True authority

‘There is true spiritual authority when we fulfill God’s will with fear and trembling

With self-awareness that we have been entrusted with the gospel from God,

With heart that we want to please God who searches our hearts,

And when we proclaim the truth honestly and boldly without distorting it

And without compromising with others as we deny our covetousness. …

Foundationally Paul’s true authority comes from his self-understanding as a gospel proclaimer’

(Seyoon Kim).

The true authority of a pastor like me must come from self-understanding as a gospel proclaimer.

In other words, it is to live a life with grace consciousness

because such sinners like us are saved by God’s grace and are called to be a pastor by His grace

and a life that has no stumbling block whatsoever to the gospel of Christ

as we deny to act upon our given authority in the church as a pastor.

As we do so, the pastor’s true authority will be established.

That is how the pastor’s true authority is established.

I think the parents’ authority is the same.

The true authority of parents is not to assert the parents’ authority over their children

But to endure everything for the gospel of Christ without using the parents’ authority

in order not to be stumbling blocks to the children.

Especially a pastor like me shouldn’t use the pastor’s authority

but to endure and be patient with everything in preaching the gospel to the flocks

whom the Lord has entrusted to me.

I wrote this while meditating on 1 Corinthians 9:12 –

‘I need to endure all things without using my rights.  d

The purpose is to ensure that there is no obstacle to the gospel of Christ (1 Cor. 9:12).’

I receive an instruction from 2 Timothy 2:25 that

“The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome,

but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged.”

As a pastor (preacher), I must not be quarrelsome with my church members, but I must be kind to them.  

And I want to be able to teach them well and be patient with them.