Not only does the Lord come
to us by way of his holy Word; He also enters our lives through different
agents. God comes to us by way of different people whom He puts in authority
over us. We need to understand that. By the same token, the one who is in a
position of authority needs to understand that as well. And he had better not
abuse his authority. From the Word of God we can even say: Woe unto that person
who abuses his or her authority and who thereby hurts the one under their
authority. We will write more about that in a future issue—about the abuse of
authority. But let the warning ring out now already that it will not go well
for those who abuse their authority and hurt a little one. If he does not
repent, it would better for that person to have a millstone hung around his
neck and for him to be cast into the deepest part of the ocean.
But we have gotten well
ahead of ourselves. This issue's topic is "agents of authority."
Basically, there are three
spheres of authority that God calls us to place ourselves under. They are: our
parents, the church, and the state.
Parents
The first persons in
authority you came across in your life were your parents. Your mom and your
dad. They were given the task, the responsibility to raise you, to teach you,
to discipline you. Children are to submit to the good instruction and
discipline of their parents. The LORD God even had something to say about this
in the Ten Commandments. The Fifth Commandment says: "Honour your father
and your mother." There are many places in the Bible that teach children
to obey their parents.
In the New Testament, the
Apostle Paul mentioned this as well. In Ephesians 6 he said: "Children,
obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 'Honor your father and
mother…'" In this context, he had a special word for the fathers. He
added: "Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up
in the training and instruction of the Lord."
We can also think of the
beautiful summary of what the Bible teaches about this in Lord's Day 39 of the Heidelberg Catechism:
104. Q. What does God
require in the fifth commandment?
A. That
I show all honour, love, and faithfulness
to my father and
mother
and to all those
in authority over me,
submit myself with due
obedience
to their good
instruction and discipline,
and also have patience with
their weaknesses
and shortcomings,
since it is God's will
to govern us by
their hand.
(The next post is about how the church is an agent of authority.)
This
series of blog posts were originally presented as a speech at the October 1998
Ontario Women's League Day in Ancaster, Ontario. Much of the spoken style
remains.
