Authority and Obedience

 There are a lot of things that can be said, have been said, and are being said about the world in which we live.  There are a lot of ways to consider and look at how people are thinking and what ideas are important for the church in the midst of a world like ours.  I think sometimes it is good to get back to the basics.  There are two concepts that are really two sides of the same concept that are critical for us to understand.  

The first side of the coin is authority.  God has authority over our lives.  He has this authority for a number of reasons.  He created us - therefore He has the right to do with us as He pleases.  His character - his goodness and grace and justice and holiness and the all the rest earn Him our respect and confirm His authority.  He demands it - He calls us to recognize who He is and acknowledge Him as the one in charge.  God is our authority. 

The second side of the coin is obedience.  This is the demanded response of the creation to the authority of God.  Creation is to obey God.  God's character demands our obedience.  His law demands our obedience.  We obey God because we recognize that God is the authority and we are to follow Him.  

The trouble in our world is that we have made ourselves the authority.  This totally upends the plan and purposes of God in our lives.  We were made to obey, not to be in charge.  And so when we do what we want to do we are missing the point of what we were created for.  We need to bring back these two concepts in our every day lives.  We need to recognize the authority of God and we need to obey this God who created us.