Pondering Proverbs – Leadership (8)

 

 “It is an abomination for kings to commit wicked acts, for a throne is established in righteousness.” Proverbs 16:12.

 

Do we believe this? Do we believe the two components to this verse? Is it really an abomination for those in authority to commit wicked acts? Or is it acceptable for them to commit wicked acts if the acts achieve our goals?

 

Do we truly believe that a throne, a position of authority, is established in righteousness?

 

In Psalm 45:6 – 7, we read concerning the Messiah, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of joy above Your fellows.” (This is quoted in Hebrews 1:8 – 9).

 

Is unrighteousness found in the reign of Jesus Christ? Are wicked acts to be found coming from the throne of Jesus Christ and His Father? If the answer is “No,” then how can professing Christians justify wicked acts when they, or when others, are in leadership?

 

No matter where we are in life, any position of authority that we have been given ought to be a position in which we love and practice righteousness and hate and reject wickedness. And let’s be clear about this, Jesus Christ was rejected and crucified – Jesus says, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, because of this the world hates you.” (John 15:18 – 19; see 15:18 – 16:4).

 

If Jesus was rejected and crucified, we can be certain that there will be times when His people share the same experience – in varying degrees and dimensions. If Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords was rejected and crucified, we can be sure that His followers – His brothers and sisters – will know what it means to “know Him in the koinonia of His sufferings” (Phil. 3:10) – and again, this koinonia takes many forms.

 

My point in writing this is that when we read that “a throne is established in righteousness,” that the idea of being “established” does not mean that the throne, or position of authority and leadership, will necessarily continue, it does not mean that the person in authority will necessarily continue in his or her position. Righteous kings and queens, righteous national leaders, righteous local leaders, righteous academic leaders, righteous business leaders, righteous leaders in all spheres of life (including within the professing church) have been deposed from their positions through no fault of their own. Again, Jesus Christ was rejected and crucified.

 

However, Jesus says “He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.” (Rev. 3:21).  We are “heirs of God and coheirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.” (Rom. 8:17b).

 

If we hold our positions of authority in trust, within Jesus Christ; if we serve under the authority of Jesus Christ, then we can be sure that we are anchored in the ultimate authority of God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, we can be sure that our lives and our positions are melded with Christ and His Throne – for we are “coheirs,” “joint heirs,” “heirs together with Him.” Even now, in this present life, as we overcome in Christ, we can experience what it is to “sit down with Him on His Throne,” – while the fulness of this is yet to come, we can experience a measure of this in Christ today.

 

Life is not about our success or our self-fulfillment or our having “our best life now.” Life is about following Jesus Christ, loving Him and worshipping Him and loving others and serving them as we serve Him. The Cross of Christ is our nexus – as Paul writes (Gal. 2:20), “I am crucified with Christ…” A “throne established in righteousness” is a throne rooted in the Cross – it is laying down our lives for those we serve, it is dying that others might live (2 Cor. 4:12; 1 Jn. 3:16).

 

The book of Proverbs does not contain secrets or principles to advancement or fame or success – the book of Proverbs…as the entire Bible…reveals Jesus Christ and if we are not “seeing” Jesus then we are not “seeing” the Biblical text. The good is the enemy of the better, and the better is the enemy of the best, and Jesus is always and forever the best (Mt. 17:5). It is in Jesus Christ that we find “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3).

 

If we look at life in the short term, we will prostitute ourselves with the thrones and authorities and powers of this world – we will insist that the ends justify the means for our ends will be those of this present and wicked world system. We will worship at political and economic altars, we will conform to the world rather than submitting to the transformation of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God (Romans 12:1 – 2). If we are seduced by the thrones of the world we will align ourselves with wickedness for the sake of short-term gain, for the sake of sharing temporal power, for advancing ourselves and our agendas – and this is an abomination – we are called to be holy as our Father is holy. (See 2 Cor. 6:14 – 7:1; 1 Peter 1:13 – 25).

 

O dear friends in Christ, let us prove ourselves “to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life…” (Phil. 2:15 – 16). In living this way in Christ, we shall live with Christ on His Thone and offer hope to a dying world.