[This is my tenth post of ten in my “Vintage Wednesday” series on “Leadership Authority,” re-written/updated from a blogpost back in May of 2011.]
The tenth of Watchman Nee’s Ten Commandments of Spiritual Authority states that:
10. God is responsible to defend spiritual authority.
When one who has spiritual authority is rejected it is not his or her responsibility to defend that authority. This principle is clearly seen in the Numbers 16 story alluded to earlier in Part 6 of this series. The authority of Moses and Aaron was clearly defended by God. We might also point to the story in Numbers 12 where God stepped in decisively to defend Moses against his brother and sister. In God’s words: “…he [Moses] is faithful in all my house. With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”
Elsewhere we read God stating: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay” (Deuteronomy 32:35, Romans 12:19). God defends his own; we do not need to stand up for ourselves or defend our authority.
Bottom line as we wrap up this series: God is our ultimate authority and those who claim it and those who react against it (even when channeled through faulty human beings), must consider carefully their responsibility and response.
[Final note on Watchman Nee: Due to various reasons, he has long been a divisive figure in the Chinese Church. Chinese Christians continue to remain divided on his legacy 60+ years after his death. While some of his writing on authority is good, sadly, in the latter part of his life his ministry was characterized by extreme perspectives including abuse of authority.]
