The need for a source of authority.
Authority is one of those things that we have a mixed relationship with. On one hand, we (particularly as Americans) don’t like it, don’t want it, and resist it. On the other hand, when we are in need or experiencing an injustice, we crave and cry out for authority to be present. It is a peculiar problem. On the surface, this problem seems to be asking, how much authority should be over us? But, if we dig a little deeper, what we will come to find is that even those who claim to be totally free still live under authority, and it isn’t a matter of how much authority. Instead, it is a matter of what authority. The simple truth is that we all live under some source of authority, whether we think so or not. This reality changes the question for us.
We should ask, what is the primary source of authority over my life?
It doesn’t take too long for us to establish or at least look for that primary source of authority. As children, we look to our parents to know what is right or wrong and how to respond to others around us. As adolescents, the quest for authority begins to turn more inwards. Here, we scan others around us, looking at them but not exclusively to them for authority. Instead, we begin to evaluate what we see around us via our own inner “compass.” As we emerge into adulthood, our compass becomes entrenched squarely within ourselves. However, it also doesn’t take us too long to feel the effects of the failures from this inward perspective. Fractured relationships, confusing morals, and ethics that seem to shift with the wind leave us on an exhausting quest for a stable source of authority.
Into that tiring search, the voice of a loving father speaks. His voice is patient but persistent. It is kind but clear. And it is faithful and gentle. This voice is not the voice of an earthly father but of our heavenly Father. What has his voice spoken? Well, simply, he has spoken the Word of God, the Scriptures, to us. Why? Because he loves us and knows that we will end up exhausted and disenfranchised by trying to sort through all of the questions, problems, and grey areas of this life. He is a good Father, and in that way caring deeply for us. He also knows that apart from him, the best we can do is imitate the life he has for us. But, we need him, his truth, and the restoration that it brings to truly experience the fullness of life. That is a life restored in relationship with him. So, he does not leave us to toil in the darkness of our ignorance; instead, he shines the light of truth that leads to life. What we will find in him and in his Word is a stable source of authority. You and I need a stable source of authority. We’re not it. Others are not it.
God has spoken in the Bible. The Bible is God’s Word. God’s Word is a stable source of authority for you, me, and all of humanity. We do not need to toil in the darkness any longer.