Authority, Submission and Oneness

Authority and submission are important to the unity of the Church. But it does not operate based on a human chain of command. It operates based on respect for leaders under a common head.

Authority, and submission to authority, is vitally important to the functioning of the Church. Many divisions in the Church have been caused by questions about who is in authority and by refusal to submit to those who have asserted authority. However, the questions that are commonly raised about authority in the Church assume that authority in the Church works the same way it does in the world—hierarchically, with some clear “chain of command” and those “in charge” calling all of the shots. Thus, the questions that generally are asked, and that lead to division, tend to revolve around identifying the person or persons “in charge,” determining the form and length of the “chain of command” (e.g., whether there should be one pastor or a board of elders, or whether the local church is answerable to a denominational hierarchy), and determining whether ordinary church members have the authority to do anything in Jesus’ name they have not been told to do by the person or persons “in charge.” All questions of this sort assume that the Church operates with either a more or less military-style or bureaucratic hierarchy in which those in the “chain of command” are well aware of their rank and only those at the top really know what God’s plan is.

            But Jesus said that His Kingdom would not operate in this way:

Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Mark 10:42-45 (NIV)

            This does not imply that we should treat our leaders with disrespect. No, even leaders who abuse the charge God has given them are to be respected and obeyed. This is true of governmental leaders in the world, whom God has ordained.¹ It is also true of spiritual leaders God has placed in the Church. Consider Jesus’ words concerning the scribes and the Pharisees, spiritual leaders who had certainly abused their authority. Jesus told his Jewish audience that, because these men did, in fact, “sit in Moses’ seat” as the leaders of the people, the people should do all that they said to do. However, he went on to warn the people not to do what the scribes and Pharisees did, “for they say, and do not.”² In fact, as abusive leaders, they placed heavy loads on their followers that they were unwilling to lift themselves.³ Nonetheless, the people were to obey their words because of their position as leaders. However, Jesus then spoke of the two keys to the whole matter of authority, namely, recognizing the correct master and showing mutual submission to each other, when he said:

But don’t you be called ‘Rabbi,’ for one is your teacher, the Christ, and all of you are brothers. Call no man on the earth your father, for one is your Father, he who is in heaven. Neither be called masters, for one is your master, the Christ. But he who is greatest among you will be your servant.

Matthew 23:8-11

  These two keys are discussed further below.

Next: Christ is the Head of the Church.