Authority is for Building Up

We live in a world built by powerful people for powerful people. Just open any news source and read of the battle for power. One side claims the other side doesn’t deserve it. One side uses it to rule over the other.

For many people life isn’t about working hard for the sake of hard work. We work hard to gain power. Once we have power, we use it to make others work so we no longer must work. By social standards powers is to be gained at all costs because power rules over everything.

Saint Paul understood power and authority differently. For Saint Paul authority wasn’t for power sake but to build others up. We aren’t supposed to use power to destroy. We use power to build people up for the glory of God. Here’s what Saint Paul has to say about authority.

Brethren, if any one is confident that he is Christ’s, let him remind himself that as he is Christ’s, so are we. For even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I shall not be put to shame. I would not seem to be frightening you with letters. For they say,”His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.” Let such people understand that what we say by letter when absent, we do when present. Not that we venture to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another, and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding. But we will not boast beyond limit, but will keep to the limits God has apportioned us, to reach even to you. For we are not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach you; we were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ. We do not boast beyond limit, in other men’s labors; but our hope is that you may be greatly enlarged, so that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you, without boasting of work already done in another’s field. “Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord.” For it is not the man who commends himself that is accepted, but the man whom the Lord commends.

2^nd Corinthians 10.7-18

Saint Paul used his authority to bring us closer to God because all authority comes from God. Authority is not limited to a select few that lord their power over others. Authority is shared from God for God. Every time power is used against others, it is not from God.

When we understand that authority comes from God, then we also understand it cannot be taken by force. We cannot claim authority, and God doesn’t give authority for worldly purposes. Today the Church commemorates Moses, a man of authority who led his people to God.

Like Saint Paul so many centuries later, Moses used his authority to bring people closer to God. Today I invite you to consider any authority you may have been given. How do you use your authority? Work, family, or friends, how you use your authority matters.

We should start by looking at our authority and redirect it for a Godly purpose. Don’t just read about Moses and Saint Paul as holy men of the past. Be inspired by their use of authority to bring people to God. Then follow their lead.

Here’s the thing about authority. The only ‘real’ authority we possess is over ourselves. We will never succeed leading others to God if we are leading ourselves to Him. This is what Saint Paul meant when he said, “What we say by letter when absent, we do when present.”

Saint Paul, Moses and all the Saints, first and foremost followed God. They used their authority over their own lives to defeat sin and temptation. They used their authority to fight demons instead of each other. That is real authority.