under authority

n these days of increasing lawlessness personally, locally, and nationally (Matt. 24:12 ESV), when each of us seems to be doing what is right in our own eyes (Judges 17;6, 21:35), God calls us to be people who are under authority.  Living under the vision and the revelation of God, we don't cast off restraint as others do, since we know that this will cause all of us to perish (Proverbs 29:18).

Consider the example of the Roman Centurion, a soldier who commanded 100 under him.  He approached Jesus, asking for help with his servant at home who was paralyzed and suffering greatly (Matt. 8:6). He didn't expect Jesus to come in person, but recognized that Jesus was a Man under the Supreme Authority of God and that, therefore, He could heal at a distance.  The centurion said, I am a man under authority, with soldiers under me.  I tell this one, 'Go', and he goes; and that one, 'Come', and he comes.  Jesus commended the centurion's great faith and healed the servant at that moment.

Though Jesus was, in fact, The Authority in Himself, He, like the centurion, and his soldiers, and his servant, was under authority.  In His earthly Life, Jesus always pointed to the Authority of The Father, doing nothing by Himself, but only such as He heard from Him Who sent Him (John 5:30).  Jesus, and His Disciples, sought to live under the authority of their human leaders, flawed though they were, paying the temple taxes (Matt. 17:27) and showing respect where respect was due.  Paul advised believers to honor the emperor (1 Peter 2:17) as part of a general command to honor everyone, even someone as paranoid and despotic as Domitian.

Our Ultimate Authority is God, and we are to obey Him rather than human authorities who contradict God's Will for us (Acts 5:29).  But we disobey authorities as acts of civil, rather than uncivil, disobedience, as did Jesus and the apostles, and countless saints thereafter who were willing to pay the price for their standing under the Authority of God.  Let's live as those under Authority so that our lives can point to the One Who orders, heals, and saves.