Resources/Articles
Expediency & Authority
Authority can be general or specific in nature. If general, there are expedient means to obeying what God has authorized. There must first be authorization to act before expediency applies. These matters are clear from the scriptures.
When considering the question, “Is there a need for authority?”, the answer is a clear “Yes” from numerous examples in the Bible. The need is seen in the examples of those who questioned or challenged it.
Moses, when confronting two of his brethren, had his authority questioned in Exodus 2.14. One of them said to Moses, “Who made you a prince and judge over us?”
John the Baptist had his authority to baptize questioned in John 1.25. The priests and Levites asked him, “Why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”
Peter and John had their authority challenged in Acts 4.7. When the members of the council had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?”
Jesus’ authority was challenged by the religious leaders of the day. “When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him while he was teaching and said, ‘By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?’” (Matthew 21.23).
So, the question, “Is there a need for authority in religion?” is not new. However, it is important that we not misunderstand the issue within the question. The issue is not whether authority is needful, in the sense that it is useful or helpful. Rather, the questions should be understood to mean, “Is authority necessary?”
We need to understand this question as asking, “Must we have authority prior to what we practice in religion?” Otherwise, what the Bible says about a subject is a moot issue. This is the significance of 1 Peter 4.11: “Whoever speaks is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God…so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.”
Authority is not merely an expedient to accomplish what we have determined to do in religion; rather, it is the source by which we determine if we can do the thing under consideration. Therefore, if we do not have authority for the practice, we cannot engage in the particular practice. This must be settled firm in our attitudes toward our religious practices prior to any ensuing decisions. We must determine whether we have the authority to do it before deciding how we will do it.
Our authority will come from the Word of God. Let us never presume to have authority without looking into the “perfect law of liberty, and continue therein” (Proverbs 19.13; James 1.25), remembering the words of the apostle Peter: “…Seeing that his power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence. For by these he has granted to us his precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust” (2 Peter 1.3-4).
