Know Your RoleSample

Many things come with our role as a Christ-follower, such as community and gifts. Another aspect to our role in following Him is honor to the authority placed over us. For many of us, authority can be a challenging topic, especially because of our own selfish ambition or previous hurt from our past. Yet, as we ultimately submit to Christ as the head of the church, He leads us to submit to leaders that He has put into place.

The Bible tells us in Romans 13:1-2 that all authority is established by God. This authority is granted to leaders, teachers, bosses, parents, pastors, and others, but if we rebel against the authority above us, we are rebelling against God. The society we live in emphasizes the importance of autonomy, but God calls us to live counter-culturally by submitting to authority through obedience done out of reverence for Christ. God uses the authority over our lives to help nurture our callings and lead us to the fullness of His purpose for us. Ultimately, God has placed authority over our lives for our benefit.

As followers of Christ, we submit our lives to the Bible by doing what it says and imitating the example set by Christ. In following the Bible, we also are called to submit our lives to authority. We cannot expect to follow Jesus if we rebel against the authorities He put in place in others.