A National Spirit of Rebellion is Rising: Should You Be Part of It?

Many dog owners have had the shocking experience of being bitten by their own dogs.

Usually, it happens when the master tries to break up a dog fight. A dog is in “fight mode” and bites anyone or anything that gets in its way—even its own beloved owner.

Americans are in fight mode right now and Christians are in the middle of it.

People are fighting over vaccines, masks, distancing, CRT, sexual identities, taxes, business regulations, foreign policy, school boards, and much more. It is not hard to see why. Freedom is the core value of our American experience. We have been taught this since our earliest days of education. Conscientious Americans jump into fight mode when they believe their freedoms are being trampled. If you do not fight to defend your freedoms, you will lose them.

However, Christians must be careful that they don’t bite their true Master when they feel threatened by other outside forces.

Yes, freedom is a core American value, and that freedom has allowed us to worship freely and follow our Lord freely. However, we must not confuse civic freedom with spiritual independence. Spiritual independence is not a biblical concept.

We are slaves, not freemen.

We are the slaves of Jesus Christ. Paul identified as a bondslave of Christ more than any other way. He made the case that the total sacrifice of the entire person to Christ for the transformation of mind and soul is the only reasonable response to the salvation we have received in Christ (Romans 12:1-2).

Most believers will not argue this point even if they struggle to live it in daily life. However, our tendency is to want to be accountable to God alone and directly. The problem with that is that that same God has set up earthly authority structures, and in order to be obedient to God we must also obey the authority structures that He set up.

We are under divinely ordained authority.

We do live under civic authorities and we must have a good reason to disobey civic authorities (Romans 13:1-13), but this article is not about being submissive to government. You can find more info about that in our summer edition of FrontLine (here).

I want to focus here on local congregations.

Attitudes of church members have changed in the last one and a half years. Every pastor will tell you this. Church members are more—well—rebellious. They are testy. They are quick to find fault with one another. They divide over issues unrelated to scripture. Their tempers run short, and they are not nearly as willing to follow pastoral leadership as they were before the pandemic hit the world.

I just want to remind God’s people that pastoral authority is a biblical reality and Christians must obey the Bible regarding church leadership.

Set qualified people in leadership over you.

Paul’s list to Titus (Titus 1:5-9) is very similar to what Paul communicated to Timothy (1 Timothy 3:1-7). One of the reasons that church members struggle following church leadership is because they were also disobedient in electing unqualified leaders. I would suggest that every pastor who is struggling to lead rebellious people first examine his own qualifications according to these two passages. For instance, a quick-tempered pastor is going to have rebellious church members. A greedy pastor will face distrust. An arrogant pastor will not lead humbly. However, church members should willingly follow the leadership of qualified and obedient shepherds.

Follow the qualified leaders God has placed over you.

God did not intend for pastors to follow their congregations, but rather lead them. Shepherds are accountable to God and to the corporate body, while individuals in that body must be accountable to the local church shepherd.

According to Titus 1, pastors must embrace and defend sound doctrine, holding church members accountable for the things that they say and teach. Pastors are required to [hold] fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict (Titus 1:9).

They have a responsibility to address the unruly—the insubordinate–within the body.

For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped . . . (Titus 1:10).

Yes. It says that their mouths must be stopped. The local church is not intended by God to be a bastion of free speech. God requires that the teaching within the local church be carefully restricted to sound doctrine and the pastor is the policeman that is called to enforce that mandate.

“You are all just sheep!”

That accusation is being thrown around a lot lately.

My answer is well, “Yes, in the local church you are! It is what God commanded you to be.”

God not only calls His people sheep, He also places them under the care of a shepherd. I am sorry if that sounds demeaning in our present cultural context, but God has no qualms about being counter-cultural. This does not mean that believers must not think, it means that believers are all called to conscientiously follow God-ordained leadership in the local church.

The frustrations of this moment are real. I am convinced that our present trials are God’s judgment on not only a nation but also a world that has given itself over to godlessness, self-will, and immorality.

I beg of believers, in the fog of the battle take special care not to bite the Hands that were pierced for you or those of the faithful He has called to minister to you.

 

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