10. When Our Authorities Go Wrong
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B y the very title of this chapter, it is obvious that there will be occasions when authorities over us make wrong JL S choices. Please note, I did not say the Authority, which is God. I am referring to delegated human authorities: a king, a boss at work, a prime minister, a husband, a judge, a parent or a pastor.
After all we have studied, there can be no doubt that God desires us to have a submissive heart, and He seeks to bless those who honor their authorities. Yet how does God want us to respond when we are faced with hard and difficult circumstances concerning our authorities? What are we supposed to do when they misuse and even abuse their powers? Is there a time and a place to resist authority? If so, how do we respond without being defiled by the spirit of rebellion?
There are definitely times when we need to express our concerns to our leaders. Sometimes we need to remove ourselves from under their authority. Unfortunately, there are also situations when we must even disobey our delegated authority.
These are not easy issues. Please be warned that we are entering a dangerous zone. Unless we are careful, we can allow our own reasoning in these situations to lead us into rebellious responses. We must earnestly guard our heart and make certain we are not looking for excuses to disobey based on our own self-centeredness and subjective reasoning.
Making the right choice comes down to having a heart of submission and sincerely seeking to hear what the Lord is saying to us in these specific situations. There are no pre-fabricated, black-and-white answers. If our hearts are submitted, however, we will be seeking to find a way to obey our authorities if there is a way to be found. And the Lord then will undoubtedly lead us through these challenging life choices. Throughout this chapter, we will study the guidelines and examples in God’s Word that will aid us in handling these matters in a submissive manner.
Please keep in mind, however, that we are living in a day and age in which the crisis is not misuse of authority. Rather, this age is infected with the spirit of independence and rebellion. Look at 2 Timothy 3:1-5:
But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!
Most of these descriptions are rooted in unbrokenness and rebellion. We must go against the spirit of today in order to follow Christ in submission. And now as we look at these exceptions throughout this chapter, please keep in mind that’s what they are—exceptions.
in the Midst of Turmoil
We can come to the point at which we can’t handle the pressure we experience under our authority. I know people who are convinced no matter what, we should suffer under their decisions, without voicing concerns or asking any questions. However, if we make sure our hearts are right and there is no bitterness or rebellion in them toward our authority, it is proper that we go to them when there is a concern or confusion.
Several times during David’s run for his life, he basically responds to the situation saying, “As far as I know my heart is right. So why do you seek to kill me? If I have done something wrong, please tell me.”1 It is obvious that he did not speak out of a rebellious heart, but rather a submissive one. This is true even though he questioned the actions of his authority. Great care should be taken, however, in these situations that we act in a spirit of humility and submission of our Lord Jesus and not in the spirit of pride and accusation of Satan.
The Lord understands and knows our hearts. Difficult circumstances under our authorities may bring us to the place of an emotional, mental or physical breakdown, such that we may need to consider removing ourselves from under our authority. This may not have as much to do with our authority’s sin and failure as it does with our own lack of maturity.
We may be able to carry 100 kilograms on our head, but cannot handle when 200 kilograms are placed on us. We will break our neck and our back if we don’t get out of that situation. But it is important that we always seek the Lord. He knows how much we are able to handle, and more often than not, this amount is greater than we realize.
This could be exactly what happened with John Mark, the young man who joined Paul’s aggressive missions team.2 For whatever the reason he quit the journey, he was obviously no longer able to continue. John Mark appears not to have left out of rebellion or bitterness because he continued in the work of God to the extent that Paul later wrote to Timothy, “Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me” (2 Timothy 4:11, NIV).
Just because we speak with our authorities about difficulties or choose to remove ourselves from under their authority does not automatically mean we are rebellious. Again, submission and rebellion are a matter of the heart. We sin in our actions only if we leave with rebellion in our hearts and words of attack toward authorities on our tongues.
When leaving is the Option
There are some situations in which leaving and releasing ourselves from our authority is the best option.
It may be that we have a particular conviction about something that varies from our authority’s. That difference can wear us down to the extent that it is best for us to choose to leave a ministry or employment.
I know of a man named Greg who once worked with a ministry. At that time, they were smuggling Bibles into the closed countries of Eastern Europe. For him, this became a serious issue. He told his leaders that he could not be part of a group involved in smuggling. They tried to help him see why they chose this action over leaving these people without the Word of God. He was not satisfied. In the end, he chose to leave. It took him several years before he began seeing things in a different light and understood the heart of this mission.
Throughout his struggles, Greg never attacked or criticized his leaders or their ministry. His was a godly example of someone removing himself from under authority when the conflict was greater than what he was able to handle.
A pastor friend of mine told me the story of an attractive godly wife and mother. Her name was Susan. She gave her life to Christ as a young girl. She hoped to marry a Christian young man and to have children who walked close to the Lord. While in college, she met that man. Tom was everything she was looking for. Soon they were happily married.
As the years rolled by, Tom changed. He was no longer the faithful husband Susan had once known. Getting drunk and coming home late became the norm. Often Susan cried herself to sleep.
Things got worse. From time to time, Tom visited prostitutes. Susan was heartbroken. She talked to him about her deep concern for him and this dangerous road he was on. Tom just hardened his heart and rebuked her for not being a submissive wife.
Over time, Tom’s behavior went from bad to worse. One day, out of desperation, Susan called my friend Pastor Joshua and asked if he could talk to the two of them. He agreed. My friend was shocked when Tom confessed that he had been living a wilder life than even his wife had known. After several counseling sessions, my friend thought there was a sincere breakthrough. Tom seemed to be freed from his wayward lifestyle.
One day, however, Susan called Pastor Joshua and told him the nightmare was not yet over. In the midst of all her pain and trauma, she remained faithful to Tom the best she knew how. She loved him, prayed for him and even covered for him before her observant children. Often, though, he accused her of judging him.
Eventually Susan came to the place of becoming deeply concerned for the physical safety of her family. She began wondering if she should leave Tom for their sake. This is when Pastor Joshua called me once again.
When it comes to problems like this, there is no “one answer” that works every time. We must seek to know the Lord’s direction for our given circumstance. God knows our hearts and the heart of our authority. He also knows what we must do within the context of the whole situation. As we seek the Lord, we must make sure that our hearts are not defiled by rebellion and that we truly want to honor Him by our decision.
When safety is at risk, it is definitely a time to consider leaving. David at last removed himself from the presence of Saul; otherwise he would have been killed.3 Yet David did not manifest rebellion toward Saul. If we sincerely seek to honor the Lord and submit, He will work things out in the end, even if later we wonder if we made the right choice.
My friend Pastor Joshua asked for my advice. In this particular situation, I told him I felt Susan should be open to the option of leaving.
When a battered wife comes to the church leadership seeking help, it is a mistake to just tell her to “go and submit to your husband.” To do so is to add injustice to injustice or abuse to abuse. If it is a life-threatening situation, a woman needs more than a few Bible verses and superficial advice. The same is true for children who suffer from physical abuse. As the Body of Christ, we have a responsibility to intervene on behalf of people who are in desperate need of practical help.
In whatever way excruciating difficulty under authority manifests itself, it takes humility to admit it is beyond us to continue on. There is no denying that Hagar, David and Joseph are examples of those who endured much under unjust authority. They trusted in God, and in the end, they reaped great blessings for their submission in the midst of hardship. However, there is a place for recognizing our situation is more than what we are able to handle.
Disobeying Man to Obey God
In the book of 1 Kings, we read the strange story of a godly young prophet.4 The Lord had specifically instructed him to go and give a certain message to the backslidden king of Israel and to return home a different way without eating or drinking anything.
After telling King Jeroboam what God wanted said, the prophet began to leave. The king pleaded with him to have some food before he left. But he responded wisely, “Even if you were to give me half your possessions, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water here” (1 Kings 13:8, NIV).
On the way back to Judah, an older, more seasoned prophet invited him to his home for dinner. Again the young prophet said, “No. I cannot. God told me not to.” Then the old prophet falsely told him, “But God asked me to invite you to eat with me.”
Hungry and tired, the young man submitted and shared a meal with this fellow servant of the Lord. Obviously this young man must have been in awe to be asked to go to the home of a seasoned man of God. Surely he looked up to him as a greater authority in representing God, as he disregarded the words already spoken to him. After the meal was over, the young prophet took off again, and soon a lion came out of the woods and mauled him.
He should not have listened to the older prophet, even though he represented authority in terms of age or experience. Why? This young prophet already knew what God had told him. So it is with us today. When we know beyond doubt that God has shown us what needs to be done, we must give priority to that word above others’ opinion or counsel.
In our decisions to follow Christ, sometimes our own family can become a hindrance. Jesus Himself faced this temptation in His earthly life. Listen to what our Lord said about this critical decision: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26, NIV).
Well-meaning parents can demand that you marry a certain person or take up a particular profession they think is the best for you and your family. It is wise to take counsel from your parents even when they are no longer responsible for you. They know you better than most people and have lived longer. But there may be times when God has made clear to you the path you must take, and this call of God on your life is different from their wishes. The question then before you is, Whose voice will you obey?
First, we need to make sure we are sincerely seeking to hear the Lord and not just what we want to hear. If there is no doubt that this is God’s plan and not your own, then in humility you must ask your parents to please understand what you have heard from God, and pray for Him to work on their hearts. But in the end, you may have to say no to them, in order to say yes to your Lord.
This situation can happen in regard to full-time Christian service, even when your parents are believers. They insist that their children not go in some direction. Maybe they want their family business carried on. These are very difficult situations. But again, this would be a time when you must choose to follow the call of God on your life rather than obeying your human authority.
When Jesus called John and his brother, they immediately left their father’s fishing business and followed Him.5 Paul said that when God called him to preach to the Gentiles, he did not consult with his flesh and blood.6
During the early 1970s, I had a young man on the same missions team I was on who had to make a painful choice between the Lord Jesus and his parents.
While studying at the university, he had given his life to Christ. His family, however, was extremely anti-Christian. Yet, full of faith, he excitedly told his parents about his choice to follow Jesus.
First they were in shock. They tried their best to get him to change his mind. Then they demanded that he deny Christ and return to the religion of his ancestors. They even began to physically and mentally torture him. Though he knew he would lose his privilege of being considered their son, he stood firm in his faith. Finally they threw him out of their home. He joined our missions team, and it became my responsibility to protect him from those who sought to kidnap him and do him harm.
When the apostles and early Christians were asked not to talk about Christ, they responded to the ruling authorities, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19-20, NIV).
Watchman Nee of China, a devout follower of Jesus, spent years in prison for disobeying the governmental authority that told him not to preach the Gospel. They demanded that he deny Christ, but he refused.
We are told to search the Scriptures and to be on the alert so we will not fall under judgment.7 More simply stated, when our authority asks us to walk contrary to the Word of God, we must not simply obey and blindly follow.
But be careful, this is tricky ground. We should realize there is not a single person who is perfect, and that includes the delegated authorities over us. Nor do we ourselves have all the divine wisdom. We can’t count on the premise that we have interpreted all Scripture accurately while others have failed. With humility, we must seek the Lord in these cases and ask Him to show us how we are to respond.
Consider Joseph’s steward.8 He was asked by Joseph, his authority, to put his silver cup in Benjamin’s grain sack. Then the next day he was told to go after these men and accuse them of the very thing he himself did. It would have been easy for him to have said, “Joseph, what you are doing is wrong, and I will have no part in it.” But there was a much bigger picture than what the steward understood. Joseph’s brothers had shown rash jealousy toward him, and Joseph wanted to know if they still felt this way and whether they would treat his younger brother, Benjamin, in the same manner they had treated him. Of course, the steward did not know this background or how Joseph intended to handle events as they unfolded.
Often we may know only a small part of the story that our authority is dealing with. So to us it may look obviously wrong, but if we knew everything going on, we might feel quite differently. What is the answer then? We must walk with the knowledge of the Scriptures and the counsel of the Holy Spirit, seeking to honor and submit to our authority.
Look at the children of Israel in ancient Egypt.9 They prospered until a new Pharaoh came into power who did not know Joseph. This new ruler feared the strength of the children of Israel and decided to oppress them. He commanded the midwives to kill all Hebrew male children at birth: “When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth and observe them on the delivery stool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live” (Exodus 1:16, NIV). But the midwives feared God more than they did Pharaoh and did not obey the order. They let the boy babies live.
Moses’ parents also disobeyed Pharaoh’s order. They hid Moses and, by doing so, saved his life. Both the midwives and the parents of Moses chose to disobey the ruler’s command and instead to obey God.
There may come a time in our lives when we cannot obey man for the sake of obeying God. Let us be ready to do so if we must.
in the Spirit of humility
When we disobey delegated authority, we should do so in a spirit of humility. It is possible to be “righteous” but with a spirit of self-righteousness, which God hates. We can have all the right reasons yet be full of pride and arrogance. God wants us to do His will undefiled by the spirit of Lucifer.
The prophet Daniel is a perfect example of disobeying with a spirit of humility, not rebellion. He and his three friends were captives in Babylon in the service of the king. There was a certain amount of changing that the Babylonian authorities deemed necessary for their service—their diet, their language and their names.10
The diet the king ordered for them was to aid in their service in the palace. But by eating these foods, they would violate their obedience to God. So we read, “Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank” (Daniel 1:8). So Daniel and his friends chose to disobey the king’s order. But there was no trace of rebellion in their attitude. How did they do it?
They did not say, “What on earth is wrong with you, Babylonians? Don’t you know that we are people who fear the living God, the God of Israel? You cannot ask us to do this! We won’t participate in this sin. No way.” This was not their attitude. They simply said to the king’s eunuch, “Would you please allow us just 10 days of eating our own simple diet, and you can watch and see how we look and fare? We will do whatever you say” (Daniel 1:11-13, paraphrased).
We can become trapped into disobeying our authority, thinking it is right because of our culture, our convenience or our hidden motives. Yet as you witness these young men’s attitude toward authority and the way they made their appeal in humility, it is obvious they were sincere. I imagine they folded their hands, bowed their heads and pleaded. Whatever they did, it brought them favor. And you know what God did? God made it up to them. When the test was over, they were stronger and more able than all the others, and the case was closed.
Soon there came another, even more severe test for these three friends of Daniel.11 King Nebuchadnezzar, overcome by his own importance, decided to make an image of gold, as tall as an eight-story building. On the day of dedication, everyone was commanded to bow down and worship his statue. The penalty for refusal was to be cast into a fiery furnace!
These three young Hebrews decided not to obey the command. When the king heard of their refusal, he was furious. How dare they disobey his order? Their response was: “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up” (Daniel 3:17-18, NIV).
The king was livid. He ordered the furnace to be made seven times hotter than usual. Then the three were thrown into it. The flames were so intense they killed the soldiers who carried out the order. Yet when these godly young men came out, their clothing was not burned, and their bodies were not scorched.
Notice that during this entire trial, they maintained themselves in a spirit of humility. There was no sign of rebellion in their voices. They answered the king with respectful words. When they were proven right, their attitude was not one of pride or arrogance. There was no condemnation, no accusation or reproach against their authority.
Meanwhile, Daniel continued to be faithful, and at age 90, he was a powerful figure in the new nation of Persia.12 Because of his elevated position, there were those who were jealous of him. They sought a reason to get rid of Daniel but could find no fault in his character or conduct.
Then they realized they could trap him by his submission to the living God. The king at the time, King Darius, was lured by his administrators to make a law that no one was allowed to pray to any other deity except the king. All who disobeyed would be thrown to the lions. Daniel chose to disobey, and that’s eventually where he ended up.
Yet God shut the mouths of the lions, and Daniel was safe. Take note: Daniel chose to disobey his delegated authority, but with a spirit of humility. Listen to his words to his earthly king: “ ‘O king, live forever! My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight. Nor have I ever done any wrong before you,
O king’ ” (Daniel 6:21-22, NIV). As Daniel addressed the king, there was no sense of reproach or accusation.
Before, during and after this trial, Daniel maintained a gentle spirit, willing to suffer for the sake of submission to the living God.
Price to pay
If we do disobey, we must make absolutely certain that the delegated authority is acting in violation of God’s Word and that the Lord desires us to oppose our authority in this particular situation. But then, once we know, we must be willing to suffer for the privilege of having done what is right—obeying God.
A few years ago, a letter came to me from one of my radio listeners in India. He had been transferred to a new city where the norm was to take bribes. Even his authorities did. At the end of the month, they divided the loot equally among all of them. Being a follower of Christ, he refused to join in their wrongdoing. Week after week, he faced opposition and ridicule. Finally, they cooked up a case against this man, telling his higher authorities that he took bribes. Because of this, he lost his job. I still remember his statement: “I am sad that I lost my job, but I am happy that I pleased the Lord.”
In Hebrews 11, we read about those God proclaimed to be heroes of faith—men and women who made a significant mark in history by their righteousness. They were sawn asunder, brutally abused and murdered. Their rights were violated, and they were killed. Many of them had to say to a delegated authority, “We can’t obey you. We must obey God.” They paid the price with their very lives.
The suffering in the early Church is the story of many who chose to disobey human authorities, knowing they may have to face martyrdom. The pages of history are stained with the blood of the martyrs, who refused to deny Christ and the Word of God.
Tens of thousands became the heroes of the catacombs. In ancient Rome, the emperor introduced “Caesar worship.” Every citizen was commanded to take a pinch of incense, put it on a Roman altar once a year and say “Caesar is Lord.” Punishment for not obeying was a cruel death.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a devout follower of Christ and a Church leader, suffered much for refusing to submit to the sinful schemes of Adolf Hitler. Bonhoeffer in humility resisted Hitler’s regime for the sake of remaining loyal to God. In the end he too died as a martyr.
I remember a letter that came to us from Burma, written by one of the sisters there. A couple of our missionaries went to the mission field to this particular village. They were in a hostile Buddhist community, and yet they planted a small church. One dear sister there gave her life to the Lord, but her husband turned against her. Then the village chief and the whole community turned against the handful of believers in the village. This sister wrote the following words:
“All I needed to do was to deny Christ. My husband would have been happy. He gave me a choice: Either deny Christ or leave.” She wept and pleaded, but he wouldn’t change.
Meanwhile, the problems became more severe because the village chief said, “There is no way you people can be Christians in my community. You must deny Christ or leave.”
The sister’s letter continued, “I took my little baby girl and whatever I could carry. I walked away with a handful of other believers, and my prayer is that someday my husband will come to know Jesus the way I know Him.” Then she added, “I am praying and hoping that my little girl will grow up, become a missionary and go back to her village to share the love of God.”
Peter tells us that if we suffer for doing evil there is no glory in it, but if we do what is right and then suffer for it, we are to rejoice because it is our privilege.13 Refusing to obey an ungodly authority when we must and instead submit to God often means we must suffer.
If you come to an incident in your life in which you have to disobey your authority, may you be like Daniel. May your actions be done in the spirit of Christ, not that of Lucifer.
Let us be so sensitive that we stop when we feel our hearts are being defiled by the spirit of rebellion. Instead, make sure you know with a clear conscience that your choice to disobey is based on godliness and not on your flesh. Even when resistance is the obvious right choice, it takes humility to disobey authority in a way that pleases the Lord.
It is my prayer that the decisions you and I make to follow the Lord will not be based on time, but on eternity. Not many decades will pass before we are gone from this earth. All that we will be in eternity is determined by the choices we make right now. I pray that God in His grace will take us further into understanding the ways of God and godliness.
Lord, thank You for Your mercy, for Your goodness and Your longsuffering with each one of us. You remain our heavenly Father, and we are Your sons and daughters. Thank You for such encouragement and confidence because of Your love. We trust You, Lord, to help us execute decisions that are sometimes difficult and painful. Your grace is sufficient. Continue, O Lord, to deliver us from the spirit of Lucifer, that our lives may be marked by the spirit of the Lamb of God. Shower us with Your grace and Your strength. Amen.