by Terry W. Benton<\/p>\n
Here was Jesus’ approach to authority:<\/p>\n
Thus, Jesus placed a lot of emphasis upon\u00a0example<\/em>\u00a0and the authority of example. Jesus extended that mentality to His disciples. They, too, were to learn from the example of the Master (John 13:15). So, in commanding them to follow His example, there is authority in commands and examples.<\/p>\n If we want to do the will of God, we learn from God’s statements, commands, and examples. We can do nothing of ourselves if we would follow Jesus’ example. What does that mean? It means that we do not assume we have authority unless<\/strong>\u00a0God forbids something, but that we don’t have authority unless God permits something. If we see a command or example allowing it, then we are free to act by that authority. “Do all in the name of the Lord” in\u00a0whatever<\/strong>\u00a0you do (Colossians 3:17). That means that we are like Jesus in remembering\u00a0we can do nothing of ourselves<\/em>. We don’t have inherent authority within us. We get our authority from God’s commands, examples, and all that these necessarily imply. That was Jesus’ approach to authority, and we are to follow His example.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Terry W. Benton Here was Jesus’ approach to authority: The Son can do nothing of Himself (positive authority must allow the action). But what He sees the Father do (Divine precedent or example). The Father\u00a0shows\u00a0Him all things that He Himself does (John 5:19-20). Thus, Jesus placed a lot of emphasis upon\u00a0example\u00a0and the authority of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[78,73],"class_list":["post-53972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-authority","tag-jesus"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":57882,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-to-establish-biblical-authority\/","url_meta":{"origin":53972,"position":0},"title":"How to Establish Biblical Authority","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 14, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Heath Rogers God is the proper source of authority in religious matters. Our authority must come from heaven and not from men (Matthew 21:25). God has given authority to His Son, Who gave the Holy Spirit to the apostles. These and other inspired men have written the New Testament.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":52944,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-apostles-and-hermeneutics\/","url_meta":{"origin":53972,"position":1},"title":"The Apostles and Hermeneutics","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Frank Jamerson Some of the articles that I have read lately have confused ridicule with reasoning. They seem to think that if they ridicule commands, examples, and necessary inferences as the basis of authority, they have given a scholarly refutation of pattern authority. One such article concluded: \"It seems\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":57680,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/jesus-and-the-sabbath-law\/","url_meta":{"origin":53972,"position":2},"title":"Jesus and the Sabbath Law","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 5, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Walton Weaver From\u00a0That They All May Be One: Studies on Unity, Freedom and Authority in the Body of Christ, pp. 90-93 Those who adopt this way of handling the word of God believe that the law of love gives them the \"right\" to exalt love above God's law and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/01\/disciplesGrain.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/01\/disciplesGrain.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/01\/disciplesGrain.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":63991,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/authority\/","url_meta":{"origin":53972,"position":3},"title":"Authority","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 8, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Suppose you were studying with someone about the gospel of Christ \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We will assume that the person believes in God and that the Bible is God\u2019s Word \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There are many who fit this description; yet, they do not obey the teachings in the Scriptures \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0How do\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55825,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-despised-ceni\/","url_meta":{"origin":53972,"position":4},"title":"The Despised CENI","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 15, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Dale Smelser There is a concept being promoted that God's will is transmitted\u00a0by commands only, and thus relative to the Lord's Supper it is neither confined to nor necessarily observed on, the first day of the week. Before getting to the kernel of controversy, I recalled all this on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2763,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/in-whose-name-are-we-to-be-baptized\/","url_meta":{"origin":53972,"position":5},"title":"In whose name are we to be baptized?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 19, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: It appears to me that you missed the main point about the Jesus name baptism.\u00a0 Jesus commanded that his disciples be baptized in the \"name\" of someone.\u00a0 Who do you suppose he meant that name to be?\u00a0 He didn't say (about\u00a0Matthew 28:19) \"repeat after me now\".\u00a0 Do you suppose\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53972\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}