February 05, 2009
You've Got the Power
Jesus remained silent during his interrogation until Pilate boasted that he had the power either to free or to crucify. Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.” (John 19:11a NIV) Verse twelve continues, “From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free…” Well now, I guess Pilate didn’t have quite as much power as he thought he did. Going through today’s troubled times leaders, in both the world and the church, would do well to remember Who gives them their power and authority.
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Gail;
-----The elements involved in the power and authority God gives are first, the philosophical constructs a person builds under his activities, and second, the powers of being associated with a group of people who will carry out his initiatives. When a person builds his philosophical constructs on the correctly handled Word of God, his power is indeed great. Righteousness does everyone good, and unless a society’s moral condition has rotted to the core, its members will be attracted to the good that following the Word does. But the further a leader’s philosophy has been skewed from the truth of the Word, the more he must rely on his own ability to sway the people’s thinking. This is where Pilot’s effort fell short. He found he was not able to sway the crowd, because he was not practiced in obeying the Word. He could have fell back on the other element of his power - military force - to free Jesus, but his twisted thinking blocked that avenue, also. He feared for himself rather than for what was right. If he had used force to set Jesus free, it may have caused a riot that would have gotten him removed from office.
-----So you are right. He lacked the power he claimed to have. But his limitation was his own. The limitations of church leaders are their own as well. If they lead according to thought narrowly confined to what the Word of God clearly sets forth, they will have great power to move the church. For that movement would then actually be within the will of God, instead of being just touted as such.
-----Unfortunately, too many leaders have more ideas than the Word contains, and their authority becomes diluted with philosophies. So, being philosophically unable to move other people who are well grounded in the Word, they must fall back on the strong arms of the eldership and the influential to bully forth in their ways. The truly righteous among the misled flocks sift through the leader’s fingers and go elsewhere for their assembling together. And the leaders are left with a self-righteous mob of wanna-be’s, who more closely match their own twisted attitudes. Certainly the leaders maintain authority over this mob, but whatever of church that is left among it is diminished, diminishing also the leaders’ authority over the real church.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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