Study: Power, Authority and Social Context
As leaders it is very important for us to realize the distinct difference between power and authority and how these are relative to our social setting. Too often people confuse these areas and in turn people are hurt both spiritually and emotionally. I want to use this time to draw the distinctions between power and authority and show you how they work themselves out in our social settings.
As Christian leaders, we have been given the task of teaching Gods people and equipping them for service in His kingdom. Our job is to teach and to train them in the way of the Lord. This is done through influence, whereby we are able to maneuver a person towards an end goal that we see as being a place where that person needs to be. To do this however, it requires us to have the ability to move a person from one place to the other; the ability to do this is what we call authority.
If you are an official leader within a church, it means you have been given authority by both the people and the Pastor, it is a delegated authority given to you to lead the community. This community called the church is defined firstly by membership and secondly, a commonly held value, i.e. the word of God. In this social setting, you have been given authority to minister. You have been given a title and position within the community that allows you to have a certain amount of influence within the social setting.
A person with a formal position has been entrusted with power. They have the ability to control situations or determine outcomes. Within the church, they have the ability to tell people what to do and where to go. The person holds this power only because they have been given authority; in other words your power only exists as a result of the authority given to you. As a leader you have power and as long as you maintain the relationship whereby people are prepared to give you authority, then you will maintain your power to achieve things within the Body.
Where we go wrong, is when we confuse power and authority. You only have power to minister wherever you have been first given authority. For example, I have the power to tell a member of youth that what they are doing is wrong according to the word of God and they will (hopefully) stop doing it because they have given me the authority to speak into their life. I have this authority within the youth community because of their membership in that community and our commonly held value, i.e. the word of God. However if I was to go to a high school and do the same thing to a student who is a complete stranger, I would be politely told where to go because I have no authority there.
We see this at work in Acts 22:22-29. Paul is about to be flogged, but he remembers that he has the authority to get himself out of the situation. Notice how he doesn’t say ‘I am an apostle’ or ‘I was personally commissioned by Jesus himself’; rather, he says ‘I am a Roman citizen.’ In the churches that he started and even in other churches he had little involvement in, he had a vast amount of authority, in fact when they formed the canon, if a letter was written by Paul; it gained immediate entry by virtue of its author. So we know that as a Christian, Paul had a lot of power because of his authority as an apostle, but in this situation, his power was rendered useless as he had no authority as a Christian.
Instead what he does is use the authority given to him by his Roman citizenship. He had been given certain rights and privileges as a citizen, and in this situation, he had the authority to demand that his rights be recognized. We too must realize this in our lives. In a church we may have authority, and with this authority comes the power to do or say certain things; but this power is only ours within the social setting that gives us that authority. It would be ridiculous for us to go to work tomorrow and start bossing people around because we’re a leader in our church, unless of course you’re the boss, in which case you have authority within that setting.
Thoughts to ponder:
• Abuse of power, you see how this power has the potential to be destructive in a persons life, especially when it is given to a person with poor character.
• Understanding the limits of your authority, you only have power where you have been given authority, a position is no guarantee of total authority, and people must still give you authority in their lives. For example, being a parent is a position, but that doesn’t assure authority over a child.
• You only have power where people have given it to you and it is only valid in its setting, for example, in this meeting you have given me authority, at your house this authority is not valid, in fact I come under your authority.
• So we have a ladder of authority at work in the church. For example, Eric has total authority over all things that happen within the church, if someone isn’t happy with this they can leave. A department leader has authority within their department, but there authority is limited to this realm etc.
Spiritual authority
Therefore, if power flows from authority, and authority is determined by our position or setting, then the same principle must apply in the spiritual realm.
Eph 1:15For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit[f] of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,
Paul is praying that the church will realize their position in Christ; we aren’t just saved, we have been relocated into a different spiritual kingdom. We were in the kingdom of darkness under the devils authority, which he doesn’t share; but now we are under Christ’s authority and he has given us his authority.
19and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.
Here is the measure of the power that is available to us. We have access to the same power that raised Christ from the dead, literally.
22And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church; 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
We are seated with the greatest authority, the authority above all things. He has delegated this authority to us and with it the power at work within that authority.
In other words, in the natural we are under earthly authority, eg, bosses, police, government etc; but in the spiritual realm we have all authority. That’s why when Pilate asked Jesus ‘are you a king?’ Jesus replied ‘my kingdom is not of this world’. Jesus through His death, defeated Satan in the Spiritual realm, and when he returns will finally defeat him in the natural realm.
Remember the words of Jesus, ‘don’t be afraid of the authority who can destroy the body, be afraid of the authority that can destroy both body and soul.’ In other words, there are many authorities in our life, but its Gods authority to which we are obligated to obey.
