Authority Despised? Whose?

Since I need to get into the beehives today, I am grateful for the cooler morning! (74°F now, 84°F predicted)

Speak these things, exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you.

Titus 2:15

Me: Good morning, Father!

Abba: Good morning, Jon!

Me: When I read this passage in Titus 2 this morning, I wondered how to understand ‘authority’ in this context. Also, when Paul told Titus, “Let no one despise you”, how does one have any control whatever of what another will think about what we say?

Abba: First, the word “authority” in Titus 2:15 is preceded by “with”. That is, Paul was exhorting Titus on the way he delivered the message.

For if the trumpet makes an uncertain sound, who will prepare for battle?

1 Corinthians 14:8

In that First Corinthians Fourteen context, Paul was talking about speaking in tongues; whether about revelation, knowledge, or prophecy, but the principle holds. For a message to connect with the hearer, it needs to be clear. I AM always looking at the heart. I know every thought and intent (Hebrews 4:14, Genesis 6:5). Not so, either Titus’ hearers, or yours. How quickly one will abandon a plodding tome produced by an unskilled author! (No coincidence that the words author and authority derive from the same root.) So, to summarize, this part of Paul’s message to Titus is about effective delivery.

Further, tying to the idea of not letting anyone despise; the author, teacher, pastor, preacher, prophet or other orator who would influence – especially about the Gospel, where the stakes not merely temporal – has responsibility to find ways to reach his audience.

Romans 10:17, which you committed to memory from the King James version, is “So then, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Notice in the Greek, the last word is Χριστοῦ (Christ) and “word” is ῥήματος (rhēmatos, the spoken word).

The opening of the first chapter of the Gospel of John reveals Jesus as the incarnate Word of God. There the word is Logos. We are to fill our mouths with the spoken word of the incarnate Word. Therein is true communication possible.

Look more carefully at Jesus’ commission:

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

Matthew 28:18-20

Notice: Authority. It belongs to Him.

Neither Titus, nor you can fulfill the commission except by delegation of His authority. You are a steward, responsible for His purposes, rightly operating only under His authority and for His purposes.

Listen to Jesus. See His example. Observe His attitude.

I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.

John 5:30

If Jesus knew that any activity not anchored in conversation with Me would be so ineffective as to qualify as “nothing”, how should you expect something different? Jesus, in that same commission, promised to be with you. If the conversation is not active, if not vital and alive, the lack is not on His side.

Now, to go back to what Paul meant telling Titus to “let no one despise you”. In John 5:30, when Jesus says, “as I hear, I judge”, He is not talking about pronouncing Judgement on unrepentant men (though the time for that is certainly hastening), He was talking about judging how to proceed to accomplish My will, in each and every varied case. Only I AM holding knowledge of the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). I AM not going to override the will. However, I AM the One who knows what may resonate, and the moment in which the word of the Word may break through.

Me: Thank You, Father! I love You!

Abba: You are welcome! I love you!