Many Proverbs address the subject of how a king should rule and how subjects should respond to a king. How do we apply such Proverbs today? In this sermon we consider the use of authority God has given humans over other humans, and how we can wisely respond to it.

Resources:

Proverbs 14:35, 16:12-14, 19:10, 19:12, 20:8, 20:26, 20:28, 21:1, 25:15, 28:15, 29:4, 29:26, 30:21-23, 31:8-9

The Book of Proverbs (Chapters 1-15, NICOT), Bruce Waltke

Proverbs: Wisdom that Works, Ray Ortlund

St. John Chrysostom: Commentary on the Sages: Commentary on Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, translated by Robert C. Hill

Proverbs, Charles Bridges

Sermon Transcript

We’re continuing a series of sermons through the book of Proverbs this morning, and I mentioned a few weeks back that the way we are doing it is unconventional for us: Instead of preaching sequentially through chapters 10-31 like we would most any book of the Bible, we’re covering it topically. I don’t generally like that approach in part because it’s too easy to simply gloss over verses or passages that are difficult for us. One way I’ve tried to mitigate that risk, though, is by forcing myself to preach on the topic we’re covering today. If you had asked me before we began the series which topics I’d probably cover in a topical series on Proverbs 10-31, I’d have said many of the most common, which we will indeed cover: friendship, money, work, parenting, and a few others. I wouldn’t have said royalty. But as I read through Proverbs 10-31 in preparation for this series, I was struck by just how many proverbs are about the king, either how the king should act, or how subjects should act in response to the king. I trust if you’ve read Proverbs, you’ve noticed the same. We’re not used to thinking of such Proverbs as relevant to us in 2025 America, and some of them seem downright offensive to modern sensibilities, especially in a nation founded upon a rejection of royalty. But let’s not skip over these Proverbs because they’re difficult. The reality is that although we don’t have a monarchy in America, all of us do live under some human authority, and many have also been given a position of authority over other humans. So handle human authority under God’s authority, and we’ll see four principles from the Proverbs today that help us unpack that: God has instituted human authority, human authorities should image God’s authority, human subjects should seek the favor of human authorities, and all must hope in God’s ultimate authority.

 

God has instituted human authority

 

Proverbs 19:10 says, “It is not fitting for a fool to live in luxury, much less for a slave to rule over princes.” Proverbs 30:21-23 expands the list: “Under three things the earth trembles; under four it cannot bear up: 22 a slave when he becomes king, and a fool when he is filled with food; 23 an unloved woman when she gets a husband, and a maidservant when she displaces her mistress.” The verses begin with this idea that it is not fitting for a fool to live in luxury. Sometimes fools do live in luxury, but most recognize that as a bad thing: Few are more despised than those living wealthy, ostentatious lives they did nothing to earn and which they waste in folly while others work hard jobs for lower wages and less luxury. But Proverbs 19:10 says that just as that is not fitting, how much less is it fitting for a slave to rule over princes.

 

This isn’t the sermon to get into everything the Bible says about slavery; suffice it to say for now that the slavery referred to here is not the same as the American chattel slavery of the pre-Civil War era. But it was a position of lower authority than that of a master, and certainly a position of lower authority than that of a king. In fact, at the time Proverbs was written, these probably represent the two polar opposite ends of the authority hierarchy: The king or prince at the top, the slave at the bottom. And all I want to point out from these Proverbs is that in them scripture recognizes the legitimacy of such a hierarchy of authority between humans, or what today we might call power differentials. These proverbs don’t say, for example, “Why shouldn’t slave rules over princes? Why shouldn’t a slave become king, or a maidservant displace her mistress?” Instead, they assume a basic legitimacy to some being in authority, and some being under authority, and go even further to say that if you try to just invert that, that’s foolish. The earth itself trembles when that happens.

 

To most readers of scripture, that’s probably so obvious as to be unworthy of comment. Most every culture in the world today even, but especially throughout history, has assumed the basic legitimacy of some being in authority, and some being under authority. Anarchy never lasts long. Eventually the more powerful people in the group get up and say something like, “Hey, we better decide to all drive on one side of the road or none of us are going to be able to drive without getting in a car accident”. Even if sin never entered the world, decisions like that would have to be made, and it seems God has decided not to govern such decisions immediately by simply issuing a command from heaven for all to hear. Even if the people make the decisions democratically, the majority end up deciding and exercising authority over the minority. So most recognize the legitimacy of power differentials between humans.

 

In most of human history, though, power differentials were grounded in alleged being differentials. I.e., the king is king and the slave is a slave because the king is inherently superior to the slave. So in ancient cultures outside the Bible the kings of a people often claim to trace their lineage back to some god or goddess. The Bible doesn’t do that. Instead, in Genesis 1, we read that God made all humans in his image: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen 1:27). So when we read Proverbs 19:10 and it says that it is not fitting for a slave to rule over a prince, we should not think that’s because the slave is inherently unworthy of authority, while the prince is inherently worthy of it. Instead, it’s because God has assigned one a position of being in authority over the other, and when you try to resist that, you are once again resisting reality instead of living in accordance with it, and as we’ve seen with the other proverbs, reality wins that battle. God has not instituted a hierarchy of being between humans, but he has instituted a hierarchy of authority. So when we come to the New Testament we read: “Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment” (Rom 13:2).

 

The relationships of authority we see that God has instituted in scripture are of parents over children, elders over churches, churches over Christians, governments over inhabitants, and employers over employees. Some of those are pretty straightforward: God gave clear instructions for the family and the church’s structure: A family is a husband, wife, and their children, a church is an assembly of Christians united by shared agreement to exercise the keys of the kingdom of heaven. So the Bible says things like “wives submit to your husbands” (Eph 5:22), “children obey your parents” (Eph 6:1), and churches “judge those who are inside you” (1 Cor 5:12). Governments and work were clearly instituted by God, but less structured: Thus, the Bible does not prescribe one form of government such as monarchy or democracy as the obedient form of government, nor does it prescribe one form of labor such as slavery or indentured servitude or hourly or salaried labor as the obedient labor arrangement. In fact, the law required Israelites not to return runaway slaves to their masters (Deut 23:15-16) and it tells slaves to gain their freedom if they can (1 Cor 7:21), but if they can’t, it tells them to submit to their masters (Eph 6:5). And while there may be good biblical reasons to prefer democracy to monarchy, we’ll see in these Proverbs that for those living under a monarchy, that king’s authority is still legitimate, and even those living in a democracy like we do in America will have to navigate the authority of police officers, juries, judges, senators, and the President, among others.

 

To navigate that wisely begins with accepting that God has instituted authority between humans under his authority. Some power differentials are unjust, but not all are, and therefore it is foolish to resist them simply because they exist. The earth cannot bear up under that kind of disorder and anarchy. Have you ever been in a setting like that, one in which all the people under authority are trying to put themselves in authority? A household in which the kids functionally rule the parents? A workplace in which the employees all try to boss around the boss and one another? A classroom in which the students have more power than the teacher? Ask any teacher in the room how well that goes for the students. Start handling human authority under God’s authority by accepting its existence, rather than resisting it. Once you do that, then you can start using it and responding to it wisely. Let’s start with using it. Human authorities should do so as an image of God’s authority.

 

Human authorities should image God’s authority

 

Now let me just say up front before I really get into this point that not all authorities image God’s authority in the same way, because each authority has its own unique charge from God. The authorities that get the most airtime in Proverbs are those of the king and of the parents; next week we’ll talk about parenting, so today we’ll really focus on the king. The closest parallel to the king today is the government, although at this time in Israel’s history, they were also a nation in covenant with God, such that you could also think of the king as the leader of the visible church. So while the great scholar of Proverbs Bruce Waltke says, “The king serves as a type, an example, of any leader” the most direct application of Proverbs regarding how he should rule will be to those in positions of governmental authority and to a lesser extent elders and members of local churches as they exercise the respective authority God has given them.

 

And I realize that many of you in the room today do not hold government office nor the office of elder. Some of you are not a government official, a husband, a parent, an employer, an elder, or even a church member! And yet, even if you have no authority over other humans, you need to hear these Proverbs for a few reasons: 1.) God may put you into a position of authority in the future, and you want to be ready for that if he does. Part of the reason the earth cannot bear up under a slave becoming king is because a slave generally has no idea how to rule, and neither will you if you don’t listen to the Proverbs on exercising authority. 2.) You often have a role in selecting what humans you will put yourself under the authority of, and to do that wisely, you will have to have some sense of what to look for in a leader. In America you can choose which church to join, as a church member in this church at least and in most churches, you vote on your elders, if you’re a citizen of this nation you can vote on many government offices, you can choose whether to marry someone, and you can choose where to work. Even in ancient Israel under a monarchy there were times in which the people chose their king (e.g., 1 Kings 12:16-20). 3.) Love constrains us to try to make the work of those in authority over us a joy to them. So as you hear these proverbs, one question you want to be asking is, “How can I make it easier for those in authority over me to do that?”

 

Ok, so let’s get into them. The first basic way those in authority can image God’s authority is by actually exercising it. A couple Proverbs here: A king who sits on the throne of judgment winnows all evil with his eyes (20:8). A wise king winnows the wicked and drives the wheel over them (20:26). Winnowing is the process of separating wheat from chaff when harvesting grain. When a farmer harvested grain, not everything he harvested was edible grain. There were also husks, and winnowing was the process of separating the grain from the husk so that it could then be disposed of. When we read that the king who sits on the throne of judgment winnows all evil with his eyes, then, that means the king is carefully evaluating visible evidence to discern the presence of evil in his realm and get rid of it.

 

One of the basic roles of government today is to judge evil and punish it. Romans 13:4 says the governing authorities are the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. To put that in our context, a legislature that will not pass laws that forbid what is wrong, a prosecutor who will not prosecute wrongdoers, police who will not arrest wrongdoers, a jury who will not winnow evidence with their eyes and convict a wrongdoer, and a judge who will not sentence a wrongdoer to a penalty that fits the crime are all foolish. It’s not good for their people. Proverbs 29:4 says that “by justice a king builds up the land.” Between the entrance of sin into the world and the return of Christ there will be evildoers in every nation, and part of the reason God instituted government is so that those holding government office would judge evil and remove what they can from their realm by punishing it. Theses proverbs show us there are wise ways to rule and foolish ways to rule, and one way we can bring glory to God and love our neighbor is by ruling in wise ways to the degree we have a share of the rule, like for American citizens, serving on a jury, doing our best to elect wise rulers rather than foolish ones, and doing what we can to make this difficult job easier on those who rule.

 

And some similar principles apply to our life as a church. 1 Corinthians 5:12 says that it is the job of the local church to judge those in her midst, and to “purge the evil person from among them” (1 Cor 5:13). We typically call this church discipline or excommunication, the final step of the process in which the church formally removes from their membership a professing Christian who is engaged in serious, observable, unrepentant sin. It’s unloving to the person engaged in the sin to continue affirming them in it, and it’s unloving to the rest of the church to continue affirming the example of someone walking down a path that ends in death. Part of handling human authority under God’s authority is being willing to exercise it.

 

In the exercise of it, the king was also to have a special concern for the poor and marginalized. Addressing a king, listen to these words from Proverbs 31:8-9 – “Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. 9 Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.” We’ll talk more about justice in a sermon devoted to what Proverbs teaches on it, but for now I just want to point out that as the king is to winnow evil with his eyes, he is to have a special concern to protect those who are most susceptible to being victims of it. What can the mute not do? They can’t speak up and say, “I’ve been wronged!” So what should a good ruler do? A good ruler should search out their cause, speak up on their behalf, and punish any who have wronged them. You know who are typically the victims of violent crime? The poor, the orphan, the elderly, the sojourner. Why? Because they are less capable of protecting and avenging themselves. Why is it so important that those in government speak up for the lives of preborn children? Because they are literally unable to speak for themselves.

 

And it is this kind of love for the people he leads that should characterize any ruler or anyone in a position of authority. “Steadfast love and faithfulness preserve the king, and by steadfast love his throne is upheld” (Prov 20:28). While governing officials must punish evil, they should do so with lamentation and sorrow, willing only to do so because they understand it is actually the loving thing to do. Their ultimate aim should not be punishment, but the life and flourishing of those they lead. In short, it is the duty of government officials, elders, husbands, parents, employers, and churches to love those over whom they have authority, to be kind to them, and even to have mercy on them. Overcriminalization and excessive punishment are real dangers that while seeming to promote the king’s power, in the long run undermine it. It’s by steadfast love a king’s throne is upheld, the proverb says. As Charles Bridges put it, “Who does not know that while truth commands reverence it is mercy that wins the heart?” Consider the spheres in which you have authority: Have you given the people you lead good reason to affirm the following three things of you? 1.) I know that if I do wrong and there is observable evidence of it, he or she will not simply wink at it. 2.) I know that if someone else wrongs me and there is observable evidence of it, he or she will defend me. 3.) I know that he or she wants what’s best for me. Wise leaders will strive to exercise their authority in such a way that the people under their authority have good reason to answer yes to all those questions.

 

That’s not terribly complicated…but it is difficult! And that’s why the last thing I’ll say about how Proverbs directs human authorities to image God’s authority is by simply being godly people. Proverbs 16:12 says, “It is an abomination to kings to do evil, for the throne is established by righteousness.” Now when you read that you should think, “Isn’t it an abomination for anyone to do evil?” Yes, God hates evil, whoever does it. But it is especially heinous when someone in a position of authority does evil, because as one ruling under God’s ultimate authority, when they do evil, they make God look like an authority who does evil. Furthermore, more people are generally hurt by a ruler’s evil than by a private person’s. How often do people begin questioning the claims of Christ because a pastor did evil? I’ve recently been watching YouTube videos on the TV show The Wire and was reminded of the police officer Herc, whose evil desire for self-promotion and willingness to lie led to multiple injuries, deaths, and miscarriages of justice over the five seasons of the show.

 

Character matters for those in authority, and the more authority you have, the more character matters. Many deny this. They’ll say, “I don’t need my auto mechanic to be a good guy to fix my car,” and on one level that’s true. But what if your auto mechanic is a liar? I know for me at least, that’d be a big problem! When I take my car into the shop, I go in totally clueless, and if they tell me I need to spend a couple thousand bucks on necessary repairs, I pretty much have to just take their word for it. Furthermore, exercising authority over people is a bigger job than fixing a car. People are images of God; cars are not. And those in authority will often have to make decisions that necessitate their resisting what they want to do in favor of what is right to do. If they haven’t demonstrated a pattern of doing so in their private lives, what makes you think they’ll flip a switch and start doing so in their public lives? The wise pattern in scripture is always to take those who have demonstrated faithfulness over little before setting them over much. So we do need to ensure that members of a church are actually Christians, we do need to ensure the elders we elect meet the biblical qualifications for that office, and while governing officials don’t need to be Christians to carry out that office, we should be very leery of electing to government office someone who engages in a pattern of observable evildoing in their private lives.

 

If you do hold a position of authority over other humans, then, one of the best things you can do to serve them is to train yourself for godliness. But what should those under authority do? Human subjects should seek the favor of human authorities.

 

Human subjects should seek the favor of human authorities

 

I mentioned earlier that even if you don’t have authority over other humans, you need to listen to the proverbs that tell us how to exercise such authority wisely. Here I probably don’t have to really give that disclaimer, because the reality is we are all under some human authorities. We’re all under the authority of the U.S. government to some extent, even though some of you hold government office and others of you aren’t even U.S. citizens. All members of this church are also under the authority of the church. Most of you have an employer above you, and so on.

 

There are a lot of proverbs on this: “A servant who deals wisely has the king’s favor, but his wrath falls on one who acts shamefully” (14:35). “A king’s wrath is a messenger of death, and a wise man will appease it” (16:14), and many more, but one kind of summarizes them: “A king’s wrath is like the growling of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass” (19:12). The point is fairly simple: It’s generally foolish to provoke anyone to anger, but it is especially foolish to provoke the king to anger, because the king has more power to hurt you than anyone else. The government can kill you, imprison you, and fine you. Your boss can dock your pay and fire you. Your church can excommunicate you. If you’re a child, your parents can discipline you. On the flipside, while it’s generally wise to seek the favor of others rather than enraging them, it’s especially wise to seek the favor of the king, because if the king is for you, and he has authority over all others, what’s it really matter who is against you? His favor is like dew on the grass, the Proverb says, refreshing, life-giving.

 

Now maybe some of you are thinking, “This sounds like some of the most base and worldly advice I’ve ever heard. I thought Christians weren’t supposed to care about pleasing people.” There’s an important sense in which you’re right and we’ll get to that in a moment, but can I read you a few verses from the New Testament to at least complicate that mentality? Jesus says, “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matt 10:16). “So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man” (Acts 24:16). “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (Rom 12:18). “Honor the emperor” (1 Peter 2:17). The first Christians were clearly willing to displease the rulers; some of them were killed for their faith. But that wasn’t their aim. If possible, they tried to please those in authority over them, because it is wise, wise as a serpent, to not hinder the progress of the gospel in unnecessary legal battles or bring reproach on the gospel through unnecessary arrests or die an untimely death when it’s not necessary when you could have lived longer to proclaim the gospel. Even the early Christian Tertullian who famously said, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church,” so no people pleaser, wrote a treatise to the Roman Empire in an attempt to win their favor and thus reduce unnecessary persecution.

 

So if you’re a child, you should try to please your parents. If you’re a citizen of a nation, you should try to live in such a way that would please your governing officials if they actually got to know you and observed your life. If you are an employee, you should try to please your employer. If you are a Christian, you should try to please your church. Some say, “Not me! I don’t care what anyone thinks of me!” but that’s naïve. To literally live without any care for what anyone thinks of you, even if everyone thinks you’re a moral monster, is not ideal; it’s sociopathic. Hardly anyone actually does that. What more commonly happens is people reject the authority of their parents or their church and tell themselves they’re being themselves, when in reality they’re exchanging the approval of one group for another: Maybe new friends they’ve formed or an online community. We are inherently social beings, and it is generally wise to seek the approval of those above us in the social hierarchy God has ordained.

 

How do you do that? In probably unsurprising ways. In one of the proverbs I already quoted, it’s the servant who deals wisely who has the king’s favor. If your boss gives you a job to do, go beyond the bare minimum and try to do the job well. Think about how you can use your work to further the goals and reputation of the company and even of your direct supervisor. Proverbs 16:13 says righteous lips are the delight of a king. Try to be the one in your workplace or church who the leaders can always rely on to tell them the truth about a situation, even if it proves costly to you to do so. Proverbs 25:15 says “With patience a ruler may be persuaded, and a soft tongue will break a bone”. If you do want to advocate for change to someone in authority over you, err on the side of doing so gently rather than in a harsh, angry way. If you give a ruler reason to think you don’t respect their authority, it’s understandable that they won’t pay much attention to what you have to say.

 

Now what are some of you no doubt wondering? “Man, if I treat the authorities in my life like that, they’re just going to take advantage of me!” and on some level, it is wise to recognize that. While holding up the legitimacy and potential goodness of authority, Proverbs also does not shy away from acknowledging the reality and disaster of sinful authority. “Like a roaring lion or a charging bear is a wicked ruler over a poor people” (Prov 28:15). So how can you genuinely seek the favor of rulers when you know that’s what they might become? How can you do it when you’ve already suffered under such rulers? And how can you yourself not become that kind of ruler with whatever authority God gives you over other humans? All must hope in God’s ultimate authority.

 

All must hope in God’s ultimate authority

 

Proverbs 21:1 says, “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.” Streams of water don’t turn themselves. They flow downstream and if there is a wall blocking their flow, they turn wherever the wall points them. This verse is saying the king’s heart is like that, only instead of walls turning it wherever they will, it’s the hand of the Lord that does. Remember that in Proverbs the heart is the control center of the human: From it flow the springs of life (Prov 4:23). The heart is that from which our decisions flow. Consider the stunning claim being made here about the sovereignty of God. Under a monarchy, the king is the most sovereign individual on earth. What he decides, goes. And we know that behind his decisions is his heart. Maybe another very influential person or many influential people in his kingdom could pressure him to change a decision of his, but who can actually direct the heart of the king of all people? No one…but the Lord. And Proverbs 21:1 says the Lord does. There is a king above every human king, and every decision an earthly king makes ultimately proceeds from what God has decreed.

 

Some Christians object to this idea. The debate is summarized now using the labels “Arminian” and “Calvinist” or “Reformed”. There’s also another player called “Molinism” which is different from Arminianism in some ways, but on this point agrees with Arminianism against Reformed theology in claiming that the free choices of humans do not proceed from God’s prior decree. If they did, they wouldn’t be free, Arminians say. Reformed theology instead claims that everything that happens, including the free choices of humans, proceeds from God’s prior decree. In response to the Arminian claim that humans make choices undetermined by God’s prior decree, reformed Christians will often ask, “What about God’s sovereignty? Don’t you believe he’s sovereign over all things, even human choices?” and Arminians will typically respond, “Yes, but in his sovereignty, he has chosen to limit the exercise of it so as to preserve human free will.” In other words, he could turn the king’s heart wherever he will, and in that sense he’s sovereign, but in practice he chooses not to so as not to override the king’s free will. Reformed theology, in contrast, says that not only can God turn the king’s heart wherever he will; he does, such that the king always does what he wants, and in that sense he is genuinely free, he also only does what God has decreed. Now, you have Proverbs 21:1 in front of you, printed on the sheet we gave you. I can assure you we have not altered the words in any way. If you’d like, you can also open the Bibles under your chair to Proverbs 21:1 to check it. Looking at that verse, who seems closer to the truth on this question? Does it say merely that the Lord can turn the king’s heart wherever he will, or that the Lord does? It says, as you no doubt can see, that the Lord does. This is just one reason among many why the elders of this church have always been happy to be labeled as “reformed”, and why we’d encourage you to accept that label for yourself as well—not because the label matters, but because the truth it represents is the clear teaching of scripture.

 

And as with all scripture, not only is it true; it’s good! The king is powerful, but he’s never the most powerful one in the room! Your boss is powerful, but she’s never the most powerful one in the room! And though authorities may do genuine evil and it may be genuinely terrible, they can only do so if God has decreed it! And though they may be unjust, the LORD never is. Proverbs 29:26 says, “Many seek the face of a ruler, but it is from the LORD that a man gets justice.” And because God is actually sovereign and will do justice in the end, you don’t have to spend your days under someone’s authority dissecting their every action to make sure they never get it wrong and that come what may, you will never be the victim of injustice. Submit to those God has placed in authority, and aim to please them. And where God has given you authority over someone else, remember that in the end, you will answer to the LORD for how you exercised that authority. He will do justice in the end, and no amount of excuses or hiding will be able to withstand his perfect justice if you abdicated or abused the authority he gave you.

 

What human ruler could possibly stand under such judgment? How can you submit to a human authority who might do evil? You would have to trust not only that they can only do what God has decreed, but that his decree is always ultimately for your good, and you can only trust that if you look at the center of what he decreed. Listen to this prayer from the book of Acts, addressed to God: “for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place” (Acts 4:27-28). Do you know who Herod and Pontius Pilate were? Rulers. And do you know what they did to God’s holy servant Jesus? They crucified him. They abused their authority. Instead of using their authority to protect the one truly innocent human who ever lived, they used their authority to punish him. What they did was wicked, and yet what they did the text tells us is exactly what God’s hand and plan had predestined to take place. Why would God plan and predestine such an atrocious act of wickedness at the hands of rulers who were supposed to image him? Because God was exercising his authority for the good of his subjects. As a perfect king over all the earth, God’s justice required that all sin be punished. And yet also as a perfect king over all the earth, God’s throne is upheld by steadfast love. So out of love for his unworthy, guilty subjects, God the Father executed a plan to send God the Son to take on the form of a slave and to take upon himself the sins of all his people, such that on the cross the sins of his people were punished in Christ, satisfying the demand of justice, while also enabling his steadfast love to be poured out on all who would turn from their sins and rest upon Christ for salvation. And though it is generally not fitting for a slave to become a king, this was the king who became a slave, and after dying on the cross, God raised him from the dead and seated him on the throne above all thrones, from which he reigns today, and from which he will return to judge the living and the dead. In that day his perfect eyes will winnow all evil and remove it from the earth forever.

 

That means the ultimate authority whose favor you need to seek is not your president’s, your boss’s, your husband’s, your parents’, your pastors’, or your church’s—it’s God’s. Jesus says not to fear the one who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul, but rather to fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Matt 10:28). God is the only one with the authority to do that, and the only way to obtain his favor is to leave your sins, come to him with nothing in your hands, and receive Christ by faith. To face his wrath is worse than any roaring lion, but to have his favor…If this God is for you, who can be against you? What a glorious king we have in Jesus. It is right and good that he should rule. Far from trembling under his rule, a weary world rejoices under his rule. He is perfect in justice and in steadfast love. In him we have the pleasure of the God who turns the heart of the king where he wills. So where you have authority over other humans, exercise it in communion with him, and as an image of his authority. And where you are under the authority of other humans, submit to it out of submission to him, because even when they fail, he never will.