? Answering that is the goal of this book.

The Plan

Here’s the plan for doing that. Parts 1 and 2 (“What Is Authority?” [chs. 1–3]; “What Is Submission?” [chs. 4–5]) look at the biblical basics. We’ll consider what authority and submission are, and I’ll try to help you stare hard at the good and the bad—both in the Bible and in life. Bad authority steals and destroys life, while good authority creates life. Beyond that, God gave us authority to protect the vulnerable, strengthen communities, and promote human flourishing. If you’re a critic of authority, you might try staring hard at the good. If you’re an advocate of authority, and especially if you’re in a position of authority, you need to stare hard at the bad.

Part 3 (“How Does Good Authority Work? Five Principles” [chs. 6–10]) will focus on five attributes of good authority. If the goal of parts 1 and 2 is to help us to embrace good authority and hate bad authority, the goal of part 3 is to offer five practical handles for practicing good authority. These principles aren’t just theories for me. They capture how I’ve sought to live with my wife, children, employees, and congregation. I haven’t kept them perfectly, but they are the principles I strive toward every day.

Part 4 (“What Does Good Authority Look Like in Action?” [chs. 11–17]) begins by distinguishing two kinds of authority: authority of counsel and authority of command. Those with an authority of counsel, like husbands and elders, do not have a biblically assigned enforcement mechanism. Those with an authority of command, like governments and parents of young children, do. We’ll discover that this distinction significantly impacts how you will use your authority. From there we’ll consider how authority should look in a number of different domains.

Following chapter 17, the Conclusion then offers a final reflection on the idea of equality as well as the beginning of all good authority, which is the fear of God.

The goal of this book is to help every husband, parent, pastor, policeman, politician, officer, and employer understand this good and dangerous gift of authority, and then equip you to handle it with care. I hope to challenge those who use authority excessively, as well as those who abdicate and avoid the hard decisions. Not only that: I hope it helps you reflect a little bit more on God and what he is like. The topic of authority takes us right to the heart of who God is, and how he means for us to image him. What you think about authority, finally, reveals quite a bit about what you think about God.

1  “Students, Parents Call for District to Rein in Sexual Harassment, Fighting at Northeast Portland Middle School,” The Oregonian (November 5, 2021): https://www.oregonlive.com/education/2021/11/students-parents-call-for-district-to-rein-in-sexual-harassment-fighting-at-northeast-portland-middle-school.html; “Reynolds Middle School Is Shutting Down In-Person Learning for 3 Weeks to Address Student Fights, Misbehavior”; The Oregonian (November 18, 2021): https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2021/11/reynolds-middle-school-is-shutting-down-in-person-learning-for-3-weeks-to-address-student-fights-misbehavior.html. Both accessed April 9, 2022.

2  Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, “Part of Your World” (from The Little Mermaid), © 1989, Walt Disney Music Company.

3  Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, “Let It Go” (from Frozen), © 2013, Walt Disney Music Company.

4  Lin-Manuel Miranda, “How Far I’ll Go” (from Moana), © 2016, Walt Disney Music Company.

5  Unless specified otherwise, names in this book are real.

Part I

What Is Authority?

1

Authority Is God’s Good Creation Gift for Sharing His Rule and Glory

“I love to talk about my dad.”

That’s the first thing Angela said when I finally got ahold of her by phone. Several weeks earlier, I had told my church I was writing a book on authority and asked them for stories about their experiences with authority—good or bad. Angela was excited to help.

There’s no tension in her story. No unexpected turns or disappointments. You might even call it wonderfully boring. It’s just a woman in her early forties with three kids of her own and a great husband praising—or gushing about, really—her dad. I wish you could hear the enthusiasm in her tone.

Immanence and Transcendence

The first thing Angela talked about was how her father, a full-time pastor, worked hard to be with her and her siblings:

He always made time for us. He was available. He was at my piano competitions. He coached my basketball team. He was home for dinner. My school was across the street from the church where he pastors, and every other week he’d sign me out to have lunch with me. He was available and wanted to spend time with me. I in turn wanted to be with him.

We enjoy such stories—a father on a date with his daughter or investing himself in her pursuits—because we like the picture of someone over us stooping down to be with us.

Likewise, we like pictures of God walking with Adam and Eve in the garden or the Son of God becoming a baby in Bethlehem. We want a God who makes himself immanent. Who stoops down. Who draws near. Who attends to our concerns.

Yet don’t miss the bigger picture: we enjoy immanence because it’s set against transcendence, which is something we have a harder time liking. To speak of God’s transcendence is to refer to the fact that he’s over us and possesses all authority. He’s high and holy. He can tell us what to do. Earthly fathers, too, possess a measure of transcendence, or authority, over their children. They establish the rules and set the boundaries.

You could hear Angela talk about her father’s “transcendence”—his over-ness and authority—even in the way she said his name. Right after describing how he spent time with her, she also observed, “He was daaaad [she drew out her “a” like that], and what he said, we did. He put boundaries in place for us. If he said be home at ten, I knew I needed to.”

Good authorities blend both postures, though they combine them differently depending on the role. A husband should offer his wife mostly immanence, while an army general will lean toward more transcendence. Angela’s father, apparently, struck a good balance for a father. Right after referring to him setting boundaries, she continued, “But that was a positive thing, and I trusted him. I knew he set his boundaries in love.”

How did you know he did that in love?

I just knew he was for me. I was really into music. He didn’t know music or understand it at all. He was really into sports. Since I was tall, I wondered if, deep down, he wanted me to be a basketball or volleyball player. But in fact he never demonstrated the least bit of disappointment in me for doing what I wanted to do or was good at. Instead, he was proud of me. He supported me and showed up at everything.

In our flesh, we dislike the idea of someone else being “over” us. Yet when we know the authority figures love us, we more easily trust them. We can recognize that having someone over us can be a source of blessing, even in their discipline of us.

To illustrate, Angela told a story from high school of going out with friends. Her father gave her an exact time to be home, but she didn’t make it. He called the place where she said she would be, but she wasn’t there. When she arrived home, she found a note waiting. It read, “Angela, I tried to find you. You were not available like you said you would be. I’m disappointed. I’ve taken the family, and we went to the coast.” He had planned a surprise trip for the family to the beach, and she missed it. Her reaction?

I remember seeing the note and feeling crushed. Later, when the family got home, my dad didn’t hammer the point. There was no scolding and no lecture. He knew missing the trip would be enough. And he was right: it crushed me to miss out on my dad’s blessing, because he had built our family around a trust and a love of receiving his blessings.

That last line challenged me when she relayed the story. Have I taught my family to trust that my use of authority would lead to their blessing? Do my daughters connect boundaries and blessings like this? The comment also made me think of judgment day. How many people will discover that the very thing they despised—God’s law—was given to them for their blessing?

Freedom, Empowerment, and Growth

Why exactly is authority a blessing? Because it grows us. That’s the first purpose of authority to highlight in this chapter: good authority grows and empowers those who are under it. Hence, the apostle Paul refers to “the authority . . . the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down” (2 Cor. 13:10).

Our natural and shortsighted perspective is to equate authority with restrictions and the repression of growth. So say many teenagers to themselves: “Once I’m out of the house, I’ll be able to do what I want and become the person I want to be.” We think of authority and freedom, or authority and growth, as opposites. And there are more than enough bad authorities in this world to prove the point.

The teenager’s impulse, moreover, is not entirely wrong. To possess authority is to possess freedom—the freedom to make decisions or exercise power within a particular domain. And the parent possesses an authority and freedom in the home that the teenager doesn’t possess. Indeed, the parent restricts the teenager’s freedom in particular ways.

Yet the teenager who bucks the arrangement is being shortsighted. The very purpose of those restrictions is to draw the teenager, little by little, into the parent’s own freedom and authority—into mature adulthood. A good parent wants the teenager to experience freedom and to exercise authority, but to employ both of those gifts responsibly and morally.

So it is in every domain of authority and leadership. Your goal should be to lift people up. Human beings don’t grow only when freed from restrictions. We also grow when restrictions are placed upon us, like wooden stakes strengthening saplings, or rose bushes sprouting when trimmed. Likewise, children gain wisdom from study. Runners run faster from drills. Employees become managers through training. Obedience, discipline, and boundaries teach. They strengthen. “You cannot learn without obedience,” one elementary school teacher said, reflecting on her classroom.

Yet good authority nearly always offers a blend of transcendence and immanence. The one over us in wisdom and authority draws near to us and says, “Do what I do. Follow me.” And by following, we acquire wisdom. We grow to be like the one we’re following.

Pretend Michelangelo is your art teacher. How will you learn to paint like he paints? In the beginning, you learn by training and disciplining your brush to do what his brush does. You conform your eye and hand to his. Then, that mastered, you possess all the freedom of the master himself. You can do as he does. Or you can paint in your own style, but with all his skill.

This theme of growth and empowerment ran through everything Angela said. Her dad empowered her, encouraged her, made her strong. This came through especially as she talked about the double blessing of his being not just a dad but her pastor:

Not only was he a humble, strong father, but he did it while being a pastor. It was a double encouragement. His role as father shaped me. And so did his role as pastor. Those two things worked favorably in my life.

As my pastor, he encouraged me in my personal walk with the Lord. I don’t know how he did it, but his encouragement never felt like it was for his own benefit or his own renown in the church, as if he were afraid of people saying, “The pastor better have kids who are walking with the Lord.” Rather, he simply encouraged us to read our Bibles and be at church.

Then I remember being excited to take the church membership class, which he taught, when I was 16. I was able to ask questions on my own two feet. It felt empowering. I didn’t feel compelled to be a certain way because he was the pastor. Yet his leadership was alluring to me. Somehow he provoked in me a desire to know the Lord and to be a part of the church and to know what Scripture says.

It takes skill or wisdom to simultaneously lead people in the right direction, while also letting them figure out their direction on their own. It’s hard to know how much transcendence and how much immanence to offer. Does the cookbook call for one cup of each, or a cup of one and half a cup of the other? In fact, different moments call for different ratios. And a wise father knows that the older and stronger and more mature his daughter becomes, the more he will lean toward immanence:

As I got older, my dad would parent with questions—like Jesus, who asked a lot of questions. By asking questions, he was able to lead me without a heavy hand, letting me put the pieces together myself. And by leading with questions, I never felt like he was overbearing. Instead, he gave me space to process things with him, and I knew it was a safe space to process—safe because he didn’t need me to be a certain way or look a certain way. I knew he loved me and was for my good.

In these comments, you hear a theme that’s going to surface several times in this book: the generosity of good authority. Good human authority doesn’t strive to continually remind you of the hierarchy, but typically aspires for equality, even when the formal hierarchies remain enduring. It exists not to