On The Vine
Hoping to Bear FruitArchive for Journal
Spiritual Authority, The Search Continues…
I am challenged by a response to previous posts about spiritual authority that says the idea of ’spiritual authority’ or a ‘covering’ is heresy.
Now I haven’t investigated all that in the Word yet, but I am working through a few scenarios that make our current few of ‘authority’ of the local church over their congregats flawed.
Go with me on my tangent.
I am in a women’s group that meets bi-monthly to discuss the Word.
So let’s say I am a false teacher, sitting in the women’s group, teaching a false doctrine. For fun let’s pick something no one would actually believe…
How about ‘Elmo is a modern day apostle’
So after I have begun proclaiming this false teaching in the group, the hostess recognizes the problem and in accordance with Matt. 18 she confronts me privately, sharing her concern about my Elmo teaching.
I tell her I appreciate her interest, but I am right and she is wrong.
She then brings a witness or two with her from the group who share their concern about my Elmo teaching.
I tell them, I appreciate your concern, but I’m right, and will continue to speak freely about Elmo.
The hostess and witnesses then decide to go to my local church, and tell my pastor, who is in ‘authority’ over me, that I am presenting a false teaching about Elmo.
So my pastor comes to me and I say thanks for asking, but your wrong, and Elmo is who I say he is.
Now what?
The problem clearly is that while I attend the local church, and fellowship there, and am taught there, I have no relationship with this pastor, who is also pastor to 500 other people, so this man who looks like a modern day spiritual authority in my life, because I am supposedly submitted to my local body, actually has no authority in my life.
So now what, that authority figure, actually has no authority, and I can freely continue my teaching about Elmo.
The ‘church’ in this case perhaps should have been the women’s group, who actually hears me talking about Elmo and needs to make a judgement about whether or not my teaching is false, and perhaps cast me out of the ‘church’ if I persist in my teaching about Elmo.
I am only at the tip of the iceberg in discovery and study about this spiritual authority issue. But I am intrigued by the idea that someone says it is heresy from the shepard’s movement. And I can already see how this ‘authority/covering’ doctrine is overused and abused in my local churches.
Why are our leaders asserting the idea that they are our ’spiritual leaders’?
The bible tells me my husband is my leader.
Why are we members looking for a ’spiritual leader’?
1) We have one, his name is JESUS,
2) it is easier to sit back and let someone else ‘cover’ whatever you are doing, hearing, being taught, than to take time to investigate it all yourself, taking every morsel to the Lord, and not owning it until you have an answer from the Lord Himself.
Like I said, tip of the ice berg, but I am sensing a melt down!
Observations in the Garden
Would Eve have taken a bite of the forbidden fruit if the serpent had not had a conversation with her?
If the serpent had kept his two cents worth out of it, would Eve have sinned?
You may be quick to answer,
Quick to say, ofcourse she would have, she was a sinner from the start
Or quick to say, no, she fell when she was tempted.
I say, ofcourse she would have she was in the garden with her spouse. (LOL)
But consider it for a moment, and it may not be that obvious of an answer.
Adam and Eve were living in the garden, with only one tree they were not to eat from, and they had yet to sin.
That’s right, pre-bite of the fruit, Adam and Eve would have been living side by side, perfectly sinless.
Imagine if your spouse was sinless, boy the pressure would be on for you to clean up your act, HUH?
If he always put the seat down, you would always have to put the cap on the toothpaste.
If he always took the trash out before it overflowed, you would always have to run the dishwasher before it was packed.
If he always sat down on the couch immediately upon coming home from work to see how your day was, You would always have to hang up the phone from chatting with your girlfriend about the latest town gossip, did i say gossip, I think that is a sin too, which would have to stop if your husband quit cursing at the basketball game.
Imagine Adam, loving Eve perfectly as Christ would one day love the church. And Eve respecting Adam seamlessly. Imagine each fulfilling his or her role completely, perfectly, contentedly, without question or conflict.
Hard to imagine isn’t it? Hard to imagine what it would be like to live along side your spouse sinlessly.
Hard to imagine what it would be like to live in the image God created you, without the noise of the world encouraging you to be something else.
So back to the question,
The temptation existed from the time God said not to eat from that particular tree.
Did the serpent push Eve over the edge from temptation to sin?
Would Eve have jumped into the abyss of sin of her own accord?
What’s the point?
The point is, we have temptatin before us all the time, is there a serpent in our lives, pushing us over the edge?
Are we jumping off cliffs all on our own?
Are we a serpent in someone else’s life?
Are we bringing people to the line between obedience and sin, and inviting them to join us, on the wrong side of the tracks?
When you stand before the tree, how do you avoid temptation, serpent or no serpent?
Spiritual Authority, Spiritual Abuse: A Few More Thoughts
A few weeks back, I was considering how we as believers ar suppose to put ourselves under authority, and yet in doing so we must be so cautious not to put ourselves in a position to be spiritually abused.
At that time, in my mind, the abuser would be the leader of a congregation, and the victim, a member of that congregation.
But today I find myself considering another outlet for spiritual abuse, that seems perhaps even more difficult to identify, prove, and confront.
What if the abuser is someone who has not put themselves under any authority? This person is a believer, appears to be walking in truth, is talking the talk, they just aren’t committed to a particular church.
This person is under the authority of Christ, connected and operating in the body of Christ in various groups, just not at a Sunday morning fellowship.
This person appears to be mature in relationship with the Lord, and so a younger believer can be easily ’star struck’ by the mature believers procalamtions of the ‘the Lord is doing this’ and the ‘the Lord is saying this’ and ‘I am discerning this’. Even the memory of scripture, that can be shared in our out of context to make a point woos the young believer into the good graces of the mature believer.
This is not a bad thing, if the mature believer is truly submitted to the Holy Spirit’s control, and not on their own agenda. But if the mature believer is out to make a name for themselves, find a place for themselves, find a following for themselves, this can become a dangerous, potentially abusive situation for the young believer.
So the questions are:
Why isn’t the mature believer under any authority?
How do you test the fruit of their ‘gifts’ when they are not connected to a body of believers?
Who do you confront after steps one and two of Matthew 18?
When is it appropriate to warn younger believers?
When does it cross the line from advice to abuse?
Freedom
What are the boundaries?
Until I know them, I live in the bondage of tryng to figure out what are the boundaries.
Once I know them, I am free to live with in them.
Knowing the boundaries brings not only freedom, but the safety that lies within it.
Work
When I work for someone, the task is assigned and the work is inspected.
When I work with someone, the task is designed and the work is perfected.
Am I working for God, or with God?
