Quotes about Authority

The "Western" segment of the church today lives in a bubble of historical illusion about the meaning of discipleship and the gospel. We are dominated by the essentially Enlightenment values that rule American culture: pursuit of happiness, unrestricted freedom of choice, disdain of authority.

God's own "kingdom," or "rule," is the range of his effective will, where what he wants done is done. The person of God himself and the action of his will are the organizing principles of his kingdom, but everything that obeys those principles, whether by nature or by choice, is within his kingdom.

Our "kingdom" is simply the range of our effective will. Whatever we genuinely have the say over is in our kingdom.

The spirit and the manner of the Chief Shepherd should be the one adopted by the undershepherds.

Mark 12 lists every dimension under the governance of Jesus' love.

The missing note in evangelical life today is not in the first instance spirituality but rather obedience. We have generated a variety of religion to which obedience is not regarded as essential.

We demean God by considering him a cosmic boss who orders humans around

Recall, now, that the kingdom of God is the range of his effective will: that is, it is the domain where what he prefers is actually what happens.

God wants us to participate in the governance of his kingdom.

The practice of arbitrary imprisonments have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.

I think that there shouldn't be an age limit to become a boss, so having that element is really important.

But, my dear boy, you don't eat or drink the law, or sit in the shade of it or warm yourself by it, or wear it, or have your being in it. The law exists only to serve.