“They Just Want Control!”

“They just want control!”

 

I’m hearing this a lot from friends and others. They chafe at restrictions and recommendations and mandates related to the pandemic and impute unworthy and egotistical agendas to those in authority who issue mandates, recommendations, and restrictions. The follow up to the accusation that, “They just want control,” is, spoken or unspoken, “I’m going to do what I want to do.”

 

Well now, for Christians this attitude is a problem for a few reasons – not the least of which are clear teachings in Scripture that we are to not only submit to authority, but that we are to honor authority; the Bible also teaches us that lawlessness and rebellion come from the enemy of God – so we ought to carefully and fearfully ponder what cup we drink from when our hearts, words, and actions feed on lawlessness and rejection of authority.

 

But I’ve been considering another reason the attitude expressed in, “They just want control,” is something of which we should beware – for it betrays the way we have been living and whether or not we, as Christians, see ourselves as belonging to Jesus Christ.

 

In other words, it raises the question of just who has been in control of our lives prior to the pandemic. If we have indeed been purchased by Jesus Christ, then we are the property of Jesus Christ, the slaves of Jesus Christ; Christ is then our Lord and we are living under His authority. (Remember that the centurion of the Gospel saw that Jesus was “a man also under authority”).

 

If this has been the case, if we have been living under the authority of Jesus Christ, then we are accustomed to respecting and honoring authority. If, however, we call Christ “Lord” in name but not in deed, not in our actions; if we are accustomed to living life however we choose to live it, without regard to the lordship of Jesus Christ – then it is natural that we would chafe at the imposition of authority, of the will of a person or institution that goes against what we want.

 

So, I think what we see and hear in the words, “They just want to control us,” is, more often than not, an indictment of the church. It is certainly the way many churches operate internally, otherwise they would have to shut their doors – congregations do not want to submit to the authority of Scripture nor to the authority of those God has placed in offices of authority in the church.

If we are accustomed to living under the authority of Jesus Christ, if this is our way of life, then we will have a respectful response to governmental mandates during the pandemic. Then we will not direct venomous vitriol at those with whom we disagree. After all, we are taught to “pray for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.”

 

The present distress and uncertainties are an opportunity for all Christians to submit to the authority and lordship of Jesus Christ, to learn the Way of the Cross, to lay down our lives (and this includes our agendas and our wills) for Christ and, in Christ, for others. We have an opportunity to deepen our respect for authority, for government, and to learn to live as Jesus Christ lived on this earth, as a person under authority.

 

Our citizenship is in heaven, in Christ. (Philippians 3:20).

 

(Jesus and the centurion Matthew 8:5 – 13. The Christian and those in civic authority; Romans 13:1 – 7, 1 Timothy 1 – 4, Titus 3:1 – 1, 1 Peter 2:13 – 25. The importance of how we think about life, about how we see ourselves in Christ; John Chapter 17, Romans 8:12 – 39, 1 Corinthians Chapter 13,  Galatians 2:20, 6:14, Ephesians 1:3 – 10, Colossians 3:1 – 4. Reminders that we are engaged in supernatural warfare; Ephesians 6:10 – 20, 2 Corinthians 10:3 – 6, 1 John 2:15 – 17, 4:1 – 6, John 15:18 – 16:4).