If you are serving or have served our nation in the US military, thank you for your service. This past week, as I studied Paul’s words to Timothy about leadership and authority in the church, I was stunned in a fresh way by how opposite they are to the egalitarianism and critical theory, widely influencing the culture, which both see authority as fundamentally oppressive. Sadly, Neil Shenvi and Pat Sawyer in their book, Critical Dilemma, showed me that such corruption is creeping into those who started out in my own denomination. They observe:
“Michelle Higgins received an MDiv from the PCA’s seminary, Covenant and in 2015 spoke at InterVarsity’s Urbanna Missions Conference. She left the PCA and in 2020, she became the senior pastor of Saint John’s Church in Saint Loius, a pro-choice, LGBTQ+-loving denomination. On Pentecost Sunday, 2021, she preached “Let the Lord lead you to queer parenting. Let the Lord show you the queerness of the Trinity in ways that you had not felt welcome to before.” Dante Stewart was a student at Reformed Theological Seminary, a writer for Christianity Today, and “regular contributor” to the Gospel Coalition website. On February 13, 2022, he tweeted, “I’m convinced: we don’t need more white or evangelical theology. We need more womanist, black liberation, and queer theology to show us how to be better humans and embody a more loving and liberation faith. We can only get better if we expand the voices that lead us.”
This episode shows the sharp contrast between the Bible’s view of authority and the cultural voices of egalitarianism and critical theory, which are eroding the faith and corrupting the thought of many immature Christians. As we complete our May series, Portrait of Effective Spiritual Leadership, by examining Paul’s teaching in 1 Timothy 2 and 3, we discover the Bible’s stunningly high view of authority in his advice to Timothy. Before making specific observations from the text, let’s get a 30,000-foot biblical worldview of authority in general.
A. The essence of human sin is rebelling against God’s authority. Since we are creature and he is our maker, we owe him honor and obedience. Since he is our sustainer, we owe him thanksgiving. Paul traces sin back to these failures. They did not honor him as God or give thanks to him (Rom 1:21). The temptation to be like God means being accountable to no one. Instinctively fallen man brings resistance to any demand made upon him by authority; his fallen heart demands autonomy.
B. God has ordained the institutions of family, church, and government to restrain evil and reward good. Therefore, the default position of God’s redeemed people is obedience to parental, church, and governmental authority. At a time when Nero, Rome’s emperor, was using Christians as human torches to light his gardens, Paul instructed the Romans, Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. Do you notice that this is the exact opposite of critical theory, also known as cultural Marxism, which says that the oppressed, like blacks in the city, have the right to burn down buildings and claims that members of Hamas are oppressed victims, they have the right to rape, slaughter, and “send back to the ovens of the Nazis” Jews because all Jews are “oppressors.”
C. Because of the fall, those who hold social or political power can be expected to abuse it, unjustly harming those with less power. Those who hold power over other humans must, therefore, be held accountable.
- Husbands and fathers in Israel were accountable to the rule of law implemented by the elders at the gates of the city.
- Husbands and fathers in the NT were accountable to the elders of the church and susceptible to church discipline if they misused their authority.
- The biblical model of church government is a plurality of elders, with individual authority vested in no individual. Church leaders are to be accountable to other church leaders.
- The United States Constitution provides a balance of powers that many trace back to presbyterian government and the Calvinist view of the fall of man. James Madison wrote in the Federalist Papers, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary….In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty is this: You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.” This perspective led to a balance of powers.
D. Although Jesus clearly taught that his call was sovereign over the authority of families, and Peter obeyed Christ’s command to preach, when told not, it must be admitted that there have been times when the church has allowed the weak to be oppressed by those in authority, to our shame. For example:
- Doing nothing to stop chattel slavery or Jim Crow laws in the south.
- The slow response of German Christians to stand up to Hitler as the church was slowly taken over by the Third Reich.
- The misapplication of “headship of husbands” biblical teaching, whic has caused women to mistakenly think God wants them to “accept” abuse rather than confront it.
With this recent history of the church, it should surprise no one that many of the rising generation of Christians want to distance themselves from any hint of oppression. So, they are drawn to critical theory’s oppressed/oppressor paradigm, like bees to honey. But the honey is laced with poisonous rebellion against God.
THE HIGH BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW OF AUTHORITY FROM I TIMONTHY 2 & 3
A. Positions of leadership are so important that those filling them are identified by Paul as requiring regular, intentional prayer support: I Tim 2:1 says, First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions.
1.Regular prayer for those in authority over us both expresses and promotes loyalty to those in leadership positions. Regular prayer turns our hearts toward the ones for whom we pray because where you invest your treasure (time and energy) your heart will follow. A heart of loyalty towards those in authority over us is at the core of holiness. It begins with loyalty to God’s authority, which is described in the first four of The Ten Commandments. This submissive holiness then moves to loyalty to parental authority. Before forbidding murder, adultery, and theft, God’s moral law requires honoring the authority of those in God’s primary institution for shaping children, the home. “Honor your father and your mother.” This same loyalty to God’s authority structure is appealed to in a slightly different way by Peter in his words. Wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct (I Peter 3:1-2). Peter applies this same default requirement of loyalty to God’s authority structures in the realm of government. I Peter 2:13-15. Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.
Historically, support for God’s designed institutions of authority, especially by praying for those filling those roles has been one of the great hallmarks of the church. Tertulian, one early church father wrote, “The Christian is the enemy of no man, least of all the emperor, for we know that since he has been appointed by God, it is necessary that we should love him, reverence him, honor him, and desire his safety (Commentary on I Timothy, William Barclay) Another early church father, Theophilus of Antioch wrote, “The honor that I will give the Emperor is all the greater, because I will not worship him, but I will pray for him. I will worship no one but the true God, for I know that the Emperor was appointed by him” (ibid).
2. Paul’s description of what we are to ask God to empower the government authority to do gives insight about God’s ordained role for government. Verse 2, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
- A peaceful life. The word used here is from the Greek word for peace, which means the cessation of hostilities. Peace comes about in society by overcoming anarchy through governments enforcing the rule of law.
- A quiet life. This word means NOT causing a disturbance to others. We are to pray against persecution, so that through quiet living, we can sow the seed of the gospel without it causing a disturbance.
- A godly life. In Romans 13, Paul explains that the role of government is to restrain evil and promote good. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer (vs 3-4). Critical theory directly undermines the God-ordained plan for evil to be punished by governments that enforce the law. The rapid escalation of crime in cities like Chicago and New York City, along with drug abuse, disease, and human feces-covered sidewalks in our major cities, are the result of the critical theory ideology that excuses irresponsibility and criminal actions blaming such behavior on “the establishment oppressors.”
- A life of giving respect to others. This unusual Greek word is translated by one commentator worthy conduct towards men, treating them with dignity. These words seem similar to Paul’s command in Romans 13:7 Pay to all what is owed to them…respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. The government behavior that we are to pray for is the treatment of every human with dignity derived from being God’s image bearers. This moral requirement completely flies in the face of critical theory, which names entire classes of people privileged oppressors to be loathed by cultural Marxists, just as Marx, himself, fomented hatred of the bourgeoise. Black Lives Matter is nothing like the civil rights movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. His focus was precisely the failure of the US government to promote laws that treated every human, including Negros, with God-endowed dignity. He based his appeal for just treatment of blacks upon the biblical view of the created dignity of all men—not the corrupt, misguided class warfare view of justice promoted by Karl Marx. King used measured civil disobedience to bring attention to this moral wrong. But such civil disobedience was nothing like the violent destructive lawlessness of Antifa, whose ideology justifies looting and vandalizing by the “oppressed victims” against their “oppressor property owners.” King, himself, was the one who suffered from civil disobedience—he went to jail. But he promoted non-violence, in sharp contrast to campus violence that calls for genocide of the Jews on campuses today by critical theory-driven Hamas supporters.
B. Authority rightly belongs to God. In the midst of Paul’s discussion of human authority, he insists on God’s absolute authority. I Tim 2:5-6: For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all. We need to think clearly about the implications of this text for the multiculturalism being promoted today. There is healthy biblical focus today on celebrating diversity. We should celebrate the diversity of God’s creation, the diversity of good gifts poured out upon the individuals and various cultures of the world through God’s common grace, and the diversity of those in the kingdom of God from every tongue and tribe and nation. Christians must lead the way in avoiding tribalism, racism, or Christian nationalism.
However, at its very core, the Bible rejects true multiculturalism and the relativism that goes with it. God chose to reveal himself to one man, Abraham, from whom he created one nation, Israel, from whom one individual human would come, Jesus whose body would be invaded by God in the incarnation who was the Messiah, God’s Word incarnate. That revelation came through one people, God’s chosen nation, Israel. As the book of Hebrews recounts, Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son. God did not choose to give his revelation to all cultures EQUALLY. The truth claims of every culture are NOT EQUAL IN VALIDITY as claimed by multiculturalism nor are the truth claims of the oppressed more valid as cultural Marxism seeks to argue.
C. Authority rightly belongs to Paul, Christ’s apostle. 1 Timothy 2 continues, For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. Scripture consistently teaches that a man’s morality dictates his theology, that is, that our conscience is designed so that it will rationalize away the truth of Scripture when we don’t want to follow it. Today’s church is losing some from the rising generation to what has been called Progressive Christianity, which is simply an attempt to remold Christianity by leaving out anything that current progressive culture finds repugnant—that pre-married sex, adultery and homosexuality are wrong, the atoning blood sacrifice of Christ on the cross is not required, that God is an egalitarian. All such views, twist the Bible’s teaching by saying that the author’s represented their own cultural biases in contrast to the words of Peter, No prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Pet 1:21) and Paul, All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness (2 Tim 3:16).
The historical evidence that what our current Bible says is what was originally written is unsurpassed in any other historical or religious book and the accuracy of these writers has been proved by the modern science of archeology again and again. The popular idea that the NT documents are just legends made up by a certain faction of his disciples is nonsense. The NT was written within one generation of the actual events and specifically points to eyewitness testimony from those often still alive to verify its events. No legend happens this way.
D. The authoritative teaching and leadership positions in the household of God are assigned to men. Speaking with the Apostolic authority he has just mentioned, Paul teaches something as countercultural as it gets. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor (2:12-14). What corresponds to the position of pastor in our day (giving the authoritative teaching on the Lord’s Day) and the position of ruling elder are assigned, just as the spiritual leadership at home is assigned, to men. Paul makes it impossible for anyone with integrity to deny this teaching about roles in the church: 1) He grounds his teaching in creation; so it can’t be misunderstood to be cultural, 2) Both Ephesians, which teaches that the husband is the head of the wife and this text were written after Paul wrote Galatians 3:28, There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. The Galatians text provides no evidence that Paul denied male leadership in the home and church. 3) This text continues to require that overseers be the husband of one wife. Paul did NOT say or the wife of one husband, even though the church was full of virtuous women like Mary the mother of Jesus. 4) Paul later states that the prerequisite for spiritual leadership in God’s household is a man using his home authority well. Some years ago, I watched a YouTube video of Tim Keller and John Piper defending their membership requirement of adherence to the complementarian view that men are to lead in the church and home for membership in the Gospel Coalition. Piper answered by extolling the virtues of the masculine creation calling, which I loved. Keller answered at an even more profound level. It was what you have to do to Scripture to come to an egalitarian view. Fundamentally you deny it.
E. The authority to lead is an honorable pursuit. I Timothy continues in 3:1, The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. The word overseer is the Greek word EPISKOPOS, literally from EPI upon + SKOPEO to look. As the ESV text notes point out this word is used in Scripture interchangeably with elder PRESBUTEROS, and shepherd POIMEN, which is also translated pastor. All three Greek terms describe the same office from different perspectives. The case for the high biblical worldview of authority is shown in Paul’s description of it as a noble task. No other way of serving is described this way!
F. Authority and its correct use is so important in the church that God has established a very high character bar for all who would serve in this role. Character is not perfection; but it is your characteristic attitude or behavior. May all of us who serve as spiritual leaders anywhere quietly ask the Spirit of God to search our hearts as we read this list of virtues: An overseer must be:
- above reproach: one against whom no legitimate criticism can be made.
- a one-woman man: one whose sexual desires are focused only on his wife.
- sober-minded: one who sees the sobering cost of sin in the world.
- sensible: one normally guided by careful thought, not careless emotions.
- orderly: (from KOSMOS: the created order). One whose life is ordered.
- hospitable: one who has an open heart and open home.
- not a drunkard: one who does not drink too much.
- not violent but gentle: one who is not abusive in angry words or deeds.
- not quarrelsome: one who does not have to prove he is right.
- not a lover of money: one who is content with his material blessings.
- He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive. One who has learned the loving combination of warm affection, firm discipline, and lavish affirmation.
- He must be well thought of by outsiders. He must be respected by those he lives and works with outside the Christian community.
May we be inspired to more fully pursue these virtues as we grasp the significance that God places upon our position of authority in our homes and churches.
For Further Prayerful Thought:
- What do you think are the most important elements of a 30,000-foot overview of the Bible’s view of authority?
- Paul encouraged Timothy to pray that civil government leaders accomplish four things. Which ones stood out most to you?
- How would you contrast the Bible’s high view of authority with the view of critical theory and egalitarianism’s views of authority?
