“They were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” (Mark: 1: 22)
The imposing figure of G.K. Chesterton, English writer and wit, was often seen squeezed behind a table in London restaurants.
Chesterton always joked about his large bulk, saying that it gave him the consolation of offering his seat in the train to three ladies.
During one of his literary lunches Chesterton was expounding on the relationship between power and authority.
He described the difference: “If a rhinoceros were to enter this restaurant now, there is no denying he would have great power here. But I should be the first to rise and assure him that he had no authority whatever.”
Power without authority always looks …show more content…
When people want to shelter from his teaching and ignore his worth, they will distract themselves by focusing on his background, his address, his family, his supporters. His listeners will haul in the usual array of defence mechanisms to protect themselves from his insight.
They will begin to question his authority, criticise his values, denounce his preferences.
Jesus, however, seems to be aware that the road from approval to violence is a short one, and that he is not excused from facing the rejection that all the prophets before him had to face.
All that goes with the territory.
The important point is that Jesus stays committed to using his power for good.
He continues to exercise his authority to liberate those who are bound up and to confront those who lay burdens on the weak.
Applause or no applause.
No matter what the opinion polls say, Jesus struggles on. f he receives his authority from elsewhere, he looks elsewhere for his approval and support.
Ultimately, he is responsible to the Father, from whom all power and authority come. In the meantime, Jesus can only hope, like all religious authority hopes, that the Father will not be alone in the business of …show more content…
A key factor seems to be consistency: do, this person's words match up with the kind of person they seem to be?
There is a saying, "I can't hear what you say, because who you are is shouting too loudly."
If the words we hear are at variance with the person speaking them, then those words will not ring true.
There is a great deal of teaching in the New Testament about being alert to the possibility that some people - or spirits - may not be what they seem: "Test the spirits, to see whether they are from God" (1 John 4:1); "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 7:21); "A good tree cannot bear bad fruit" (Matthew 7:18).
Amid today's clamour of competing voices, the need for wise and prayerful discernment has never been greater.
And as we seek to discern that which is true in the world around us, so we seek also to discern the truth amidst the competing voices we find within ourselves.
As humans we are weak, fallible and riddled with inconsistency.
But in Jesus there is NO inconsistency: the person and the message are
The imposing figure of G.K. Chesterton, English writer and wit, was often seen squeezed behind a table in London restaurants.
Chesterton always joked about his large bulk, saying that it gave him the consolation of offering his seat in the train to three ladies.
During one of his literary lunches Chesterton was expounding on the relationship between power and authority.
He described the difference: “If a rhinoceros were to enter this restaurant now, there is no denying he would have great power here. But I should be the first to rise and assure him that he had no authority whatever.”
Power without authority always looks …show more content…
When people want to shelter from his teaching and ignore his worth, they will distract themselves by focusing on his background, his address, his family, his supporters. His listeners will haul in the usual array of defence mechanisms to protect themselves from his insight.
They will begin to question his authority, criticise his values, denounce his preferences.
Jesus, however, seems to be aware that the road from approval to violence is a short one, and that he is not excused from facing the rejection that all the prophets before him had to face.
All that goes with the territory.
The important point is that Jesus stays committed to using his power for good.
He continues to exercise his authority to liberate those who are bound up and to confront those who lay burdens on the weak.
Applause or no applause.
No matter what the opinion polls say, Jesus struggles on. f he receives his authority from elsewhere, he looks elsewhere for his approval and support.
Ultimately, he is responsible to the Father, from whom all power and authority come. In the meantime, Jesus can only hope, like all religious authority hopes, that the Father will not be alone in the business of …show more content…
A key factor seems to be consistency: do, this person's words match up with the kind of person they seem to be?
There is a saying, "I can't hear what you say, because who you are is shouting too loudly."
If the words we hear are at variance with the person speaking them, then those words will not ring true.
There is a great deal of teaching in the New Testament about being alert to the possibility that some people - or spirits - may not be what they seem: "Test the spirits, to see whether they are from God" (1 John 4:1); "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 7:21); "A good tree cannot bear bad fruit" (Matthew 7:18).
Amid today's clamour of competing voices, the need for wise and prayerful discernment has never been greater.
And as we seek to discern that which is true in the world around us, so we seek also to discern the truth amidst the competing voices we find within ourselves.
As humans we are weak, fallible and riddled with inconsistency.
But in Jesus there is NO inconsistency: the person and the message are