God’s children must learn to know authority and find out to whom they should submit. Wherever we go, the first thing we should ask is whose authority should we be under. As soon as we move to a place, we should not expect to be the master, asking others to submit to us. Instead, we should be like the centurion, who told the Lord Jesus, “For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me” (Matt. 8:9). Here was a man who truly knew authority. He could submit to authority; therefore, he was able to be a deputy authority himself. We have said that God upholds and maintains the whole universe with His authority. He also begets His children with His authority (John 1:12) and binds them together with His authority. Therefore, if a man is independent, individualistic, and free from any God-appointed deputy authority, he is an outsider as far as God’s administration over the whole universe is concerned. He cannot get along with other children of God, and as such, he cannot accomplish God’s work on earth today. God has established deputy authorities in the church; the church is built up and maintained by the authority of God. For this reason every child of God should look for the authority to whom he should submit so that he can coordinate with others in a proper way. Unfortunately, many people have failed in this point.
If we do not know the object of our faith, we cannot believe in anything. If we do not know the object of our love, we cannot love anyone. If we want a person to believe in something, we first must show him the object of his faith. If we want a person to love someone, we first must show him the object of his love. In the same way, if we do not know the object of our submission, we will not know how to submit. In order to teach a person submission, we first must let him know the person to whom he should submit. There are many deputy authorities in the church to whom we should render submission. When we submit to them, we are submitting to God. Many people can preach submission, but they themselves cannot submit to any authority. We must be a person who submits to authority before we can be a deputy authority ourselves. Moreover, we cannot submit only to those whom we love; we have to learn to submit to all authorities over us. Even the policeman on the street is an object of our submission.
There are many authorities in the church. They are over you, and you have to learn to submit to all of them. You have to learn to face all kinds of authority, and you must recognize authority in others. Once you encounter authority in a person, you have to learn to submit to that person immediately. You should not weigh him carefully and then decide if you should submit to him. If you consider whether or not a person is worthy of submission before you submit to him, you have only encountered the person himself; you have not encountered authority itself. If a man has not met authority, he can never be a deputy authority himself. If a man does not know how to submit to authority, he cannot be God’s deputy authority. Unless a man first deals with rebellion in himself, he does not know how to be an authority. Unless we first judge the sin of rebellion in us, we cannot know what submission is. God’s children should not be unorganized and tangled yarn or a mob of undisciplined people. If there is no testimony of submission among God’s children, there will be no church, and there will be no ministry and no work. We must realize that this is a grave problem. We must have a very serious dealing before the Lord, and must encounter the matter of authority in a thorough way. We have to learn to submit to one another, and we must learn to submit to deputy authorities. Only after that can we begin to learn to be a deputy authority.
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