Church Authority

Church Authority usually means that you must submit to the authority of the church in order to belong to the church. What does Paul, the founder of the Gentile churches, say?

"... and I submitted to them..."

This phrase occurs in the letter to the Galatians, written by the Apostle Paul over 1900 years ago. He was relating his visit to the Church in Jerusalem and his interaction with the authorities there. The letter to the Galatian church was written because Paul was concerned that the Church in Galatia was going after a false gospel. Some of their church authorities had decided to adopt Judaism as a furtherance of Paul’s gospel. It seems that the church had willingly gone along with this, causing Paul no small consternation. He boldly tells them that such promulgators of a false gospel should be rejected as accursed of God.

Whose authority are they under, anyway? Paul asks. He says that even if he, Paul, were to present a different gospel than the one he had already preached to them, that he himself should be included on the "accursed of God" list. The letter to the Galatians is all about church authority and to whom it is given and how. That is why, in this letter, Paul tells us about his visit to Jerusalem. The purpose of that visit was to settle the matter of church authority and its relationship to the gospel. He met with the "so-called pillars of the church," James, John and Cephas (St. Peter). He was not sure how he would be received by them.

He knew there were many in the church at Jerusalem who were in fact false brethren sent by the devil to search out and destroy the freedom of the true brethren. The church there, even though the original apostles were present and supposedly ruling over the church, had their problems just like the Galatians. Paul evidently had a run-in with the false brethren while he was there. Of these false brethren and their false authority Paul says, "we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so the truth of the gospel might remain with you" Galatians 2:5. He did not submit to them because there was something very important at stake: the gospel.

So he met privately with those of "high reputation" (but it made no difference to Paul - God shows no favoritism, why should he? Besides, they were not superior to Paul and they had nothing new to contribute to him - Galatians 2:6). Instead of flaunting their church authority, or getting into a "one-upmanship" contest, the "pillars of the church" recognized that Paul had authority too, and "gave him the right hand of fellowship." This meant that they were not lording it over him, but giving him their blessing in the fellowship of the gospel (by the way, is there another kind of fellowship in the Spirit?). So, Peter, James and John became friends of Paul and sharers in the work of the Lord.

So, to whom did Paul submit? We opened this study with the phrase, "...and I submitted to them..." This comes from Galatians 2:2. In context, we see that he did not submit to them as lords over his faith, but he submitted to them his gospel for their review, and hopefully, approval. He wanted to make sure they were all on the same side. It was only after he had determined that the other apostles and leaders were on the same page with him, did he accept their authority, and they accepted his. But there is more to the story about his relations with Peter.

"But when Cephas [St. Peter] came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned," says Paul. These are strong words. Paul, the apostle born out of due time, rebukes Peter, and that publicly and without apology. One should really read Galatians to listen to the message preached to Peter. Church authority, which Paul exercised, gave him the right to expose wickedness in any form and whether it was the pope himself. Of course, we do not believe that Cephas was or is the first pope, because that is a Roman Catholic tradition and not the truth. It is an early church tradition, but it is a lie nonetheless.

Well, this run-in with Peter happened at least 1,900 years ago. Since then, the churches have been vying for authority, just the same as they did then. The biggest and earliest church is the Roman Catholic church. The Orthodox Church would heartily disagree. Bearing this in mind, the Catholic Church wasn’t the Roman Catholic church until Rome made it the official Rome religion, but the error had its origins in the very early church indeed. It, the so-called "catholic" church, assumed that the authority it had over men’s souls could usurp the authority of God Himself. But we have Paul’s word on it: "It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery" Galatians 5:1. Then, as now, the freedom under fire was the believer’s direct faith in Jesus Christ and not in a system of laws written by the Jews or the Gentile church, or an angel of light.

Since the early days of the church, Judaism has lost most of its stranglehold on the church. But this was replaced by the Greek philosophers, the Hindu and Buddhist concepts of love, the shamanism of Africa and America, and any other Gentile tradition fancied by local sentiment and current fad. These have taken over the believers’ freedom in Christ. The church should have used these traditions to contrast them with the gospel; instead, it substituted Gentile philosophy for Jewish law. This they touted as their authority, and everyone who did not come under their authority was anathema, or at least ostracized. In a weird twist of irony, those who were anathematized (cursed) by Paul, became the authorities in many of the Christian churches and movements.

We must remember that God is not up in heaven watching this all take place, worrying Himself sick. This is all unfolding according to the perfect will and purpose of Him who decrees the very borders of countries. If we read our Bibles carefully and reverently, we see that false authorities are warned against, from Genesis to Revelation.

Church authority consists of one thing only: "The power of the message preached." The devil hates this message and this authority. That is why he has come up with so many other gospels and their attendant "authority." We can spot some of these false authorities easily. These false authorities love the power and they belittle others, even the true authorities. As the apostle John wrote more than 1,900 years ago, "I wrote something to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not accept what we say." Even in the very first days of the church, false authorities were setting themselves up against John, Paul, Peter and others. If the church authority in question does not accept what John has to say, or Peter, or Paul, etc., then we can know their authority, however powerful it is, is not to be obeyed or feared. Our faith, in many cases, is tested by these principalities and powers in high places. This is God’s plan for the believers. He wants them to live by faith, not by church laws. If the church law is good, then obey it. But don’t think to yourself that by obeying these church laws that you have fulfilled the saying, "the just shall live by his faith."

Respect those who have the rule over you. If God has appointed them to be your jailers, then treat them as having that authority. If he has appointed them as the IRS, give them their due. This carries over into all areas of our life. If we do not recognize the authorities whom God has put over us, then those authorities do not bear the sword in vain. We need a ticket, or a court date, or some prison time to convince us. But when it comes to the church ruling over men’s souls, we have found that for the last two thousand years there have been continual abuses. Paul rebuked them: We should, too. Many churches today feel they are the superior evolutionary product of the last two thousand years of trial and error. They believe their gospels are superior to Paul’s. They are better than Martin Luther. They are children of the 60's who don’t know that their gospel comes from the hippie movement that proclaimed "Peace, truth, love" and fulfilled the scripture that says, "they will turn the grace of God into lasciviousness." This accounts for the great church authorities like the Episcopalians ordaining homosexuals over their hell-bound parishioners.

If we belong to a church that is plainly abusive and contrary to the Scriptures, we should leave. We should test them first, giving them the opportunity to repent. If the authorities there cannot justify themselves with the doctrine that is according to godliness, then no matter how powerful they are, we should pull away. This is to be released into the freedom we have in Christ. We should not jump out of the frying pan into the fire, however. If we are truly Christ’s, we will prayerfully submit to God our petition to find like-minded believers with whom to fellowship. The answer may not come instantly. We should be on the lookout for cultic principalities who prey on Christians just escaped from the pit.

Many times we hear of those who have fallen away from Christ. They left a church seeking freedom and found complete bondage under the devil. The false churches point and say that this will happen to anyone who leaves their grip. This is part of the manifold tactics of the enemy. But there is a remnant, called according to grace, chosen according to the Father, and no man can pluck them out of His hand. This is the true authority in Christ. When we submit to one another, we should be submitting under this kind of reverence for God. All other authority and all other submission is suspect, unless it has nothing whatsoever to do with the church. Then we should submit under the ordinances of the land, knowing that these authorities will surely use the sword against us, in accordance with God’s provision for our obedience.

Having said all that, it will do good to close with Scripture. "For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more" 1 Cor. 9:19.

- Chris Simonson

We encourage you to email the author to prove or disprove, from the Scriptures, the intent, meaning, purpose or doctrine of this piece. Email Chris