Authority in the Church!

Reflection: Paul concludes this second letter to the Corinthians with the following words,

“13 This will be my third visit to you. “Every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.” ² I already gave you a warning when I was with you the second time. I now repeat it while absent: On my return I will not spare those who sinned earlier or any of the others, ³ since you are demanding proof that Christ is speaking through me. He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you. ⁴ For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God’s power. Likewise, we are weak in him, yet by God’s power we will live with him in our dealing with you.”

We have seen many aspects of Paul’s relationship with the Corinthian church including: his heart and love for them, and his desire for them to know the Lord and grow up in Him.  He has had to defend his apostleship with them, as one who met the Lord on the road to Damascus after Jesus’ resurrection, not before it.  And he has had to deal with their using their new freedom in the Lord in ways that did not honor their new calling in Christ. This came through spiritual pride about speaking in tongues, and on the flipside those who used their freedom to return to sinful ways and even sexual immorality. 

Paul uses his authority as their spiritual overseer to say he would not spare those who have disregarded the spiritual authority he has over them by way of his calling as a spiritual overseer of the churches he planted.  Not only was Paul sent to plant these churches, but he felt a responsibility to oversee them and make sure they kept Christ in the center of their life together and witness to the world. 

Fast forward to today because of the great proliferation of denominations on American soil, there are many types of authority structures in our churches.  This range is everywhere from the highly authoritative structure in the Roman Catholic and Episcopalian churches, to the free governance structures of Baptist and Pentecostal churches.  In my own Lutheran traditional there is a great deal of variety in the role and power in those who act as overseers, sometimes called bishops.  Because of the liberalization of many of the mainline churches and recent decisions to move away from the authority of the bible, many conservative evangelical churches have moved out of denominational structures into associations with other like-minded churches.

Bringing it down to a micro level, I believe we all need someone who can speak with authority and power into our lives.  Jesus’ model was one of equipping disciples who made disciples.  In this sense there is a mutual authority, and in a sense we are accountable to each other for living a life worthy of our calling in Christ.  That is why in James it says to “confess your sins to one another”.  The general model was to appoint “presbyters” or “spiritual overseers” over churches, but many of the churches met in houses and in each “oikos” there were those who took responsibility for teaching and admonition over those in their community. 

As members of the body of Christ, Jesus is the ultimate head of the body and we all are and will be accountable to Him for the things done in this life.  And Jesus has appointed leaders in churches to oversee and care for the flock.  This why it is important to be in a local church and under someone’s authority.  Nowhere in the bible are there instances of “lone-ranger” Christians who are accountable to no one.  Although the Church will always have its flaws and will struggle with how to handle the authority it has been given as a representative of Christ, we need to honor and pray for our leaders and respect the authority given them until Jesus returns to lead God’s realized kingdom here on earth.

Psalm 75

For the director of music. To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” A psalm of Asaph. A song.

¹ We praise you, God,
    we praise you, for your Name is near;
    people tell of your wonderful deeds.

² You say, “I choose the appointed time;
    it is I who judge with equity.
³ When the earth and all its people quake,
    it is I who hold its pillars firm.
⁴ To the arrogant I say, ‘Boast no more,’
    and to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up your horns.
⁵ Do not lift your horns against heaven;
    do not speak so defiantly.’”

⁶ No one from the east or the west
    or from the desert can exalt themselves.
⁷ It is God who judges:
    He brings one down, he exalts another.
⁸ In the hand of the Lord is a cup
    full of foaming wine mixed with spices;
he pours it out, and all the wicked of the earth
    drink it down to its very dregs.

⁹ As for me, I will declare this forever;
    I will sing praise to the God of Jacob,
¹⁰ who says, “I will cut off the horns of all the wicked,
    but the horns of the righteous will be lifted up.

Ecclesiastes 7:15-9:18

¹⁵ In this meaningless life of mine I have seen both of these:

the righteous perishing in their righteousness,
    and the wicked living long in their wickedness.
¹⁶ Do not be overrighteous,
    neither be overwise—
    why destroy yourself?
¹⁷ Do not be overwicked,
    and do not be a fool—
    why die before your time?
¹⁸ It is good to grasp the one
    and not let go of the other.
    Whoever fears God will avoid all extremes.

¹⁹ Wisdom makes one wise person more powerful
    than ten rulers in a city.

²⁰ Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous,
    no one who does what is right and never sins.

²¹ Do not pay attention to every word people say,
    or you may hear your servant cursing you—
²² for you know in your heart
    that many times you yourself have cursed others.

²³ All this I tested by wisdom and I said,

“I am determined to be wise”—
    but this was beyond me.
²⁴ Whatever exists is far off and most profound—
    who can discover it?
²⁵ So I turned my mind to understand,
    to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things
and to understand the stupidity of wickedness
    and the madness of folly.

²⁶ I find more bitter than death
    the woman who is a snare,
whose heart is a trap
    and whose hands are chains.
The man who pleases God will escape her,
    but the sinner she will ensnare.

²⁷ “Look,” says the Teacher, “this is what I have discovered:

“Adding one thing to another to discover the scheme of things—
²⁸     while I was still searching
    but not finding—
I found one upright man among a thousand,
    but not one upright woman among them all.
²⁹ This only have I found:
    God created mankind upright,
    but they have gone in search of many schemes.”

8 Who is like the wise?
    Who knows the explanation of things?
A person’s wisdom brightens their face
    and changes its hard appearance.

Obey the King

² Obey the king’s command, I say, because you took an oath before God. ³ Do not be in a hurry to leave the king’s presence. Do not stand up for a bad cause, for he will do whatever he pleases. ⁴ Since a king’s word is supreme, who can say to him, “What are you doing?”

⁵ Whoever obeys his command will come to no harm,
    and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure.
⁶ For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter,
    though a person may be weighed down by misery.

⁷ Since no one knows the future,
    who can tell someone else what is to come?
⁸ As no one has power over the wind to contain it,
    so no one has power over the time of their death.
As no one is discharged in time of war,
    so wickedness will not release those who practice it.

⁹ All this I saw, as I applied my mind to everything done under the sun. There is a time when a man lords it over others to his own hurt. ¹⁰ Then too, I saw the wicked buried—those who used to come and go from the holy place and receive praise in the city where they did this. This too is meaningless.

¹¹ When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, people’s hearts are filled with schemes to do wrong. ¹² Although a wicked person who commits a hundred crimes may live a long time, I know that it will go better with those who fear God, who are reverent before him. ¹³ Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow.

¹⁴ There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: the righteous who get what the wicked deserve, and the wicked who get what the righteous deserve. This too, I say, is meaningless. ¹⁵ So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun.

¹⁶ When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the labor that is done on earth—people getting no sleep day or night— ¹⁷ then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all their efforts to search it out, no one can discover its meaning. Even if the wise claim they know, they cannot really comprehend it.

A Common Destiny for All

9 So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God’s hands, but no one knows whether love or hate awaits them. ² All share a common destiny—the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not.

As it is with the good,
    so with the sinful;
as it is with those who take oaths,
    so with those who are afraid to take them.

³ This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of people, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead. ⁴ Anyone who is among the living has hope—even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!

⁵ For the living know that they will die,
    but the dead know nothing;
they have no further reward,
    and even their name is forgotten.
⁶ Their love, their hate
    and their jealousy have long since vanished;
never again will they have a part
    in anything that happens under the sun.

⁷ Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do. ⁸ Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. ⁹ Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun—all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. ¹⁰ Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.

¹¹ I have seen something else under the sun:

The race is not to the swift
    or the battle to the strong,
nor does food come to the wise
    or wealth to the brilliant
    or favor to the learned;
but time and chance happen to them all.

¹² Moreover, no one knows when their hour will come:

As fish are caught in a cruel net,
    or birds are taken in a snare,
so people are trapped by evil times
    that fall unexpectedly upon them.

Wisdom Better Than Folly

¹³ I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom that greatly impressed me: ¹⁴ There was once a small city with only a few people in it. And a powerful king came against it, surrounded it and built huge siege works against it. ¹⁵ Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom. But nobody remembered that poor man. ¹⁶ So I said, “Wisdom is better than strength.” But the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are no longer heeded.

¹⁷ The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded
    than the shouts of a ruler of fools.
¹⁸ Wisdom is better than weapons of war,
    but one sinner destroys much good.

2 Corinthians 12:14-13:4

¹⁴ Now I am ready to visit you for the third time, and I will not be a burden to you, because what I want is not your possessions but you. After all, children should not have to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. ¹⁵ So I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well. If I love you more, will you love me less? ¹⁶ Be that as it may, I have not been a burden to you. Yet, crafty fellow that I am, I caught you by trickery! ¹⁷ Did I exploit you through any of the men I sent to you? ¹⁸ I urged Titus to go to you and I sent our brother with him. Titus did not exploit you, did he? Did we not walk in the same footsteps by the same Spirit?

¹⁹ Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves to you? We have been speaking in the sight of God as those in Christ; and everything we do, dear friends, is for your strengthening. ²⁰ For I am afraid that when I come I may not find you as I want you to be, and you may not find me as you want me to be. I fear that there may be discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder. ²¹ I am afraid that when I come again my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual sin and debauchery in which they have indulged.

Final Warnings

13 This will be my third visit to you. “Every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.” ² I already gave you a warning when I was with you the second time. I now repeat it while absent: On my return I will not spare those who sinned earlier or any of the others, ³ since you are demanding proof that Christ is speaking through me. He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you. ⁴ For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God’s power. Likewise, we are weak in him, yet by God’s power we will live with him in our dealing with you.

The Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. 1 Kings 19:11-12

Jesus said, “And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.” Mark 13:37

Holy Lord, the chaos of the world makes it all too easy to forsake you and seek solace in things that provide only temporary relief. Teach us to listen for, to wait for, and to recognize your still, small voice amid the din of our busy lives. Amen.